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March 22, 2005

There Is Less to Say.

First off, as much as I despise it when other bloggers do this, I must apologize for my sporadic posting lately. I'm still here, and I'm still problem solving for myself and for others. I'm just not writing about it. Why is that, you might ask?

Well, I don't really want to make this a personal blog in any way, but there has been a pretty dramatic change in my living situation, and this change affects Apartmentalist whether I like it or not. My now ex-boyfriend and I are amicably parting ways, and I guess I've been pretty preoccupied with all of the implications of that, and the impact it will have on my life and my home. It's not all bad. This bend in the road gives me all sorts of new challenges to conquer. And closet space to fill. And even some new furniture/art/etc. to make and acquire.

So I'm keeping the apartment, and he's moving out this coming weekend.

After the dust settles, I'll have lots to say about the evolution of the apartment from ours to mine, living alone, and oh god, more low-budget discussions than ever before.

Thanks for sticking around.

Posted by Lara at 10:07 PM | Comments (4)

March 12, 2005

Wall of Sound.

dear apartmentalist,

i just moved in to a new apartment that i am sharing with an old work friend. the layout of our apartment is such that there is one common wall between our rooms, and a thin one at that. there is also a door on that wall that stays shut, but is very uninsulated. my question is: is there a good way to make an attractive insulator to to help with the noise between the two rooms?

thanks for any advice.

—eric

Hi Eric,

It's hard to say without seeing the space, but my initial response is to be sure to get an area rug, as that will absorb a lot of sound and prevent it from traveling through the wall. Can the room fit a small upholstered chair or bench? The more soft surfaces you have in the space, the better it will prevent sound from bouncing off the walls and floors and escaping. Think of other ways to absorb sound on that shared wall... Can it be padded and covered with fabric-as-wallpaper without causing a fire hazard? Can you hang a painted canvas? Can you place other furniture along that wall to add additional noise-barriers?

If the always-closed door is thin, I would cover that space or fill it with furniture or some sort of soft art. I've heard of people building shelves in permanently-closed door frames. This is great if the frame is deep enough to hold shelves at least 4" or 5" deep. Simple brackets on either side of the frame will hold nicely.

If you don't mind the clutter, you could also use over-the-door hooks and hang your coats and jackets on your side to catch some sound.

But then you have the additional concern of blocking out your roommate's noise. To that end, white noise CDs and machines are fantastic, and can be found rather inexpensively here, here, and here. If you're able to splurge, I really like the look of this.

Good luck with the new place, and thanks for reading.

Ask Apartmentalist is a weekly advice column. It'll appear here every Friday (or late Saturday, as was the case this week). Do you have a question about crafts, decorating, or your living space? Email Lara@apartmentalist.com.

Posted by Lara at 10:32 PM | Comments (3)

March 07, 2005

Winners Never Quit.

We loved the place from the start -- tons of palms and yuccas in the courtyard, crazy married resident managers, 50s bright blue tile and checkerboard flooring in the kitchen... And lots of white walls and no furniture.

This is actually my second apartment (had one in college), but the first one I could paint and really make into a home. And since I'm a nest-er to the nth degree, the idea of a paintbrush and some red paint was heaven.

We painted all the walls in Classic Taupe by Behr -- except for one accent wall in the dining area, which got covered in California Poppy. Rrrred. That alone warmed the place up completely and made us feel like grown-ups.

The furniture was from the old apartment -- with a couple exceptions. We got a floorlamp from Ikea, but thought it was a little too sleek for the retro/vintage theme we had going on. Solution? Some $4 trim from Michael's and some Elmer's glue. I glued it in vertical stripes around each section of the lamp and instantly it went from something cold and mass-produced into something unique and fun to look at.

I repeated it again with our chandelier -- three cheap lampshades and some more trim made a nice echo in the dining area.

My coffee tables were from Pier One Clearance -- and they looked kinda cheap. I got some gorgeous silk (on clearance, $2 a yard!!!) from JoAnn's Fabrics and just draped it over each. Instantly added some texture and an interesting accent to the mostly-solid fabrics in the rest of the room.

Took your suggestion re: the torchiere lighting! An $8 shade from Target COMPLETELY changed the look of an otherwise yucky lamp. Very grateful to you for that one.

One of the walls was a real problem. It's huge. And tall. And wide. And . . . huge. And we didn't have much to cover it. And even less to spend on frames. Michael's to the rescue. I'd had a box of 6 pin-up prints that I'd received as a Christmas present. I bought some red duct tape and some 39-cents-a-sheet white posterboard, taped the prints down on it, cut them out, and voila. Looks as though there's red matting around each print. And $3 for duct tape for 6 prints is cheaper than any frame I could dream up.

