yes to the stuffy nose. i think it's just your sinuses rebelling against the stinky assault. nothing to do but wait it out i suppose.

i rearranged the little's bedroom again. i keep trying to organize in there so that everything will fit and be functional but it just hasn't come together until now. i finally have it so there are separate areas for sleeping, sitting and reading or watching a cartoon, arts and crafts and still maximum play area. it looks good and i think i'll keep it that way. he's so easy going he just said "hey whatcha doin' mom?" and then "cool, i like it!" and plunked hisself down for a good little play time.
the only thing that is still out of sorts in there is the gigantic rat cage. it just ain't really happenin'. it's so big, it's just in the way no matter where it goes.

i repotted the last two plants and rearranged them a bit, still not quite right but i'll get it together eventually. i put two into little's room next to his small fishtank and they really look great in there. he gets enough reflected light that i think they'll be happy and they're in a safe enough spot (i hope!) to avoid bumping or knocking.

i cleaned the rat cage, it seems to need doing every two days at least. it takes a bit too so it's a bit of a pain. wish i could just spot check but they are SO smelly. uck. well, he loves them though, even the bitey one. a mama sacrifice for sure. wish we could have a dog.

the living room is still an utter disaster but i'm not touching it now. it's been like that all week, it can just wait a little while longer. i'd much rather change the fish tank up. i bought new gravel, natural sandy coloured instead of the obnoxious bright blue and turquoise stuff that's in there now. i have an idea about the plants too, hope it works out. and i hope the fish aren't too traumatized either, they don't exactly like being shaken up. the tank is gorgeous already, i could just leave it but the redecorator in me can't let it be.

doodle, how's that cat table? thought of a solution yet?

I just realized that the housecleaning thread got eaten because it was being neglected. It's not in AbFad at ALL anymore, and I know because I asked it to display all threads.

Never mind. Moved to appropriate thread.

Doodle, you're right, I probably could use some help from that Flylady system. It's just so pEpPy!!!!! you know? Ugh. That alone is enough to give me a headache. I need to look beyond that.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question because I've never bought a can of paint. Pathetic but true.

lunia, I'll post regarding your room a bit later today, probably this evening. I've got some links and stuff, but I'm just taking a quick lunch break now, and I want to get back to doing stuff!

raisin, I know what you mean about FlyLady's endless perkiness. Sometimes I wanted to throw things at her. I actually quit over her new focus on food and weight, because it was triggering all my old eating disorder issues....but I know she's the type of person who, if you wrote and tried to tell her that, she'd just say something like, "Well, if it bothers you, it must be something you need to hear." ARGH! But, what FlyLady did give me were the tools I didn't have previously....and it worked because I forced myself to let her brainwash me a little bit.

You could also try the new Apartment Therapy book.

I found the real key was just getting rid of stuff. It is a cliche, but true: you can't organize clutter. When I started de-cluttering, I took something out to the dumpster every single day. And I don't miss any of it. Or, I miss a few things, but not in a desperate, oh-my-god-I-wish-I-had-that way. And I still find myself getting rid of things I'd passed over in previous de-clutter sessions. Usually I'll leave things in the laundry room (books, videos, "nicer" clothes) or in front of the dumpster (everything else), and usually someone takes them, so that helps me not feel so bad. What also helped was getting things in the correct room, even if there was nowhere to put it in that room....once I got it in the right room, the organizing started to sort itself out. And you should also know that it took me almost two years just to dig myself out and get it reasonably sorted. I had a serious clutter problem, and I had zero skills for organizing.

pepper - the table, not yet. At this point, now that I have paint, I figured I'd wait till I paint that wall to try and re-attach it. I'll have to try stronger anchors, I guess. BFF might come for a sleepover next weekend, so I might ask her to bring her circular saw so we can cut the thing down smaller.

SO! The final coat of polyurethane is on the cabinet, and I'm just waiting for it to dry!

The mirror looks REALLY cool. I decided to use metallic turquoise (acrylic craft paint)...well, I used 3 colours - turquoise, aquamarine, and white (all metallics) - and blended them together on the frame. (You can't see any white - it's just to lighten up the colours a bit in spots.) Then I wiped them off with paper towel. It looks really cool, because even where I wiped the paint off, there is a thin, coloured, metallic sheen with the black showing through. It looks much better, like a totally different mirror. No more goth! And the metallic prevents it from looking too shabby chic, which isn't really my thing.

I've got splotches of metallic paint on my balcony, though. Oh well. I imagine the winter weather will take that right off!

Two years?! Shit, yo, my lease is up in less than a year and I'm 90% sure I'm going to move. I should just start packing now.

I know I kind of make myself sound like I'm a packrat with papers piled 4 feet high all around me, but I'm thinking I must be exaggerating my situation (I've heard horror stories of how people live, like not cleaning the top of the stove, EVER, for years on end -- that's just vile). To ME it feels out of control, and I guess that's all that matters. I just want something in between Japanese Zen minimalist and Pack Rat Extraordinaire.

"Well, if it bothers you, it must be something you need to hear." -- I hate that attitude, too. She can go suck it or choke on a dust bunny, you know? Gah!

Ooh, Apartment Therapy. ::makes note to go to library this week::

Are you going to post a picture of the mirror?!

oh yes' pictures of the frame please! it sounds gorgeous. and good luck with that cat perch.

i did the tank. my neighbour came over and we syphoned out all the water, scooped out the fish and plants, made a mountain of rocks and took out all the gravel (rocks and gravel are on the deck drying out).
then we rinsed another 40lbs of gravel and went to town. it looks so great, really pretty with the natural coloured stone and we did this funky thing with the plants, we put them into clear glasses and then filled the glasses up with marbles and glass pebbles. it keeps them upright and makes sure there are leaves at the top of the tank (there are small plants in the bottom). i took the cinderblocks out from under the cabinet too and put it right on the floor. that ghetto brick stylie is so ugh, it looks way better lower too. i have pics, just gotta put them into the computer.

the floors are washed, the kitchen is spotless(ish), the bathroom is in order, my room is tidy, the little's room is almost there (i bought more puzzle mats to finish off his floor). it's just the storage closet and the pile of everything crafty/fabric all over the livingroom floor. why is it that the storage areas give me the most trouble? they're supposed to make life easier, right?

Well, I guess ol' Robbie Burns was right: the best laid plans of mice and (wo)men are apt to glen aglay.

*drifts off for a few seconds, remembering Eddie Izzard's bit about the best laid plans of mice*

*ahem* Anyway. I hated the cabinet in the entrance hall. Made it feel smaller, and with the mirror on the opposite side, it just didn't work - plus the 2 mirrors are different sizes, so the swap didn't work as well as I'd hoped. (I guess when an arrangement works, you shouldn't fuck with it too much.)

