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.

I Spoke Too Soon

When I posted the entry about the round bed, I jinxed myself. Yes it was definitely a "want to have" but it was by no means a "need to have." Alas, we discovered in the middle of the week that our current bed is actually broken. And so now, we need to buy one.

The supports had always been pretty wobbly and we tried reinforcing them several times before, but now they just refused to nail back into place and stand upright. Cheapness.

Sadly, in the name of household practicality, I made Mike return his birthday gift to me, a MacBook Pro, so that we could now have the funds to purchase a new bed. Oh joy. LOL.

How this BED is BAD (and yes, I know that Waffle has managed to weave her way into yet another blog entry):

1) You can clearly see that the SLATS are SLANTED.

2) Waffle has decided that this is her new favorite sleeping spot. That is potentially quite deadly.

3) The horizontal wood frame part has also started to curve.

4) It's dusty under there.

Another view of the very sturdy supports. Nothing like knowing you're sleeping on angled wood, so angled in fact that it doesn't even touch the ground.

So we decided, eff this -- let's just remove the mattress.

Post-removal. Mike had a terrible headache that day. He'd also been having problems falling asleep, which in hindsight were probably due to our caved in bed.

 

I offered him aspirin, but then I realized it had expired in September 2005. Luckily we had Tylenol.

So for now, in true new homeowner style we just have the mattress on the floor. I have to say, it's quite incredibly comfortable (and by comfortable, I mostly mean not caved-in). The search is on for a new bed but I'm surprisingly not in a huge rush to buy one.

That being said, I have been doing a fair share of online searching and while I have yet to pull the trigger on any bed, I am really feeling this one (with storage!):

Then comes the wedding display..

Being of a very digital era, I have literally no photos to display except my wedding proofs and pictures of my dogs, and I also have no desire to physically print out anything else.

However I really found these shadow-box photo frames from Crate & Barrel to be quite cool. I like that they're thick and pop out, ha ha.

I decided that the new place needed a bit of a newlywed touch to it. The only slight problem was that as soon as the wedding was over (meaning: once everything was paid off), I had filed away all wedding-related papers and stored all the extra materials like ribbons, craft glue (lolol), etc. into this aptly-named box:

Check out my awesome bubble writing! That's what 12 years of Catholic school will teach you. Anyways, I dug through the box's contents and sought out the good old wedding invitation. I briefly recalled the long meetings (plural!) we had with the designer, as well as my awesome idea to not just mail them out in regular envelopes, but to place them in BOXES, not just any boxes but boxes with said ribbons. A far craftier and lengthier endeavor than suited my not-so-crafty self. (I spent weeks researching square boxes online for goodness' sake.) The end result:

And the end result for the nifty placement in the frame:

Gotta love those purposeless wavy silver things too. But wait, there's more! I also framed the Save-the-Date.

Mike really liked these potted grass thangs from Crate and Barrel, and I really like green accents as you can tell, so we ended up with 3 of them.

The picture on the left frame needs no further explanation. With everything thrown on my beloved Lazzoni sideboard, a cheerful painting of modern-who-knows-what placed above it, and the most practical coat rack, I give you my final shot of the "Entryway of the Newly Wedded." Accent paint color, still TBD.

 

I was actually really trying to get Waffle out of the last photo, but she's such an attention hog.

Preppy Closet

Well they say that art imitates life, so if that's the case, then we have successfully transformed the plain master bedroom closet into my husband's polo shirt.

The inspiration:

Meet old striped American Eagle shirt

Meet new striped closet