heatherette's Profile

Max, your place reminds me of the Matt Maranian book from a few years ago called "Pad." I loved that book and I love your place. Someone said it best with "adorably bonkers." So proud this is in my neighborhood!

I had a living room that was almost identical to yours -- same beams, different paint color -- and we used the AINA bleached white linen curtains from IKEA. Sheer, but not too sheer, so they let still let some light in when they were closed but no one could see in. I know the AINA comes in a couple of colors, or you could easily die the bleached ones to match the rest of your room.

I am filled with envy at all you people with successful lemon trees. I have two (non-Meyer) lemon trees that I started from seed a year ago, and they're in pots in my living room. They're each about a foot tall and seemingly healthy looking -- although let's face it, I have no idea -- but they've never flowered. Their growth has slowed down since winter, which I thought was some sort of pseudo-hibernation, but it hasn't really picked back up again.

I have a huge emotional attachment to these plants for various reasons, but I have ZERO idea what to do to make them flourish. Right now I feel like I'm just preventing them from dying, which is not the same as having thriving lemon trees. I've tried to find some sort of source on container gardening for citrus, but most resources I've found seem to assume it's only temporary and you'll be transplanting them outside once they've started to grow -- which is obviously not the case here.

DOWN.

Totally.

My personal reasons why (in addition to the perfectly valid ones already listed):

1. Bad feng shui. Leaving the toilet lid up is akin to flushing all your money away. And I really can't afford for that to happen.

2. If, as a child, your grandmother had had a snake swim up from wherever into her toilet bowl, you would leave the lid down for life, too.

I'm almost positive it's the BESTA cabinets used as a base, but I'm not sure how the top was accomplished. Maybe the top was cut to fit from one of the desktops or countertops?

I've had one of those Pottery Barn desk chairs. They may look stylish, but it has literally ruined my back over the course of my graduate school career. I wouldn't say that's one of the options selected for ergonomics.

slthomas, the desk chair is the Jules chair from IKEA.

writerboz -- we too have a 90x98 and it's been a little tricky. Bed Bath & Beyond sells that size in their Hotel Collection, if you're interested in solid colors. Nicole Miller also does duvets in 90x98.

We also found (through a lot of trial and error) that if you can find a F/Q that is *close* in size it will work. The measurements are approximate for duvets; especially if you have washed it it will measure as smaller. You'll most likely also be able to fit it into anything that's 92x96, or 88x96, which opens up a whole world of options for you. Try to aim for something that's within two inches of your duvet measurement on each side. Hope that helps!

My mother always says, "You can change the house, but you can't change the neighborhood." The times I have sacrificed a quality neighborhood for what I thought was THE perfect apartment, I have eventually come to regret. You don't realize how much the things outside the four walls of your home end up mattering -- until you don't have them. There are a lot of things you can do, quick fixes, that will improve your quality of life in a lackluster apartment. But there's not a lot you can do about the fact that it's a twenty-minute drive to the nearest grocery store.

And out of all the apartments I've lived in, do you know which one I look back on and regret leaving? The shoebox in the awesome neighborhood.

carr, the clock is a Moonbeam. They originally came in yellow, but you can get them in other colors from LL Bean.

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?page=moonbeam-clock&categoryId=33149&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&parentCategory=4865&cat4=1152&shop_method=pp&feat=1152-sub2&np=Y