New house tour: living room

Shortly after I started this blog about a year and a half ago I began gradually posting a house tour, with detailed shots of where I was living at the time. Now I look at those pictures and cringe a bit--partly because the house got so little light that the picture quality is kind of crappy, but also because they're just not that impressive.

While my new place isn't perfect, I think we've come a long way, such that I think I'm ready to show it off. At the very least, it's a lot more light-filled.

I figured I'd start with the living room, as it's probably closest to being finished. (For now--I still want to replace that coffee table. And maybe the side table.)

You may recall the story of our upholstered couch, and the Nauga monster that Dave gave me for Christmas. I want to make some new throw pillows one of these days, but these'll do for now. (Don't mind the crap under the couch.)

A side table outfitted with a shadow puppet, globe lamp, some pocket notebooks, and the awesome new Dovetail ceramics dish I bought a couple weeks ago at Clay Wood and Cotton. (I had posted awhile back about how I coveted these dishes, so when I saw them in the store I couldn't help but pick one up. You can't tell from this picture but not only are the illustrations great but the plate has a slightly organic shape.)

Okay, enough about that plate. Here's the collage of Gwen Frostic cards that I put together, hanging above my overgrown aloe plant, some Georges Simenon paperbacks, and a stack of postcard sets.

I think I posted a very similar photo of this corner awhile back, but who cares. This has been dubbed the reading corner, although I bet that isn't the comfiest reading chair (it sure is pretty though).

We'd been wanting to buy a credenza for the living room but when we came across this beautiful bookcase at 30 West we were smitten. The top is just the right size for the DVD player and our new flatscreen TV (an impulse/splurge purchase, but I think it was probably worth it).

I filled the shelves with my vintage paperbacks, Paris Reviews, DVDs (I kind of wish that bottom shelf were a little less crowded but c'est la vie), and a few random objects.

A stack of Evergreen Reviews, which I've begun casually collecting in the last year, and Raymond Pettibon VHS tapes.

Here's the sculptura chair that we bought last month at Brimfield, and our puzzle bookshelf. This time instead of pushing the shelves flat against the wall we took advantage of the puzzle aspect and shaped it around the corner. Which looks so much better.

Like the TV stand, I've filled it with some random objects, in addition to the books. Here's an arrangement of printers blocks and wooden carpenter letters.

And that's pretty much it!

The apartment as a blank canvas

I'm finally done with moving stuff in (three weeks later), so I can now concentrate on actually getting set up in my new apartment. Here's how it looked on the first day:

Tons of floor space in the kitchen, though not nearly enough counter space. Luckily we had a separate counter from Ikea from a previous counter-deprived kitchen. Note the first of many, many boxes.

The master bedroom is huge. So huge that I could not get it all in one photo. The built-in shelves are pretty convenient, though the dark wood is a bit ugly (what can you do?). The lack of closet doors ensures that I will have to make sure I always keep my closet neat.

The living room is also pretty spacious.

The second bedroom--or should I say the computer/record/craft room. (It's actually looking like the crafts will be confined to the closet and only brought out when in use, with the crafting corner I had envisioned nixed in favor of seating. Makes sense--you need to be comfortable while listening to your records!)

And finally, the bathroom. I love the black and white tile. The hand-me-down shower curtain has already been replaced with a plastic liner. I'm thinking of getting this curtain--a little pricey for a piece of cotton (in my opinion) but I love the print. It's exactly what I was looking for!

House tour: craft room

Well, this is it, the last room of the house to tour (other than the basement, but who wants to see that?). I guess it's more of an attic/storage room, but I have also adopted it as the craft room. Since I am short, I can at least stand up in the middle of the room, and that is enough for me.

I "wallpapered" the back wall by making many color photocopies of one sheet of patterned paper and affixing them to the wall with double sided tape (it comes off quite easily--so easily that it sometimes falls off, which half explains the blank spot below the window--I can't explain, however, why I cannot find that fallen piece. I have searched many times and it seems to have vanished into the ether).

Here is my sewing/printing surface. It is actually a kitchen counter from Ikea but since this house actually has counters, I did not need it for its original purpose.