So I've got the cabinet down the end of the hall, outside the bathroom and bedroom doors. It does fit there, because there's a bit of a corner of wasted-space, although it also narrows the hall floor area a bit. OTOH, it does work better now that it's painted light green than when it was dark, because it almost "disappears" (the hallway is the same colour as the living room - light greyish-green). There might - might - be a way to make it work in the bedroom, but I'll wait now till after I paint in there.

I'm okay with it all, anyway. The painted mirror still looks fantastic, and the cabinet will at least give me more storage, which I could really use, since I don't have room for a dresser in my bedroom. Plus, I got a lot of exercise moving furniture and books and shit around all weekend.

raisin, I'll post a pic as soon as I figure out where I stashed the batteries for my camera....but I've got to go finish cleaning up my mess first. (ETA: don't worry...it took 2 years in part because I have fibromyalgia, so the process was super-slow for me.)

ETA: cross-posted with pepper!

Ok, so....lunia! Wow, are you buying a house? That's so exciting!

I think your living room is almost the same size as mine....if I remember correctly, mine is about 12X19...or 20? Can't remember. Anyway, I had a very hard time with the space until I decided to divide it into two areas. Not with walls or anything, but two distinct groupings of furniture. I like to call them "The Library" and "The Garden." Anyway, the one area houses all my bookshelves, my desk, desk chair, and a big reading chair and footstool. The other area is my main socializing/relaxing area, and I have a couch and 2 chairs, coffee table, TV, and a buttload of plants. I use the couch as the divider. Well, you can see pics, there's a link in my profile.

It's hard to know what to recommend, since I'm not sure what you like, but it's okay not to pick just one look for a room. The best rooms, IMHO, are ecclectic, with a little bit of whatever you love. If you keep choosing things that you really, really love, and don't settle for less, they will work together. Also, don't settle!! I think it's probably tempting to want to fill up empty rooms with a load of so-so furniture because you want to get it "done," but I think rooms look better if you slowly find the "right" things for it over time. (I'm not saying the most expensive things, but the things that you like best....although I speak from experience when I say you shouldn't skimp when it comes to the sofa.) It's okay to have empty spaces. Probably you want to pick the couch first, because you need one! But don't feel you have to buy a "set" of furniture. Mixing it up usually looks better.

They ("they") say you should buy your more expensive furniture/your "investment" furniture in neutral colours (black, white, brown, taupe, beige, grey, etc., and I think that's probably a good idea, especially if you're not sure where you're going. You can dress up your neutral furniture with colourful accessories, just like you dress up a neutral suit with coloured blouses and scarves. And you can change it around when you get bored. Personally, I consider green a neutral, so do keep that in mind if you're looking at my pictures! Also, I really recommend not sinking money into patterned items....pillows/rugs, yes; sofas/wallpaper, no. I made this mistake with a sofa once, and even though the pattern was all neutrals, I still regretted it bitterly! I found it really limiting - I couldn't easily mix in other patterns, colours, and styles, so I felt "stuck." If you're not sure about your style, it's probably also a good idea to look at classic, simple shapes - nothing too ornate or too "out there" modern...at least, not if you're spending a lot of money. If you're still deciding what you like, you can mix classic pieces into just about any design scheme.

It's probably a good idea to start keeping a decorating file, and just throw everything into it that you're thinking about. Go through magazines and catalogues and cut out pictures that appeal to you. Don't censor yourself or worry that a room is "too crazy" or "too old fashioned" or whatever - just cut out stuff you like and throw it in. Over time, as you build your collection, you should start to get a clearer picture of what you like and how to make it work in a room.

I often think the easiest way to deal with bathrooms is with colour! Since it's such a small room, you can do anything in there - you can use bright or deep colours on the walls, get towels to match or contrast, and it will all work. You can build up whatever else you need or want over time, but if you take care of the colour first, it will be pretty easy to put together. My bathroom was the first room I tackled when I moved in...I'm about to RE-do it, actually, once I finish the bedroom. The first thing I did was invest in forest green towels, bath curtain, etc. I bought some inexpensive framed prints in the "green" theme, one of which had purple in it, so I painted this huge, zig-zaggy green and purple stripe on the wall, all the way around the room. I'm actually keeping the stripe after the re-do, and toning down the dark green by painting the rest of the room light green and getting some lighter green towels and stuff. I also painted the door purple (!) and painted some other stuff green/purple, but I'll be painting over that - just keeping the stripe.

If you're stuck trying to figure out where to start, try looking to something you already have, like a favourite artwork, or your posters. Art is usually a fabulous jumping point for colour schemes and themes. My dining room was originally inspired by some Chinese art left to me by my grandmother and by Sun Yat Sen Gardens in Vancouver. My kitchen was inspired by the colours in an art glass vase! (You can see those rooms at the link in my profile, too.) My living room was inspired by my love of plants to become a sort of ecclectic garden. You can also look to your wardrobe if you're unsure what colours you can live with...our clothes are a big clue as to colour schemes!

Anyway, here are some of my favourite websites, which I use a lot for decorating advice and tips:

Better Homes and Gardens (great articles, great tools, and don't miss the arranging a room feature, which I used to get the furniture arrangement I have now)

HGTV (click on the "decorating" tab and then check out the links on the left, especially the "room design" section, where you can get lots of ideas for specific rooms, and also "design styles" which will help if you're interested in learning more about different styles, like Asian, or modern, or whatever)

Style at Home (Canadian site, lots of good articles)

ivillage Home Dec section (I've just found this one, and am still checking it out myself, but I'm finding lots of good tips)

Ok, I don't know if that's too much info or too little, but I hope it helps! Please stay with us in the thread and let us know how the progress goes - and we love pics, by the way!!

Okay! Here are some pics! I don't really have the time to create a whole new page for these pics right now, so I'm just posting direct links to the pics:

Painted Mirror - recap: $25 CAD Value Village find...frame was originally ugly brown molded plastic "faux wood"

Painted Mirror - Detail

Painted Cabinet - the two bumpy looking strips down the front were old cloth panels, which I painted over...I'm going to put something in those strips, as soon as I figure out what

Eve and Friends - Painting - this was done by a local artist as part of a community arts project...I bought the painting and have had it on loan to the women's centre for the last few years....it will go in my bedroom

Asian Panel Screen Wall Hanging - this is the panel screen I picked up at a 2nd hand shop for $40 CAD...sorry I couldn't get a straight-on pic, but it's in my hallway

gr8 mirror! it's so funny, i have a mirror that was in the same style of frame but mine was this weird faux wood plastic so i took it off. the bare mirror is behind the fishtank now, it works fine there.

that cabinet is excellent! it would look fantastic with some baskets on the shelves, definately good bedroom storage. you want your stuff, you just don't want to See your stuff!

everything in the house is looking fine right now, i'm even on top of the peretual kitchen mess. except for the giant pile of stuff in the living room and the closets. yes, STILL. sigh, i'm working on it, i swear.

my kid has the best room, the play space in there is the size of my whole room. that way no toys end up all over the rest of the house. i only sleep, dress and get naughty in my bedroom anyhow, how much space do you really need for that? ha ha ha.

