Bookshelf Makeover

Remember that time I ranted about how I hate design trends because people ignore what does and doesn't actually work in their room? Maybe I'm eating a few of my words today. Just one or two though.

Much like the perpetually popular skinny jean, bookshelves organized by color aren't flattering for everyone. In fact in my old apartment, they would have looked terrible and out of place and sort of like I am trying too hard. Which is what most design trends do. The problem with trends is that unless they are rooted in classic design movements like the Eames chair I want nothing to do with them. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good Eames chair, I do. I love seeing them everywhere because they are generally so awesome and pretty and I am still kicking myself for not snagging the white ones my grandparents used to own. But I loathe hearing people talk about them because that conversation always seems to go like this:

INT. EXTREMELY TRENDY COFFEE SHOP- DAY

Person A and Person B are both young, trendy 20-somethings who wear indoor scarves and oversize tortoiseshell glasses that show more of their cheek bones than their actual eyes, which probably don't need glasses in the first place. They are enjoying extremely bitter lattes and feeling good about their decisions in life, especially their decision to drink heinously expensive coffee that is organic and shipped in from the rain forest of a remote country that probably doesn't exist. 

PERSON A 

You know what I really need? An EAMES CHAIR. An EAMES CHAIR would make. my. apartment. O-M-G.

PERSON B

Oh yes, I just DIE over EAMES CHAIRS. I want one in every color in every corner of my loft and also at every table and maybe as a nightstand, side table and toilet paper holder as well.You really aren't a proper adult if you don't have at least one in your apartment. You're just, like, a regular chair owner with chairs from like Target. GROSS.

PERSON A

Yes, I will sell my soul and also possibly default on my student loans in order to acquire this paean to aesthetic greatness because without one in my life, my apartment is just a closet-sized Ikea storeroom and everything is the WORST and how will people know I'm cool and have excellent taste?

PERSON B

Let's pull out our iPhones and look on Etsy for some vintage EAMES CHAIRS right now!!!!

 FADE TO BLACK

Enough of that tomfoolery.

Back to business.

In my current apartment, I have just one bookshelf and it is in my bedroom, which isn't lacking for color but could stand to look more visually organized. This weekend, I decided to give it a try and see how much of an impact it would truly make.

Here's what I learned: I read mostly black and white books so maybe I should start choosing my books by the color of their spine. As you can see, I am lacking in yellow and green ones.

But ALSO my bookshelf does look a lot cleaner and less cluttered so, fine. I will keep it this way. You win this time, trend!

Here, see for yourself: (and btw I didn't leave my dresser drawer open like a lazy slob, it's just broken because Helen used to own it and broke it) (but then gave it to me for free like a magical free furniture fairy so I can't complain.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Not thrilling enough? Ok how about a side-by-side comparison:

You are so mesmerized by this, I know. Just wait until I tackle my closet, which is a place I wholeheartedly endorse organizing by color and also by sleeve-length.

Headboard Love

BEFORE

All I really want in life is a tufted headboard! Wouldn't I look good propped against it in my kimono? Perhaps with a whiskey and a pile of magazines? Yes, I thought so too. 

Jenny of Little Green Notebook unveiled the most delicious transformation on an old upholstered headboard earlier this week and now I am wondering if I should just make my own. Jenny was kind enough to include step-by-step instructions which don't seem terribly difficult and I think I have enough space in my apartment to tackle the project. Check out Jenny's post to see the full process.

AFTER!

 

Maybe I'll be really ambitious and try an embellished headboard at some point too?

Marie Claire Maison

Or perhaps an embroidery project?

Design*Sponge

Sneak Peek

Guess what's happening on my bedroom wall right now? THIS SHIT.

Yes. I finally did it- I painted my own wall paper. Why would you do this crazy thing, you ask? Because my landlord won't let us wallpaper and it was inexpensive and I could pick my own crazy color like metallic GOLD. Oh, and also I am batshit crazy. This took a full-day y'all and I'm only half finished. But soon it will look amazing and already I am loving the metallic sheen and the overall effect of the pattern. Thank goodness it's only on one wall or I might have lost my mind by now.

As soon as it's finished, I'll post better pictures and show how I did it (and probably what I was drinking throughout. Hint: It involves large quantities of alcohol.) Then I'll have to start strategizing art work and working on the lamp situation.

Please excuse this horrible photo taken with my cell phone.  I couldn't find my camera in the giant fort I created on the other side of my room while I painted.

Image courtesy of: Mia G for w*ink

Sconey Scone Scones

This is what they should have looked like.

