folara's Profile

I would never rent a place that didn't have good light - it's not just a matter of how big the windows are, it's the direction they face! I just moved out of an apt with huge north-facing windows that felt like a cave. This is in Seattle - it would be a different story if I lived in Arizona or something.

Other things I would rule out most/all apartments for lacking:

hardwood floors
at least some architectural detail
no-smoking policy
urban - can't be outside the city proper, sorry blegh
poor sound-proofing - either from ceiling/floor or walls

Another thing: I won't live on the first floor (see: urban) and I really love living on the TOP floor now. And we juts got a dog, so pet-friendly is a must in our apartment searches future.

As for places allowing painting and holes in the wall - just do it anyway!

I think it's a great idea, and it looks good too. It's nice to have booze at hand without having to display it all the time.

BUT, storing opened bottles of alcohol sideways can lead to heartache. I tried to store mine horizontally in a wine bottle rack, but the tops of most alcohol bottles, even the nice brands, are too cheapy to make a good seal when the bottles are lying down, so they slowly leak. The more viscous, sweet things, like peach schnapps, were especially messy to clean up, too.

I'm surprised nobody here makes their own! It is incredibly cheap, and it works! We use the recipe here.

Ok, so in this picture alone I count 21 handles/drawer pulls, and you say you have more! What's your budget?!?

In a situation like this, I would mix high with low. Maybe some gorgeous Anthropologie pulls, but only on the top 3 drawers, and then basic metal pulls on the lower 4 banks of drawers. I think you could do this bank of cabinets for $150 if you went that route

When I was in the market for glass knobs, I found ebay to be the best place to look. You should be able to find vintage-looking glass knobs for about $1.50 each. IKEA and the other big-boxes are good places to look for the cheapies, too.

I agree that your closet will never be properly organized if you use wire hangers from the drycleaners and those plastic hangers from the department store. But holy crap those are expensive!

You can't go wrong with some Ikea BUMERANG. They're pretty sturdy and incredibly cheap to replace if one breaks (which they occasionally do). Also, for some reason, Ross has a lot of good pants/skirt/tie/specialty hangers.

But seriously. $10 per hanger? Maybe you're just making excuses for why your closets will never be organized.

We would love to listen to the Nutcracker on our brand new white Geneva!

Love the new bottle, and I've never had it slip out of my hand...and I'm a chick with smallish girly hands, too.

I've been reading your blog Nicole, and you're really inspiring me! My two favorite elements: 1). Your judicious use of IKEA, because we all love the prices, but we don't want the house to look like a dorm, and 2) The splashes of pink and orange make your home seem so colorful, but it's still neutral enough to be restful. You've done an amazing job!

I loved Sweet Valley High! It's almost a shame that I would most certainly *not* enjoy reading them again, because I spent many a pre-teen afternoon reading them, and theyw ere great!

1) Hi, my name is Sarah
2) I would like Chandelier in white, Iron Vines in tomato, and Fly in the gray midnite combo
3) My boyfriend and I moved into an *amazing* apartment last weekend. The entire place has been renovated--there are gorgeous hardwood floors in the living room, granite countertops in the kitchen, and beautiful wide moldings around every door. It's a real charmer. So why should you give be the prize, since my apartment is already so cool? Well, the one thing the owners skimped on was the walls. They are lumpy and bumpy, with tons of irregularities and, of course, they're a strange shade of taupe that we're not allowed to paint over. We've already begun accumulating artwork, but some blik decals would be just the thing to turn our amazing blank canvas of an apartment into a hip, modern, space that we can live in for years to come.

Here's what I'm thinking:
A white chandelier decal in the bathroom, on the blank wall next to the toilet. I just think it would really "pop" against the taupe wall. You can see the space here.

Our bedroom colors are orange and red. The iron vines decals would totally complement the design on this bedspread.

Finally, our living room colors are gray and yellow, so a flock of gray birds would look awesome soaring above our new charcoal-gray couch<a>.

You can see more pics of our very in-progress apartment in my flickr set. Thanks for looking!