Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Gimme Shelter

Maybe it's the sap rising quality of Spring, maybe it's a feeling that I need some change on the homefront, but I've become obsessed with the idea of re-doing my house. I've taken to stalking my favourite interior design related websites (Apartment Therapy, Desire To Inspire and Design*Sponge just for starters) flicking through furniture catalogues and dreaming about paint chips.

I'm in a small rental, which puts the brakes on a bit, but I rent from friends and have some leeway to do minor works to the place. For starters I'm thinking of repainting my bedroom. I'm also on a tight budget, partly because I committed myself to the concept of updating my home electronics over the next 3 or 4 months.

For starters it's time to buy a new sofa. My poor old sofa is looking like a disaster these days, the upholstery starting to wear through. I thought about recovering it, but I'm not even that keen on the shape of it anymore. My taste has moved towards more of a streamlined midcentury modern look, and my sofa is more of an oversized roll armed country style.

(The thought of getting the sofa out of my house is daunting, I remember the struggle the removalists had getting that sucker in...)

What I don't want to do is make my house look like an IKEA room set, or too self consciously retro. I already have some nice pieces, a small circular Art Deco smoker's table (with a groovy etched deer design in the mirror top) and an Eileen Gray side table that I love.

Anyhoo, I'm not sure where this ramble is going but if anyone has some suggestions for other inspirational design blogs hit me up in the comments. Too many ideas are never enough!

12 comments:

Thombeau said...

How exciting! An outer change denotes inner change, so you could be entering a whole new period in your life. And there's nothing quite as satisfying as "feathering one's own nest"!

I'll be moving in January, and am only taking my books, cds, and dvds. So I'll be starting pretty much from scratch, and I'm so looking forward to it!

The Other Andrew said...

Starting from scratch has its own appeal, you know? Clean slate. Do you know where you'll be living, or are you going to start looking closer to the move?

Thombeau said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=11842

Too theme-y?

Like thombeau, I'm about to purge posessions (looking at an apartment tomorrow...wish me luck). Half or more of my stuff must go! Or all? I'm SO tempted by the clean slate, too. Except my bedroom stuff.

The Other Andrew said...

Nice sofa Michael, sort of along the lines of what I'm thinking of. But the one I've seen is about a third of the price, and looks a bit more retro. Sofa shopping is a chore for me because so many of the sofas are really deep in the seat these days, which is uncomfortable for my little hobbit frame.

Good luck with the apartment hunting!

jason said...

Nothing as exciting as redecorating!
(sad little life I live, no?)
But still...

Here are a few blogs I have bookmarked. From there who knows what you might find:

http://2modern.blogs.com/2modern/trends/index.html

http://blog.sub-studio.com/


And I envy you that Eileen Gray table.

The Other Andrew said...

Thanks Jason!

The Eileen Gray side table was a gift too! I'm very lucky.

Cecilia said...

It must be the weather because I have been thinking along similar lines--although my aims are lot more modest. I'd be happy if I can achieve something better than my current "some squatter has moved in and thrown a lot of paper and yarn around" look! I'll have to check out those sites for inspiration.

mrpeenee said...

How does this happen to all of us all at once? I'm redecorating my bedroom and bathroom right now. Is there some kind of homo instinct that sets this off?

The Other Andrew said...

It's called Hive Mind MrPeenee. Who do you think is Queen Bee?

yani said...

As far as what you said about not wanting the place to look too much like "an IKEA room set, or too self consciously retro"... my thought process has always been that you just buy the things you love and the fact that you put them all together makes them match. I'm pretty sure that's one of Our Holy Father Berkus's commandments too ;)

Unknown said...

I love Ikea Hacker - great for a cheapskate like me who isn't afraid to get out the power tools.

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com