This past weekend I had a very packed schedule that involved fun things like dinners with friends but also boring things like laundry and cleaning the bathroom and finally throwing away the over-sized hoodie that takes up almost a full drawer of my dresser. So what did I do with this long chore list? Why I baked apricot yogurt scones, of course!

This absurdly easy recipe was featured on The Kitchn back in April and I've had it saved ever since. I fancied it up and made a light lemon glaze with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and 3/4 tsps lemon extract instead of the 1tsp vanilla extract in the recipe.  The result was mind-blowingly good if I do say so myself.  Unfortunately, they didn't look as good as they tasted- mine came out more like lumps of fried chicken. Guess I need to work on my presentation skills.

HERE is the recipe in case you also have laundry to do and would like a distraction.

See? Not so pretty. Sigh.

Images: Emma Christensen for The Kitchn, Mia G

DIY Wallpaper

This backsplash is wallpapered with Chinese food menus!

I love this idea although fear it would lead to a constant craving for lo mein.

Images: Apartment Therapy

Get thee to a Joann's Fabrics!

This bedroom is bananas. There is so much going on and yet I love every little detail, from the matching walls/headboard/dust ruffle to the giant mirror and casual art work. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Image: Elle Decor

Project Desk

My desk is by far the biggest eyesore in my bedroom. I try to clean it off about once a month but because I tend to use my laptop on my bed, my desk is usually hidden under a mountain of books and old mail. Case in point:

Sad right? Well today I'd had enough. It was time to organize, rearrange and take on a small craft project!

See that wooden box on the floor? It's actually the FIRA drawer unit from IKEA. I bought it two years ago and only put together 2 of the 3 drawers before I gave up and stored old beauty products in it. While dusting it off, I realized I might as well go to town with some acrylic paints:

Not so shabby, eh? After I put away the paint, I got to work reorganizing my desk which was quite a feat because as it turns out, I have A LOT of junk! Books went back onto my bookcase, notebooks are stored in the sad blue bins under my bed and old mail went into the shredder. The result is much more conducive to actually being productive!

Photos Courtesy of: Mia G for w*ink
(Please excuse their poor quality, I am clearly not a professional photographer.)

Who needs Cinnabon?

For some odd reason I have been in the mood to bake lately, despite the fact that I am notoriously bad at everything besides making Ramen and also Hanna took away our pretty Kitchen Aid mixer. It is so hard to motivate oneself to bake or cook when you don't have the proper tools or space.Or talent.

Le Sigh.

Yesterday I spent a few hours scouring the internet for recipes and when I came upon this delectable batch of Sticky Lemon Rolls, I almost fell over. Sticky rolls laced with nutmeg and lemon zest! Lemon cream cheese glaze! Lemon filling! Be still my heart! It's a lemon extravaganza! A lemon sensation! A lemon spectacular!

HERE is the recipe, which looks way more time consuming if you do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer.
Just sayin'.

Images: The Kitchn

Pet Peeves

I realize I am only an amateur designer and the only portfolio I have is in my head but when it comes to design, I have a lot of opinions. In fact, I have so many opinions and pet peeves that I've decided to compile a list. In the interest of time and also your attention span, I'll spare you the full list and stick to the highlights.

1) Art work that isn't the right size for the wall

What's the tiny thing next to the door? This simply will not do.

 All too often I see framed art that doesn't quite take up enough space and this annoys me.  When I see a small painting all by itself on a large, long wall I start to feel nervous and my eyes dart around the room looking for companions to hang next to or around it. People. If you have a large expanse of space, fill it up! Take a chance and blow up a photograph until it is so large it practically looks pixelated. Create a gallery of matching prints or hang a bunch of unrelated items a la Kate Spade's showroom. In the long run, your walls will have more visual impact and your space will feel homier and more sophisticated.

Much better, no?

2) Rooms that are too 'matchy', AKA 'theme rooms'

Something is not right! Something is quite wrong!

This really drives me crazy. I grew up watching HGTV and other design shows and while their tastes and range have improved over the years, I am concerned by the lingering attitude that a room has 'style' and is 'decorated' simply because everything in the room is coordinated. This does not show any personality nor does it show you have any taste. This only shows that you can make things match. That's just lazy decorating if you ask me! Your space will be a thousand times more interesting if there is a variety of color. Your rooms have your stuff in it and this stuff hopefully took years to accumulate! I certainly hope you have not spent the last 10 years buying things that are only Tiffany blue and chocolate brown. Decorating should be an organic process and it can take years. It should not be completed in an afternoon at HomeGoods.(Though I love me some HomeGoods.)

