One day while walking to the subway stop with a friend, she offhandedly mentioned that she’s waiting until Mr. Right shuffles in off the prairie before she’ll invest any effort in a happy home life. I picked up my jaw, followed her into the train station, and pretended to take it in stride.
Let’s remember, I’m a Cancerian home goddess. For all you astrology-phobes out there, that just means I nest well. For all my time dancing around the living room to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” I’ve yet to hold off making a house a home. Who cares what your situation is? Whether you have roommates, occupy a super-tiny studio space, or live with a partner/spouse with opposite or no taste at all, you should always care about your home.
Just because you haven’t figured out that sandpit called the “rest of your life” doesn’t mean you can’t have a sweet and warm place to call home for now. Treating your house like a hotel is a bummer. So let’s try to figure out some ways to do real-life living in your place—by both structural and simple homey home solutions. Let me pull down the rolling map atop the chalkboard and get my pointer out.
What’s in a Name?
Guess what you’re supposed to do in the living room? Live! Well, technically, I suppose the living room is for show—fancy pillows and uncomfortable furniture included—and “real life” happens in the family room or den. Whatever. I have one big room. I get one shot at a living-and entertaining-oriented space. I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re in the same situation.
Many of us treat our furniture like decorations. We labor over getting monster-sized couches, complicated chairs, and flat-pack IKEA furniture accompanied by not-as-easy-as-it-looks illustrated directions for assembly. These items only seem to produce dust and stubbed toes rather than that cozy home effect. Since you probably only get one area to work with, how can we make it a place where both you and guests feel at home?
The Method:
Distract and Delight
Let’s face it, your shitty apartment is not how you define yourself. If that were the case for me, I’d be ancient and falling apart. And let’s also be clear: for the millions of us renting apartments and houses out there, our home design palettes are fundamentally limited (read: flawed), and we are not going to be the ones to fix them.
My house was built in 1892. I don’t have doors on all the cabinets in my kitchen. My countertop, yellow Formica with faux silver trim, makes me feel like a failure if I pay it any mind. My range sits in the original cooking fireplace for the whole brownstone, dating back to when the servants’ quarters were our ground-floor apartment, and the enclave has been thoughtfully painted fire engine red.
My linoleum kitchen floor, new upon our move-in a year ago, sports wear trenches and creases where plywood plank seams threaten to swallow us into the basement. No amount of paint and scrubbing will turn my house into one like those featured in do-it-yourself design magazines or HGTV budget-friendly apartment rehab shows.
For all the flaws, there are a few rather charming features that I play it up like it’s no one’s business: the original parquet flooring and intricate crown molding, which are still intact. The rest is up to my décor and style, distracting people from the house’s shortcomings and delighting them with vivid colors and fun textures.
Design and Décor for Beginners (Like Me)
I must make a confession. It never occurred to me to open a home décor or design manual before now, as I try to put my style—one that captures visitors’ hearts—into words. After looking into it, though, it turns out that there are tons of resources out there for those without an innate sense of style and spatial relations, or for those of us lacking the ability to competently discuss it.
Living rooms are a dime a dozen. Shapes, sizes, and situations all vary, but one thing is common to all: you need to set up a place for at least two people to sit, facing each other. You can’t have a conversation when you’re both facing the same way (toward a television).
I’m not going to pretend that I know your unique furniture conditions, such as room shape and size, or personal habits, so I won’t prescribe individual solutions here. That’s what Apartment Therapy or HGTV is for. You can also check out the “Resources” section at the end of this chapter for shopping tips, books, and blogs that might help you with major structural or design-oriented matters. My advice serves to generally help you adjust your home with small steps.
The Three R’s:
Reclaim, Repurpose, Revamp
Since living rooms are all about sitting, let’s use the couch as the canvas for examples of putting these handy methods into practice. Surely you’ll recognize this predicament: the grown-up couch versus the college futon—when and how to make the switch? Use your budget or desired level of involvement as a guide on this. One thing is for sure: you’ll be inviting a pal over to help you put that metal-framed black futon on the curb.