Thanks Dr. Pepper!

The frame on mine is plastiwood, too....I didn't realize until I started to take it apart, because the backing covered it up - I just thought it was cheap laminate or something. I was tempted to chuck the frame, especially after the black paint didn't seem to help much...but the turquoise seems to have perked it up!

I decided last night I need a new desk. But I think I'm going to look for a small 2nd hand table instead, because I'm sick of these crappy computer desks and computer carts. Unless you're willing to spend in the thousands, everything made for computers really seems to be shit. It's all so sucky. Oh, or you can buy one of those nice glass and metal ones, but everytime I see one, I think, where do you put the wires???

The Delta Vancouver hotel has this really cool set up in the rooms where they have a small rectangular table (maybe 3X5'?) and a taller, matching, narrow console table....the console table is up against the wall, and the smaller table is on casters, so you can slide it in and out from under the console table to get more workspace or less. I've stayed there a few times*, and each time, I think I'd really like a set-up like that. It just works so well. I don't need mine to match, though! So I'm going to keep my eyes open for some 2nd hand pieces.

(*Don't look at me like that - we're gov't-funded so we get the gov't rate, super cheap.)

there is a computer keyboard pullout thing that could be screwed to the underside of a desk sitting out in the hallway right now girl. it's crap or i'd save it for you, but you can pick those things up in any kind of wood/faux wood and stick it onto the bottom of your table. i have a flat screen, they take up no room at all, so worth the trouble. i love the illusion of no computer. if i could afford a laptop you bet i would... they are an ugly but necessary evil eh?

there is a computer keyboard pullout thing that could be screwed to the underside of a desk sitting out in the hallway right now girl. it's crap or i'd save it for you, but you can pick those things up in any kind of wood/faux wood and stick it onto the bottom of your table. i have a flat screen, they take up no room at all, so worth the trouble. i love the illusion of no computer. if i could afford a laptop you bet i would... they are an ugly but necessary evil eh?

Here is a pic of the desk arrangement at the Delta Vancouver.

Except in the hotel, the console part is actually up against a solid wall, not a window, and the DSL, phone, and charger outlets are at above-console level on the wall. (Those windows are all floor to ceiling - heebie jeebie city if you're acrophobic!!) They must have staged it to get everything in the photo...I think the console usually goes against a wall where one of those chairs is. (The rooms are cleverly designed....too bad the staff - except for housekeeping - all have pokers up their asses.)

I've done a semi-similar thing where I've taken the top shelf of my computer desk and turned it sideways against the wall...it's just that I want a proper, better, more solid surface, because I've got my monitor on the higher part. All the stuff with wires is up there, actually, and so I want the console to serve the same purpose as the shelf does now. And then I want the table/desk to move around and do stuff at...my mouse/keyboard are cordless, but I want to use it for other stuff too, not just for the computer. Managing my bills, for starters! Or drawing. Or sewing. Or whatever.

Maybe instead of a console, I can affix a shelf (out of better material) to the wall and add legs to the outside edge to make it sturdy...and then find a table....

Wow! Nice mirror.

I'm sharing the love for Doodlebug's latest pics too! Awesome mirror, especially. And I love the "eve and friends" picture!!!

Hello
Pepper I justed wanted to thank you for the help. I got a lot of great ideas now and am going sofa shopping this weekend . Thanks again will keep everybody posted.

i just got re-inspired to work on my house again. it's been like all summer since i did something useful. so now i made a list and it's a million miles long. i'll have to start small and do one thing at a time (hard for me since i've got decorating ADD, i'll get halfway done on something and then move on), but to start with i think I'm going to wallpaper/contact paper the inside of my medicine cabinet, the outside is nice since i painted it but then i open it and think 'ewww!'. i was up half the night cause i kept thinking of new things i wanted to do and couldn't sleep. the mr. also likes to take inspirational messages to the inside of the cabinet, so i was thinking of putting up some kind of chalk-board paper behind it. i think i had contact paper that you could use chalk on for my locker in high school. anyway, does anyone know how to stiffen fabric so it could be used as wallpaper? and what could be used to stick it up? i have the perfect print to go in there but it's fabric.

Hey, thanks, treehugger and raisingirl! I really do like it much better now!

So, YAY, I just got amilita's fabric today, the extra stuff she sent me from her dining room chair project - it made it over the border unaccosted by Canada Customs! HURRAH!

Just to show you all how perfect it is, here is a pic of it, draped on the chair it will be covering. Don't know exactly when I'll get to the project, but now I know I CAN! It's an exact perfect amount of fabric, too, and it's absolutely beautiful, and perfect with my lime green!! I love the colour to bits - I have two tops and a scarf that exact colour. It's an exact perfect amount of fabric, too, and it's absolutely beautiful, and perfect with my lime green!!

Chair Cousin Project: Fabric, Chair, and George

I know, isn't that cute? It's not only a Chair Cousin Project, it's a Kitty Smell Exchange! Thanks again! I'm thrilled!

crassy, I meant to add...I posted something not long ago, I think in response to raisingirl, about how to apply fabric on the walls...there was a link to how to do it. It shouldn't be very deep in the archives....

I don't know anything about chalkboard contact paper, but they do make chalkboard paint, and magnetic paint too, which is cool, 'cause you can apply the magnetic paint, and then paint over it with a coloured paint or chalkboard paint...and it's still magnetic!

awwww! it warms my heart to think of bustie cats from miles away smelling each other and as always george is gorgeous, check out the sleek coat and the way the light catches it.. (i totally sweat your cat doodle)

doodle, i showed a friend of mine your website who is looking to re-do her countertops inexpensively, she was really impressed. i've got to find melamine paint around here. i'm also thinking about getting a stainless steel cover to go over my existing counters -i saw it in do-it-yourself magazine a year or two ago. the main thing is that you measure exactly, especially the hole for the sink. there's a metal shop down the road from me and i'm thinking of checking how much it would cost, i don't have much counter so i'm crossing my fingers. copper would look amazing too, but again i'd have to check the cost. if it's affordable i'd probably have them do the measurements.

but first things first, i'm going to tackle the first part of fixing the bathroom tonight. i found faux stainless steel contact paper that i'm going to do the inside of the cabinets with and then do the mirror back in chalkboard contact paper when it arrives- i found it online. the mr. likes the idea a lot. it would help us remember things in the morning since every day before leaving the house we open the cabinet to get the toothpaste.

hey there amilita *waves back*

oh, i forgot to add, the mr. & i celebrated our 4th anniversary and as is our custom we made each other gifts and he welded me the coolest sculpture with gears, barbed wire, and a curved heart. i have to take a pic and post it, it totally rocks. (i sewed him a organizer for his jeep plus made him homemade fudge, it came out super yummy and was sooo easy)

I have some magnetic paint that I bought when we moved last summer because I was going to make a magnetic poetry board (paint a piece of plywood, put it in a cheesy gilded frame and hang on the wall, that way it's not permanant to the condo.) But it got sidetracked because I was going to paint the board when I painted the rest of the house, and all the iron particles in the can had sunk to the bottom and it was unuseable. I meant to take it back to the paint place and have them put it in the agitator, but with the hassle of moving, I never did it. Someday I'll get around to it.

crassy, thanks for letting me know your friend was impressed! It's always cool to think how the internet lets us share our lives with complete strangers, isn't it?

