kittysavant's Profile

Brass FTW. I have begun snapping up vintage brass items and am currently on the hunt for a brass floor lamp. I would have done brass in my bathroom if I could afford the high-end modern fixtures that are currently available; we went with modern bronze instead, and hope they won't look too dated too soon.
I lobbied for a white refrigerator with stainless handles to play off of our vintage stove but gave in to stainless on stainless. Stainless and black is way dated already, don't do it!

We got almost everything we wanted: 100-year-old bungalow, decent sized yard, up-and-coming neighborhood, garage, big kitchen, a fixer-upper we could make into the house we want to live in. A second bathroom was off the "must-have" list by the second month of looking, and a fireplace would have been nice but the absence of one was not a deal-breaker when it came down to it. The main compromise we made was deciding to spend about $20k more than we had originally planned in order to get a house we felt was actually worth the investment, and devoting a much longer time than we had imagined we would to finding our new home; we spent a year looking and another five months waiting for a short sale to go through, but it was 100% worth the wait to get exactly what we wanted.

Great job! This is so much closer to my taste than what is usually on AT, yet still accessible. I love the way you've brought some high-end design influences home in a way that is truly liveable and affordable. I am heartened and inspired!

I love your floors and would definitely be able to make them work. It sounds like you are attracted to blue and red, so it baffles me that so many people are telling you to go gray. A rich blue or teal would bring up the warm tones of the floor, making them look less black and more brown. Red is a bit intense, and will have a really graphic contrast with the floors and white trim. I wouldn't go with too deep of a color unless you plan to have lighter-colored and/or fairly neutral furnishings that will contrast the expanses of light-absorbing colors. If you have a dark floor and white trim, use a medium shade on the walls; if you want to do bright white walls, consider a medium tone for the trim (here is where I suggest gray.) I think if you use a pastel color it would be kind of wonderful to match the walls and trim; there will be enough shadow for the details to pop. Basically, just be sure that there are enough light-colored elements in the room to bounce some light around. A white or white background rug would be killer on that backdrop and open up the room a lot if you did opt for darker walls.

My cats would destroy this; Zumaya Vuvuzela is on a Mission to Ruin Christmas and has already compromised a sturdy vase of evergreen branches. In the interest of protecting our more precious ornaments and keeping our sanity, Christmas decorations in this three-kitty house are mostly wreaths and swags hung high and far from launch surfaces. We also put some unadorned greenery at floor level so the cats can satisfy their curiosity without going nuts.

They will not leave gift ribbons alone, so we either display them up high or just let the cats have their fun.

@matchbookhymnal - I have three small hooks for wet rags on the inside of a cabinet below my kitchen sink

@Kaviare - Yes, it is an American thing, and I would still be washing everything but jeans after one wearing if I hadn't traveled to Europe in college and been poked fun at by fellow travelers who found it ludicrous that I kept going off to do laundry. I have a pretty minimal wardrobe now, so most items stay in heavy rotation. Socks, underwear, and camisoles go into a pretty bag after wearing, and the rest I put away unless it clearly needs attention. I end up doing one load of clothes every week this way.

My partner is a chef and her work clothes are disgusting - they are sweaty and smell like wood smoke and old food. She keeps them in a hamper in the closet and washes it all each week, separate from her off-work clothes. There is no way I would put that stuff in a nice dresser, any kind of open storage, or anywhere near my bed, my clothes, or my linens, or where guests might encounter it.

I have my great-grandma's Eastlake style wood dresser, which traveled with her family from Illinois to California in the 19-teens. It is this HUGE thing with burl wood panels and a shelf on top, and since I move every couple of years my friends have become very familiar with how cumbersome it is.

I had to wrest it away from my step mom when I was in college; my dad was storing it so I could have it when I graduated, and since I didn't have a home of my own (at 17?) she decided she was going to start using it indefinitely.

I grew hearing stories about how my grandpa slept in the drawer when he was a baby and associated the dresses with pleasant memories of visiting my great-grandma, so I basically hated my step mom for trying to take that history away from me. She threw a tantrum of entitlement and we had a falling out about it---my family doesn't fight amongst ourselves, so it was a very uncomfortable situation for my dad and I. Finally she said I could have it if I had a place for it, so I crammed it into a tiny bedroom at my mom's house and prayed she wouldn't have to move before I got my own apartment, which I did shortly thereafter.

You can stick paper to the glass with laundry starch or a rice or corn starch/water mix. It will basically wipe right off with warm water when you remove the paper. Washable white glue would easily come off of the glass as well. Rubber cement or tape would work, but you'd see it on one side and I would personally hate that. You have to make sure you use a light color of paper that will camouflage the glue, so for light-blocking you'd use a dense (but not heavy) paper. Actually, if you wet down rice paper with a spray bottle it will stick on its own with very little residue later on, and that gives you more color/contrast options.