Domino Mag Does Creative, Cheap Rentals

Given the title of my blog, I think it's time I get back to its original purpose a little. Sure, people are flocking here cause they think it's the holy grail of the ever-enchanting Gramercy palace, but without my "clutter" purpose for writing, I think I'm getting a little off track. Don't get me wrong, I love thinking and digressing a whole stupid lot. But I also love projects like de-cluttering and finding cheap, creative solutions to doomed or even just mediocre living spaces.

Evidence: instead of studying for my midterm on bilingualism that I have tomorrow, I'm spending my time a) doing laundry, b) eating myself out of apartment and home, and c) rediscovering cool old bookmarks filed under "For 13YoC." Apparently Domino Magazine is shutting down soon, which is such a shame! The magazine is "the guide to living with style," and this article about decorating your rental place speaks a lot to their mission.

Relevance: we're in a recession, HI. I don't know that this fact necessarily affects me, because my family has always been pretty below-average, and then I became a college student, which automatically meant I became even poorer, as my friend S likes to remind us all, while she goes and gets herself temporarily suspended for protesting the cost of NYU.


But still Domino's slideshow appeals to me, because it applies to so many people right now, and they make cheap look awesome. I especially love their idea of lengthening the look of your sad little workspace, making it into something reminiscent of the tents at my epic 6th grade Greek & Roman activity day.

As a side note: I'm going to start de-cluttering (ha!) my tags, because somehow over the course of the past 9 months, this situation has turned really fruity and whimsical, with tags like "emotional" and "introspection" taking over. I'm just afraid that soon I'll be getting into tags like "existential rainbow speculation" if I don't end this soon.

Sites I Like #8: Des meubles de cuisine à petits prix

Something I've noticed since spending lots of time in my new dream dorm is that, no matter how pretty and clean a place is when it's brand new, it takes a certain amount of effort to keep it looking nice and comfortable. Our kitchen is one place where our filthiness likes to manifest itself. Neither my roommate nor I do the dishes on a regular basis. Unless you could call "whenever we run out of dishes and decide to do them all in one fell swoop" regular. I'm kind of a hypocrite, because of my history with de-cluttering and my manic need for things to be organized in my California home but not in New York. But I feel like I'm allowed to be messy since I'm in college.

Whatever my excuse, our kitchen gets dirty. It's still pretty, but if you actually look at the floors and run a hand along the granite counter top, you might just recoil in disgust. And, instead of cleaning or doing the reading I need to do for Francophone Literature (in which I have an impossible-sounding midterm on Wednesday), I thought I would present you with this wonderful link to pictures of Low-Cost Kitchen Furniture. Enjoy! It's in French, but I mean... all you really need are the pictures. Maybe someday I will translate the blurbs as an exercise for myself, since I'm taking Translation now, but for now... I don't wanna learn. I do what I want! A lot like Mindy Kaling and Cartman.

Dorm Delightfulness on the Cheap

Katherine of BackGarage sent me this really cool article from the New York Times about the creative ingenuity of college students in their dorms. Some of the ideas these people dream up are amazing!

The only thing that makes me cluck a bit at the article is that a lot of the students showcased go to design schools! I mean, obviously they're going to be amazing and put all the rest of us to shame. I wish I had the cleverness they did. But I do think there's something to be said for discovering frugality during the college years.

Personally, I have been spending more money than I'd like to lately. But a lot of it is on necessities like food and shampoo, stuff like that. So I'm not really stretching my budget, per se. However, I can hardly dream of spending anything on design-ish things right now, because I'm all about function over fanciness haha. Make no mistake, though, I would love to have a more personalized dorm space. My current room, as you probably noticed in my post on Gramercy, features two measly posters and a lot of blank wall. I'm just cheap. Furthermore, NYU doesn't allow us (technically) to bring in outside furniture. Whatever, I'm making excuses for my lack of creativity.

For now it's nice to look at the pretty pictures in the article and be jealous of the creativity of others! Thanks so much for the link Katherine!

Wishlist #4: LCD TV

Hey hey it's that time again! That time that hasn't come around for a while because I kind of forgot about it or stopped being greedy. Probably the first, though, since I'm greedy 24/7/52/12/365-6. Anyway, the pictures would all look the same since I'm specifically wishing for a standard flat-screen LCD TV for my fancy apartment dorm in the fall. So I'm just listing my favorite one.

And, to sate your eternal desire for visual aids, I'm listing the top 3 craziest/most awesome TVs I found on the internet today at the bottom of this post. So scroll to your heart's content.

1. Sharp LC19SB24U 19" LCD HDTV - $270

I don't know much about researching these big purchases, but I do know this:

• I have a good, solid, bulky cube of a Sharp 13" TV that has worked pretty well for 8 of the past 9 years I've owned it. So I kind of trust Sharp as a brand.


