VintageAlison's Profile

I've owned duvets from Crate and Barrel before and they are nice quality- especially on sale at the outlet. My most recent one is from Urban Outfitters- not great quality but pretty enough for the guest room.

If you want to lay porcelain or ceramic and don't want to add too much height or deal w/ removing asbestos tile- Durock makes a great DIY tile membrane that runs around $1.25 per square foot. It's simple to install- just a pair of scissors and a paint roller and adds virtually no height. Then you just add about 3/8" of tile plus mortar or vinyl on top. I think that's the easiest thing you can do.

Yes, you can use a natural stone sealer to help protect the marble.

Brooklyn- we definitely would love to live in a 60s ranch. Our last apartment was a second floor flat built in 1924 and our furniture didn't quite feel at home there either. Our current home really lacks any architectural interest because it's basically a box with beige carpet all over. If we owned it, I would probably put in hardwood floors downstairs, or even stone travertine planks.

If it's veneer, try using a stripper first and then light sanding with 220 coarse sandpaper. I've sanded down veneered furniture before- you just have to be careful to not go through all the way. I suggest using a Danish oil & stain- that's what I use or Minwax stain & finish rub to refinish my MCM furniture. Refinishing is easy and fun.

I have a bunch of the blue bags. Instead of laundry baskets for toting laundry up and down stairs that take up space, I have 6 of these and then fold up very flat in my linen closet.

I love the alligator. It would be a nice addition to our cheesy toilet seat.

@roxy72 - the Corona sofas are both holding up great. I definitely recommend flipping and rotating the cushions about once a week to keep them looking firm and non-saggy. The green couch is 7 months old and we bought the beige one second-hand. We have no problem falling asleep on these couches either. If I lay down, I will fall asleep.

I would *not* say that they are cat friendly though- we have to put Sticky Paws on them because their claws pull the fabric easily. I read reviews that people thought they held up well with cats. My husband expressed concern at Macy's that the cats would destroy the upholstery and of course, I said, "I read it on the internet- it must be true!" Who knew the internet would lie to me?

Homeowner here: Thanks for all of the comments so far!

@Pi: I got the bedroom lamps at Homegoods. They have a fantastic (and really cheap!) lamp selection.

@mron73: The desk in the family room is my vintage sewing machine that I got from Craigslist. We use it for my husband's laptop a lot of the time.

We do rent this house and had a couple restrictions, especially re: the accent wall in the living room. The entire downstairs was recently painted and those were the only walls we weren't allowed to touch. I do like the accent wall color but I definitely agree- our furniture does blend in against it and it needs more of a contrast. We were very lucky to inherit neutral carpet (we moved from all hardwoods, which I miss style-wise, but not the cleaning) and a brand new Ikea kitchen.

And about that bookshelf and the toilet seat... where do I begin? Joe really, really, really, like I mean really wanted those two things in this house. I could have the rest to do whatever I wanted. He wanted a bookshelf in the bathroom and he wanted a weird toilet seat. (FYI, no Moby Dick- a short story or two should suffice) I'm a little embarrassed that we have not one, but two toilets featured here on AT- especially since neither of those rooms are significant design-wise and there were better rooms not really shown. It's disappointing that those pictures were wasted on toilets and Legos, yet there weren't overall room shots of the the family room, office, or bedrooms- which I definitely think have more style.

We have some other pictures on Flickr if you want to see more- picture quality isn't that great: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27144241@N04/sets/72157624447459570/with/4781743072/