I wonder about using copper for a counter...isn't it softer than steel? I'm not sure, so don't quote me at all on that. But steel would be a wonderful work surface.

I'm totally tickled by the idea of making your anniversary gifts!

polly, if you turned the can upside down for a few days, and then tried to stir it up, would that help? I do this with some of my paints and varnishes.

I sure wish I could afford some new padding for this chair at the moment, so I could get to work with amilita's gorgeous fabric! Sadly, my income is reduced this month due to some changes in the way the contract part of my income is paid. I'll get the money, but not till mid-October, and I'm brokity-broke. Bah. I wish I hadn't gone ahead and bought that paint, actually, 'cause it's eaten into my grocery budget, but I wasn't expecting the delay in income. Oh well. Since I have the paint, maybe I'll start on the bedroom this weekend. In my usual, meandering, one-wall-at-a-time sort of way.

My favorite bar (blush) has copper counters. They dent easily. Which adds to the charm, if you have the right decor. If you want something that will tend to stay pristine, go with the stainless. If you want something that will glow and get dented and just sort of a distressed look, I love the copper.

Copper does happen to be at like an all time high as far as price goes right now, though.

It is way cool that Doodle and Amilita's kitties have a bond now. Well, at least, Doodle's has a bond. Oh, well.

Home-made anniversary gifts ROCK. Wish I could get my guy to hand-make something. He's not bad at gift giving though. Better than one of my ex-partners...who'd just toss a $20.00 bill at me and tell me, "go buy something"...

I want to see a picture of that sculpture! I love stuff like that!

I think I tried that Doodle...this stuff won't budge. It's like this solid goopy mass.

Oh, that's too bad, polly. I guess the shaker machine is the only option!

Yeah, that's what I wondered about the copper, treehugger...I wonder...I'd think that maybe a kitchen counter takes a whole different kind of abuse than a bar counter....I wonder how well it would stand up at all?

So...yep, I think I'm gonna start scraping and patching the bedroom walls this weekend. I think I could probably get one wall done - we'll see, though; I'm pretty burned out from the last couple of weeks of work, and I have so much laundry to do that I've actually just run out of clean underwear! OOPS! Hmm....I should probably go wash some out....

TMI, I know.

Is anybody else working on any fall decorating projects?

ETA: forgot to add....doodlemama bought me a couple of those globe-shaped paper shades at IKEA and sent them up so I could use them in my bedroom. (I had bought the hanging cord sets when I was in Vancouver, but the shades weren't in stock.) They just arrived on Monday. The weirdest thing? On Sunday night, I broke my bedside lamp....isn't that serendipitious timing? (I'm not very sad about the lamp. It was way too big for the night stand, plus I've had it for 17 years so it's done its service. I'm a little pissed about paying for a new lampshade that's now totally useless, though!) There's 2 shades/cord sets, so I think I might end up hanging one on each side of the bed, and moving the macrame thing in amongst the plants.

Hmmm....also....I'm thinking I might do something to the top of the nightstand and the drawer knobs similar to what I did to the mirror, only in purple metallics over a black base. It's smooth wood, not carved-looking like the mirror, but I think it still might look cool. The nightstand is a little three-drawer thing, with reddish-stained top and knobs, and forest green-stained sides and drawer fronts. I don't like the red anymore, but I'd keep the green. What do y'all think? Too weird?

Well, I don't think you'd want to use copper as a cutting board...and I know sometimes when I'm in a hurry it's tempting to cut things right on a counter (I don't, by the way), but with a metal-ish counter it'd be even more tempting. Also a thing to think about...copper gets a patina over time and I'm not sure you'd want to do things like knead dough on it because I think it could maybe discolor dough. But maybe not.

I work with copper piping a lot and I notice that it discolors my hands and copper also deposits sort of a funky smell on my hands too. But that's after a whole day of working closely with it.

Doodlebug, I have always loved purple and green together. They seem to compliment each other nicely. Go for it!!

re: fall decorating projects. I SO wish I had a scanner because I'm shamelessly trying to copy a room in a decorating book I have. It might be worth getting one just so I could post this picture!!!! Would that be legal, even?

Anyway, if you happen to have the book or are dying of curiosity, it's the room on pages 58 and 59 of this book: Christopher Lowell's "you can do it!" small spaces.

It's a bedroom that's really tropical in feel. Over the bed, they've hung bamboo in a criss-cross sort of lattice pattern, tied with rope and suspended from the ceiling. At the head of the bed, where a window is (and this is exactly the layout of my bedroom), they've hung a sheer-ish tabtop curtain from the bamboo pieces where they stick out toward the wall. There's a miniblind behind it so it sort of makes a varigated light through it. (I also have a miniblind in this window). On each side of the bed, an Ikea lattice storage box, 18 inches square, to act as night-tables. And in each corner, Kentia palms with, I believe, uplights. There's a paper lantern sort of like what Doodlebug described, but this is more of a cylinder than a globe, hanging from the bamboo over the bed for lighting.

The only thing that might screw me up is I have a ceiling fan in there too. But I think if I put the palm-type blades on it and maybe lower it a smidge it will work. It'd end up being underneath the bamboo lattice.

I've ordered the Ikea boxes and they should be here in a week. I'm still sort of casually, at this point, trying to find the bamboo! The pieces need to be five and six feet long so I obviously don't want to order them online and have them shipped.

Anyway, that's my dream room. I've just described a small portion of it.

I know I'm being terribly unoriginal by blatantly copying this room...but when I saw it in the book, my heart skipped a beat and I even stopped breathing momentarily. The room's even got the same basic layout as mine! It's definitely intended to be my room! Decorating porn, indeed!

(even though it sounds like I had a neardeath experience, doesn't it?)