RECLAIM. Post your ugly futon on Craigslist, under either “Free Stuff” or “For Sale” (depending on how much wear and tear your college years expended upon it). Craigslist is my favorite tool for furniture ridding and replacing on the cheap. There’s someone out there who wants what you no longer want, and vice versa; your perfect couch dreams just might be answered through online classifieds. When it’s time to pick out a new piece, do some hunting through gently used options before braving the IKEA maze.
REPURPOSE. Create a couch effect from things that are not normally considered couchy. Check out operations like Habitat for Humanity ReStores to purchase reclaimed items—components and materials that are salvaged from renovations and demolitions. You might find all the windowpanes you’ve ever dreamed of, an old church pew, or a theater row. (I don’t recommend sitting on the windowpanes, though!)
REVAMP. If your budget begs to differ with your couch evolution goals, you can compromise with a grown-up futon. Swap your old one for a wood-framed futon and dress it up with a simple, elegant slipcover (a roughly $40 purchase from any big-box home store). Another option is to purchase a basic coverlet, like the subtly patterned ones featured at Urban Outfitters, and tuck it snugly around your futon. Both coverlet and slipcover are easily thrown in the washing machine, too. If you’re stuck with a futon, at least you get the consolation prize of still being able to accommodate sleepover guests, for those of us sans spare bedrooms.
Have a Seat:
Living Room Lowdown
Does your living room encourage life forms to take a load off? Is the act of sitting down in your living room a natural process? Or would you cram yourself into a middle seat on the subway—between occupied end seats—before sitting anywhere in your house besides your bed?
Let’s get touchy-feely for a minute. If we were doing a scientific experiment, this would determine your control group.
Step 1: Walk into your living room.
Step 2: Look around. Where can you sit? Couch, chair, floor?
Step 3: Note any obstructions to happy sitting, such as coats, newspapers, or (gasp) dirty dishes.
Step 4: Once sitting, note the view—a wall, table, window.
This is a great time for a flow chart! Everyone’s situation will be slightly different, and each course of action somewhat specialized. Your goal is to facilitate a welcoming sitting atmosphere. There are two quick ways to get that process started:
- Set furniture up so that people are facing each other.
- Put your TV on the curb (or hide it).
If you would like a refresher on what people did before televisions became the focal part of our living rooms (and lives), pick up any Victorian novel. Those industrious folks had a lot of time on their hands (they had servants), so they perfected the art of self-improvement, entertaining, and hosting. I suggest Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to get you going.
Boob Tube Camouflage
The TV debate is a real biggie. If you are fine with establishing an altar to TV, then skip this section for now. Otherwise, forget the usual self-righteousness that comes along with the anti-television crowd; let’s focus on the fact that it’s an eyesore, plain and simple. Who wants a massive flat-screen as the centerpiece of their living area? Or a rotund dinosaur perched in the corner of the room?
You may not have final say on what happens in your living room if you live with roommates, your girlfriend/boyfriend, or a spouse, but all hope is not lost.
An obvious first choice for hiding that unsightly screen is a special cabinet or shelving unit that gives your TV a top-secret double life, making it disappear into a wall or slide down inside a hidden drawer. But, really, who has that kind of thing, or an extra $3,000 to spare on furniture? You’re lucky if you’ve made the upgrade from a garage-sized boxy CRT television to a flat-screen, or so I hear.
Investigate the vintage furniture circuit described later in this chapter and you might find a cool-looking, potentially affordable armoire to tuck that TV out of sight. A friend of mine’s husband is an industrial designer and he transformed their TV stand into a real piece of art. It’s the same sort of tactic as the distract-and-delight method: absorb the TV into the larger art of the stand.
Consider resting a lightweight piece of artwork against your TV when you’re not watching it. Not having enough wall space might actually help solve the TV problem, too.
Bright Lights, Fancy Lamp
You already know that localized lighting is where it’s at. There are a number of ways to infuse your living room (and other areas of the house) with fancy lighting. Track lighting is likely out of the question (it involves probing around in the ceiling, going to IKEA, and/or following directions that may or may not give guidance). If you’re not up for a rewiring project or couldn’t afford that antique chandelier in the first place, make your own fancy lamp out of stuff you have lying around the house.
