Leeam's Profile

Gracious home! Their people are just lovely!

beautiful! love it...

I looove Gracious Home with a passion. They have unbelievably good service, they are a family owned business and they pay their employees fair wages and health insurance. I leave the store with a smile every time. They are a great resource for advice if you are wondering how to go about a DIY project. I once almost went so overboard by how nice everyone was so as to write them a thank you letter. then I got lazy... ;)

my first instinct was green, kind of like the fonts in this post, (something between pear green and sage) but I think the mustard yellow could work well too. as long as it's not too yellow... (and ceramic-tile blue would be my 3rd choice)
and don't listen to all those B/W fans above, it's a matter of taste and you wrote a question in because you feel like adding some color, right?

highlysung: it sounds really brave, if you want a thought it sounds like you should limit the scope of what you are trying to do in 8 weeks. it is not that long of a time, and if you focus on one room that you spend a lot of time in (or want to), OR with switching the two girls' rooms, you will have a tangible positive difference that will give you the energy and motivation to replicate it in the rest of the house later on. versus, trying to do something in every room of a cluttered house and feeling like you are working so hard and not making any headway. so you can follow the different rooms/weeks with the group for cleaning purposes and ask "what one thing can I do in this room that will make a big difference?" but when that week's over, move on. and put in a lot of time into one limited defined space in terms of decluttering and how you want it to look and feel. good luck...

the stool comes in black too!

Washington Heights, 2BR, $1440

oh, my! the dining set is gone, eh? I don't see it on the classified...

there are tons of numbers and statistics out there clearly showing that in the past 30 years middle class wages have stagnated. we've had a lot of economic growth but almost all of it has gone to the very top of the income ladder.
meanwhile, healthcare, housing, education costs have gone up at a much higher rate than than salaries. so in the end we have less than our parents to spend on necessities. I think it's wrong to say it's all just consumerism, there is a more basic problem here even if you want to live small and simple. consumerism exacerbates it but the fundamental problem is inequality and the dismantling of the new deal. yes, people in europe sometimes pay 50% of their income on taxes, but they get so much in return. how much would you save a year if you had free healthcare, free education (for yourself and your kids and toddlers), long maternity leaves, retirement payments, affordable housing, state of the art public transportation?

um, I'd have to say no. It's not about sq. feet, you'd be better off with a smaller one bedroom and the added privacy.
the most important question to ask is how long you've been together... if it's less than a year and you're at the "we-spend-every-night-together-so-we-might-as-well-move-in" stage of your relationship, definitely don't do it.
if one of you is a light sleeper, tends to be more moody than the other, or if you vary a lot in how tidy you are, also think about it seriously, and try to be realistic about issues that may come up.
keeping a studio uncluttered and feeling nice is a time consuming project, and invariably one of you is going to be more disciplined about it than the other, leading to unnecessary conflict.
If you are in college I'll let myself assume that it's the first time you will be living with a partner and there are enough challenges getting used to that without the studio-challenge (being lovers, best friends, roommates, study-buddies, etc.)
I think it's a bit irresponsible for some of the above to tell you "it'll work out just fine"... without knowing you.
after you've lived in a one bedroom for a while and you know one another's habits and quirks I would say try a loft or "upgrading" to a studio in a better neighborhood etc.
I feel like such a skeptic, but I really do believe that in order to preserve all the beautiful things that you have you need some separateness. at least a door.