hayleymar's Profile

We just moved into a house less than a year ago and are working on building up the cash for a kitchen reno. So I've taken to playing around with the IKEA Kitchen Planner tool quiiiiiite a lot. I have to have at least 20 different versions (some with only slight variations) of my would-be kitchen. I haven't had any huge issues with the planner; the only thing is loaded the menus to save/undo/etc but that just requires patience. Then again, I am playing around with the planner on the gaming computer my SO built for me, so maybe you just need a powerful computer.

Also, this website is not only full of cool tricks for kitchen layouts, it's IKEA specific, so it gives you "inside tips" (like how much space you need between walls/cabinets/appliances) that are not discretely spelled out for the kitchen planner: http://www.ikeakitchendesignonline.com

We're still in the process of filling our house, but as it stands now, we have our only couch (a sectional) and our only tv (a huge flat screen for gamer SO) in the living room. Once we buy a new sofa (which could be months from now), those will hopefully migrate downstairs.

As things stand now, though... it's not very balanced. We have a very long and rather narrow living room. We have a beautiful fireplace wall (from '66, so very "modern" for the times--no hearth, no mantel) at the far end of the room, two long and large windows that look out over tree-covered hills and--on clear days--a beautiful mountain range in the distance. These are two my absolute favorite features of the house. But at the moment, the sectional is butted up under the windows, next to the fireplace, to face the tv on the one wall that really makes sense for it to sit on. So the fireplace only gets semi-attention while the view is mostly lost, have to sit backwards on the sofa to appreciate it. ):

In short: three different features (windows/view, fireplace, and tv) battling for attention and no idea how to set up a room to let them all get some.

And because the room is so long, there's still a tiny bit of space left over. We ended up just jamming an extra desk in there, but it doesn't even have a chair. It looks completely unfinished.

In even shorter: LAYOUT. What do I do?

Our house is from the 60s. We bought it from the original owners' (adult, obviously) children. They had taken a few measures to update things before selling. The bathrooms got a few superficial updates. Some of these updates are problematic.

They got new hardware and a new sink in one bathroom; these are totally fine. The other two bathrooms got new countertops. While they are nice, they are definitely not to my taste. These countertops rest on cabinets that are identical to what's in the kitchen, which means they have the same issues--they don't fit together anymore. Drawers get stuck and have to be maneuvered and manipulated to get them to close.

They all got new flooring that I HATE. It is some of the ugliest flooring ever.

They did NOT get new towel racks. These things are tiny. The one for the guest bath is maybe a little over a foot long, so you can only hang one towel, folded (not for drying!) on it. Likewise in the master bath. I have to hang my towels from my closet doors, which means my closet is never closed, so my room always looks messy...

They left what looks to be the original lighting in the bathrooms, too. Guest bathroom has this awful faded-yellow rectangle to cover the bulbs that's been stamped with tiny fleur de lises. Again, so not my taste.

The guest bath is a wonderfully long bathroom, but the space is so terribly wasted. There is a 2 foot gap between the wall and the sink, a 22 inch gap between the sink and the towel, and then there's a tiny, tomb-like shower stuffed into the corner, between the toilet and the wall. Also, tiny window.

The master bath is small, which I don't really mind. What I do mind is that there's no window, absolutely no natural light. At some parts of the wall, the old pink paint peeks through the white layer they used to try to make it more palatable for buyers. They left the scatter-pattern of pink tile in the shower, though. The toilet faces the (pocket) door that doesn't lock. Basically asking for embarrassment... And on top of that, the sink part is not in the actual bathroom. Instead, it's the first thing you see in the master bedroom.

Basically, two of our bathrooms are begging for heavy renovations. One for new cabinet/counter/flooring/towel-rack. I'm generally getting accustomed to living with them for the meantime... but they're still my LEAST favorite thing about the house.

VancGard, what about a lamp on your bedside table that has a dimmer?

If your kitchen is dark/lacking good light during essential kitchen-using times, I would opt for glossy.

Otherwise, I would go for matte, personally. I think then it would feel a little less "bathroom-y" (your fear) and/or sterile.

Like many other posters, my grandparents sleep in separate rooms; my grandmother snores. And I think I remember my grandmother's bed being softer and fluffier than my grandfather's. I'm pretty sure that having their own spaces is one of the factors that helps *keep* them together, actually.

At the moment, I'm sleeping in the guest room while my boyfriend maintains use of the master bedroom. We're trying to introduce my cat to our little family, which already includes his two cats. We have to keep them separate, so I've taken to sleeping with my cat locked up in the guest room, while his more active cats get the house for the night. Also, he gets the better part of the bargain by far because that bed is the queen-sized memory foam mattress while I have an inherited twin spring mattress (which I have to share with the cat); he has a west-facing room, and the guest room is east-facing.

It's nice to escape his snoring (he has allergies), and I imagine it would have been nice to escape his heat were it still hot here. But I do miss cuddling and, now that it's getting colder, leeching off his body heat! He works long hours, so most of our time spent together is while we're sleeping. I can't wait until all the cats get along well enough that I can go back to my real bedroom/bed.

So, the summary: I don't hold separate sleeping spaces against any couple; the reasons they have are valid and obviously it works for them! I, on the other hand, would like to regain my shared sleeping space once again. (Though who knows if we'll wind up in separate spaces again somewhere down the road? Maybe just occasionally? Wouldn't bother me.)

Does anyone know where I can find a bookshelf like the one in the last picture? My boyfriend's cats are terribly destructive, and we need some storage with doors to keep them out of our stuff, but I'd like glass so we'd at least be able to see and appreciate said stuff.

When I first started dating my gamer boyfriend, all his stuff (tv, consoles, etc) were on the floor. Made him go to Ikea and we found this:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20117674/

We leave the glass doors open for the consoles to "breathe" while they're being used, but we needed to be able to close them to keep cats out while not in use. Alternatively, you could leave off the installation of the glass doors if you'd like. Glass doors are somewhat frosted, though, so it's good for hiding when you want to look a bit more sleek and less THERE IS STUFF HERE. The drawers are remarkably deep, great for storing all the extras (controllers, remotes, games, dvds, extra wires, batteries, etc).

It's Ikea, so it's affordable. It took maybe two hours to make? I can't quite remember, since it was a year ago. It's survived two moves since then and is really very sturdy (he has a huge tv, plus all the consoles, plus dvd/game storage... plus cats jumping all over it any time we want to watch or play something).

Oh, it will look lovely next Spring (or this?) with daffodils!