DIY lights localization project essential tools:
A (preferably) metal basket-like object
A drop-hanging light cord, usually about $4
A compact fluorescent bulb
Two to four clothespins
One large sheet or multiple smaller sheets of pretty paper (try wrapping paper, wallpaper, fancy stationery store paper, or even a piece of pretty cloth)
I advise using only compact fluorescent bulbs since they don’t get as hot as regular, energy-gobbling in-candescents; you don’t want to set your pretty paper or guests on fire.
This project can go in two different directions:
Objectify. Suspend the lightbulb in the middle of a show-off-worthy object, like a pretty birdcage. Wrapping and looping the lightbulb cord around the top of the object is an easy, hardware-free way to suspend the bulb evenly in the middle. Hang your new object lamp or place it strategically on a shelf. Learn more about the art of hanging things from the ceiling in Chapter 7. Note: If you’re setting your crafty lamp on a shelf, make sure your lit bulb is not resting against any part of the object.
Cover-craft. If you’re using a mundane metal object, fancy it up with pretty paper or cloth. I’m using a hanging vegetable basket as an example of a hangable metal object (something like it is always available at the thrift store), but you can use any circular or square metal object (like a filing bin for the desktop). Drop the lightbulb and cord down through the middle and either suspend them from one of the basket tiers or just set them in the basket. Wrap your cloth or paper around the rack and secure it with the clothespins. I would not leave this lamp setup on when you’re not home, but you wouldn’t do that anyway, would you? The electric bill isn’t paid by fairies!
Safe Disposal of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Never throw spent compact fluorescent bulbs in the regular garbage. They contain mercury, which will end up in our groundwater if the bulbs are not disposed of properly. Some retail and hardware stores allow you to drop off used bulbs for safe disposal. Learn about the many ways to get rid of household hazardous waste in the “Resources” section of Chapter 5.
Now, Test Your Work
Invite a friend (roommate, spouse) to sit down with you in your living room. Make coffee or tea and see if it feels natural to be sitting there. If possible, select someone who doesn’t know how odd it might feel to be sitting in your house. We are creatures of routine, so someone who is used to viewing your house as a drive-through might not realize its new comfort right off the bat. For best results, repeat this test as many times as possible.
This also serves as a practice for self-sufficiency: you made something yourself, to be consumed by yourself (and others).
Explore Chapter 10 for other ideas for getting test sitters into your space, including hosting a book group, tea party, or another event to bring other humans into your space and practice using your furniture and lighting.
Love Your Stuff
Home swag, knickknacks, and curios are all highly personal matters. If you must have them, it’s key to factor them into larger design schemes. My beloved won’t part with a pair of amber-colored glass mushrooms. I can’t stand the things, but I love her, so I’ve compromised on allowing them to be displayed in our bedroom (a little-visited area of the house) in the corner of the windowsill. The outside glare hits them in the early afternoon, making them almost pretty, plus they sort of coordinate with the teardrop-shaped turquoise glass vase that we brought home from Oaxaca and which hangs in that same window.
I’m not an interior designer, nor a home décor specialist. I just like pretty things. I like to surround myself with things that make me happy. That’s it! As our old pal William Morris said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” If something’s beautiful to you, find a way to make it work.
Our house is a museum of enchantments. My style translates to: if it’s old, I’m all over it. So I’ve given prominent placement to our living room swag (items that elsewhere would be gathering dust). Obviously, you should use your favorite things. But to give you a feel for what I’m describing, here are a few of mine proudly on display:
Typewriters (five in total)
Cameras (at least twelve)
Books (I’ve lost track)
One vintage washboard
A few old-timey soda and milk crates
Shopping and Scavenging Like a Pro
Craigslist is where I look first for furniture and other major purchases. I don’t buy these things new because I can’t afford them. Who’d have thought you could go to one website to find a job, an apartment, and cheap furniture?
Flea markets and citywide garage sale events are iffy but have a lot of potential. Notice the clientele: old people (good) or hip, young people like yourself (bad). Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about hipster flea markets, but you’re not going to get an exceptionally good deal on furniture or major pieces at these types of events. They’ve already done the sorting through crappy furniture to find the antique-y, cute pieces for you, hence you’ll pay a premium. Try to home in on vendors who specialize in certain things and then buy other things from them—that is, look for kitchenware or curios from vendors who primarily offer linens or clothing, and vice versa; that’s where the deals lie. Don’t be afraid to offer a lower price. The worst a vendor might say is no, and there’s no harm done.
