lurker2209's Profile

My Ikea trick is to pause just before the end and assess. Usually I look through the as is section, return to my cart and get rid of at least one thing. Unless I've been really, really good and only bought off the list. It's easy to be tired and want to get home and just hurry to the nearest checkout line. But If I take two minutes and purge any unneeded impulse grabs, I go home much happier.

My problem is that I seem to have taken this advice too far. I found a bedspread I loved, and based everything in my room around those colors. But now I feel that everything is one of three colors. And they're all pretty bright colors. It's too much. I've scaled back by increasing the amount of white, giving the eye more places to rest. But it's not quite right. I have a chair I want to recover, and I've had a terrible time finding fabric that will do. I think I need something more neutral, with a toned down hue of one of my bright colors, but I don't know how to choose...

Lightbulbs that last for years and years can be kind of frustrating when you're experimenting with something new. I bought a new fixture to replace a broken one in my new bedroom, and it came with a CLF that had a G-24 base. It's very harsh, given that it's an attic room with a low ceiling. But it says it's 2700K, which is supposed to be warm white. It's a 100Watt equivalent, and I think a 75 or 60 watt equivalent would be much more comfortable, given that the room also has a few lamps. And I can find a G-24 bulb at that wattage at my local home improvement store. But the bulb that came with the fixture will last 3-5 years. If I replace it, what can I do with it? None of the other fixtures in my house can use that base. I'm putting up with substandard light, because I feel guilty about throwing a perfectly good (but too bright) bulb in the recycling!

I have a similar chair, only I used really cheap fabric( which is one of the reasons it's falling apart). But I found a great bring your own chair upholstery class at a local store and my goal is to work it into my schedule this summer/fall. Sometimes knowing your limits doesn't mean you give up; it just means you accept that you can't learn everything on the internet.

Hmmm...bedroom:
Cedar Chest: Graduation present from my parents
Mattress and Box spring: an old set my roommate's parents no long needed
Desk: $60 on craigslist, plus around that much for paint, new hardware, etc
Dresser and nightstand: bought by my mom at a garage sale when I was 13, I probably spent 20 to repaint it.

Of course, I'm a recent college grad and some of these will get replaced if I find decent employment. So if those are lifetime averages, I might fall in line at some point.

I would love the idea of getting a coat rack and using our coat closet as a pantry. The front door is down a flight of stairs from the closet, so a coat rack in the entryway would be more useful anyways. But I'd need something that could hold 6-8 coats, not 3-4. Any suggestions?

I've never seen anyone offer a good solution to the biggest problem of hanging pictures: estimating the difference in height from the top of the frame to the wire or cleat. Even with identical frames, slight differences in the position or tension mean that I can't just tap in two nails at the same height (as determined by my laser level). I love the idea of doing a gallery wall with everything evenly spaced, but actually making it look right sounds like a nightmare.

Think vertical. This gets repeated a lot in terms of using tall storage and so forth to maximize a small room, but you can also open up space vertically.

For years I had my bed on a thrift-store frame with risers, until my craigslist headboard required me to get a new frame with the headboard brackets. The risers made the new frame too tall to bolt to the headboard, so I ditched them.

It shocked me how having my bed about three inches lower made my tiny bedroom more spacious. It just feels less crowded. Tall storage on the periphery and low and open in the middle seems to really open up the space so thats my new rule of thumb for the other small rooms in my apartment.

I thought save-the-date cards were silly, until my sister got married and I helped her do her invitations. She made a list of all the save-the-dates that came back, and pestered family members to give her a functional, updated addresses. If it wasn't for the save-the-dates, we would have been stressing about invitations getting sent back because her FMIL gave them the old address for the groom's great aunt or because a college friend has moved several times in the past year. I wouldn't want to spend a ton of money on save the dates, but it seems worth it to reduce the stress by having a trial run before you send invitations.

I have a small collection of antique thimbles, because my grandmother decided to randomly start sending them to me in college. (And not for birthdays and Christmas, but just every few months for no particular occasion.) And at one point, she just stopped sending them, as randomly as she started. I kept them because they were small and pretty, but I haven't had time/money/inclination to add to it. I suppose if I ever do, it will really become a collection, but it's got and interesting story for it's beginning already.