Lidsville's Profile

Great desk areas (I love imagining what goes on in a room full of empty Hermes boxes and a zebra skin rug! Back when there was a stock market someone once sat there saying Buy! Sell! into the phone). But I agree with apt11 and LoriSF that these "workspaces" seem slightly more for show than actually for work (though I recognize Kim's office, #3, and I know she works there!). Question: is there any good way to store all one's computer peripherals, which generally look so awful in an office, and which are pleasantly absent in these photos? I work at home and have a scanner, computer tower as well as a laptop, second giant monitor, printer, a giant basket of modems and hubs, the Mac airport, power bars. IKEA doesn't sell anything remotely usable to house all these things - I've repeatedly checked - and I'm starting to think I'm going to have to build something myself. What would be useful is a single unit, preferably on wheels, with a million little spots for all that stuff as well as room on the top for the scanner and printer to go side by side, since those have flip-up lids and can't have anything above them. What are we supposed to do with all this stuff? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Last note: I think floor-to-ceiling wall-mounted bookshelves, with a little stepladder, are an underused storage solution. The area high up on a wall is generally wasted space and is great for things you don't need as often. And a wall of shelves looks great. If you're not in an earthquake zone.

I live in a very old building with wood floors, and in the kitchen there are substantial cracks between the boards. If I don't use a washable rug, crumbs and any liquid-y spills get into the cracks and are not easy to remove. A washable rug in the sink/prep area is a godsend. I've either used a grass mat I can hose off outside on a nice day and dry in the sun, or just replace, or an Ikea cotton area rug. I like the feeling of a mat under my feet, rather than the hard floor. It makes a big difference when you're in the kitchen for a while - it's the amateur version of an anti-fatigue mat, I guess.

Clutter? Am I missing something? This appealing, artistic apartment doesn't seem that cluttered to me! I love modern minimalism but it can be taken way too far - in the direction of sterility and utter lack of imagination. The chair and ottoman in the kitchen are brilliant.

I left a comment on the earlier AT post on this topic, just saying I'm not a fan of Domino or its aesthetics. This is just a PS. There were many comments on the Decorno blog recently about a Domino magazine feature that demonstrated its lack of ... well, all the things that it lacked.
http://decorno.blogspot.com/2009/01/regarding-page-76-of-this-months-domino.html

Not sure if there's much point in my leaving a negative comment, but I have to say I don't like any of these. There seems to be some sort of attempt at whimsy here, but the end result is a collection without design integrity, in limbo somewhere between rustic and modern but without any of the virtues of either. I think most of these pieces will be dated in about 5 minutes. Sorry! But you asked. There have been many other great IKEA pieces in PS lines - I have a chair from about 2003 that was I think designed by James Irvine and is a close copy of the Poul Kjaerholm wicker PK22. It blows anything in this collection out of the water in shape, construction, and general beauty. I'm finding this a bad year at IKEA so far.

I'm not sure if it's cool for the designer in question to comment, but hi, this is Lindsay from Ouno Design. No, the blankets don't smell! We're very picky. Everything we get is in good shape - we reject anything unredeemable. And that includes scratchiness. We also wash everything in the washing machine and dryer, on delicate, to make sure that you can too. Thanks for the post!

I'm planning this for my kitchen, too, but I've been told by furniture/cabinetmakers that people like to tuck their heels back, and that a perfectly square-edged bench with no space underneath for feet is uncomfortable. Thoughts? If so, how far back should storage be, or put another way, how far should the bench extend beyond the storage? Anyone?

Personally I like seeing the occasional element of political reality, on any blog. What's the harm in it? There's something a little ostrich-in-the-sand about unadulterated decor in times like these. There needs to be the occasional moment where we look up from the screen at what's around us, or things get a little airless and weird. PS hejiranyc needs to start getting his/her news from somewhere other than Drudge. One thing I'll say about campaign signs is that I'm encouraged by how seldom signs are actually vandalized. Civic life has been so degraded that I expect every sign to be defaced, but luckily things just haven't fallen that far.

The old stairs look like a fairly contemporary faux-heritage reproduction, and not with very high quality finials and moldings - I'd have updated it too,. I really like the combination of steel and wood. Also, I would guess that most of the staircase was retained (at least the stringers and risers were) and only the treads were removed and either replaced or re-cut. The reason for that would be that the old bannister was anchored on every stair, not every fourth stair as the new steel bannister is, and therefore the old treads would have numerous holes that might be hard to fill. I think this is a great solution - it looks great, and there isn't a lot of material waste.

Totally brilliant, and totally right. A little environmentally unsound, maybe, but better than buying a lot of new chachkas mass-produced somewhere. Monochrome and tone-on-tone are foolproof design choices. PS Sarah's my favourite blogger on AT - and I agree with an earlier poster - "I" is so much better than the annoying "we" first-person-plural voice in blogland.