Jukesgrrl's Profile

Cover the entire wall behind the bed with dramatic, ceiling to floor and wall-to-wall drapery panels. Make them very full to add texture and coordinate the color/pattern with your bedding. If you hang them right you will be able to adjust the panels to expose one window or all three when you want sunlight.

Get the fabric at a discount remnants shop and make them yourself. I've done it even without a sewing machine (easier to use one if you want to line them). Anyone with a drill can hang a rod for you.

A rug will also warm up the space but leave lots of that gorgeous wood floor showing. If you can't find a rug you like or can afford, just go to a large store that sells wall-to-wall carpet, pick out a carpet remnant, and ask them to finish the border for you. That's an inexpensive way to get a big rug. If you decide to do that, pick out the rug before you buy the fabric for the drapes. It's easier to match fabric to a solid-color rug than vice versa.

I'd leave the chest where it is, but I'd paint it a bright color picked out of the large picture I'd hang above it. Or from the drapery fabric if you decide to put a TV on top of the chest.

You can make this room so cozy, no one will even notice the walls are white.

I've lived in just about every kind of abode imaginable and older apartment buildings are my favorite, The charm and coziness usually doesn't have to be manufactured. And: hardwood floors. Rarely available in newer buildings.

Some readers may be interested to know that the hairpin legs from hairpinlegs.com are made at a custom metal fabrication shop based in Columbus, Ohio. I like to support small U.S. businesses and I have posted about them here before. I've been reading about the company in Atomic Ranch magazine for years.

My favorites NOT on the list:

- The Portland Japanese Garden on Kingston Avenue. It's 5.5 acres of heaven and close enough to the International Rose Test Garden (with more than 8,000 rose bushes and an incredible view!) to include it in the trip.
http://japanesegarden.com/

- Tohono Chul Park, an amazing desert botanical garden in suburban Tucson. Go in the morning for a fascinating guided tour, visit the green house and gift store (beautiful crafts, not junk), and then it will be time for lunch in the charming garden bistro. If you go on Saturday you might see a wedding, too.
http://www.tohonochulpark.org/wordpress/

- Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden in Pittsburgh. A beautiful urban garden on the National Register of Historic Places that reminds me of Kew Gardens near London. If you are ever in Pittsburgh at holiday time, beat a path to their door. A-mazing Christmas botanicals and candlelight tours, too.
http://phipps.conservatory.org/

- The Gardens at Long Vue House in New Orleans are a lovely complement to a tour of the historic house.
https://www.longuevue.com/

@fvlaura Sounds great. I'm sure that going without the short backsplash does make the WilsonArt counter look more like a slab. Good choice.

Looks like the abode of very classy anthropologists. What a serene respite from the intensity of Manhattan.

A pink kitchen AND a pink bathroom? Where are all the pink haters hollering that they should be ripped out? Are we actually growing up here?

Also, it strikes me that if there were 50% fewer "things," someone would drop in to complain that the house was "staged" or "overly curated." Yet add piles of the same collectibles and it becomes "lived in" and "lively."

I've been curious about this from a property-value perspective. The High Line isn't a good example because a pedestrian byway would be an improvement over a train to most people. But what if the change was negative.

Where I live the county is in the midst of major improvements to the road leading to the development where I own a house. It's a boon to the majority of us. But for a small group of homeowners, the new location of the development's entrance directs cars right toward their houses. At night car headlights will shine into their bedroom windows and the driveway runs close to their property lines where a parklet used to be. If I owned one of these houses I would be horrified. I certainly wouldn't buy one even I wanted a house in that development.

Love the vintage furniture.

@ jeff45

Good ideas! You HAVE been brain-storming.