Thrift stores have a needle-in-a-haystack nature to them; everyone who walks into one must hone their vision. Thrift shoppers must train the eye to find that one cute thing among the many un-cute things piled up everywhere. Rarely do I leave a thrift store, though, without some sort of prize for my scavenging efforts. Some stores will be more stocked and/or picked over than others depending on location and the neighborhoods that feed them and which have access to shopping in them.
Estate sales are usually advertised in the newspaper or by signs hung around a neighborhood. Estate sales are usually coordinated by a company hired by a family who needs to sell the property (and its contents) after an elderly loved one passes away. It might sound creepy to be rummaging through evidence of unknown years of strangers’ lives, but you can think of how you’ll give their belongings a lifetime of new memories. I’ve found great deals on vintage kitchenware, canning jars, linens, books, and excellent collage materials (old sheet music, newspapers from ye olden days, 1950s magazines with funny ads) at estate sales.
Anthropologie’s sale room is every scavenger’s dream when you need something new. Items are all unused and gorgeous. There are real bargains to be found here.
Curbside trash should not be underestimated. What’s that expression? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure? People throw things out for all kinds of reasons, and many times it’s because they just don’t want the item (or no longer have room for it). You can pick up perfectly good things awaiting new homes. Finding an antique washboard on my way home—one that vendors at the local hipster flea market would sell for at least $75—gave added purpose to a baby-blue painted wooden chair we found on the curb weeks prior, two prizes that complement each other nicely!
Another Roadside Attraction:
Decorating with Found Objects
My affinity for roadside trash really pays off in the home department. It’s in my genes. Grandma Mannie got her scavenging savvy growing up in the Midwest during the Depression; hunting through trash bins behind grocery stores was not uncommon during those hard years for her and her seven brothers and sisters. Now, with no need for such drastic scavenging measures, my gram hunts around for cool furnishings that people leave out for trash. We chat about major scores every couple weeks over the phone; I giggled the other day when she told me how she leaned into the dumpster behind her apartment to snag the cute (and perfectly good) wooden magazine rack someone had pitched.
Wooden objects are common, and my favorite kind of roadside find. Old pieces of wood tell stories about the past, and in turn tell stories about your home to visitors. Wood instantly transforms your pristine and perhaps too hygienic home front into a modernist’s pastoral playground. Wooden objects painted vibrant colors also serve as a fine distraction from structural disasters. You’ll read how wood can transform an outdoor space, like a boring metal fence, into a spot with a homey and sweet atmosphere in Chapter 4.
Keep your eyes peeled for great items in the categories below on walks through your neighborhood or on special days (like bulk trash pickup in fancy neighborhoods):
Windowpanes are jackpot finds. They make great room dividers—either hung from the ceiling (if your ceiling will support it) or by using their hinges and affixing them directly to a wall. I’ve used a particularly rustic square frame in place of a vanity mirror above my dresser. If the glass is not intact or if you’re looking to make the frame lighter for hanging, you can carefully break out the remaining glass.
I make a point of stalking picture frames of all sizes and shapes wherever I go. Setting something simple and elegant—like a glass bottle sporting a dried flower or two—in front of an open-back picture frame is a cheap and unique way to add character to your home.
Wood scraps that sashay from one brightly painted color to the next, or anything wooden that looks like it washed in with the tide. After a quick trip to the hardware store, cool scraps can be made into an array of interesting and handy things, like coat racks or key holders. Major projects (involving saws and people who know how to operate them safely) can also leave you with room dividers, tabletops, and other marvels of modern carpentry.
Abandoned cabinet or full-sized doors are fab finds for two reasons. One is the scavenged handle or drawer pull opportunity. I found a chic turquoise door handle on a ratty seventy-year-old door when neighbors on my block made renovations. Another cool thing to do with cabinet doors is to spruce them up with a layer of paint or a two-color scheme and use them as a cover for an unsightly view—a blank corner of a room, the backside of a room divider, or the lid of a storage unit.
