gamosa's Profile

Ikea makes an attractive plywood box called Prant and it comes with a lid, and is dimensioned to fit the Expedit. Plywood box + tools....they were made for each other!

Hang it on a wall in a closet or somewhere out of site and use it to hang scarves or necklaces and other jewlery; use it for dvd/cd storage in an oversize drawer or trunk, or under the bed or sofa (bad feng shui though). If you could spray paint it and manage to secure it to a wall, I think the possibilities would really open up. Be sure to let us know how you make out.

Brighten the space up with white paint or something very light and add an eye-catching oversized print or canvas (you could even make your own canvas and go Pollock-like). Some kind of light fixture with substance is definitely needed - so depending on your taste and budget, perhaps some kind of pendant light, or chandelier. Good luck.

For the past 6-7 years we have been sleeping on a back-breaker mattress. Finally we said enough is enough and the mattress shopping began! I agree that there are too many conflicting opinions on which mattress is best and I think it's all a scam too.

When we decided to buy a bed we agreed that we would only shop at a store that offered a no-hassle comfort guarantee. For us, that store is Ikea because they offer a 45 day full refund, or if you miss the 45 day window, you can still exchange your bed twice within 90 days. Unfortunately, any returned mattress is discarded, but after so many years of poor sleeps, my back can't afford to worry about where that used mattress is going to end up.

As of Monday, we are now on our 3rd mattress. The first one was a firm bed with a combo of latex, spring and foam...my husband loved it and I woke up with a broken back every day for 2 weeks. For the next option I tried to imitate a Japanese bed as best I could. So we tried a high-resilience foam mattress. At first we both liked it, but sometimes felt like we could feel the wooden slats under the mattress. We decided to purchase a memory foam topper for added comfort. That was a bad idea as we each woke with that pins and needles feeling throughout our bodies. I had the idea to then take the memory topper and put it under the foam mattress. I slept great for 2 weeks, but husband never slept a wink :( So the other night we came home with our third bed, this time a plush with a combo of latex, spring and foam. We've been adjusting to it for the past 2 nights so I can't comment just yet on its success or failure.

If all else fails, we are seriously contemplating twin beds so we can each have the comfort level we like !!! Maybe AT should do a feature on couples who opt for twin beds...it worked in the 40s and 50s, why not now LOL

Living in the suburbs for the past 20 years in everything from apartments to detached homes, neighbors have always been a stone's throw away. Personally we don't like it but as some other people have said it all depends on who your neighbors are. The first home we purchased was a semi and our time there was quickly spoiled by rude, careless neighbors who didn't appreciate the efforts I was putting into improving our shared front landscape. In a townhouse we owned, we lived next to a man who verbally abused his wife every week and we had to endure his tirades through what had to have been very thin walls...skip ahead a few years to our condo that we presently live in where we often cannot sit on our lovely balcony because our neighbors are smokers and the smoke makes its way over to our side and we can barely breathe.

Now we long for a country/rural property or perhaps someplace where there is a good distance between neighbors.

The curtains and rug look like great inspirations from which to draw your colour and design scheme. I agree that the headboard is very nice. If possible I would opt for lower nightstands and then drop the pendants lights lower, and maybe repurpose the existing units on either side of the bed somewhere else in the room. Lighten up the walls, update your ceiling fan or change to a different light source altogether. A good idea to better ground the space might be to move the rug up under the bed a bit more, or if there's enough space between the bottom of the bed and whatever is facing the bed, centre it in that space.

Marmoleum is one of my favs and the new click and lock system looks like you could do it yourself if you're handy. The assortment of patterns you can create with their tiles would suit any taste and budget. Good luck and please be sure to send us the before and afters once the project is complete.

Your creative repurposing of the Ikea piece in the foyer and making it a litter box is absolutely genius! You have a great home.

Absolutely fantastic! It's been awhile since a house tour has caught my eye. The colors blend together wonderfully and it seems like such a happy living space. Thanks for sharing your home with everyone.

Our cat was peeing outside his box for a number of weeks, all the time. We took him to the vet and it turned out he was diabetic. Luckily we had a great vet who was well informed about diabetes in felines and recommended oral medication instead of insulin injections.

If you have a cat who just misses his box or tends to pee in the same area(s), we've found that using doggy pee pads (for training) work great. This way if our old guy misses his box, I don't have to pull out the cleaning supplies in the middle of the night!