Bordering these prints are some poems I found at Dutton's Brentwood Books on the 99-cent shelf. "Bad Boy Poems." They're hilarious. I took some of my favorites, tore them out, drew cartoon illustrations on them with a black Sharpie, and stuck them in $2 frames I found on sale at Michael's. Dirt cheap and really fun. I love looking at them.

I'd also found a couple of really gorgeous silver frames on sale for $5 each (complete with REAL glass) at Michael's. (Starting to sound like an ad for them, I know.) Took some funny postcards my mom had picked up at a book stall along the Seine when my parents were in Paris last year, stuck them in the frames -- instant character.

And just as a last little thought -- though I haven't taken pictures of it yet -- in my bedroom, I've actually wound up hanging *fabric* shower curtains from Target over my windows instead of drapes. Cheaper, rrrrrrrreally cute, fun pattern, easy to hang.

Anyway, there you have it. All done on a shoestring budget within a 4-month timeframe, but it comes together to create a living space that I'm really proud of. Thanks for reading!!

-Andrea H.
Los Angeles, CA
Grand Prize Winner of the first ever Apartmentalist Impress Me Contest

Thanks to all who submitted, you really blew me away! Andrea's aesthetic isn't all that much like my own, but she stayed 100% true to the spirit of Apartmentalist: brave, stylish ingenuity on a super modest budget. Congratulations and good work, Andrea! You will receive your book soon!

Posted by Lara at 01:34 AM | Comments (5)

March 04, 2005

Yellow Is the Color.

All the decorating advice I've been reading lately (online, no time for bookstores, pathetic) about small spaces keeps suggesting that neutrals, greens and blues open up a space while all the warm colors I like make a room more "intimate." Just because I have smaller rooms, do I really have to sacrifice the colors I love (yellows and reds)? Thanks!
-N

Hi N!

Absolutely not! Brights definitely work in small spaces!

But I say that with a few qualifications. As I've mentioned in past columns, there are no rules about decorating your own home (although there are probably some local laws, if you're thinking of doing a "missile silo" theme). It's one thing if you want to inflict a love of chintz upon a corporate law office, but in your own house, you really can't go wrong. If you love it, it's right. It is all about reflecting your tastes and personality properly, and if soft greens and blues make you want to die of boredom, then please don't use them.

Of the colors you mentioned, yellow is really the most versatile for small spaces of any kind, and red is the most limiting/difficult to use. But I have seen all sorts of bright and warm shades--red and orange and yellow--each used really, really well in a variety of small spaces. (This book has several! Enter my contest and win it! You have seven hours!)

One way to keep from ovewhelming a small space is to cover 2-3 walls with a nice neutral like beige or eggshell, and then smack people in the face with a deep, very sexy accent wall or two. Anchor the room here and there with dark (black or brown) accessories or furniture, too (I find it helps).

If it fits in with your overall aesthetic, in a kitchen or a bathroom you could literally divide all the walls in half horizontally with a chair-rail element (you could make one out of wood molding or with a simple strip of paint-tape, depending on your budget) or bead board (inexpensive painted paneling works here too). Then paint the top-half of the wall a more subdued shade, and then cover the bottom with your favorite vivid shade. Or vice-versa, according to your fancy.

And, say you paint your whole living area orange. Just what exactly is wrong with intimate? Shouldn't your boudoir be intimate? Why not use color bravely?

My only suggestion if you do go this route: go all out. Make sure you LOVE the color and carry its theme and feeling a bit throughout the room. It's a good idea to have more subdued furniture with bright walls, but do make certain the wall color fits in with your stuff. Pick the color up in throw-pillows, in curtains, in candles, in vases, in frames, even in a rug. Don't go monochromatic or anything, just be sure to tie it all together in a way that makes sense to your eye.

A common mistake people make with bright color is to leave it hanging and let the rest of the room just stay blah. You want a sexy, cozy, red bedroom? Do it up right, and accessorize with Eastern elements. Pick a complimentary or contrasting color to set it off throughout the space and to add interest. Go red and white and be inspired by the very chic and mod Target aesthetic.

And hey, if it looks a fright or you get tired of it quickly, you can always paint right over it. Kilz sealer and primer always provides you with a clean, pure slate if it looks like a crime scene or the inside of a pumpkin.

Thanks for reading! And enter the contest!

Ask Apartmentalist is a weekly advice column. It'll appear here every Friday. Do you have a question about crafts, decorating, or your living space? Email Lara@apartmentalist.com.