Hi all. Sorry I have not been around to cheer everyone else on in their home improvement and decorating endeavors. An out of town funeral, a garage sale, being in a wedding, overtime at work, and getting ready for the second floor addition have not left me with much time... but it's the second floor addition that has brought me here. It's OMG HAPPENING. Very freaky to have my house torn apart - and in two days the attic and roof are pretty much gone except in the front. I'm finding it's very weird on a territorial, primal kind of level, but that might just be the Taurus in me.

polly, i have a sears in my neighborhood and the guy at the paint counter was happy to shake up a can of home depot brand paint no questions asked.

doodle, my friend's exact quote about your website was: "this is a brillaint job and it gives me faith that i can do something on a budget" you really should have a show on hgtv. i wish they had 'design star' in canada. oh, and purple metallic over a black base sounds really cool with dark green and so do the new paper lanterns. your mom rocks!

yeah, i've got to get a picture of the mr's gift. it's beautiful (of course i'm biased) he even etched the date and a love note on the bottom.

i love the look of copper (and would love it to look beat up and tarnished), but i cannot afford it anyway. in fact, i got a couple of rough quotes on the job i want to do and can't even afford stainless steel right now. so i'm thinking of tiling the counter and backsplash. i'd love it to look like this or this my counter right now is so ooogly that i don't really do much directly on it, to knead dough i put wax paper over it, etc. this pic is blurry but here's the color of the cabinets which i thought would look better but copper. i used to hate the color but now i'm liking it more. see that little yellow patch behind the fridge and microwave? that's the color yellow i want to paint (i have a bunch of little chips taped together there). the actual color (if you're so inclined to look it up in the behr website- i tried to use a link but you can't do that from the 'color smart' site.) is bicycle yellow and i want to use firecraker (red) as the trim and do the floor in black & white checker board tiles.

treehugger, i can't picture the room but from what you describe it sounds really cool, like and island escape. i don't think there's anything wrong w/copying a book, they even have a whole show on hgtv about how to 'get the look' of an expensive designer room.

wow amy, that sounds like a serious project! what are you having done?

treehugger, I never thought about that re: the discolouration and smell...though it seems to me you can have copper sealed when you are using it for things like this...I think I once saw Debbie Travis use it for a table top or something....

treehugger, that sounds almost like my room! I think you can get bamboo fencing at a garden centre or hardware store, which would resemble a trellis-type thingie. Otherwise, hit up a garden centre for the individual pieces of bamboo. I've seen it at places like Home Depot...or was it Home Hardware...? Anyway, in the garden part. Sometimes they only have the skinny pieces left, but they do try to stock the nice big pieces as well.

Hey, speaking of my room, I moved that little green cabinet in there last night, and it actually fits perfectly! Who knew? So it will have the "Eve and Friends" painting over top of it after I paint. (This is in the spot where I hung that tropical fabric temporarily.)

treehugger, what colours are you doing your room?

amy, WOW! What a big thing to deal with it! I have a Taurus moon, and I think it would drive me batshit to have my home torn apart. I had a flood once from a burst heating pipe, which left me encamped in the entire front half of the apartment for three weeks while they dried it out and did the repairs and clean up - it just about made me crazy!!

crassy, that's too bad about the cost. I was thinking of tiles, though. The only caveat I can think of is that the grout can get stained from some of the dyes used in foods, so you have to be a little careful with that. But if you used a dark grout, it would be ok. (I grew up in an apartment with yellow-tiled kitchen counters.) That's a great colour! My mom did her cabinets almost the same colour, but with white borders and a slim line of blue in between the white and yellow...it looks cool!

Please thank your friend for the compliments! Yeah, I almost think I should write a book on REALLY budget decorating! I mean, I'm just as decorating obsessed as anyone, and probably moreso, but it astounds me how much some folks spend. It's so unrealistic, and when people spend so much, they so often end up with something that looks like what everybody else has. I can't figure out if they're just afraid to be different, or if they really and truly can't think outside that narrow framework towards adaptability. I wish I could have a TV show, too! But then the advertisers wouldn't be able to sell products, 'cause I'd be sending everyone "curbside shopping." I'd actually like to turn my web space into something of that sort, but I don't have the money for it right now. I might have to take down my pics, soon, actually, unless I figure out a way to get free, accessible storage space for them...space that has no strings attached (i.e., ads or remote image bans). But I'd like to do something bigger, eventually, where I could highlight all the projects and give details on how they were done, so other people could try.

Well, it looks like I might have to travel out of town on Sunday, for an overnight trip, so that puts the ki-bosh on my painting plans. Maybe I'll focus on those small projects, like hanging the lamps and painting the nightstand. I still need to do laundry, too...desperately. Maybe I can at least get a start on scraping the bubbly bits on the walls, and filling some of the holes. *sigh*

Doodlebug, this is actually a picture of my living room but my bedroom wall color is the same:

My bedding is a pretty dramatic shiny-ish striped duvet with reds, purples, and tannish-yellows.




I actually would have copper countertops, myself. I'd get myself one of those big marble boards for kneading stuff and I do think that the patina it'd develop indoors would sort of seal it. It doesn't get that green patina inside, and I wouldn't want it to, because THAT definitely sloughs off and would stain things. But indoors, think of the difference between a new penny and an old one.

And I can see copper countertops, for sure, in your house, Crassy. I'm not sure about stainless steel..

Barring that, I think tile would look great and stay in keeping with the age and style of your house.

My old shack had LINOLEUM countertops.

In this house, that I'm in now, for countertops, I'd love a concrete one or engineered stone.

Wow, Amy! It must sort of look unsettling, from the outside! I feel your pain about the inside mess...I was renovating my old shack and I lived in a construction zone for FIVE years, almost. It nearly drove me insane. Hopefully yours goes quicker. (I was doing mine completely by myself and only worked on it during the weekends. Too big of a project to take on, for me)

I am going to force the boy to go on a bamboo-finding mission with me this weekend. He is totally against the idea of the bamboo, by the way. To quote him, "Why can't you just do something normal? Like, a box over the top of the window and balloon curtains underneath? You are so over the top, sometimes..."

Oh, well, it's MY room and MY mortgage and HE doesn't live here. And I know he'll help me, shaking his head the whole time. Such a sweetheart.

Hee...funny you mention pennies, treehugger....all I keep thinking about copper counters right this minute is...when I used to work in retail, counting the copper pennies made my teeth feel all weird, I dunno, I think it was reacting with the fillings. I can't imagine what would happen with a big copper counter underneath my hands all the time!! I wonder...would that affect fillings in the same way?

Those are great colours!

How are balloon curtains normal? They're usually ugly, fussy, dust-collectors, favoured by "ladies" who like chintz and pink florals and collect Royal Doulton figurines and plates painted with scenes from Gone With the Wind.

Ok, I'm projecting here. That's my stepgrandmother.

I am working on painting a metallic mosaic on a wooden tray, for a friend I'm going to see on my sudden trip. I've got the mosaic done, just have to varnish it. Hopefully it won't still smell by the time I get on the plane Sunday morning!