Here we start to get to the part where I cringe a little bit. I often see images of other people's craft rooms on blogs. They are very neat and organized and pretty. That is not my craft room, and I don't think it ever will be. I am a hoarder, especially with bits of paper and fabric and other random objects that I can't let myself throw away because I might be able to use it for something, someday.

That said, above you see a few of the boxes stored underneath the counter (which contain supplies), a wastebasket full of rolls of paper in the corner, a tacklebox of art supplies, stool filled with sewing supplies, and a blanket I knitted a couple years ago which is now falling apart. I have been meaning to sew it back together but for now it sits here on top of the sewing stool.

Please don't yell at me. This is my supply of fabric. Well, actually, the lower shelf and the tote bag are filled with articles of clothing that I have been meaning to alter (for instance, Dave will go to throw away a pair of pants because there is a hole in the knee, but I'll think, "Wait, I might be able to make a skirt out of that!") The pieces of store-bought fabric are in the wicker boxes (and the plastic bag...ugh). The moral of the story is that I have to actually start sewing more, so that the volume of stashed items dissipates.

In the other half of the room we have my ironing board (everything to the right of it is just storage stuff--luggage, winter clothes, etc). There are always wires scattered about because of unfortunately placed electrical sockets (i.e. none anywhere near the window). The little rug used to be our bathmat, which I made by knitting together scraps of T-shirts. Now it lives up here, not really serving a purpose, but I like it too much to get rid of it.

Dave's mom gave us this old children's desk, in which I've stored my printing supplies. I reupholstered the desk chair sometime last year after the original cushion split open.


Inside the file cabinet are various documents, ephemera, and papers I've cut out of magazines (for collages, cards, fliers, etc). My rubber stamps and ink pads are inside the Milk and Cheese lunchbox. The Pee Wee Herman dolls are just fun. (Probably should have reassembled the fallen figures before taking the photo. Now it looks like Dirty Dog is doing a headstand and Pee Wee #3 has just fainted and fallen out of Chairy.)

Lastly, here is my yarn stash, sorted by colors, with my Daniel Johnston tapes stacked on top. I wish my guitars could stand upright but the slanted roof does not allow for that.

Well, there you have it. I have revealed my secret hoarding tendencies to the world. For emphasis, I should probably mention that these photos were taken right after I spent hours cleaning and throwing things away, though I did not go through the fabric heaps (and, admittedly, a good sorting out is probably in order).

House tour: kitchen

I realized I hadn't done a house tour post in awhile, so here is the kitchen.

It's another one of those rooms that we obviously don't have much control over, being that we don't own the place. I'm not such a fan of the tile, the cabinets, that peach wall color, and so on. But there are a few cool things in there nonetheless.

For instance, this silkscreened poster we bought a few years ago at the John Waters Dusk-till-Dawn marathon in Baltimore that was part of the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Road Show. There are so many great details from each of the four films in the marathon (I just hope that my mom never looks that closely at it--she might question the awesomeness of the singing asshole).

A few things on top of the fridge. Not sure where the teapot came from (my mom had it for awhile), but the pig (which is really a pitcher but the last few people who have owned it have used it as a utensil holder) has a pretty good story behind it. Allegedly, it belonged to a neighbor of my grandparents when they lived in Jersey City in the 60s. The neighbor died, and her daughter was convinced that the apartment was haunted by the ghost of her mother and refused to set foot inside. I'm not sure how this leads to my grandparents ending up with the pig, but it's a pretty good story, I think (more interesting than the stories of most kitchen items).

Map of Paris monuments in the short hallway between the kitchen and the bathroom.

Further down the hallway is this castiron bird coat rack, which I bought at a nearby antique store.

On the counter we have some knives, Stonehouse California olive oil, a little white bowl of garlic, and a wire basket of onions. The basket was the first thing I bought at the Elephant's Trunk flea market, for $1(!). It was purchased within minutes of entering the place, which definitely got me excited for more scavenging.

The window above the sink, with my new succulents, and a few empty soda bottles (the sill had previously been filled with the bottles, but I think this looks better).

There is a shelf above the sink that is perfect for displaying items, such as these salt and pepper shakers and ceramic pitchers.