Posted by Lara at 05:00 PM | Comments (1)

March 01, 2005

On The Wall.

Art is hard to define, and even harder to afford.

Abstract paint smears look great on the walls of the MoMA, but when you try to duplicate them yourself cheaply, often the results look like preschool fingerpainting accidents. Good canvases can be expensive to buy and a hassle to make, and anything less looks too cheap. It's easy enough to blow up a nice photo, but getting it professionally framed and matted costs a ton. And what if all your photos consist of you and your buddies out of focus, drunk in a bar?

How do you do to fill your walls on a budget?

First off: frames.

I frame my own stuff pretty often, using discount frames from Target or Wal-Mart or even Kmart. Look at the document frames! They are cheaper!

Other possible frame discounters include dollar stores (Goldmines! If they are ugly, paint them!), or Garden Place (if ever you visit a suburb). Garden Place even has pre-cut mats in standard sizes, and you can easily assemble the whole thing yourself.

My local craft shop (The Rag Shop, in Brooklyn at 60th Street between 12th and 13th Avenues) has large, reasonably-priced frames and pre-cut mats as well.

The famous Pearl Paint also offers some framing stuff, but it's a bit more expensive there, and the website's selection is way limited and offers no mats. Any plain old art supply store should have a nice selections of pre-cut mats, but it's hit or miss.

You can always try to make your own if you get some large thicker-than-card-stock paper and an exacto knife, but mat-making without the proper professional tools really is an inexact science, and this sort of effort often looks cheap and unprofessional.

Also, a quick Google search uncovers tons of discount frames and matting. Poke around on the web and compare prices. I'm super impressed with a the website of a company called Redimat, a photo mat retailer offering great discounts on bulk orders of 4 or more.

But what to frame?

There are the usual suspects of course:

• Photos of friends, family, or vacation scenery (my personal favorite)

• Artsy postcards

• Posters (movie, advertisements, famous art prints)

• Calendar illustrations

• Maps

• Thrift-store paintings

• Notecard sets (usually one artist's work is featured on up to six different cards, so you can pick favorites or hang the whole series)

Here is a set of Edward Gorey notecards that I have up in my place. (kind of in the background):

Some new ideas:
1. Photo blogs really are everywhere, especially after the advent of sites like Shutterfly, Ofoto, and Flickr. If you see an image on a personal website that strikes your fancy, contact the photographer for a print. Most photobloggers will be flattered and give you a fair price. For example, my absolute favorite photoblog is electric boogaloo. I recently saw this great image there:

I have a thing for birds, so I purchased a print, and I believe it may be destined for my bathroom.

2. Artistic friends are awesome for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is: they make a lot of art. Sometimes they do a study for something that they later simply discard. Ask them to save some for you! Offer to pay what you can. Again, budding/struggling artists will be flattered. In my case, my friend Laura gave me a pastel drawing of a tree in silhouette that I really love (on the left) for my birthday one year:

The photo above the headboard is one I took myself, and I found that frame on super-sale at Urban Outfitters. The mat is nice and unusual, but the glass is really cheap plastic. I can't tell, can you?

3. What else is flat and cool? Behold:

On the left I have a blown-up color-copy of an old horoscope illustration from Jane Magazine, which happens to have been done by my favorite contemporary artist, Michael Gillette. He's amazing, and also illustrates for Dwell Magazine a lot.

On the right, I've got an old inkblotter from some random French primary school. I got it at a David Sedaris book reading, oddly enough, because he decided to clean out his junk drawers and storage space beforehand, and gave away all his weird junk to his fans. I love him, and I love the look of the inkblotter.

I don't have a photo handy, but one of my most prized possessions is an old crappy Xeroxed flyer for a Shins show in my old hometown record store, before they got really huge. I was in attendance, and I fell in love with their songs, and it's a great memory. I've had the flyer framed on my wall ever since.

I also love record album covers on the wall, framed or not.

Can you beat these ideas? I bet you can. So don't forget to about the contest! You've got less than three days to send me anything you've got. Ideas, crafts, photos, even just a few paragraphs of the things you love about your bedroom or your bathroom or your closets, seriously. Just impress me with your enthusuiasm and a very cool book will be your very own!

Again, all details can be found here.

Email your awesome apartment ideas to Lara@apartmentalist.com!

Edited to Add: An astute reader (Hi Alita!) called my attention to The Rasterbator. It takes any image, blows it up, and converts it into many 8.5x11 print-ready sheets, each sheet comprising a small part of a greater grid. The end result is a huge art installation of your favorite image. Check it out, it's ingenious and simple!

Posted by Lara at 04:04 PM | Comments (6)