Decorating apartments.

[LolitaHaze]

So... I am in my apartment for at least another year and I finally decided to spring clean, redecorate, and vintagize my apartment... only problem... white walls, silver carpet, grey with brown splatter counter tops and beige cabinetry. It doesn't look as bad as one would think, but for what I want, it won't work. I can't change any of these things, so I must work around them.

I am going to start building up my "home" in the color schemes I want for when I have my own home, but in the meantime I thought I would ask all ya'll if you would be so kind to post photos if you live in an apartment! I don't mean cool apartments that you can paint the walls and have wooden floors and can pretty much make it your own, I mean for those of you who live in a "modern" square box, like me, and who are locked into whatever the hardware you have is.

I will forever be greatful for your vintage inspiration. Any room you have to share would be great.

Thanks.

 

[Lady Day]

www.shelleyj.com

This is my apartment. White walls *ick* but Im lucky to have hardwood floors.

LD

 

[Amy Jeanne]

http://amy-jeanne.livejournal.com/100892.html

*YOU* can see my apartment pics here in my LJ if you haven't already. We also have a horrid beige-y brown carpet, oak cabinets, white walls, and horrid little blue diamonds on our kitchen and bathroom floors. We're not totally vintage, but we do have our touches and have tried our best to work around these impossibilities!!

 

[Pink Dahlia]

I feel your pain!

Oh I would love to have a house to put my wonderful vintage couches in! They've been gathering dust for five years or so.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I feel your pain!

Oh I would love to have a house to put my wonderful vintage couches in! They've been gathering dust for five years or so.

*cough*

send em this way....I have a small bungalow with a couch-less livingroom!


D...who is kidding....really....lol

 

[The Wingnut]

I'm still working on the 'move-in residuals' in my cubbyhole, but it's coming along nicely.

Can't really take any photos right now since it's dark and the shots just wouldn't come out right, but I'll try to get in some shots of the more favorable pieces and areas this weekend when I've got plenty of light.

I've got the ugly gold sparkle formica countertops and cottage cheese ceilings. BLECH. This whole town was a brand spanking new planned community in 1963, so almost NONE of it is old or new, just painfully dated. The key when working with a place like this is to carefully draw the observer's eye away from the living space and more to the set pieces. I got clever with the towels in the bathroom and went with a blue on white scheme, repeating it with pictures and accent pieces. The bedroom is slowly undergoing a transformation to all waterfall pieces, I've got a sideboard, bed, bookshelf and desk to replace still. The filing cabinet, bedside table and dresser are vintage, and I'm getting lamps cheaply off of the 'bay to draw everything together.

There are very few prints on the wall, but I've got some nicely framed pieces (one's being worked on right now). A good frame and mat really do a lot to lend a classy look to both the print and the room. I found some amazingly deco and inexpensive frames at - of all places - Michael's. Carefully selected prints that are what someone living in your target era might have actually put on the wall using what was available at the time do a lot to send the room back in time. Try to stay away from stuff that's 'pop culture retro', such as movie posters or modern exhibits of historic icons. Right now I'm not really adhering to that ideal, as I've only two prints that fit it and the others are magazine covers, event commemoratives, or pictures of myself and friends or the Three Stooges, but I'm working toward it.

I mentioned that I'm buying lamps...lighting is a big part of achieving a feel. Old lamps - unless you're going after deco figurals, big name designers or companies like Frankarts - are CHEAP. I just nailed two off of the 'bay for about $20 each, shipped. One's an amazing red & white stepped / tower deco marble piece, the other is a wood streamline bookend style. A bulb and a carefully selected shade and I'm set. I've got a killer streamline torchiere that is a violation of my 'never retro, always vintage' mantra, but it nails it. I've been toying with the idea of getting two, actually. I'll post pictures.

The living area in the front room is a mishmash right now...I'm waiting on a friend to give the green light on selling me his living room set of a '36 couch, armchair and rocker. So far I've got a green striped Queen Anne couch that's not bad, but not quite what I'm after. It'll pass, though, Queen Anne was pretty much timeless by the '30s. I found the perfect coffee table in a somewhat architectural style that matches my Airline floor model radio.

My kitchen is where I let my standards slide and get trite / kitschy. Hot rod models, soda bottles, car parts, old white gas blowtorches, automotive signs, red & white check tablecloth, so forth. Eventually I'll get serious and go for something more congruent and authentic. I've got a few good starter pieces, though, such as my chrome counter containers and working Son Cheif toaster.

The whole thing is a work in progress, I'm working with a tight budget and on a lot of inherited / donated stuff and only in the past three years started concentrating on getting an overall theme. It's getting there, though.

If you concentrate on acquiring items you know for a fact predate your 'latest target year', it should be easy to pull off a period look. Just give careful consideration to layout and style, and put things together in a manner that showpieces the more remarkable stuff.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

*cough*

send em this way....I have a small bungalow with a couch-less livingroom!


D...who is kidding....really....lol

Oh they're hideous! They are waiting patiently to be reupholstered.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Oh they're hideous! They are waiting patiently to be reupholstered.

You can still sit on ugly........and thats what slipcovers are for.



hehe....I am on the slow lookout for stuff.....I can only buy one big item every few months....so sofa just hasnt made it to the top of the list yet..

But I have a cool stove!

 

[Pink Dahlia]

You do have a cool stove!

Lolita:
I have always had these side/end tables in all my apartments. I feel if I can't do the entire place in vintage than I can a least have a little flair.