Old shop shelves (sturdy pieces of wood with angle brackets screwed to one side) make a great out-of-the-way entryway table for keys and curios. Use salvaged fence posts or other cool pieces of scavenged wood to create your own unique shelving.
Tables, chairs, and other furniture pieces (more advanced finds). We picked up a vintage wooden dresser with gorgeous ornate engraving, totally free.
Word to the Wise
Be sure to break glass out of old multipaned windows over a tarp or thick paper roll so you can easily (and safely) collect shards. Place glass shards in a sturdy cardboard box and seal before dumping them into the trash bin to keep broken glass from injuring yourself or sanitation workers.
I once moved across the country with seven old windowpanes and a stack of orange fence posts that achieved higher priority in our tight minivan moving situation than the blender, measuring cups, stereo speakers, and my slightly functional art desk. That mass-produced stuff is replaceable; the found stuff is one of a kind.
Don’t get me wrong, not every roadside relic is going to work in your house. Some of these items may, in fact, just be trash. The key is differentiating diamond-in-the-rough status from irreparably rough. And, of course, you have to have the carrying capacity (arms or wheels) to get the prize home.
Avoid wooden objects that display any of the following features:
Rotting or disintegrating planks. A good piece of wood should be able to hold a nail without splintering off and breaking in two.
Something that needs a ton of work (that you don’t know how to do yourself). This will inevitably stress you out.
Particleboard. It was awful when they bought it new, and it’s even worse used. Just walk on by that wood-like composite.
Make Your House Work for You
Working with what you already have is every thrifty house maven’s secret weapon. Add the following special touches to upgrade what’s already working. And feel free to forget the structural stuff, the home project headache, for the time being.
Hip Trick
Use a few non-matching vintage picture frames to display pretty paper, such as gift wrap, wallpaper samples, old maps, pages from magazines (National Geographic, Arizona Highways, and Texas Highways are some of my favorites), or illustrations from antique-y or fashionable calendars. Tie the quirkiness of the different frames together by painting them the same color, like white, a shocking red, or some other color that connects to your décor. Not only will it make that section of your wall pop, but paint will hide any chips or scratches in the old frames.
Flowers
It’s nice to have fresh flowers in the house, but when you’re choosing between groceries and tulips, the decision is a no-brainer. Compromise and buy fresh flowers on days you’re not restocking TP and laundry detergent. Specifically look for ones that dry prettily and keep their color. Jagged or ridged flowers keep their color in drying, whereas flowers with thin petals, like roses or gerbera daisies, for example, are more likely to turn brown or fall off as they dry. You will want to hang the flowers upside down so they dry straight. My favorites for long-term display are generally members of the amaranth family, the most common being the globe amaranth flower. Deemed the “never-fading flower,” these are of Brazilian origin, and come in lots of different colors—violet, red, yellow, white, and pink.
Other kinds of long-lasting flowers to look for:
Cockscomb
Mealy blue sage or lavender
Statice
Special-occasion flowers (not great at drying well):
Freesia makes a perfect pick-me-up. It smells divine, and its stems fit nicely in skinny bottle top openings, two or three to a bottle. You can spread a single bouquet around the house for fragrance all over.
Tulips. Everyone loves tulips; Michael Pollan has an entire section about them in his book The Botany of Desire.
Hydrangeas are pure luxury. They get droopy after a while, but we all need something fancy every now and then.
Flowers not only add color and texture to your room, but also, and perhaps more important, provide the opportunity to showcase your vase taste.
Cover Your Vases
Look for vintage glass bottles when you go to flea markets, estate sales, or thrift shops. They make excellent vases for spreading small portions of a bouquet around the house.
Save your small glass bottles—like San Pellegrino’s Aranciata bottles—or buy a couple of Mexican Cokes (a real delicacy in the United States because they’re made with plain ol’ sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup) and save these taller-than-usual glass bottles. Skinny, small-mouth bottles make great vases for flashy single flowers.
Use mason jars (pint-or quart-sized) for displaying full bouquets. You’ll likely need to trim the stems so the vase doesn’t tip over, though.
