Fortunate souls walking along New York’s High Line can catch a glimpse of the magnificent building pictured above. Now, thanks to Design Milk, you can get to see what it looks like inside by going here: 520 West 28th Condominium Residence by Zaha Hadid – Design Milk.
Not surprisingly, it is as gorgeous on the inside as it is on the outside. I would love to live there. Take a peek inside and you’ll see why.
Now, you might think: ugh, painting is alot of work. But as this piece shows, there’s some good paint jobs you can do in a weekend that still leaves you time to do other things.
For example, you can paint a door:
Or even just part of a wall, like the moulding:
The piece in Apartment Therapy is worth looking at to get ideas. If you’ve been tired of looking at the same old space and you don’t want to get new furnishings, a splash of paint can do the trick of improving the space.
Another option: do a painting (or buy a painting if shopping vs doing is your thing). This article has lots of examples, such as this:
And if you think: I suck at art, then read this piece in Hypoallergic about how making art, no matter how bad, can reduce stress.
Now head to the paint store and start your next project.
(See the articles for credits for the pictures.)
Is this: decorating with large vases and branches. As you can see from this article, the result is beautiful.
Of course, you can also do flowers:
Either way, if you have the space, oversized branches, flowers and vases are dramatic and gorgeous.
For more on this, click the Apartment Therapy link above. Images linked to from that article.
A very smart list of things you should have to make your home better: The 5 Home Lists You Should Make (And Keep) via Apartment Therapy.
And if you want to set up a blackboard wall like that, you can get them by here
If you are fortunate, you have access to a great florist and they can arrange your favorite flowers for you. If you don’t have that, if the best you have is flowers from the supermarket or the corner store, you can still do great things, as these three articles show:
My advice: pick one or two of these rules or examples and then get some flowers based on them. If in doubt, start small and keep it simple. As you can see from the photo, you don’t have to spend a fortune on a big bouquet stuffed in a large vase: a simple collection of one type of flower in a simple bottle still looks wonderful. If you get a bunch of 4 or 5 different flowers from the supermarket, break them up into groups of 1, 2 or 3. Try different things. Flower arranging is an art in more ways than one.
Also, when cutting your flowers, take your time and cut away a bit at a time until you get the height you want. You can always cut further, but obviously you cannot lengthen them!
Flowers bring automatic beauty into your life. Go get some.
P.S. If you have to get vases and you don’t want to spend alot, consider the local dollar store. Most will have a collection of simple glass cylinders of all heights. Get a small, medium, and large size cylinder and you will be all set for whatever flowers suit your mood that day, be they a small bunch of daisies or a big batch of sunflowers.
What this piece in the New York Times says is the truth about tiny homes is really true about living in any small space, be it a tiny home or a very small apartment or condo. I liked this article because it mentioned things you might not think of, such as how ordinary objects which are not noticeable in bigger spaces become significant in larger spaces. Anyone thinking of downsizing should read this piece.
I still think there are lots of benefits in living in a small space. And some of them, like the one above from inhabitat.com, are gorgeous. But yeah, onions and laundry baskets. 🙂
The Selby has a gorgeous photo shoot of the atelier of Karl Lagerfeld. Anyone who dreams of having a library in their home will love it. The photo above is just a taste: for a feast, see: Karl Lagerfeld at his Atelier in Paris in the selby
Ok, not quite 40,000, but quite a lot. Some are very practical, some are inspirational, and some may even have you building your own furniture (as I did).
First, here are a bushel of links from the Apartment Therapy web site. They have lots and lots and lots of pages filled with ideas for people who rent apartments that can be used by anyone, renter or owner. Very practical, low cost, smart ideas and approaches to home decor. Good stuff.
Not so how to oriented, but this handful of links might give you some ideas and inspiration to improve your place:
Now that you are inspired, here are some good links I found for buying furniture:
Or if you want to build vs buy furniture, you might want these links:
Finally, if you are not so much into furnishing your place but more into painting it, then consider these few links:
(The lovely entrance at the top of the post is from a link to How to Make a Small Apartment Feel Huge | A Cup of Jo)
Minimalism is a foreign concept to some Westerners, especially as it is practiced in parts of Japan. Indeed, this line:
Fumio Sasaki’s one-room Tokyo apartment is so stark friends liken it to an interrogation room. He owns three shirts, four pairs of trousers, four pairs of socks and a meagre scattering of various other items.
You see “interrogation room” and “meagre”, which gives you some insight into how this writer sees it. The article which this comes from (and which is linked to below) does get more insightful and you gain a better insight into Japanese minimalism, from its cultural roots to its practicality (such as the real problem of how earthquakes make home objects dangerous).
