Victorian/Spanish Inquisition
Apr. 8th, 2006 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI was starting to think I was getting jaded looking at the tiny cool apartments, but then I saw Katarina and Stephen's Whimsy & Sophistication. The main room in this place has yellow parchment walls, dark wood and wrought iron furniture in a Victorian/Spanish Inquisition mix of styles, jewel tones, lots of plants, and silly stuff. The most obvious silly thing is that the bedroom area is separated from the rest of the room by Les Nessman-esque window frames, hanging from the ceiling at various heights. And each window frame has a knotted curtain kind of hanging next to it in a Twilight Zone kind of way.
Sound scary? Here is the owners' description of this 550-square-foot studio apartment:
Could mean anything, eh?
This entry is reminding me that I want more plants again, although not quite as many as they have. I like the greenery, and plants are good for the air.
And I'm also reminded that things in the same style that don't exactly match can look great (see their dining room chairs). A friend of mine spent some time in Mexico staying with a family while she learned Spanish and she was surprised to see that their dinnerware didn't match and that it was just as beautiful as what she was used to. I do that with glasses--they're all clear and made of glass, but in different shapes.
The general consensus on stuff is that less is more. And so that is the main solution for the storage part of the small-space problem: just have less stuff to store. I'm not going to learn anything about how to do that by looking at these entries. But I already have a good reference for that: Clutter's Last Stand. I'm not going to tell you that it's well written or that the second half is as good as the first half, but it does get it into even the thickest of skulls what it's all about, why you'd want to pare down your possessions, and how to make yourself do it.
I got rid of about a paper sack full of papers today. And went out to eat twice. And watched some more episodes of "Dark Angel." And talked on the phone. And played on the web. After sleeping many, many hours. It's been nice.
Sound scary? Here is the owners' description of this 550-square-foot studio apartment:
If living spaces can be described as having an ethos, ours is offhanded imperfection, whimsy, and sophistication pulled together on a shoestring, student budget. With one of us still enrolled as an undergraduate, the inspiration for this apartment stems from our desire to minimize expenses without compromising our love of color, comfort, and beauty.
Could mean anything, eh?
This entry is reminding me that I want more plants again, although not quite as many as they have. I like the greenery, and plants are good for the air.
And I'm also reminded that things in the same style that don't exactly match can look great (see their dining room chairs). A friend of mine spent some time in Mexico staying with a family while she learned Spanish and she was surprised to see that their dinnerware didn't match and that it was just as beautiful as what she was used to. I do that with glasses--they're all clear and made of glass, but in different shapes.
The general consensus on stuff is that less is more. And so that is the main solution for the storage part of the small-space problem: just have less stuff to store. I'm not going to learn anything about how to do that by looking at these entries. But I already have a good reference for that: Clutter's Last Stand. I'm not going to tell you that it's well written or that the second half is as good as the first half, but it does get it into even the thickest of skulls what it's all about, why you'd want to pare down your possessions, and how to make yourself do it.
I got rid of about a paper sack full of papers today. And went out to eat twice. And watched some more episodes of "Dark Angel." And talked on the phone. And played on the web. After sleeping many, many hours. It's been nice.