Hi
Anybody get any ideas for room dividers? I was thinking about useing a bead curtain and hanging it from the celling. I was looking at all my stuff and I have a lot of retro and Kitsch looking stuff ( I love anything from the 50's are early). Anyway anybody got any ideas?

thanks again

Hey lunia! If you scroll down on this page of mine, you can see a room divider I made for my living room out of floating picture frames and hardware hooks/eyes. If you're interested, I can tell you how to do it - it isn't hard, and the only tools you need are something to make pilot holes, either a drill or a hammer and a nail!

I've also seen folks suspend old windows from the ceiling for a similar effect - it looks great, and I see old windows in 2nd hand stores all the time. That was actually my original plan until I decided to DIY it with floating frames for a "mod" effect.

You could use empty picture frames too, in a similar way.

Bead curtains are also cool - if you want a really big one, I've seen cheaper bead curtains at dollar stores, although the beads are plastic, so it might not look as nice as a more expensive one.

Similarly, you could hang lengths of ribbon, rope, or plumbing chain (the stuff that's like tiny attached metal beads) from a pole, just to be a little different!

Or you could cut discs (any size, big, small - bigger would be easier) out of plastic or heavy cardboard, paint them, punch holes in the top and bottom, and string them together with nylon filament, with however much space/filament in between the discs as suits you. Do a few strings of discs, hang them from a pole, and you've got a funky, mod divider and mobile. If you've got a bit more to spend, you could do balsa wood or old 45s (vinyl single records). Or, again, if you've can afford it, buy a bunch of inexpensive wooden embroidery hoops, throw away the outside part (or reuse them in another project) and hang the wooden inner hoops instead of discs (no hole-punching required!), for a slightly more "sophisticated" mod effect. If you attach the hoops or discs to each other across the width, as well as up and down, then it will be less a "mobile" and will hang flat.

I've also seen a room divided with a bit of an alternate to curtains, where the person hung fabric banners from the ceiling - you'd sew a pocket across the width in the top and bottom of the fabric, and insert a pole or a 1X1 in each pocket. You can use skinny strips of fabric or wider ones, and hang them straight across, or layer them one in front of the other. You can hang them together or overlapping, or you can leave a space in between.

Bifold doors (the kind for closets) can be bought at hardware stores, and if you hinge two bifold doors together, you have a nifty folding divider.

Plants also make good room dividers...I used to have a ficus where the green square chair is now. If you want it bigger, you could do a couple hanging, and a couple in troughs of stands underneath. I seem to remember once seeing a long trough filled with a climbing vine, and there was a tall trellis in the middle, which the plant climbed up...that was used to divide a dining room from a living room, if I recall.

You can also use a row of matching bookcases as a room divider - if you're trying to create a separate "room," you can use tall ones, but low ones look better in a smaller space, because they don't interrupt the visual flow of the space.

You can also use a sofa to divide a room like this - even better, a sofa backed by low bookcases! I've actually got my room divided by the sofa on one side, and the divider plus a chair, a cat treehouse, and my desk on the other!

Ok, that's my thoughts....anyone else got some ideas?

Lunia, I've used those rollup matchstick bamboo blinds as room dividers too...sort of a funky polynesian theme. I suspended them from the ceiling. Although I don't know if it'd go with fifties kitsch.

A pretty cool room divider I also saw, was like a bead curtain but instead of beads, the curtains had shells. I'm not sure how they were attached, though.

That's a great idea, too, treehugger!

I think the whole "polynesian look" as a decor theme* is kind of late-'40s and '50s-based anyway - I think it originated after WWII, when service people coming home from the South Pacific brought the "Tiki" style into suburban rec rooms around North America. (How the fuck do I know this stuff? Damn.) Which makes me think, just about anything you can suspend would be a really funky room divider! Tie Asian fans together, or palm fans, or pieces of bamboo, or anything of that nature. Or kitschy coasters!

*Leaving aside the British colonial interpretation of North Asian and South Asian style

I didn't get to my projects this weekend, as I have a 9 am flight tomorrow, and tons of laundry to do, plus I wanted to finish this mosaic-painted tray for my friend, who's picking me up at the airport. It's looking cool, though. I'll try and get a pic before I go!

The only other "decor"-related thing I'm doing this weekend is finally switching over to the dark purple sheets from the lilac ones, because I've been saving them for cooler weather.

I want my bloody life back!! Dammit. Stupid work.

We are having a partial second floor built onto our very small one story house. There will be a good sized master bedroom, another bathroom, and two small bedrooms. Also we're knocking out the wall on the first floor between the small kitchen and tiny bedroom to make a bigger kitchen.

Is it expensive and nervewracking? Hell yes. Exciting despite that? OH HELL YES.

Amy, how exciting!! I'd love to see pictures, before and after!!!

You know, doodlebug, I was reading back, and I realized, I didn't explain my room very well. The bamboo lattice is actually going to hang horizontally over my bed, like a canopy. Like the top of a pergola. And then, where the sticks, stick out toward the wall at the head of the bed, I'm suspending a tab-top curtain.

Ahem.

This is not as easy as it sounds.

I found bamboo today and have spent the last three hours laying them out in a criss-cross pattern, using cable ties for now to anchor them, and getting the spacing right and everything before I actually take rope and lash the whole works together.

I have blisters forming on my fingers from pulling the zip-ties. Hee. The boy was over this afternoon and was just sort of shaking his head. He'd pick up my picture of my room and sort of get that whole "here she goes again" look on his face....complete with eye-rolling.

Anyway, right now I have the bamboo lattice thingy laying on the floor of my loft with the tab top curtain hanging off it... (was important to make sure it will hang right with the spacing of the rows)...

I'm done for the evening. Time for a beer.

Hey all, here's a website I just discovered: The Fix Chicks! For women DIYers, BY women DIYers!!! YAY!

treehugger, I think I got the bit about the bamboo lattice hanging horizontally....I was just thinking a piece of pre-fab bamboo fencing might work. Anyway, glad to hear it's coming together, although sorry to hear that blisters are involved. I know the feeling!

Yer boy is no fun at all. Where's his sense of adventure?

amy, how long will the addition take to complete? Hopefully before bad weather comes! Or do you get bad winter weather where you are? (If I were talking to any Canadian, it would be a given!! Heh.)

Ohh, okay. Sorry, Doodlebug. I had just, when you posted the link to your bedroom, noticed (remembered, really) that you had the vertical bamboo headboard thingy. I then went back and re-read my post and realized that it could be read either way.

I wonder if Wisconsin is just boooring because I've never seen pre-fab bamboo fencing? I've actually never seen bamboo fencing at all, with the possible exception of cheesy tiki-flicks on old television.

Anyway, yeah. Sore fingers. Partially because I assembled the whole thing like three times before I realized that the end spacing ultimately depended on the curtain, not the bed size or the window size! D'Oh! I had a hundred cable ties and used EVERY one of them. The hardest part is cutting them all off using a scissors when you realize you've got the spacing wrong....