Minimalism seems to be growing as a cultural concept throughout the world, and it’s good to know more about it, how the Japanese see it, and to think about how it should differ in Western cultures. To do that, see:
Three shirts, four pairs of trousers: meet Japan’s ‘hardcore’ minimalists in The Guardian
As I redo my place, I have found dozens of interesting links, mostly from the site Apartment Therapy. There’s lots of great ideas, tips, and other news from that site. Buzzfeed Home also has some good stuff, some of which you’ll find below. (The image is a link to the Cup of Jo website. It also has some great home decor ideas, among other things.)
Before & After: Budget Bathroom Upgrade | Apartment Therapy – it doesn’t take much to upgrade your bathroom, and if you want a manageable space to redo, this may inspire you to get going on this.
Furniture Finds: 10 bold and brilliant removable wallpapers – perfect for people who want the boldness of wallpaper, but also the ability to change your mind.
Renters Rejoice: Stylish Solutions to Your Most Common Design Woes | Apartment Therapy – if you are new to decorating, this is worthwhile
The Best Plug-in Sconces (No Electrician Needed!) | Apartment Therapy – like the wallpaper, this is another good idea for people who don’t want to commit.
31 insanely clever cleaning hacks for your messy home – before you decorate, you need to clean. Use this to get your going.
Decorating Mistakes First-Time Homeowners Make – Hither & Thither – more good advice for those starting off
Affordable Vintage Rugs – Best of Etsy – rugs make such a difference, but they can be very expensive. Use this to help with that.
5 Ways to Update Thrift Store Art | Apartment Therapy – original art is better, in my opinion, but if you have lots of walls and/or lots of thrift art you want to use up, check this out.
A Brief History of Memphis, The Design Group that Defined the Look of the 80s | Apartment Therapy – I don’t know if we will ever see a resurgence of the Memphis Design style, but in the 80s it was influential. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but interesting nonetheless.
The Kitchn’s Guide to Cleaning Your Small Electric Appliances — Cleaning Guides from The Kitchn | The Kitchn – more good cleaning advice.
A Bubbly Life: DIY Wooden Shoe Rack – this is a great, simple project for anyone. I am not sure how good it is to sit on, though. Be advised.
Small Design Details That Make a Big Impact | Apartment Therapy – a handful of good ways to simple ways to improve your living space
A First Apartment in Boerum Hill | A Cup of Jo – a great place. Lots of ideas to take away from here.
31 creative ways to hide eyesores around your home – good advice from Buzzfeed Home
31 insanely clever cleaning hacks for your messy home – good cleaning advice here
How to Make Vinegar Cleaning Spray (That Smells Good!) | The Kitchn – …and here
Grown-Up Versions of Your Favorite Teenage Decorating Trends (You Won’t Believe How Good They Can Look) | Apartment Therapy – ha! If you miss your old room, you can go back again…and reuse those ideas.
DIY Mid Century Modern Coffee Table (Under $50!) – Wonder Forest – another good DIY project. This one is especially good if you want to design a table that fits a particular place. Other than Ikea’s Lack table, you won’t find a cheaper one anywhere, save a garage sale.
25 Clever DIYs for Small Spaces | Apartment Therapy – more good do it yourself ideas.
Get the Warm Industrial Look on a Big Box Store Budget | Apartment Therapy – if you like that look, you can get it without shelling out big bucks at places like Restoration Hardware by reading this.
This is What It’s Really Like to Live in One of Those Tiny Houses | Apartment Therapy – intriguing.
Bright Ways to Beautify a Basic, Boring Bookcase | Apartment Therapy – more good ways to improve your house.
12 Useful & Beautiful Things You Can Do With Butcher Paper | Apartment Therapy – plus you can let your kids draw on the walls and not freak out. 🙂
7 Ways to Fill a Wall that Are as Useful as They Are Beautiful | Apartment Therapy – have a big wall? Here’s some good ideas to make it look great.
Over at themakerista.com is a very cool hack of 3 Billy bookcases that result in something with a built in look. Here’s the work in progress:
And here’s the final product:
You may not try something as challenging, but if you are interested in spiffing up your tired old bookcases, check this out this: The Makerista: Laura’s Living Room: Ikea Billy Bookshelves Hack
The folks at MyDomaine.com have a number of great articles of how to use IKEA furniture in a chic way. Here are four of them:
Well worth a look if you are on a budget and need to furnish your place. For example, I really like how they used IKEA bookcases to make this:
It seems commonplace now, but the idea of hotels having the same cachet as a nightclub seem to me to come about in the 1980s with the rise of Ian Schrager as a hotelier. While he collaborated with others, the partnership he formed with Philippe Starck resulted in some really fantastic hotels, as can be seen in this post: The 21st Century Interior – Case studies – Philippe Starck/Ian Schrager: Designer Hotels – Blog – APID.