I know. There's a lot going on here. But isn't it exciting?!? There's so much to look at!

3) Lack of pattern and texture

Good bones but too white! And too sparse! And PLEASE buy an accent rug!

One of my former employers decided that my style is decidedly "English" because I like a lot of texture and layers and for everything to be crowded together. While she was referring to flowers, I think this also applies to my style in interior design. I adore pattern and texture. They are stimulating and sophisticated and oh so versatile. The bolder the better. Rooms that lack both pattern and texture just look flat and boring. They feel cold, like a waiting room. Even the smallest hint of pattern can make all the difference in a room so if you can't quite commit to bright colors or a big floral rug or toile wallpaper, start small and introduce patterned pillows for your couch or textured placements or tablecloths, which can be changed when you get bored. Even the smallest little touches can make all the difference.

Rooms don't require bright colors to add depth. These neutral colors emphasize the subtle patterns.

4) The 'Build a Room' Technique

This room is lovely but seriously lacks personality.

Everyone has at least one friend who is guilty of going to one store and buying the bulk of their furniture and decorative items all at once. In the age of Ikea and CB2, this isn't the worst you can do. But please for the love of god, spend the rest of your days adding in some variety so I don't walk into your house and think I have stepped into a catalog. At some point I will drink too much and start referring to your furniture by their store-given names. Do you mind if I perch on the edge of your Karlstad? Wow, I didn't know the Triumph Lounge Chair came in this color! It will happen. I promise you.

I love the variety of style and substance in this dining room.

Last but not least...

5) Design Trends

Just a few recent trends...

Hey, I love faux bois, coral and cardboard antlers as much as the next girl but if you have too many trendy items all at once, it begins to feel like you decorated with a list.  Danish Modern console? Check.  Eames Chair? Check. Birch Tree Wallpaper? In every room. I'm not saying I'm against any of these things or that I haven't fallen for at least three trends every single year but there is a line that must be drawn somewhere. Your home should be a reflection of you and your style and tastes.Who else has your taste? No one, that's who.

Let's also be honest here: sometimes we buy stuff because it is fashionable, not because it necessarily fits us. (Ahem, Skinny Jeans) God knows I love me some rainbow-colored bookshelves but they are not for everyone or for every room.  While they might look amazing against your white walls, surrounded by your neutral couch and love seat, they would look completely out of place in my living room, where they would compete with the other colors and patterns in the room. Also? Don't waste your money on something that you might get sick of in a year or two once it goes out of fashion. Books can be rearranged and that lucite chair from Ikea can be sold on Craiglist but that coat rack with a giant mustache on it that was on virtually every blog ever? In another six months no one is going to want that shit. Your tastes will change from time to time but unless you can afford to redecorate as often as you replace your toothbrush, I'd stick to stuff you know you will want to have around for forever. And by 'forever' I mean 'until you have to move and decide to overhaul your entire style from scratch'.

Images: Elle Decor, The Home Show, Domino, Real Simple, Living, Etc,  CB2, Apartment Theray, My Deco

Sharpie Madness!

Check out this fancy wallpaper pattern drawn using a Sharpie! Britt from A Penny Saved jumped on the Sharpie wallpaper bandwagon and the results are magnificent. Look at the precision in the close up:

I simply adore it. This new trend is making me feel left out. Do I need to start planning a post-holiday art project?

For more inspiration, feast your eyes on this bonkers wallpaper made entirely of stickers! Amazing!

Images: A Penny Saved via High-Heeled Foot in the Door

Doodley doo.

Hey, remember THIS GUY? Well it looks like someone took his idea to a whole new (slightly more sophisticated) level. The Joyce Hotel in Paris found an easy alternative to actually furnishing rooms by illustrating the walls with everything from decorative molding to wall sconces. I love how these drawings save the rooms from looking too sparse and yet still seem intentional-not a last resort. For anyone with a new apartment or a large space to furnish on a small budget, this is a creative way to deal with budget constraints! It's more interesting than a painted wall but can be covered up if you grow out of it after some time.

I sense a new trend wafting through the blogosphere because drawn-on furniture is showing up everywhere, causing me to seriously consider investing in some new Sharpies.  Need proof? Check out Percy's Before and After bathroom, featured on Design*Sponge yesterday:

And let's not underestimate the power of the Anthropologie catalog!

