melisseus's Profile

The apartment I as living in last year was too small to accommodate a tree, so I developed a great alternative. I found a small, felled birch trunk in the woods, with a good shape and several offshoot branches -- brought it home, cleaned it up, broke the branches off into artistic stubs, and hung it from the ceiling with invisiwire. I hung a dozen varied ornaments from it (etched glass, porcelain figures, handmade gingerbread shapes, quilted elements, etc) with long satin ribbons. The "tree" wouldn't support lights, but I looped several sets of tiny white winkers around the room (along the molding) -- the effect was a great mix of ethereal whimsy and country Christmas. Am homeless this year and crashing with relatives, but I've kept the branch so that I have the option of recreating the look in my new place next Christmas -- regardless of the space allowance.

(Expounding on survey response)

I feel like I have the green theme well-in-hand, but it's easy to be green and not care much about what home looks and feels like. I want a warm, inviting, comfortable home that is as much a part of the earth as the forest that surrounds it, and that takes quite a bit of effort.

I come to green.apartmenttherapy for stylistic inspiration; breath-taking practical beauty without the froufrou nonsense that masquerades as content on so many other design sites. I would say that I find it 50% of the time.

I create my own "graph paper" in Excel, manipulating row height and column width to universal 4-pixel squares (which allows for 1 square to equal 1 inch). I then "outline" my floor plan onto the document using the borders tool. It takes about an hour to get a room done, but I can then print out a half-dozen copies and sketch in a variety of furniture layouts done to a perfect scale.

I'm not sure about "most people," but one of my first green decisions was to cancel my television service (and unsolicited mail, and spam...). Direct advertising is the last thing I need tripping up my greening.