FLAT episodes.

While we're on the theme of past residences, I dug up photos of my first and only FLAT. For a semester in college, I studied abroad in London. 


I'm so glad I documented all of these places throughout the years. 

My half of the room. Aren't you sick of seeing those damn hibiscus stickers on the wall? I know I am.

First time any of my bathrooms had a shower that didn't require a curtain.

I didn't realize at the time that we had granite countertops and a stainless steel  gas range. I'm impressed!

View from the kitchen looking out into the living area.

Oh gosh, this was probably the worst part of the place. THAT is meant to hold food for 5 girls! The top cupboard is the refrigerator, and the bottom cupboard is the freezer.

Combo washer/dryer on the left that didn't work. I stored my Oreos in there instead.

Our beloved living area with the infamous red sofas. What they lacked in cleanliness, they made up for in comfiness.

Considerably decluttered.

In my last post I put up pics from my freshman year dorm. I have to say, I de-cluttered CONSIDERABLY during sophomore year! Still going for a taste of the tropics though.

Heck, I even added a faux surfboard AND a tiki bar lamp!

Desk where I did not do much studying. In fact, I probably staged that textbook being open for the sake of the photo.

The nice thing about about this dorm was the fact that it had a common area. Here, you can see that the theme is: PINK. I provided the bean bag and tablecloth in the corner. That rug really tied the room together.

It all started somewhere.

And it did not start at home. HAhaha.


My childhood bedroom never had much of an identity. It was just sort of an ever-growing collection of my possessions from birth through teenage angst, displaying a mish-mash of the furniture I'd had since I was 2, my glow-in-the-dark stickers, my Keroppi phase, and my teenybopper days.


Circa 2003:

Like I said, this furniture is the same set I've had since I was a baby... and it's still there to this day whenever I visit. :) The bed sheets were once pink and frilly to match my canopy but I made the cool decision in the 90's to upgrade to some Lion King sheets.

Things of note here: the full Nancy Drew collection on my bookshelf, some stuffed animals I never bothered to get rid of, hmm.. yup that's about it. (But seriously, por que  Ricky por que!?!)

THEN, I discovered IKEA the summer I left for college, and it was really the first time I got excited about decorating because I was able to personalize my dorm from scratch. At that point in my life, I was very colorful... in the most tropical of ways.


Freshman year dorm:

Spongebob?! Hibiscus patterns? Posters of islands and palm trees? Oh, that sounds so accurate. 

Alternate duvet cover. I really went to town on that turquoise.

When I went home for winter break that year, I was rather inspired to give my room a facelift and I decided on an Arabian Nights theme. I remember my mom's concerned look when I was described I was going for a harem look, but I think I did rather well considering my limited college student budget.

Pretty much how it still stands today. And yes, I did say adios to my Ricky Martin poster.

Our Roommate

One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, and part of why I like it so much is because I think haunted houses are really, REALLY cool. I always loved trick or treating at the few houses that go all out for Halloween -- you know the kind I'm talking about, the ones with the funny tombstones lining the walkway, ghosts hanging from the trees, fog machine, creepy music playing from rocks, maybe a dad dressed as Frankenstein cruelly jumping out from a bush to scare the kiddies, and of course the mom who gives out King Size Kit-Kats!

Needless to say, apartment living for the past 4+ years did not exactly make for an ideal  haunted house setup, but last year, on or around November 1st, I decided to stock up on some sale Halloween items.

Favorite item was easily the skull head I found, but because the holiday was over, I actually just kept him in the back of the car (you know, in lieu of where people generally put stuffed animals), in hopes of warding off potential thieves. Seriously. But I guess one day there was some major pothole, and the skull fell and broke his head.

So we brought him inside and semi-glued him back together.

Not wanting to put him away for good, we found him a home atop our Crate & Barrel sideboard. Year-round creepiness FTW!

So as you can see, he's somewhat happy here guarding our wine along with our 2 fish.

But, sometimes... he gets bored and it's like we don't even know who this dude is.

The smart roommate who leaves the light on bc he's always studying. 

The roommate who wears his sunglasses indoors. Douche.

The roommate who only talks about football, and had a rough season.

The roommate who didn't realize he was a Halloween prop and so decided to dress up for Halloween anyway.

The roommate starring Blair Waldorf.

The hipster roommate.

The hipster roommate who saw Harry Potter (current display).