Or the influence of the cinema! Specifically, (500) Days of Summer:

If you are really talented and have some time on your hands, why not aim high? (See more of Charlotte Mann's ridiculously beautiful work here.)

Images: Apartment Therapy, Design*Sponge, Poppytalk, CasaSugar, and Charlotte Mann

Before and After: Kitchen Conundrum

Before: See what I mean? How is this acceptable??

When I first found my apartment, I had some serious doubts. There are no closets. The appliances are really old and the floors had some pretty noticeable nails sticking out. Also, the bathroom was (and still is) in serious need of new grout.  However there was one feature of the apartment that was almost a deal-breaker for me: the back splash in the kitchen. I have documented my hatred of these tiles on several occasions but it finally caught up with me over the summer when I realized that I simply could not go another day looking at bathroom tiles in my kitchen.

SO.

What is a girl to do when she doesn't own the place and therefore cannot replace said tiles? She covers them up! I investigated several ideas. Victoria of sfgirlbybay had a wonderful idea that involved covering her back splash with a laminate and I'd seen several versions of Tile Tattoos that I liked but which sadly didn't fit the abnormal size of ours. I had just about given up when it dawned on me: I should make my own! Cue Amazon.com.

Five minutes and about $20 later, I was the soon-to-be owner of two dozen sheets of blue and white vinyl.

One extremely hot day this past August, I set to work. Now, I probably should have planned this more but a girl has her limits and I had reached mine. I half-measured a few sheets and started cutting and applying, doing my best to smooth out any air pockets along the way.

It turns out, vinyl isn't as clingy during a heat wave so they started falling down about five minutes after I applied them. I can't even begin to describe the miniature tantrum I threw. Hey, it was a really hot day.

After: Better! But still a work in progress...

Long story short, I wound up resorting to good old packing tape to keep it all up. It doesn't look as clean and neat nor as professional as I would like and you can still see a bit of the old tiles peaking out from the side of the fridge because I ran out of vinyl but overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. At least I don't have to look at boats and trees and ships while I heat up tomato soup anymore!

Photos Courtesy of: Mia G for w*ink

Landscapes: The Final Frontier

(This is hanging in my living room. Jealous? Yes. Yes, you are.)

I've been obsessing over the artwork in my apartment lately. I rearranged and swapped out some photos above the couch a few months ago but I feel dissatisfied with the scale of the wall. Scale is something I give a lot of thought to and one aspect of home decorating that I feel is usually overlooked or blatantly ignored. Nothing annoys me more than a tiny picture on a big wall. The thing about scale is you really have to have a feel for the space and a lot of times, the wall will call for something really big and I find that people, myself included, are hesitant to make such a bold statement with artwork. It's so much easier to use a bunch of smaller prints and frames so you can change them with the seasons or your mood. They always add a sense of abundance, which automatically makes your space look more sophisticated, even if the frames are like fifty cents each at Ikea.

Every bedroom I have lived in since I was 10 involved some type of gallery-style collage of random postcards, photographs, ticket stubs, ribbons and prints which were in matching frames. They usually took over an entire wall.  My current configuration is a low key map of greenwich village noting all the french restaurants paired with some black and white photographs of Tina Fey dressed up as a playboy bunny and a mouseketeer. I know- strange- but it works.

Lately I have been thinking about landscapes. I've never been into them very much- probably because I don't really like The Nature. But I've been seeing them around on many a fashionable home design blog so maybe I should give them another chance.  Maybe I am missing out on the opportunity to add some pastoral calm to my otherwise hectic urban existence. It might be a nice sense of contrast.  Four years ago everyone I knew had some kind of  cityscape on their walls, as if they couldn't just walk out their door and see it for real. In a very Carrie Bradshaw way, I can't help but wonder- are landscapes the new cityscapes?

There are two ways to translate this idea into something awesome and amazing:

 1) Start a collection of vintage landscapes and fill an entire wall with them, like a bunch of little windows with views of fields and forests instead of the airshaft outside my building or the naked guy across the street.

2) Aquire photographs that actually look like real windows! This intrigues me. I  begged my sister, who is a pretty good photographer, to make some for me but she said no. Jerk.

Friends, what are your thoughts on the matter? Do I need to ignore my miniature chair collection for a while and concentrate on miniature landscapes? Do I attack Etsy with a vengeance and bombard my roommate with nutburger decisions like: mountains vs. tundra? Or do I just calm myself down and do the resourceful, fiscally responsible thing and recycle some of my old artwork that is currently hiding underneath my bed?

