Archive for the ‘decorating’ Category

The Longest Wall – well, if you think 108" is long

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

To the left as you enter the front door of the Brick House there is this long wall leading to the hallway and den. The wall is punctuated by a now defunct floor heater on the right side and needs about 30 inches of clearance on the left for the front door to swing open. So between were the door opens and the heater is there is 108 in. of blank nothingness…


*Sorry this is about the best I could get picture wise…its a small house…and I’m kind of lazy.

This above wall is in the living room and directly opposite the fireplace:

The crude diagram is what I imagine my floating shelves flanking the fireplace will eventually look like – well except less wobbly and turquoise. I want 3 shelves on either side that are 57 in. long by 11 in. deep. There is currently no space designated for books anywhere in the house (and one day I’d like to pull my book collection out of boxes).

I had thought of building a set of floor to ceiling Hungarian Bookshelves on the blank 108 in. wall, but I’m nervous it would be overwhelming and tight right when you entered the front door.

Here are my thoughts and inspiration for that area:
(images via: Apartment Therapy)

I like this open low wall unit shelf thing (here is a detail). I could probably build that pretty easily and cheaply and then be able to hang art above the shelf and use it as a landing strip…

I like these shelves, maybe I could build a shorter version…

I also like this idea of taking Ikea kitchen cabinets and making a low storage unit…

Hmmmmmmm, I just don’t know. I think it will come down to cost and ease of construction…

FILED UNDER: before, decorating, fireplace, living

2 Comments »

ENJE roller shades

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

The Brick House has a hodge-podge of random window coverings throughout. Most of the windows are uncovered and this unfortunately turns my neighbors into unwitting voyeurs. I bought one ENJE roller shade from Ikea to test out on our den window.

Here it is getting ready for install. The cheapo vinyl “wood” blind came with the house, and I’ve been desperate to tear it down.

Before and After.

I like it well enough, but there do need to be curtains… speaking of…


*Before and after – without the ugggglllly blinds.

I took down the blinds in dining room and hung some sheers. I like how the light filters in, now they just need to be washed…

FILED UNDER: after, before, decorating, windows

2 Comments »

Window (shock) treatments

Thursday, July 24th, 2008


I went to the big orange – Home Depot silly – to find out how much it would cost to outfit the Brick House with some solar shades. Wowwwweee its pricey. To cover all my stupid custom windows with delicious white roller solar shades would end up costing about $3000 (without this months advertised 15% discount of course).

Surprise, surprise, I don’t have $3000 just laying around burning a hole in my pocket. Yes, the shades would save me money on my energy bill and be great looking – but I don’t think that I’m going to get any real money out of the Brick House due to its questionable location – so I don’t want to invest too heavily in upgrades I can’t take with me.

Being cheap, I went to the big blue and yellow – Ikea you scamp – and checked out their selection of roller shades. Oh by the way – I hate hate HATE blinds (vertical or horizontal) or shutters – yuck. So I think simple roller shades are my only option besides curtains…or roman shades…but I kind of hate those too…

Meet:

ENJE Roller Blind – $24.99 (34″ x 98″)

TUPPLUR roller shade – $19.99 (32″ x 77″)


I bought one of each to test them out. The winner is Enje – I guess. The Tupplur shade is good for privacy – its much less see through but poorly made and cheap ugly vinyl with a cheap ugly white pull chain that looks like it was made as an elementary school toy (or maybe its just all the warning pictures of choking babies giving me that impression). So its ass is getting returned – pronto.

For mere aesthetics I like the Enje roller blind more, but it has its issues. Its pretty see through at night but opaque during the day. The hanging hardware sticks way out to the side – so it fits in my 34″ window, but there is an inch gap between the window frame and fabric shade – so only the glass is just so slightly covered. I have to mount it to the inside top of my frame so the unit hangs about an inch below were I would want it to. And for some reason my test roller sits a little crooked. Its probably my crooked house, but I demand symmetry!

On the plus side – I think you could really easily cut these Enje shades to a custom size! For my weird sized windows this would be great and I bet you could replace the fabric if you got really fancy – which of course I’ve already started thinking about. So they can be customized pretty easily and I could to do my whole house for only a few hundred dollars. It was pretty easy to install as well, which is always a plus.

FILED UNDER: decorating, windows

4 Comments »