schlex's Profile

this coffee table has been listed on craigslist for almost a year. i emailed about it several times but never heard back. good luck!

KATE! This is too eerie. I also own a bowfront Cambridge condo, similar size and vintage, and I have never seen someone decorate a space with such similar (some identical) elements, colors, ideas, and sources. Presumable similar budget even. I've only been in my place for a few months, so it still has some obsessional finessing before I submit it to apttherapy, but now I'm wondering if they'd even feature it because it's so similar to yours. Same pix system in my long narrow hallway, black upright Steinway in the dining room, and is that a Roost ceramic log vase from Koo de Kir on the mantle? Creepy in a delightful way.

My curved living room windows came with interior shutters on the bottom half, which is ideal for privacy, flexibility, simplicity. They were custom-made somewhere local--I have the info somewhere if you're interested. Of course you're welcome to stop by and see them in person!

i am so annoyed with apartmenttherapy for spilling. i keep very few secrets in life, and Todd Farm is one of them. whether you score the $3 alabaster lamp or the perfect bakelite piece, or you simply wander through a beautiful field in a beautiful area on a Sunday morning conversing with many hilarious heavily accented vendors, there is no more quintessentially New England way to spend a Sunday morning. my aunt and uncle refer to it as "church".

bargaining is half the fun, and vendors expect it. nobody likes city boys and girls who don't play along with this tradition and ultimately jack up prices for everyone else. here's the script: "how much are you asking for the [ugly tchotchke]?" "50." "Hmm, would you take 30?" "No but you can have it for $40." There, see how easy that was?

the Todd family has owned the land for some ungodly number of centuries (around 4), and last year's family feuds have halved the flea market's size (to build McMansions on the other half), but it's still worth a trip.

for anyone who wants the look and educational value of a world map mural, buy a world map shower curtain (tons when I googled). We had one growing up and I would spend waaay too long on the toilet, fixated on the African capitals, Russian rivers, etc. As a result, my geography knowledge is formidable. You do not want to oppose me in trivia.

Or you could go hands-on and paint the Peace Corps World Map Project yourself . . . http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~raangus/gbrpcv/Map%20Painting%20How%20To.pdf.

I did it with schoolchildren in Central America on their school's wall and now THEY are all geography geniuses. And their school looks gorgeous.

recipe for a cool night's sleep:

1. line your bed with towels
2. aim electric fan at bed
3. hop in cold shower
4. throw naked, dripping wet self onto bed
5. goosebumps

right ON, guys. i'm blown away by your place. pretty much everything about it. it's so organic in the truest sense--clearly born out of those who live there and not some design-y ideal imposed from outside. it's always been my dream to seamlessly incorporate my worldly acquisitions with all my beautiful less exotic exotic wares, but somehow i can't get the Bolivian textile to work with anything, and my rustic Guatemalan crafts just don't seem to fit with my other stuff.

i particularly love how nearly all the wall art is your own, and also how you seem to operate on what i consider a sensible, respectable decorating budget.

your whole place grabs at the tension between exploration and nesting, and makes me want a life filled with both!

the first sign of civilization we 4 girls spotted as we emerged from a muddy buggy 4-day hike through the Costa Rican rainforest was a tiny grocery store. we bought mangoes and vanilla ice cream; together, they were the best thing i've ever tasted.

i'm sorry, but try as i might, i just can't handle the gold/mustard. i know it's all very "right now" but it makes the inner girl in me want to scream "ewwww!"

as for white, metal, and wood grain--bring 'em on.

i would do anything for the coffee table--donate an organ, sell my soul, you name it--somebody please tell me where i can get it.