Mowgli's Profile

I. Want. That. Bed.

Silver leaf with a faux marble paint job on the top.

Just an idea I use for my boots: get pool noodles from the dollar store and cut them them in half or thirds, depending how tall your boots are, then put a couple of them inside the boot to keep them standing upright.

Get a few "signature" pieces of furniture that makes your eyes draw immediately to them. A decent table, sofa or piece of artwork on the walls. An accent wall of a "hit 'em between the eyes" patterned wallpaper or paint, and some decent light fixtures.

I live in a north facing flat, so I get zero sun in my place after 9 am. All my furniture is either white or shades of tan, cream and light brown to keep the place from looking dark and heavy. I add colours with fresh flowers and throw pillows. However, my best trick is the lighting.

I have indirect lighting (a picture light on the picture over the fireplace, hidden uplighters here and there) to cast a soft warm light in the evenings. I also have coloured LED strips hidden in the fireplace, illuminating the aquarium, and under the kickboards in the kitchen. These add a great dash of colour. They're all on timers so I don't need to go around turning them on and off (I go to bed before they turn off). IMHO, a good lighting scheme hids a multitude of sins and accents the best of what you got.

I've wallpapered my bedroom floor. With a few coats of polyurethane on top of it, it's a dream to keep clean.

I see it either black wood or silverleafed and a sedate Pan Am genre style blue fabric..

I simply can't bring myself to commenting on other people's spaces. I don't live there. THEY do. If they're happy with it, that's all that matters. If it's too much for you, make your excuses and leave. If they ask me advice or an opinion, I'll give it in a positive fashion. That hideous ceramic lamp that makes you cringe might have belonged to their grandmother and makes them smile when they see it.

For me personally? Cold spectrum flourescent lighting. That sickly green colour washing over everything... *shudders*.

I have a cat and she has full run over everything. She was an abused animal so I want her to be happy in *OUR* home. Yes, she walks on the counters. Her food and water bowl are on the end of one. So what? Before I cook, I give the place a quick wipe down with antibacterial wipes. The carpets get vacuumed regularly so there's little pet odor.

See the family pictures? My mom's studio portrait has pride of place over the fireplace. She was a classy broad and that photo makes me smile. (Yes, classy broad. She was larger than life and lived it fully.) That pic of me and my dad? The only one I have of him. The one of my sister and me as kids in the snow? We had a full day of sledding, and we were gloriously insane from happiness that day. The one of me with a "WTF" face under the Eiffel Tower? My BF (to yank my chain) suggested we walk back to our hotel after a full day of sightseeing. "Are you friggin' kidding me?" *snap*

Feel free to poke fun at my saying on the kitchen wall. Point and giggle at my family pics. Scream with self righteous horror at my cat strolling on the kitchen counter. That's OK. 'Cause when you leave, I'LL be the one saying under my breath "thank fuque they're gone!"

I'd put the paint in a ketchup bottle with a needle tip, line it up, give the bottle a squeeze, and let the paint run down.

My bookcases are IKEA Billy. They're organised by subject matter.

To make them visually appealing, what I've done with my books is covered them all with white dust jackets. I buy a pad of 11" x 17" at the pound store (the UK version of the dollar store) and use those to cover the books. The book titles are then written on the spine with invisible security ink. If I want to find a book, I have a small UV flashlight that illuminates the ink for easy searching.

A friend has taken my idea and run with it even further. She has ordered pastel coloured papers in bulk, using that for dust jackets. Then she uses a label printer to make up a QR barcode for the spine. Since her mobile phone is glued to her hand (metaphorically speaking) she uses that to scan the barcode and find the title she needs.