• I want 19" because my roommate and I have had a disappointingly small TV (similar in bulky cubeness to mine) for two years that makes TV gatherings frustrating. College kids: does this happen to you?? In fact, the two of us talked seriously about getting a new TV for next year. Funny since now we'll be living in the most expensive dorm and neither of us can really afford a new TV but whateva!


• I have spoken. I want this TV. Grey's, 30 Rock and The Office will be oh so much more awesome. I might even start watching House with this glorious TV, who knows. I keep meaning to, but gosh, my TVs right now are just so subpar.

And now! These are not as crazy as I planned! Mostly they are childish! But I know you skipped down here to see what they are, so I present to you: weird TVs!

a. High School Musical TV

Oh HSM. How terrible your actors are. How catchy and stupid your music is. How slutty your stars are. Yet no one can resist you. This TV is kind of awesome, if only for the clever locker storage design and the many brain cells it will suck out of a generation of kids. We can't have them turning out smarter than us, after all. We know only too well how helpless the baby boomers seem in comparison to their kids. What do I click to get Internet? Anyway, there's also an iPod dock.

b. "The Japanese Crazy TVs"

These aren't all that crazy; in fact they're really cute. But I always wonder about the practicality of stuff like this, which you kind of outgrow past oh, twelve, and have to either throw out or declare "quirky" when it's really not. Or I don't know, maybe it is but I don't get it. I could see either of the two TVs on this link in something like Toy Story though. (Incidentally, I hope they don't do any more of those, because I've lost all faith in sequels/etc.)

c. Dynatron

I am so confused by the post stemming from this image, but the caption says that it is "the most expensive TV set manufactured in Britain. Assembled by thousands of highly trained paramecia in 1948, it was called a ‘Dynatron Ether Sovereign’." I enjoy the name and its ridiculous size, so I bestow it on you and your eyes. Maybe you can make some sense out of the link.

Wishlist #three: Wallpaper

Unfortunately, living in an apartment, we are not allowed to do much in the ways of decorating. Consequently, all our rooms feature plain white walls and rather nondescript beige carpets. The kitchen and bathroom have totally fug yellowish-white-and-brown tiles. Bleh. Anyway, I found these awesome wallpapers linked from other sites and I would love to have them to ease the bore factor in our apartment, if we could afford luxuries like prettiness.

1. Heat-Sensitive Wallpaper by Shi Yuan. $?.??

This would be so pretty in a kitchen or bedroom! In fact, I think it would spark some good conversation in any room. The paint is sensitive to heat and gets progressively more colorful with hotter temperatures, "blooming" at 95ºF. I don't think it's on the market yet; it's just an idea by Shi Yuan, a creative and inspired designer, from the looks of that personal site. I think enough people online have expressed interest that it should definitely be considered as a consumer-geared product! I don't know the right term for that. My point is that I would buy it.

2. grow house grow! Christopher pattern in Cornflower. $150/roll.

These wallpapers are so cute! There are only a few options for sale on the site (which is also extremely cute), but they are all perfect. I can just picture them in my room, lending a quiet, subdued splash of color just detailed enough to catch the eye of visitors. The company is based in Brooklyn, which I really want to get to know more when I go back to New York, because it is definitely just as culture-rich as Manhattan but less hectic, at least to the outside observer's point of view.

Ok well my mind got sidetracked thinking about going back to New York, instead of about wallpaper, and these were really the only two links I had (wallpaper ain't that exciting, really), so the end!

Fancy Box How-To

After charging my camera batteries for around 815 hours, I have photos ready for a little tutorial. Keep in mind that I am only slightly creative at best, and my execution is kind of horrible. But the idea is what really counts: taking ugly old moving boxes from when you moved 13 years ago (hey hey) and making them look semi-decent so you can use them as storage anywhere in your house! This project is also good if you have over 50 rolls of wrapping paper that you need to use for something. Click the photos for bigger versions.

1. The box.



This is what my bedroom closet looked like before I cleared it out - I de-boxed the top shelf and I de-clothed about half the clothes rack, and I de-crapped the floor. The boxes were still hanging around after all that, somehow, so I came up with the project I will now demonstrate via pictures.

2. Wrap it like a present.



I estimate my boxes to be around 8x13x8, so the wrapping paper didn't quite fit perfectly on each side (you'll see this more in later pictures). But you can start by just laying the box on top of the unfurled roll and cutting it so that the paper covers each of the wide sides. I then folded the extra paper onto the inside of the box and taped it there.

3. Cut diagonally at the box corners for easy folding.



Just make little snippies at the inside corners of the box, so when you fold the paper up over the remaining sides of the box, you don't get paper bunchies. Have some yummies as a snack, maybe rub your tummy, listen to your munchies go crunchy. K I'm stopping.

