idontdobeige's Profile

Love the bright colours mixed with the black-and-white

A floorplan would really help here, because I think a different furniture arrangement might work better - swapping the walls the the sofa and TV cabinet are on. Then you have would room for more seating perpendicular to the sofa if you wanted it. Or if you decided to put a desk on that wall you wouldn't have all your "hard" furniture along one wall (which I think looks better).

Re a side table or lamp, my preference woud always be for lamps (multiple!). I always like one in the corner, but you should get one at a time to see how it effects the room before you decide what other ones you might want.

Re the art, I disagree with the theory of "art must be hung at eye-level". I think it can make a room look squashed, particularly a high-ceilinged room. And I think it looks terrible if a large piece is hung like this over a sofa and effectively looks like it's propped up on the back fo the sofa. I know there are very strong opinions held on this, but you should know that it is not compulsory - if you like it do it, if you don't then don't. (Actually that last bit is the best advice all around!)

BTW - I also don't think you should necessarily follow the advice to go with colours which can be found in your closet - if I went by that I'd be living in the Bat Cave (I wear mostly black)

Totally disagree with point no. 1, a bigger rug is not always better. In fact in a small space having a decent margin of visible floor around a rug can make the space seem considerably larger, particularly if the rug isn't tucked under the legs of any furniture. I speak from experience on this one having tried three different rug sizes in a particular room and in the end going with one I cut down to size myself.

Although not a fan of the Mao calendar either, I think you've done a lovely job, it's full of personality and warmth and colour, it looks like a great place to live in.

Beautifully done!

Beautiful place, I love the colours, but I especially love the ransom note floorplan - if there was a competition for floorplans you'd surely win!

I love the way the pictures are framed offcentre with those stripes of colour, so unusual, looks terrific.

@Emmi - I omitted a longer response in my original post, but new-builds can be more ecological not just in terms of insulation and energy usage but also in terms of higher density and better planning that results in mixed business/residential developments requiring less commuting as well as more walkable developments, better public transport and more community centered services and amenities.

Good new-build housing can be much more ecological in this sense.

I had a bedroom with skylights once but it was on a flightpath to an airport and sometimes they came in quite low. More than once I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I think one really helpful thing to do is to change all your bulbs to low-energy at the same time. Because the colour is different to incandescent bulbs and if you are going from a room lit by incandescent bulbs into a room lit by low-energy bulbs then the transition is awful. But if your whole place is lit by low-energy bulbs then every room is the same "colour" and so you don't really notice the different colour to the light.

Don't buy bulbs that are coiled (like the one pictured), buy ones that have a smooth bulb as they give a better colour light in my experience. Also don't buy "softtone" bulbs as they give a really quite orange light, whereas the normal low-energy bulbs give a more white light.

The light can be very harsh though and I think it works better if you can diffuse it through a fabric shade or by bouncing it off a wall or ceiling. Polypropelyne lightshades do a great job of softening the light, but otherwise I would steer clear of any white shades (especially white glass). For some reason lower wattage low-energy bulbs seem to give off a whiter light, so even though they are dimmer they are not softer. Again I would recommend polypropelyne shades which soften it up nicely.

(By polypropelyne I mean plastic, like for example the Ikea Fillsta - http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/catalog/products/40154415)