What IS it about men and decorating adventure? I'm sooo glad I'm the homeowner here! Another reason to not live with anybody...at least I think Mojo likes a bit of flair. The boy DID perk up at the suggestion that mirrors could be laid horizontally over the top of the bamboo...

I better make sure the supports are nicely into joists.

Well, I'm not sure you'll read this before your flight...but just in case you DO, have a good, safe flight.

treehugger- I'm in WI too and it must be too boring because I've never seen it either!

Hi GiGi!!!

So I got the bamboo up today. And the boy was helpful. I got rid of the bed's headboard to make it look more "platform-ey" and he promptly went to the hardware store to get some drawer pulls to mount to the walls...

(he's got a bit of a bondage-dungeon fetish)...

But I was glad he seems to be helping and not totally grumpy about my new room!

It still looks a bit "undone" but that should change when I get the palms and other things in there.

the new issue of readymade has a whole ton of "small space living solutions" and they all involve making your closet into something else--an office or a bedroom or whatnot. i got so excited, but i don't actually have a closet! i have a small area before my bathroom where i keep all my clothes, and i suppose i could turn that into a studio/office......but then i'd have to find another place to keep my clothes, and that kind of defeats the purpose.

treehugger, i love your living room! it's very big and i like the colors. what color is the paint (do you know the brand/color name)? it really brings out the wood and that's close to the color of my floors, baseboard, and doors, and i'm thinking green for my hall. i also think copper countertops would look really cool in my place, i just cannot afford them. maybe someday... if i went w/stainless steel i was thinking about painting the cabinets avocado green.

lunia, i saw these things in target a little while ago, they were like a bead curtain only they were little blue and green translucent rectangles w/holes in the center- they were like retro tv shaped. anyway, i think they were w/the college decor stuff so hopefully they'll still be there. also, i seem to recall pier one having this mesh thing divider that kinda looked like chainmail. i like doodle's idea of ribbon. my friend works at 10,000 villages -i don't know if you have one near you but they have this pretty hot pink/ mother of pearl shell thing that looks fabulous in her house as a divider.

amy, oooh a bigger master bedroom & kitchen. i would looooove that. especially the bigger kitchen, i hate the size of mine. but i guess it's less to have to clean. when will they be done.

from your earlier description i sort of knew it was a canopy treehugger, i'd love to see the before & after pics, it sounds really cool. and i bet once the boy sees the finished project he'll totally 'get it!'

cool site doodle! hope your trip is safe/goes well. would love to see that tray if you get a pic.

i'm loving this month's issue of do it yourself that i got yesterday, it has an article on 'how to paint anything'. plus some nice ideas and pics.

ok, so i did a lot of work over the weekend and i'm super frustrated. never ever use this stuff. it stained my frikkin' original 1920's tiles!!!! and i could kick myself for not trying it out on a test area first, i did it on the whole bathroom --every frikkin' tile! then i had to scrub for hours w/all kinds of products that gave me a major headache even though the window was open and i put a fan in backwards to suck out the air. and i'm only half done-- the tiles look better but only because i scrubbed for hours, i was trying to find a quicker solution, i could have just done some scrubbing and had the same results. i'm so pissed some of it came off but not all of it. argh. i left a message for customer service for help and they never called back! bastids!

Just a quick driveby...the paint color is Benjamin Moore's "Mill Springs Blue". It's actually more of an aqua than a blue though.

I have it in sort of a north western exposure. I love it in all lights. It's very peaceful.

Will be back to post more, probably tomorrow morning or later tonight.

OMG.

I'm watching My First Place on HGTV right now and they're giving this woman, (young and single) a TWIN BED. Not only is that tiny and uncomfortable, but what is she going to do when she wants to bring home a date? "Oh sorry, we can't go to my house, I have a TWIN BED."
The room it's in is huge too. Why? Why?????

Maybe I'm the only one bothered by this.

Anyway, I'm watching the show because it looks like Ben and I are about to buy our first place. I'm nervous as hell but totally jazzed to decorate and personalize for the first time. I've never been able to paint any room I've been in. The thought that we can is so thrilling. Our house is totally going to have a silly decor style. I want the front porch to look like a gypsy wagon (if that makes sense) a 50's kitchen, Ben wants a retro modern living room and we both want an eletric blue bedroom. Talk about design flow.

Zora, congrats on the imminent house purchase!!! I know it's nerve-wracking but it's a great investment. You'll get a nicer tax refund, at least. (most likely).

Strange about the single bed. It's almost like they are denying that young, single women MIGHT want to have sex, eh? It reminds me of when I had MY first place..I left a bad relationship and had basically nothing and I couldn't afford a bed for almost a year. I slept on a CAMPING COT. It didn't hold up well to sex.

You're in the right place, Zora...and we want PICTURES!!

-speaking of which, I never did take any "before" pics of my bedroom--bad me...

crassy, just out of curiosity, how much DOES copper cost, linear foot-wise? I don't know why it's so high right now. Perhaps when there is no more war the price will go down? Hopefully.

The bedroom looks...unfinished. And I think the ceiling fan is going to pose a problem. I can't bring the canopy down low enough to sort of make it feel connected to the bed. I might need to trail something off each side of it...vines or something, I don't know what. Suggestions? If I bring the ceiling fan much lower it'll be sort of a head knocker. I suppose I could remove the lights on it...

Or maybe raise the bed up higher to it. I took it off the frame because my headboard and footboard didn't really fit in the whole bamboo/zen theme. It's more of an older cottage-ey ensemble which suited my last house better. I think it'd go well in your house, actually, Crassy. Anyway the bed is sort of low-ish now sitting right on the floor. But, according to the dimensions of the night tables I'm getting from Ikea, they're only 18 inches tall so the bed sort of needs to be low.

Doesn't it?

I do think it will look better once I get some other furniture in there. I need really tall palms, I think.

**grumble grumble** they tried to deliver my night tables on Friday and I wasn't home so they left a slip saying they were going to re-attempt on Monday which was yesterday and there's only somebody at the office to claim packages on Mondays so I thought it would be cool. But apparently it wasn't delivered yesterday. I'm going to have to drive down to the UPS branch near me to pick it up, I just know it.

I really wish they'd deliver packages during the weekends when more people'd be home. I'd pay an extra surcharge for Saturday or Sunday delivery.

Crassy, what about copper tiles? I wonder if that'd be cheaper?

Oh, and OMG!!! I used that stuff once!! I had completely blocked it out of my mind until you posted about it!!! Horrible stuff! I'm not sure I ever got it all off. Hopefully you can get some help from the company. Did you try "goof off"? Or maybe graffiti remover?

I sort of vaguely remember scraping it off with a putty knife.

Wow, I was all over the place with this post. I think I made my coffee too strong this morning.