The ultimate hipster roommate who moved out to Williamsburg anyway.

The Poor Man's Loft

My updates have been far and few between recently because:
a) I was in Cali back to back weeks and didn't have much time to devote to decorating.
b) Said travels have made me poor.


So on that note, I've decided to dedicate an entry to IKEA, the humble furniture store I both hate and love (OK, more like hate).


I will admit, I used to love IKEA because the items were so trendy and so affordable! But with time I've only grown to hate them because the quality is so cheap and shoddy. IKEA is good for things like trash cans and minimalist lighting and basically anything I associate with a dorm. But it has not treated me kindly for more substantial objects like my dresser (2 busted drawers) and old futon.


Still, I occasionally frequent the IKEA Hackers blog because they've got some pretty outrageous ideas for ye standard Billy and Expedit bookcases and the like.


My personal favorites are the:

Bedroom Dress Boys

Because everyone is guilty of tossing their somewhat-used-but-not-quite-ready-to-be-washed clothes around.

Tromso Loft Bed Hack

For those who desire to sleep on top of their closets!

If only I had a really crafty bone in my body, I would attempt both of these.

The Foam Panel Project

I realized that I never put up the step-by-step progress of our wall panel art, so here it is!

Opening up the box of 50 Auralex foam wedges (the kind they use in music recording studios). Mike said they were ugly and we should send them back.

 

Trying to come up with a configuration on the floor first. Did not prove easy with curious dog.

The first prototype.

The worst of it all, the measuring and taping of the panels.

Le painting.

Applying and glueing each foam wedge.

Progress...

And the finished product!

Taking Inspiration from The Office

Not The Office as in Dunder Mifflin, but The Office as in the place where I've been spending 10-11 hours a day lately. For a 9-5 job in New York I don't think that's too bad. (I am jaded, I know.) At the end of the day I really dig this gig, and then I get to come home to le loft, so it's not a shabby deal.


We recently expanded in our building and acquired some space on the 5th floor. It's funky and modern like you'd expect from behemoth tech companies, but the designers have done a good job at throwing in some cool things, like converted bathtubs with glass tops on them as tables, phone rooms designed to look like apartments complete with peepholes and windows, and a floor-wide puzzle based on QR codes found in different conference rooms, kitchens, hallways, etc.


My favorite room though, is the library. If I could just pick it up and transport it to my own home office, I would be set, methinks.

The Mad Men-inspired lounge area.

If I was a feminist maybe I'd suspect they're trying to hint at something here, but I still like the feel of that old-school boardroom-- even if that means my place during that era would be restricted to fetching coffee and gossiping with the other gals by my typewriter.

Upholstered wingback chair, complete with pinstripes and a tie. Benefit: it's also comfy.

Homage to Star Wars on the walls. I particularly like this one of Boba Fett.

Secret hideaway!!! This one is my favorite. The bookcase, shown here swung open, rotates to reveal a mini phone room. I have always wanted a secret bookcase; who doesn't!!! The only downside here is that you can't actually tell if the room is occupied, so the only way to find out is to barge in. Awkward for both parties involved. But in theory, it's cool. And also, there are 3 of them which makes them triple in coolness.

Adventures with Astro-turf

Shaggy throws and carpets seem to be pretty in right now. Some of them look pretty ugly, and scary to clean, but I recently overcame those fears, for free.


One night at CB2, my husband and I shamelessly went dumpster-diving at the back of the SoHo store. We got the idea because we had JUST witness an employee toss out what looked like a carpet, or part of it. (So you germaphobes don't worry, it was like the 5-second rule applied here.) I don't know what the rationale is for throwing out seemingly perfectly good rugs, but nonetheless since it was kind of dark at the time we didn't realize it was actually cut up into shoddy squares.

Not knowing how large the original rug was supposed to be, we only got about 4-5 patches of the fake grass stuff.

A quick visit to the website revealed it was actually much, much larger than we realized:

Anyway, we gave them all a good wash at the laundromat because you never really know about that 5-second rule... Patched them together, and voila -- ASTROTURF!

From left to right: Hive storage unit (CB2), Metropol floor lamp (Pier One), Torka twigs and vase (Ikea), Chunky wood floor mirror (West Elm)

Since all dogs love grass, I was a little hesitant to bring in what would seem like an indoor potty, but Waffle seems content to make it her hangout spot for chewing bones and napping.

But maybe I will test my luck and add this in for fun.