4. Now fold the new extra paper in like before.



The remaining two sides of your box should now look like this on the inside. Keep in mind you can also use a square box or any other shaped box if that's what you have on hand and want to fancify.

5. When you fold up those two remaining sides of the paper, you should get a triangle-like shape down at the bottom.



This is a little tricky to explain, but hopefully you can use your present-wrapping skills, along with the photo, to figure out what I mean. If you need to, go back to where we made those snippies at the corners. Now pick up the tips of the paper that's hanging off the side of the box and bring them in to meet the center of the box side. Folding over the paper onto the inside, with the help of our snippied part, tape that extra paper down to secure it. Now smooth out the doors of paper you just made against the box; you should get something like the triangle I have here. If you're better at wrapping presents, then you'll get well I don't know what you'll get, just move on, you queen of present wrapping. Whateva.

6. Fold up that triangle.



Easy as pie. Now just tape that pie slice (the triangle) up to the side of the box. Smooth out any weird paper waves.

7. Be "creative" and cover any mistakes you made.



Since I'm not the queen of present or box wrapping, I had an ugly strip of my old box showing, and the triangle was shorter than I expected. So I took out some old poster board I've had since high school and made this little strip. I did it on both sides because I like symmetry. You don't have to like symmetry, but you also don't have to call me up in the middle of the night when your ugly box is haunting you from the closet.

8. Wrap the box top.



Pretty self-explanatory. I just barely had enough paper left on this dying roll to do each short side of the box top. My creativity knows no bounds, so for the top...

9. ...Be creative. Always.



I used more of that same poster paper to cover up the still-hideous top of the box. Got many different paper media used up that day! Success.

10. Labels!!



Labeling is important, as I've said before. So do something sorta makeshift or whateva. You can see how laughable my own writing and labeling is here (I didn't have enough room for the word "contents" so I cheated in a very erudite manner by making it French - "contenu"). Do your own thing. Or copy mine. Better, though. Of course.

Tell me your project ideas! And link me to photos (completed projects or incomplete, doesn't matter) if you want. I may even try them for myself. Better, though. Of course.

Wishlist #two: Coffee Tables

Well, I was going to post a how-to tutorial on the wrapping paper box I made at 10 last night, but my frickin camera batteries are dead again. So instead, I will do another wishlist. Keep in mind that I dream these up pretty much on the spot as I noodle around the interwebs.

We currently can't even see our coffee table, but what I remember of it is that it's black and low, with a glass surface, and I don't like it much. None of the furniture in our apartment matches or goes with any sort of theme, so lately I've been dreaming up color schemes and themes for when we're organized enough to have them. I'm thinking black furnishings to complement our dirty-cream sofa (read: dirty and once-cream-colored sofa) and chairs in the living room.

1. Ikea Ramvik Coffee Table. $129.

Last time, the first item was the one to inspire the entire post. This time, this was just the most affordable/realistic item I happened upon first. Ikea always wins my heart. I like this black color and the rather inconspicuous design. It also has drawers and space inside for all the crap we would inevitably need to hide in it. (Given open surfaces, we tend to make chaos. You'll see when I post about the kitchen someday.) Plus, that little space on the bottom could be a nice spot for some well thought-out shelf design-ness, like trinkets or something kitschy like that. The only thing I don't like about it is its bulk, especially compared with some of the next few items.

2. Room and Board Nelson Bench. $629-$764.

I love this! Room and Board was the sponsor of Apartment Therapy's "Small is Cool" contest that I mentioned last time, and the winners received prizes from them, which is so so lucky. I think this "bench" coffee table is a little too cutting edge for our apartment's motif, but I still love it, and would love to ogle it in someone else's house, even. That's how selfless I am! I accept the fact that I can't afford (both stylistically and financially) certain things, but I allow others to purchase them so I can admire the dreams I gave up.

3. Room and Board Halo Cocktail Table. $330-$1479.

First I have to wtf at their listed price. How does that variance happen? I may be confused by the fact that this link lists the item as the "base" of the table, but still. Anyway, I think glass always looks classy (if done right I guess), and tends to go with whatever decor you already have. Honestly I have no idea what I'm saying; I've never furnished a home. Don't listen to me. I just think this Halo table is really pretty, and I love the name. It's like angels are resting their heads beneath your living room floor. And who doesn't want that? Unless you've got some real assfaces living downstairs.

4. Spacify Arena Coffe Table. $1870.

Annnd absurd item of the post. This beautiful cylindery table is just so... shiny. It comes in black, too, but I couldn't find a picture. This price is so insane, though! Do people really spend that much on a big white slab of table? I guess they do if they're concerned with buying products that are made in Italy. Italy is sooo romantic blah blah blah. It's a table! It doesn't know where it was born! I could put my butt on it and it wouldn't care! Is that really worth $1870? Whateva. The point is, I actually really want this piece of crap.

