burgatroid's Profile

Actually, Dan, I think $385 over 150 years would be something like $10 million, depending on what kind of rate of return assumptions you want to make. So instead of leaving your grandkids financial independence and a knockoff chair, they get a chair with "smooth bends" and "legs integrated into seatpan". Lets not kid ourselves: the people on this website buying expensive chairs are not making prudent financial decisions; they are buying expensive chairs because they want to own expensive chairs.

That said, if I had the money, I'd buy an Emeco chair in heartbeat. They are awesome.

@jdog--

i also have a size-doubling table, but its simpler cause its rectangular. Picture a regular small table. Put another table surface the exact same size/shape on top. Attach the two with hinges on one side. This is the table in small-mode.

To transform, you flip the top surface over, like opening a book. The problem is, there's nothing to hold it up, so what happens is the whole table service is on a slide/pivot contraption that lets you rotate it so that the unfolded double-size top is centered on the legs, but oriented the other way. Now, its twice as big, the table edges are just somewhat farther from the legs/apron than they would be on the avg. table.

Don't listen to these haters. Congratulations on getting your first place. You must be pretty psyched to get it all rigged up. Also, even though those panels on your ceiling maybe aren't your favorite type of ceiling, they do have some pretty serious sound absorbing capabilities, which the hardwood-tin sandwich in a lot of these people's sweeping lofts lack. Looking at that pretty ceiling doesn't make up for much when your upstairs neighbors have a coke-fueled dance dance revolution party at 5am.

I think you'll be able to come up with some way to make your room nicer and its definitely got some positives. Eg you appear to have space between your bed and at least two walls. And your bed looks pretty cool. You have crown molding and tall baseboards. In fact, the only bunk things here are the Tron ceiling and the dentist's walls.

People are always like "do this to open up the room, don't do this cause it'll shrink the room." I don't think increasing perceived bigness should be the be-all end-all. What about carpet tiles? on the wall? If you can't paint. Just thinking out loud here. what about covering one wall with cheapo mirrors from ikea?

I also like the carpet idea. Even if the area above the carpet tiles is bogus, it would be kind of cool to take the tiles out, put them in safe storage, then put inexpensive fabric up there, either loosely so it slighltly billowed through the squares, or taughtly (this could even be on the outside, or woven through the grid) and then put lights up there, so the whole thing is a big glowing light fixture. If you get like white muslin or something this would be very, very affordable. Makes the grid less contrasty when off, and makes it something kinda cool when on. Then again, it might look ridiculous, but its not like you can't change it.

southernwayfarer-- I've been thinking of working on a similar project. My previous DIY light fixture projects have had decidedly mixed success. It doesn't look too crazy to me though. One thing funny about the light projects is looking for bulbs. The bulb websites have a bizarre terminology that is totally non-intuitive.

patrick-- sounds like you are probably right. I think my next step here is going to have to be photoing/measuring the "cove" crap and then hitting up a home depot or a lowes to see what kind of baseboards they have. The baseboard I put in my last place was almost flush with the wall where the cove would be, but they certainly could have something. I can't remember now exactly how far it sticks out, how curved it is, and how far up the wall the curve starts. If this doesn't work, its back to the painting idea.

One advantage of a small apartment is even if its a lot of work per square there aren't many squares to deal with.

What about razor blading the bottom edge?

what are the extra steps? or can I just get different vinyl-compatible paint? It's hideous right now. Its the color of turd.

I'm moving into a new place and its got this ugly brown rubber stuff along the bottom of the walls instead of trim. It's like what they use in offices and hospitals sometimes. It's a trim simulator. A trimulator, if you will. It's a rental, so I'm hesitant to pull it out and put trim in.

I've been thinking of a painting the living room/main area of the place with wide (~6") stripes (probably in BM dune grass and BM tree moss) above a chair rail. The chair rail and below we'll be something like BM Abingdon Putty or Linen, I'm thinking i'll do this bit in semigloss, top stripey bit in matte. So I would presumably paint the horrid rubber things the same color as this section.

I told this plan to my mother. She was like, "worst idea I've ever heard. It's going to look ridiculous without a normal baseboard." What do you all think? Thing is, I'm new at this and my mom's a professional decorator. It's hard for me to pull off my typical youthful disregard of her advice in this case. I'm probably going to do it anyway(I don't think she fully understands the beer-champagne divide we are facing here), but if everyone agrees with my mother, I will reassess this plan.

If you've got any good stripe painting tips please share those as well. Every DIY website says to just tape them off like you'd think, but I noticed that at Janovic they conveniently sell 6" wide masking tape. I'm thinking I'll just roll out two base coats, then slap that tape on every six inches, then roll on the contrast. Seems easier than taping off both edges of where you want the stripe.