e6's Profile

I lived in a small LA studio like yours, but less adorable when I first moved to LA. Things I learned the hard way:

Don't rush to buy stuff. Spend some time figuring out where the light goes, where the noises come from, etc. Buy maybe a matress at first and spend some time tugging it across the floor to figure out where you like to sleep best. Design the rest of the layout once you know where the bed goes. Outside walls are better in terms of avoiding listening to loud people next door.

Do not put in a loft bed. After your first earthquake you will lie awake wondering if you will be crushed to death beneath it, or violently thrown from it and which would hurt more. Meanwhile climbing in and out will be a pain, and worst of all, if you end up in an intimate situation with a suitor, someone will bash their head. It seems like a space saver, but it's all a lie. Ask me how I know. Anything you put under the loft bed will cease to feel cozy and start feeling claustrophobic, because of the already small space you live in.

Don't try to have everything. You can't reproduce a full home with coffee table, desk, sofa, chair, bed, tv, bookcase, dining table, etc all in your tiny place, no matter how tiny you go. One or two big pieces will ultimately be less crowded than 5 or 6 small things. Be especially suspicious of multitasking furniture- my folding table that seemed like such a score turned out to be the least efficient, because it was hard to sit around and hard to store in a way that I could access the drawers. I was sure I'd use it all the time. I never did. I ended up pretty comfortable with a small sofa and a coffee table that I did all my crafting, and dinnering around, using only a laptop for my entertainment center.

Live like your apartment is a ship on the sea. Everything that moves must have a place it can be stown. Never bring in something small that you don't know where to store or hang. If something stays in storage most of the time, you probably don't need it.

Lastly, live beautifully. While not missing out on being frugal, when you live someplace tiny, you should buy beautiful things that bring you joy. Don't just buy "a bed", buy "the bed" the one that makes you happy to see it all the time. Take the time to hang pictures, curtains, plants, and mirrors. Take time to accquire stuff. You need much less than you think you do. Owning only 2 cups at first seems tough, but then you realize that it means you always keep them washed up, and when you have guests you were going to buy party cups anyway. The Rose Bowl and the Long Beach flea markets are good places to look for unique and beautiful things.

Gosh that room is just all over itself isnt it? Window alcoves, cut throughs to the dining room, stairways and pillars on your way in, wall to wall carpeting and then the odd railing/half wall- what a challenge. I like that the post is titled, how to add visual interest, as if you need more things going on in that space!

I really like lofted spaces with some kind of balcony style half wall. I'd be inclined towards replacing that wall/fence with an actual half wall- and somehow eliminating the odd pillar in that corner, but that's off in the future. For now, I'd probably go stark white in that living room/foyer, and hang bright artwork and add an area rug or install laminate floors over time because I don't think there's a color in this world but white which can subdue all the odd alcoves and whatnot, and deal with the carpet.

the sofa definitely shouldn't have it's back to the entrances and the railing (I take a mob approach to primary seating- where no one can sneak up on you). I'd put it in the corner, but given it's a sectional, it might need to go in the corner with the window behind it- or by the opposite direction of that sectional. I have one too and I love it but it's a total brat when you move and need to reorient, isn't it? That light might go nicely over in the corner by that dining room hole.

I agree with whomever suggested plants in the railing area- maybe use a long low credenza or bookcase with the plants atop it and one tall one at the far right. Nothing valuable on the end of the credenza near the railing.

I sure hope you send in an after shot, because I'm fascinated to see how that space would be worked around successfully. Good luck!

I can't tell if the internet just ate this comment. I suggest going campy nightclub morrocan. Paint the wails a parchmenty color, go for colorful pillows, ornate antiques, tapestries, draping, etc. use the display case for vases, and interesting bling. Then you don't have to do much until you are ready to really tackle it, and you can enjoy the camp factor and have cocktail parties in the space.

I think you should go "moroccan" with it! Paint the paneling certainly- and maybe the shingles, but not white. I'd go a warm parchmenty color- somewhere between a butter/cream white and a taupe. Then in an accent- maybe gold or just a slightly more coffee color I'd go with stenciled paint motifs on the paneled side.(http://www.paintquality.co.uk/Trends/aw2005/images/room_tr1_1.jpg_)

I'd do drapes on that odd interior shingling, or a large rug. The lamps are already a little souq chic...ish (slightly more Ruby tuesday-ish, but whatever.) drapes of course framing the doors, and then just pillows, scattered rugs, draped sumptous fabrics- go nuts at sari stores, pier one, and flea markets.

