cavedweller's Profile

Bad window treatments. The worst are frilly valances and tab curtains.
Brass anything--fireplace accents, bathroom fixtures, door hardware, etc.
Extreme mixes of styles/eras. The antique country French dining table surrounded by acrylic/Lucite chairs? No, just no.
Too many plants. It's an apartment, not a terrarium.

Where did you get the marble/metal table?

Why would you not replace the dishwasher? I don't get it. Money you spend on trying to fix the bare space could be put toward a new dishwasher.

Slarmstead: I don't know why, but dumping straight rubbing alcohol on the area knocks the smell out. Regarding declawing, I would never do it, but my mother had all of our cats declawed (front paws only) when I was growing up and they were all outdoor cats (a concept I am adamantly against as well) and did just fine. In fact they were rather prolific hunters, to the point where it was often a (gross) problem.

Change the countertops-- would some kind of black surface work? Get rid of the wavy thing. Change the light fixture to something more contemporary. Same with the cabinet hardware (brushed nickel). Paint the trim of the window (I'm just not a fan of stained wood window trim). Find a black appliance (or something) to fill the space above the oven. The cabinets aren't awful-- they actually look like they are very well made. They're just a bit outdated. You can still make the kitchen nice.

The problem with any of these is that you don't have to hit snooze to quiet the darn thing. You turn off the alarm completely, like I do, then oversleep and are late for work. They need to make something where turning off the alarm requires some mental or physical effort (like solving a riddle for example...of course then I envision myself getting frustrated and smashing the thing against the wall).

I am in a similar situation, except I have no carpentry skills. My landlord hasn't made any improvements to my apartment in about 20 years (aside from replacing the vanity in the bathroom). I managed to get him to install overhead lighting (it's a basement apartment--he installed these hideous, cheap ceiling fans), and when the plugged-in, garage lighting strip that had served as the kitchen lighting began to shock me, he replaced that with a permanent fixture. I'm still waiting for him to take the bathroom light switch out of the shower (yes, the switch is smack dab in the middle of the tile... in the shower) and remove the laminate flooring from the kitchen wall. Though he doesn't care what changes I make (because he's already seen how I've decorated the place and knows I have decent taste), I can't get any contractors to take an interest in the various small jobs that need to be done. They dismiss it with "no point in making changes to a rental," or, "that's going to require a building code." The location is ideal and the rent is cheap, but the place is so embarrassing I won't have anyone over.

It has a certain je ne sais blah. No, if the minimalist look is your thing then it seems to be very tastefully done. If it were my place though, I'd play up the existing architectural elements more (the gorgeous fireplace, the woodwork, the built-ins, etc.).