Hello all! I just got back very late last night, and haven't had a chance to read yet, but I will catch up today!

Tooled around Victoria, BC, with a friend on Sunday, and saw some very, very cool decor and antique shops. I fell in love with this one store called Chintz & Company, which isn't necessarily what the name implies. Lots of different styles, not just "old-fashioned" stuff. Lots of it was very expensive, though there's stuff from all price ranges, and beautiful...full of furniture, accessories, tableware, and a huge, huge selection of upholstery fabric...well, here is a link, but the website doesn't even show 1/4 of all that they have. We spent 3 hours in there, and I was disappointed that it was over when we came to the end of the store!

I've actually decided I'm going there when I'm ready to re-cover my couch and chairs (well, there's one in Vancouver, so I'll try that one first). They had exactly what I wanted - a beautiful pear-green microfibre (ultrasuede), and tons of coordinating fabrics that I could use on one or both of the chairs. Can't find anything like that in my rotten little town, even though upholstery fabrics run the same prices.

There was this one section - treehugger, you'd love it too - where they set up a bunch of outdoor furniture and accessories and huge tropical plants, but because it was inside, it made me wonder what it would look like to do indoors....so now I'm trying to figure out how to re-create this amazing indoor tropical garden theme! (Since I seem to be sort of going there already, anyway.) They had the funkiest sun umbrellas I've ever seen...I'm trying to figure out if I can erect one indoors! Heh. Or if I could put up a canopy in my living room, or something to that effect. I dunno....maybe that would be starting to cross the line between "funky" and "insanely overboard."

And also one thing I absolutely must have, wish I'd bought them, were these vinyl placemats in the shape of leaves from a giant split-leaf plant. Awesome! I didn't even look at the price, 'cause I had no extra spending money this trip, but I sent my friend back to check, and to buy them if they aren't too much.

Also - though I could never afford it ($400 each) - they had used these blue/green glazed ceramic/pottery (or whatever they are) Chinese garden stools as end tables. I need to figure out some cheaper option though, because I LOVE the idea - so beautiful and gardeny and perfect for my space. *sigh*

What the hell, maybe I SHOULD just go totally overboard and have my indoor garden! I'm already halfway there...

Ok, back in a bit!

(ETA: how funny is it that my first 2 posts "reporting back" to the Lounge after a trip were in the Okay thread and the decorating thread?? HEE!)

Ok y'all, I finally made it back in here!

treehugger and gigi, maybe bamboo stuff is just more common here on the West Coast, as are tons and tons of Asian imports...Zen gardens are hugely popular, especially down in Vancouver.

treehugger, I am really dying to see pics of your bamboo thing! REALLY! So if you've got pics, please post 'em, even if it looks "undone." Post some pics of your "problem"...and maybe we can help figure it out? I don't think your bed needs to be as low as your tables - I really wouldn't buy into that idea that they "have" to be the same height if it doesn't work for you. You could always try living with the higher bed and lower tables, and if you find you don't like it, then you could always raise up the end tables by building up the legs or adding casters or something, rather than lowering the bed. (It "helps" that having fibromyalgia gives me no choice, but I've decided I've hit the age where I'm too old to get up out of a low bed every morning! Heh.) Your living room is gorgeous, btw....I think I remember you showing that pic once before. I really like it! The colours are wonderful. Yes, that's very annoying about UPS...I like the idea of paying a "weekend delivery" charge, I wish they'd all do that! I'd totally pay it, too!

mouse, what about making an office-type space out of pre-fab cabinets and stuff, like the kind from Ikea? You could do it against one wall, all the way up, so it just looks like a built in....then you can close it up when you want it to "disappear." Plus it wouldn't take up much floor space. I've often thought about doing something like that myself for an office/studio space. Or you could use the closet as an office and then buy a wardrobe for your clothes. I agree, though...all those suggestions that say turn your closet into an office sort of rely on the expectation that you have a LOT of closets or other storage.

crassy, that's the shits that stuff was such a pain. I read something once about using diluted bleach in a spray bottle and a toothbrush to whiten the grout....I started on the tile above the bathtub, but I only ever got one wall done before I got tired and gave up!! If you're going to do stainless counters, what about a slightly brighter/lighter green, maybe pear green? (I'm all about the pear green right now!!)

Ooh, to follow up on the copper tile idea treehugger had, I saw Debbie Travis paint some tiles to LOOK like hammered copper once...maybe you could do that? Much cheaper! I'll bet the instructions are in one of her books or websites...

zora, that's very exciting about buying a place! There's a great Canadian show for first time homebuyers who don't have lots of money to decorate, called Home to Stay....it's the same guy who did Home to Go. I don't know if you get it in the U.S., but it's on our HGTV, so it should be on yours. Here's the show's page, and they've got project plans posted there.



OH! After visiting an atrium with giant-sized tropical plants, I think I may have decided what to do with that purple paint in my bedroom....tell me if this is weird....I want to paint "shadow shapes" of a climbing monstera plant up the wall somewhere, maybe in a corner, or else on the closet doors (or both!). I might lighten the purple up with a bit of white, though, and make it a touch less dark. Anyway, it would be purple leaves against a green wall. Is this cool or nuts?

Also, on the canopy front (this is also why I want to see pics of treehugger's room!)....I've been thinking about it today, and I think maybe I could do something suspended over the couch/chair part of my living room, that would make it feel a bit like an arbour or pergola....maybe bamboo, or maybe a rectangular piece of lattice trellis. I've got a feeling that just doing something to the ceiling would increase the garden-like intimacy. I think I'd leave it plain, but then again, I might twine some kind of silk plant vine around it, or suspend some kind of silk hanging plants, or something. I was thinking maybe of doing something similar in the bedroom and twining it with mini-lights, or else suspending paper globe lights through the open parts, either of which would work from the ceiling fixture (you can buy those electrical plugs that screw into the light bulb sockets). What does everyone else think? Would I be going way too far over the "theme" line?

Just a quick drive by...I'll try to post some pictures tonight. I actually was walking past the room and stopped to look at it and I think I figured out the problem. The tab-top curtain in there is the ONLY white thing in there. (it was white in the other room so that's what I got, not taking into consideration my considerably more colorful bedding).

I think I need a different curtain, one with the same or similar colors as my bedding. Let me know, when I post the pics tonight.

Doodlebug, I love the idea about the shadow painting of the plant!

And you know *I* won't say a trellis suspended from the ceiling is over the top!

Hi again

What do yall think about these end tables ( not buying from ebay my mother has a pair in could shape) ?

thanks again for all the ideas for the room .



Hi again

What do yall think about these end tables ( not buying from ebay my mother has a pair in could shape) ?

thanks again for all the ideas for the room .

http://cgi.ebay.com/50s-60s-Mid-Century-Mo...1QQcmdZViewItem