I really like the effect of this crisp white couch in this room: http://www.casbahdecor.com/prod_images_large/moroccan_decor1.jpg

I'm imagining it like one of those 50s nightclubs that try to capture "the exotic east" and fails to be very true to the real style of the middle east. Very cocktail party, themey. And then you can enjoy the campy fun of it until you are ready to make it a real room.

If I could revamp the curriculum (oh to dream!), kids would all get shop, cooking/gardening, finance and home care and lastly, CIVICS, where they'd learn about local government, how to vote, how to research politics, what kinds of services and non profits were in the city, read local papers and talk about current events. All real live skills that someone could use striking out on their own at 18, instead of memorizing who invented the cotton gin and learning calculus. No offense to you Eli Whitney, but I'd rather everyone could use basil they grew on their handmade pasta by the light of a lamp they rewired, while they balance the checkbook and read about the vote at the school board.

Wrap it it christmas ornaments during the holidays for a reusable tree?! hide behind it and jump out and scare people!?

Hang long thin artwork on it? Put in an accent shelf and keep some books there and little sculpty things? That wrap around bookcase from Holly Cow is pretty awesome.

I don't know if the photo is your furniture set up at this time, but the way the tv and the chair block off the column corner make it pop out more to me- everything is placed in relation to it, so that that whole corner behind is inaccessible. Also I wouldn't much love watching TV with a huge window behind iit- I would imagine the light at night would be distracting.

I like the idea of using the space between the window and the column for a sitting area instead. I could see that springy chair going where the tv is, but facing out towards the room or the corner, and a wrap around bench, plus some sort of lamp or plant, tucked right in by the column.

I'm not anti-wall decals, but I do think its one of those things that's so easy and cheap to do that they don't require we think through the "why would I" part as much as we do when we paint or buy furniture. So why word decals? What would they do for your space? Would they match your theme of modern vintage in the type/color/size you picked? How would you place them?

Like most home decorating, I think it's easy to dismiss an idea as potentially tacky, but the pleasure comes from using that familar element in a surprising and tasteful new way. For instance I think it would be neat to use decals on the column to do a scene, like...if you had little space ships flying around, and walking around the column would be a surprise to see what the different space ships were up to. Apparently I like living in a nursery though.

Dear Sarah,

I mostly like your posts- you always pick interesting things. But as a native RI resident, I'm getting tired of the odd tone in every post which is like, "did you think that New England sucks? Well guess again!" "Here is an idea from CA, do you think we New Englanders could handle this?!"

New England isn't some provincial backwater dude. We don't all weave Shaker baskets by hand and live in a cabin in Vermont with no running water. Some relatively progressive stuff goes down in lil' Rhody (and some less so, I know).

Living far from home I'm on board with your post content, completely and utterly and I always want to see what's new at home, but....could you please stop sticking up for New England by bashing it it first, or implying that other people think it sucks?

Sincerely,
A Rhode Islander in exile

Its a hobbit house! Very cool! The only question I'd have about adapting them to cooler places like New England is how warm are they? The ceilings are a lot higher, and since warm air rises, I could see them being cold.

As for the design aesthetic, in CA there are just as many opininated people who hate unconventional design as there are in NE- I moved here from there, and I work in a connected field, so I've sat at many a public meeting in CA listening to people rant about design. Generally I think more people feel they can control something like that when they live in smaller communities or have higher property values.

In the end it boils down to, can you convince someone it meets the code? If yes, then you can't be stopped, and people will come around eventually.

Rabbit is really really good. I got it one time at a butcher shop and it was delicious. I'm not sure I'll ever be raising my own, but I'd pay for urban rabbit meat for sure.

My order is:

New duvet cover on the comforter.

No ottoman- it clashes, and doesn't do much for this room- switch to a steamer trunk or one of those suitcase stands down the line. Also is it the same as the rug? Both of those are a little muddy looking- reddish greens...meh.

Moving the pictures. To me it looks like the cluster on the side wall is too high, but I also think the one over the headboard is off center. I'd group them all together in one place, and then look for something modern and cheeky to offset things. Actually, just yesterday I saw this: http://www.20x200.com/art/2010/02/first-harvest-in-the-wilderness-with-pileated-woodpecker.html, and it would make everything else in the room subtly in on the joke.

The lamps! Oh the horrors! I'd replace these with something still antique flavored, but not printed with cabbage roses. Maybe just keep the lampstand and get nice plain shades.

The dresser paint is not my favorite, but it is personality, and could be rocked if it's your style and you love it, so I think you can get away with it if you pick something nice in bedding that doesn't clash.