mabaker's Profile

If you look at mmart.com, you can do a search for what you are looking for - residential, budget, style (I think it breaks it down to these search criterias, but not sure). The site will then give you a list of designers in Chicago that meet your requirements.

Although beautiful, I don't feel very inspired by this space. All it does is make me feel bad for having too much stuff. My apartment is 1/2 the size of this, and this doesn't really give me any "small space solutions"... other than get rid of everything and buy all new matching glassware to display. However, saying that - if I owned a place and could retrofit my place to create hidden everything (even outlets), then I would totally go for it!

Horizon 11! My sister (roomie) just painted our living room cabinet a hot pink and birch color, and we have this great green tweed reading chair that was our great-grandfathers, and our couch is sort of a brownish color (that sounds really ugly... but its great in real life and we need a great pillow to go with everything!).

I work with a firm and we use New Metal Crafts (on Wells and shop is on Elston) for things like re-wiring, etc. I can't give you an estimate, but I know they will do a free estimate for you and then you can decide.

I am currently attending Harrington College of Design in Chicago, but moved to Chicago from San Diego - so prior to enrolling I looked at schools in California, Florida, NY, GA, and Illinois. To repeat what others have said, definitely go with an accredited program, and at minimum I would go with a Bachelors or Masters program. Harrington no longer offers a certificate program, and I have never seen a (good) firm only require a certificate for education. You would be doing yourself a disservice by only going for certificate or associates. Although alot of people with bachelors degrees already (myself included) think an associates is enough (especially if planning on residential design), the market seems to be going away from that and a lot of firms require you to have a BA in ID.

I ended up deciding on Harrington because I am originally from IL and wanted to be closer to home. I decided against Parsons and other NY schools because it was so expensive, living in the city is so expensive, and with new ID grad salaries not exatly high, I just didn't want to get that much in the hole - plus, your portfolio really does speak for itself and there were lots of other good schools in other locations.
Univ. of Florida (Gainesville) was my second choice to Harrington, because they offered a masters program, one of the few I was able to find in a location that I actually wanted to live in for a few years. CIDA only accredites bachelors programs, so be aware that any masters programs won't show there... however, schools with accredited bachelors programs may have masters programs (as in UofFlorida), so if you go for Masters still go to an accredited school. Harrington is adding a Masters program - I am not sure if they are advertising for it yet, but I think it is supposed to start this fall.

I also work at a design firm, part time, while in school and one of the other designers went to the Art Institute and she said the focused mostly on commercial, and didn't even take a lot of classes I think are important to both fields (such as textiles). I think Harrington does a good job at having projects in both fields - gives you the opportunity to change your mind if something ends up becoming more interesting to you over the course of the program.

This entry is getting really long... so feel free to ask me any other specific questions if you have more. Otherwise, good luck!

Collapsible bar... genious. Great for people like me that like to entertain, but our apartment is a little too small to be in "entertainment mode" all the time.

Why don't you think about propping a few smaller framed art pieces/photos on the counter? If you prop a couple of varying sizes in an interesting way, that may take up some wall space without doing anything permanent (that way if you don't like it you can go to plan B), and it would hide the plug which I think would help. You can move the frames easily when you need the plug.

"suck" UK is right. Sorry, but this is just awful. Neon lighting in general should stay in bars and basements.

O.K. so I have done a million (or so it feels) searches online and can't seem to find a decent black blanket. I know a black blanket may sound crazy, but it is something I need to fold on the end of a bed to pull in a random black chair in the room (that won't be moved or re-painted). I need to have a blanket that is twin-sized, NOT a throw-size, as I want it for an additional bed blanket. I am open to a larger size and then cut it down, but not sure how easy that would be. I don't want any acrylic or polyester fabrics - either 100% cotton, wool, cashmere, or a blend of any of those would be ideal (basically something that just feels nice against the skin). My budget is decent (I think!) at $100-$300, so hopefully someone out there has an idea for where in the world to find something like this! Thanks in advance for your help. One more thing... nothing too girly if possible, this is for a guy's room.

anadequatenovel - not sure your aesthetic, but I have been really happy with Calico Corners. You can order small or large samples, and they come really quickly. They also have several suburban locations I think, which if that is convenient for would I would recommend so you can see the fabrics up close - and there are so many online it may just be faster to go to the store and look through them that way. I have also been really happy with lsfabrics.com in Atlanta. Great customer service and they give you really good sized samples (even though they are $2.50 each). Good luck!