More pitchers and shakers.

I've had the table and chairs for about 9 years. I kind of want to update them, but I'm still a little attached.

My new 1962 calendar tea towel hanging on the basement door. I have a habit of not actually using pretty towels for fear of ruining them with food stains (see the one hanging above the window).

A few objects on the table.

We put this bookcase in the kitchen simply because we didn't have room for it anywhere else. It contains most of Dave's books and his broken camera collection.

Now just one room left for the house tour: the craft room.

House tour: bathroom

Since we're renters, we don't have much of a choice about most of the bathroom features. We can't change the tile, the fixtures, the cabinets, the mirror (well, I guess we could change the mirror and put the old one back upon moving out, but we haven't). Thus, most of the room isn't show-off-worthy, but there are still a few small personal touches worth noting.

I made the shower curtain last year and was pretty happy with how it turned out. In hindsight I wish I had waited to find the perfect fabric (I like this one but I could have found one I loved if I hadn't just bought something at the first store I went to) but it was so easy to do that I'm fine with just making another one at some point down the road when I feel like giving the bathroom a makeover. (Considering how small the room is, a new shower curtain does make for quite a transformation.)

After making the curtain I decided a new bathmat was in order so I bought some cotton yarn that more or less matched the curtain and knitted myself a nice striped rug. It works pretty well and washes easily, although it doesn't dry very quickly (hence the wet spots leftover from someone's morning shower).

I can't leave the beach without picking up a few shells or rocks. I've placed a few of them in the windowsill, though I'm not sure if that's too old ladyish.

An arty picture taken using the mirror.

I love our rubber animals--especially the fish, who lights up and starts flashing different colors when he gets wet. It makes bathtime feel like a rave. (Not that I've ever been to a rave.)

I bought this Polyester poster about nine years ago and have been hanging it above toilets for nearly that whole time. It's become a bit of a tradition for me.

I bought this photograph at a thrift store in Austin, and have also been hanging it in my bathroom ever since. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think mine is the one all the way to the left. I've been trying to figure out her name from her bowling shirt but it's a bit hard to read--I'm guessing Marie, although it could also say Nonie.

House tour: computer/record room

I wasn't really sure what to call this room: the record room or the computer room? While yes, it is the room in which our non-portable computer (that is, our least favorite since you can't use it while lying on the couch) is housed, it is also the room where we store our many thousands of records. So it's both, really.

It might be one of the narrowest rooms I've ever seen, so I think we've done a pretty good job of making the most of the space. The round rugs were the perfect solution to the irregularly shaped area we wanted to cover.

The corner desk is also a good space-saving solution.


Two of our coolest posters, right next to each other--an original silkscreened Screamers flyer with the iconic Gary Panter graphic, and reel to reel print from the Post Family.

When I saw this metal TV tray at a junk shop in Salt Lake City, I immediately thought of this project for a magnetic bulletin board, which I'd come across on some blog or another not too long before. It worked perfectly.


I was pretty excited when I found out about the Charles and Ray Eames postage stamps that came out last year, so I made Dave pick up a sheet of them at the post office (apparently he was given weird looks). It looks great next to our robot, purchased at the inimitable Toy Joy.

I have a bit of a weakness for robots. This one kindly sharpens your pencils for you, which then winds him up and sends him on an awkward walk across the desk.

The narrowness of the room prevents me from getting a good shot of the whole record shelf, but nearly all of the spaces in this guy are filled up (mine just take up the bottom shelf), with the rest occupied by various toy record players and the Dave's favorite green Bisley cabinet (perfect for storing flyers and other bits of ephemera).


More records.


One of my favorite sections of the room. The tentacle was another great find in Salt Lake, at the store Frosty Darling. It can be purchased online here. I've got all of my movie-themed paperbacks in the awesome spring-coiled bookend (it uncoils further as you load more books in) that I got on eBay.

An incredible poster for one of my favorite movies.


The old library card catalog was a great flea market find, which Dave has used to store his cassette tapes. I spruced it up a bit with different colored labels.


And finally, another lightswitch plate that I made using an image from one of my other favorite movies. 'Cause who doesn't love Little Edie?