Images: vogue and isuwanee

We call the hot one Kyle.

When I first moved to NY, I lived on the Upper West Side in a charming apartment with Helen. We like to refer to the place as 'Potato Chip Island' for reasons I will not explain here but if you get the reference, we can be best friends forever.

Potato Chip Island was a magical place. We didn't put a ton of thought into our design scheme- everything just fell into place since we both like lots of color. Our only decor-related project was a series of silhouettes we made one afternoon and then ingeniously pasted to the wall of our living room. It is the only wall decal that I have found acceptable in recent years and that's mostly because we made them ourselves.

The problem with decals is they usually look so cheap and easy. I saw some cherry blossom stickers recently at Ikea and threw up in my mouth. (Sorry Ikea, I usually love you) I am willing to make one exception to my decal hateration: These headboard decals by Blik:

They come in a variety of kicky colors and styles but this basic 'iron' frame is my favorite. Sure, they border on college dorm chic but I don't care. I think they'd look awesome in a guest bedroom or in the kind of apartment where you wind up using milk crates as nightstands and somehow they look cool and sort of industrial in a non-hipster way.


Images: Helen Rosner and Blik

Heads or Tails?

I have not had a proper bed with a headboard and/or foot board since I was a child and I have been yearning for one lately. My current bed is basically the mattress and box spring on a metal frame with wheels. I KNOW. HORRIBLE. When I was 8 I begged my mother to buy me a sophisticated brass daybed from Pottery Barn but the white Sears version I received as a birthday present was rickety and disappointing and had to pretend I loved it long after the luxury had worn off.

I don't really care about foot boards or having a giant bed talking up half my room. A simple headboard would make the bed itself look more official instead of one step up from the whole boho mattress on the floor look. The problem with headboards is that they are expensive and usually sort of boring. I am all for making one myself but I hesitate because of all the important decisions that must be made. Fabric? Wood? Upholstered? Shelf? No Shelf?

Life is hard.

If my bedroom were larger and could handle the intense awesomeness of this blown up lace-covered canvas, I would totally steal this idea and then pretend I had come up with it myself when people come over to 'ooh' and 'ahh' all over themselves. My room is not, however, a spacious delight and so instead my sad bed will reside in a corner and I will just have to find another way to accomodate my fussy bed-related design queries. Perhaps I should make up for the lack of headboard with an abundance of pillows?

Image: LivingEtc via The Style Files

Extreme Home Makeover: Blog Edition

I know I know I know. I'm horrible. Terrible. The world's worst blogger ever. But I have a good excuse! Oh wait, no I don't. I'm just lazy. Lazy and tired. Lazy and tired and working on too many projects at once. 

BUT.  Big news. Big. Huge. Next week there will be some BIG CHANGES AROUND HERE!!!

Ok so that wasn't really news. More like, the promise of news.  We're all about the tease.

Stay tuned...

Wordle sums it all up

I just discovered this ingenious website called Wordle that will scramble the content of your webpage or blog and turn it into a 'word cloud'.

Here is ours!

Make your own here.

Image: Wordle

Content is all ours baby.

My New Philosophy

When I was in high school, I wrote an incredibly moody autobiographical short story about moving out of my childhood home against my will and being dragged across the country to the scary and uptight east coast where I would inevitably be forced to reject grunge music in favor of pop and rap. The focus of the story was a confrontation when the new homeowners arrived before we were entirely moved out and started aggressively stripping the wallpaper from our kitchen walls.

Now in reality, I'm not sure I cared so much since the wallpaper was in fact quite ugly and I had hated the horrible red, white & blue country pattern for years. However, my crafty high school self recognized that there was symbolism in this seemingly small act and therefore an easy way to write something 'meaningful' and 'honest' and therefore get an A.  

Today I found something that could have changed the course of history (or at least my GPA). Tempaper is an ingenious self-adhesive wallpaper that you can readjust and rearrange to your heart's desire. It comes in 4 different art nouveau styles and 8 colors and more will be introduced each season.  My favorite is the spunky light blue/red combo above. 

Image: Tempaper

Oh the possibilities!

These amazing chalkboard decals adhere to the wall and can easily be taken down or rearranged without damaging the wall underneath. Each kit contains 4 panels for only $58! Think of all the list-making opportunities and how pretty they would look in pink and purple chalk!

Image: seejanework.com

Other things to do in the bedroom... ;)

This headboard was made from fabric stretched across canvasses. And I LOVE IT. I'm totally going to do this.

Image:  apartment therapy.com