Thanks to:
- DesignBloggers (Arena)

Sites I Like #3: Apartment Therapy "Small is Cool"

For many eons (at least 24 months - hey, you gotta admit, that's a lot of months) I've been unearthing an interior design fetish of mine. I prowl the internets in search of what a friend of mine once accurately dubbed "real estate p." You can guess what the "p" means. Google cannot. Take that, dirty old men on the internet at work.

Anyway, I somehow came across this gem, our Site I Like #3.

Today's site: Apartment Therapy's "Small is Cool" Contest 2008

All my obsessing is a little on the easy-to-decipher side if we're talking Freudian: clearly, these spaces inspire me and my grand plans for the day that I am rich enough to move out and live in a real-estate-candy big city like San Francisco (home to the insane kitchen at right, here) or New York. Ok, maybe I'm just biased in favor of those two cities. But to be fair, Apartment Therapy's contest site has some great entries from all across the nation, all respectable and even drool-worthy.

The main idea of the site's contest was to show just how much you can do with a small place. It gives me hope, because our apartment is definitely the definition of that. And some of these people have risen to the challenge of such small quarters in ridiculous, awesome ways. Look at this incredibly ace loft from Seattle. I don't know about you guys, but I've wanted a loft ever since I knew what it was. Maybe I'm naive, but I think it would be so fun.

I do understand that it takes patience and a plan to decorate and design the way these people do, but I'm hoping to steal some inspiration from their lovely, Internet-published homes and make ours just as great. It's certainly going to be a lot of work, since my mom hasn't done a whole lot of her own part around her for several days. Guys, you should all understand that this is a very difficult task. It's easy enough to start a blog and say that, but to look around at your messy digs every day and know that you and one other person have to undo all the years of laziness you put on yourself... that is tough.

Luckily, I spend all my time gazing at photos of beautiful homes for inspiration. Shoot. Back to work...

Wishlist #one: Bookcases

I have big dreams. Big dreams of my dream house. Dreamy dreams about my dream house of dreams. Since that's a pretty big dream, I often settle for having small dreams, too. Things I want include storage units, aesthetically pleasing decorative objects, and better, sleeker appliances/electronics. I guess when you add all that up, it turns into just another big fat dream. Whatever! Here's a book storage wishlist.

1. Bruno Rainaldi Sapen Bookcase, Design Within Reach. $220 small, $330 large.


I saw this in a post on OurBedrooms, a Livejournal community, and it looked so amazing that I knew I had to have it. One day my vertebral book heaven will come. When you fill it up completely, the shelf seems to be invisible, and it looks like you just stacked all your books (up to 70) all neat and tidy on your own. Very impressive. I definitely prefer this over my current bedroom bookcase situation: a white two-shelfer as old as I am, in an ugly white plastic-feeling adfljlkj I need to stop describing it because it sounds as awful as it is.


2. Brave Space Tetrad Bamboo Set. $1,000 for 5-piece set; $2,000 for 10-piece set.

This one is completely unrealistic for me, but everyone loves Tetris. And, most people like books (maybe the two exceptions are struggling Kindergarteners and the boy from my high school who listed his favorite books as "I don't like to read" on Facebook). So what better idea than to combine them? The z-shaped ones seem a little impractical to me, but I bet books look awesome in them. You can stack the individual shapes however you like!


3. Ikea Linnarp Glass Door Bookcase. $100 per 2-piece set. Black, red, or pine.


Ikea - affordable, chic sellers of home furnishings and hot dogs. I like this style for many reasons other than the price: it keeps your books dust free while also hiding them slightly (books are still visible) from the sight of critical dinner guests. Also, I just find this incredibly classy - I picture a sophisticated British surgeon opening the Linnarp bookcase in a white sitting room, looking over his wire-rimmed glasses to find Gray's Anatomy, shutting the door with a gallant click, and raising his finger, ready to explain the workings of the liver. Yummy.

4. Nils Holger Moormann Bookinist book chair. 2.187€ (about $3,407 and yes I used the European currency notation used in France and Germany. I think.)

I wanted to slap on a completely tacky bookcase as the final item in my list, but Google kind of failed me people are probably too embarrassed to post such things on the Internet, and everything I found while searching for "tacky bookcase" was utterly awesome. This thing looks horribly uncomfortable, but it has a wheel for reclining (label: "Not for highway use" - those Germans crack me up) and a place to store your Moleskine! So freaking European. I love it.

Thanks to:
- Design*Sponge book storage roundup (Sapien, Tetrad)
- BoingBoing archives (Bookinist)