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Houses of Strangers
Aug. 16th, 2006 10:53 pmThe Bloggy Tour of Homes has gotten huge. I haven't looked at everything (yet?), but a few things have stood out.
Three Boys and a Lady have a pretty cool bathroom and play room. The bathroom has a totally over-the-top rubber ducky theme with ducks all over the shower curtains and the towels. But the best part is the beautiful aqua blue wall, which looks very good with the contrasting white things, and which has bubbles painted on it. Just a few--very tasteful, for a wall with bubbles.
Their play room has a jungle theme. I especially like the grasses painted at the bottoms of the walls. This reminds me of a house I saw sometime, perhaps on a church field trip. (If so, I was younger than ten years old at the time.) This house had the coolest bathroom of all time. The painted grasses were waist-high. The shower head was painted as a giraffe's head, and the whole giraffe was painted down the wall. The toilet was painted like a hippo head, and you had to open the mouth and sit on the tongue.
I also remember there was a pillow-fight room. It had wall-to-wall shag carpeting, which was not that unusual in the 1970s. But it was on both the floors and the ceiling. There was also floor-to-ceiling shag carpeting on the walls. I believe there was a bare light bulb in the ceiling fixture, and I remember it was covered with a metal grate or cage to protect it. There was no furniture. In fact, there was nothing else at all in that room but pillows.
At some point I read an article (I think in American Girl magazine) that showed how to make a really cool stack of pillows. Each pillow is made to look like part of a hamburger. I remember the lettuce pillow had a big ruffle around it.
Half-Pint House is described as a small house with all the stuff from a big house crammed inside. I think the secret is bookshelves. Yes, you can put bookshelves along walls. You can also use bookshelves for a TV stand, even if you have a pretty big TV. And you know how some people have their couch in the middle of the room with a long, pretty table behind it with reading lamps on it? Well, you can put shelves there instead. And you can put them on top of all your desks. Why use a hutch, when you can get a lot more shelves from a bookcase? You can also use them as room dividers, to, say, make a little entry way at the entrance to your bedroom. You may even be able to slide a bookcase into a spare wall in the bathroom. Perhaps where the towel rack is--you could use hooks on the back of the door or the far end of the shower instead, right?
She Lives has a very pretty office and bedroom. I don't think it's that easy to have a pretty office. This one has a beautiful old desk made of dark wood, with lots of drawers. On one side is a Victorian chair (I notice that's not the one that's actually used at the desk, though). And on the other side is a set of shelves that looks like a ladder, with interesting things on top, like a tall green bottle and maybe some plants or stuffed animals. The printer is on the bottom.
The bedroom is basically a large efficiency apartment sans kitchen. There's a big, comfy-looking bed at one end, with side tables on each side, and with lamps on each table. There's at least one wardrobe on the side walls. At the end of the bed is a comfy-looking seating arrangement: two cushy chairs with a table in between. And they face a coffee table and, on the far wall, a couch with more end tables. And plants in front of the window. If I lived here, I would have all my parties in this room.
Three Boys and a Lady have a pretty cool bathroom and play room. The bathroom has a totally over-the-top rubber ducky theme with ducks all over the shower curtains and the towels. But the best part is the beautiful aqua blue wall, which looks very good with the contrasting white things, and which has bubbles painted on it. Just a few--very tasteful, for a wall with bubbles.
Their play room has a jungle theme. I especially like the grasses painted at the bottoms of the walls. This reminds me of a house I saw sometime, perhaps on a church field trip. (If so, I was younger than ten years old at the time.) This house had the coolest bathroom of all time. The painted grasses were waist-high. The shower head was painted as a giraffe's head, and the whole giraffe was painted down the wall. The toilet was painted like a hippo head, and you had to open the mouth and sit on the tongue.
I also remember there was a pillow-fight room. It had wall-to-wall shag carpeting, which was not that unusual in the 1970s. But it was on both the floors and the ceiling. There was also floor-to-ceiling shag carpeting on the walls. I believe there was a bare light bulb in the ceiling fixture, and I remember it was covered with a metal grate or cage to protect it. There was no furniture. In fact, there was nothing else at all in that room but pillows.
At some point I read an article (I think in American Girl magazine) that showed how to make a really cool stack of pillows. Each pillow is made to look like part of a hamburger. I remember the lettuce pillow had a big ruffle around it.
Half-Pint House is described as a small house with all the stuff from a big house crammed inside. I think the secret is bookshelves. Yes, you can put bookshelves along walls. You can also use bookshelves for a TV stand, even if you have a pretty big TV. And you know how some people have their couch in the middle of the room with a long, pretty table behind it with reading lamps on it? Well, you can put shelves there instead. And you can put them on top of all your desks. Why use a hutch, when you can get a lot more shelves from a bookcase? You can also use them as room dividers, to, say, make a little entry way at the entrance to your bedroom. You may even be able to slide a bookcase into a spare wall in the bathroom. Perhaps where the towel rack is--you could use hooks on the back of the door or the far end of the shower instead, right?
She Lives has a very pretty office and bedroom. I don't think it's that easy to have a pretty office. This one has a beautiful old desk made of dark wood, with lots of drawers. On one side is a Victorian chair (I notice that's not the one that's actually used at the desk, though). And on the other side is a set of shelves that looks like a ladder, with interesting things on top, like a tall green bottle and maybe some plants or stuffed animals. The printer is on the bottom.
The bedroom is basically a large efficiency apartment sans kitchen. There's a big, comfy-looking bed at one end, with side tables on each side, and with lamps on each table. There's at least one wardrobe on the side walls. At the end of the bed is a comfy-looking seating arrangement: two cushy chairs with a table in between. And they face a coffee table and, on the far wall, a couch with more end tables. And plants in front of the window. If I lived here, I would have all my parties in this room.