Contain Your Joy
When you’ve left your flowers out on the table for too long (that is, you forgot to hang them upside down so they dry straight) you can clip the dried, droopy blooms and display them. Try displaying blooms (or other small curios) in any of these:
Cute-shaped tart tins (they look like cookie cutters with bottoms)
Ornate tea saucers or tiny plates from the thrift store
Lids and rims of mason jars
Small mason jars (if you have a lot of blooms, or if you have other objects—bottle caps, wine bottle corks, or matches—to add)
This brings me to a structural point, which must be addressed: you should have a place for everything. It’s really okay to have a junk drawer. Some things just belong there: rubber bands, birthday candles, clothespins (the ones that aren’t holding the rest of your house together), small things that you don’t want to throw out.
Bookish Behavior
Always snatch up simple, sturdy bookcases when you see them roadside, at garage sales or antiques shops, or on Craigslist. Bookcases are the things people keep forever (or until they can afford built-ins), so never let a good one go to waste. Don’t worry about scratches or wear. I carried a roadside find three-shelver home on the subway. My arm hurt for a week, but that bookcase is now absolutely indispensable.
In theory, I love the idea of color-coding or arranging books by jacket aesthetics. In practice, I’d never do it, at least not until I have an assistant who can find the one book I’m looking for at any given moment and a high-ceilinged library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a sliding ladder to stash all the books that didn’t make the “cute” cut.
Stick with color coding in your closet, arts and crafts bin, and underwear drawer, but on the bookshelf it’s just not practical. You can spice up your bookshelves by arranging sections of books horizontally to break up the vertical monotony. If you have more room to work with, segregate smaller sections of books, like your poetry or picture books, from your fiction collection with knickknacks and plants.
It’s a good idea to go through your books once a year to thin the herd. (Moving apartments is a surefire book disposal mechanism.) Put the books you’re not going to reread, or ones you’re never going to read, on the stoop or curbside in a box with a sign marked “Free Books.” Or better yet, donate them! It’s good karma, and it keeps what’s on your shelves current.
Getting the Most Out of Your Home Office Space
- Take a shower in the morning, just as if you’re going to work with other people.
- Get dressed, and not just in fresh pajamas.
- Adorn appropriately. The Minimalista blogger told me that she keeps her polish pretty and decks her fingers out with a sparkly ring or other bling to shake things up. Feeling excited about work can be nearly impossible when you’re in your pajamas all day staring at your chipping manicure.
- Have on hand beverages or other rewards for productivity. (Margaritas are probably not the best idea in this case).
- Take breaks that involve water. Get the flow moving in your brain by doing a few dishes (not mopping the kitchen floor or cleaning the bathroom—that’s just procrastination).
Working from Home, in the Living Room
Carving out space in your living room to work might be yet another thing you’ll need to do with your 400-square-foot apartment. The work world is becoming more portable, more flexible with working situations—so it’s likely that you, dear reader, are not working out of an office 100 percent of the time. If you must use your living room as a work space, here are questions to ask yourself to maximize the space (and your productivity).
Setting Yourself up for Success, or Where to Put the Desk
- Computing. Does a network cable restrict you, or are you wireless?
- Phone location/cell reception. Will you need to talk on the phone while you’re at your computer? If so, it’s best to position these elements near each other from the get-go.
- Lighting. Are windows and natural light important to you? Do you need to be near a lamp?
Getting Down to Business
- How well do you manage distractions (kids, housework, Internet surfing) and how can you keep yourself on track? Setting little goals—like I did with finishing this section of the chapter—helps me achieve minor successes and thus motivates me to stay focused, at least for a little while longer.
- When should you give yourself a break? Remember, the home office is less prone to water cooler chat breaks, unless you habitually talk to yourself. Home workers commonly are more productive at home, so working for four or five solid hours can actually be equivalent to an eight-hour day at the office (shocker).
Now that we have the all-important living portions of your home covered, we’ll move on to areas in your home that are typically less viewed (by guests), but no less used (by you). The most important way to gauge homifying success in your living areas is to see if you feel comfortable just hanging out in them. Sometimes it takes a couple rearrangings to get things just right.
Resources
Home project and style inspiration (people who can continue to help you with the details):
Apartment Therapy (book and blog).
The Nest: Home Design Handbook.
Domino: Book of Decorating or old Domino mags (out of print now).
Copies of Red, a British mag.
Design Sponge blog.