Nowadays many of these hotels have changed, but in the latter part of the 20th century they were opening with all the excitement of a new nightclub, which in some ways they resembled. I remember hanging out in the lobby of The Royalton as it was just getting ready to open, talking to the staff in their Hugo Boss suits, marvelling over the designs of Starck, thinking of how the blue carpet made one feel as glamorous as anyone in the city. Later on I stayed at the Paramount and Morgan’s, each visit made Manhattan that much better.
Recently the hotels have been changing as they have been upgraded. Only The Hudson seems to have retained that earlier quality, it seems. Soon even that will transform into whatever brings in the guests. I haven’t been to The Hudson yet: I must get their before it is too late.
I am not sure if there is a history of great hotels, but if there ever is, I expect some of these places will find their place in it. Meanwhile, read the post on these hotels, and check out The Hudson in NYC while you can.
(Top photo of the Royalton, bedroom photo from the Paramount. Both linked to from the post, which has more great photos.)
From Remodelista, here are their Our Top 10 Weekend Projects. Something there for all sorts of skills, from klutz to adept.
If you like those, check out the rest of their DIY projects.
Head over here: Spoonflower: Shop, design custom fabric, wallpaper & gift wrap and you can see how you can take your own images and designs, have Spoonflower print it, and send it off to you. Very cool.
Domaine makes the case on this page and here on this one .
Can you spot the IKEA in this photo?
How about in this one?
Of course, it’s the composition and layout of all the furnishings in the room (and the room itself) that makes the spaces look great. However, you can also see the IKEA pieces, as the centerpieces, more than hold their own.
The answer seems obvious: no, right? Well, what if it were this apartment in a beautiful building in Paris?
You can see a sleeping area, a bathroom and a window. But there’s alot more hidden under the bed and the countertops .It’s really a gem of an apartment, and ingeniously designed.
For more on this place, including a video, go to this link.
While you can do interesting things with paint or wall paper to your walls, another idea is to use simple moulding to break up boring walls. The woman featured in this post, Charlotte’s Budget Beauty — House Call | Apartment Therapy, has it throughout her place, and I think it looks great.
Want more ideas on how to do that? Here you go 🙂 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=add+moulding+to+walls
I give you this:
I really like this idea, but then I am an IT architect and we like to stand up and draw on walls (ok, whiteboards). A whiteboard would also work, but if you have kids, there may be times when you want to save anything they did. Or never mind kids: maybe your own doodle was keep sake worthy.
By the way, you can get such paper dispensers at IKEA. Most people mount them on a table, but clearly the wall is an option too.
If you live in a high rise apartment, you likely have big sliding doors hiding clothes in your closet. It’s bland at best. (That’s being kind.) If you want to tackle this and make it into something more attactive, then go here and steal some ideas: 5 DIY Ways to Upgrade Rental Closet Doors — Renters Solutions | Apartment Therapy.
By the way, I highly recommend Apartment Therapy and Renters Solutions for people in apartments that want to make the space look more attactive. It can be done! 🙂
Paint may be the easiest and cheapest way to change the look of your place (even if you are rich, getting a designer to do it is more work than you think…trust me). But paint shouldn’t be the only thing you try. Rugs are also an option. While they can seem expensive, places like IKEA have them for well under $100.
Paint and rugs aside, there’s wallpaper. You don’t have to cover the whole room: you can do a backsplash, a closet, a ceiling, even part of a wall. Also, wall paper is alot more varied both in patterns and material than you might suppose. You can get wall paper for any where.
If you are nervous about wallpaper, consider the paint rollers from The Painted House. You get beautiful patterns that you can apply as easily as paint, because it is painting.
That said, I would encourage you to try wallpaper. It definitely helps to have two people do it, as well as having patience. Try and make it a social event. The results are worth it.
Unconvinced? See this: Subtle Yet Striking: 5 Understated Ways to Use Wallpaper | Apartment Therapy.
While there are lots of great rooms that consist only of neutrals, I think every room benefits from bright colours. If you can’t paint your walls — and many people who rent cannot do that — there are ways to get around that, as this article shows: Put Down the Paintbrush: 10 Ways to Add Color Without Painting — Renters Solutions | Apartment Therapy. Some require more require more work than others. Others, like in the photo above, just require some a book shelf, coloured paper and adhesive. (If you are stuck for coloured paper, go to a place that sells sheets of wrapping paper.)
Smart People I Know 