Proposition: Show Me Your House?

[scaredsi11y]

So, mr. scaredsi11y and I live in a carriage house built in the 1880s; our landlady lives in the main house. She got a fantastic deal on the property in 1978, back when this neighborhood was in decline. Since then, it's become a nationally recognized historic district and is now a pretty nice area to live in. BUT... back then, the carriage house was in complete disrepair. Most of the walls had apparently been painted black by a weird hippie tenant in the early 1970s and the former owner had closed it up, thinking it was a total loss. Thankfully, our landlady restored it. We've been here three years and absolutely love it.

It comes with a lot of history, being this old and having a different purpose originally. Our living room used to be the hayloft... and that's where we'll start the tour!


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I'm really into old windows; this one is leaded glass and a wood frame with dark stain. This is how it looked when I bought it at a yard sale - there are a few scuffs that add character. You can't see the face of the clock on the left, but it has Japanese numbers.


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Close-up of the vintage bowl. It was a $1 thrift store find. There's a chip on the edge that is hidden perfectly by the plastic feet that hold it up, so it actually works better as art than a functional dish.


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This area is to the left of the first photo. You can see the same chair and lamp in both, for perspective. Sorry it's so dark - I wasn't able to get very good light. It shows another one of my old windows - this one I painted white and decorated with tealights. I sometimes prop ATCs or other small art on it. We don't have any TV channels - this is strictly for library dvds!


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Similar view, with the paper lanterns turned on.


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If you were standing in front of the TV, looking the opposite way, this is what you'd see. The chair on the right was reupholstered by my mother-in-law.


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Just a little to the left. You can almost see the huge floor-to-ceiling closet we have on the other short side of the room, opposite the big doors and to the right of the couch when you're sitting on it.


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One of the best features! The living room is on the second floor, so this looks out over the garden and the "big house" where our landlady lives. This isn't used as a door anymore (it doesn't open outwardly, for safety) but it was how the stablemen used to pitch down hay for the horses, back in the day. These bookcases are built in. I use one side for blue/green/purple books and the other for red/orange/yellow. I got the idea from Glitter awhile back!


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Close-up of some things on the corner bookcase (not built in) that's home to the gray/white/black books. I have a thing for Halloweeny decorations. The bat print was a secret snowflake gift from theboy.


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A view of the whole room (sort of) with the doors open. They have dark green paint on the inside part, to match the trim on the outside of the house.


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Close up of what's on the coffee table. These are some great paper coasters my MIL got us for Christmas a couple years ago - vintage sodas! I love this thrifted aqua dish, but I'm fairly certain it's from Target and is not actually old. ;-)
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My zines are available here.
(#12 was printed 08/27/10)

[scaredsi11y]

pitseleh, that old TV is fabulous! Does it work?

This thread is the best. I love looking at home interiors, especially if they belong to artsy/crafty people with unique style.
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My zines are available here.
(#12 was printed 08/27/10)

[pitseleh]

yes, it does! well, i can no longer get any channels, because of the end of the over the air signal (i'll refrain fom ranting about that), but i was able to previously, even without the original rabbit ear antennae which i think you can see peeking out from behind the games. when we move and have more space, i might think about playing around with converters, i have some very helpful friends on flickr who are far more knowledgeable than i am about these old televisions.

your house is so beautiful, i don't even know where to begin! i have some old windows in other places in my house too, it is a love my best friend and i share. she uses them in most of her crafty work, too, they have so much character.

i think i got the idea about color coordinating my bookshelf from glitter as well!
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i don't shine if you don't shine

[Crumb]

My entire apartment looks like a daycare. A daycare steeped in squalor and cat hair.

I am jealous of all of your living spaces.
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Unrelentingly high and mighty since 2001!

[smokingmonkey]

Crumb, my house is that clean for all of 10 minutes. It's a complete hoax. I took those pictures yesterday, and now there are clumps of cat hair everywhere, the coffee table is already covered in folded laundry, camera equipment, game controllers, a bag of granola, some tennis balls, sunglasses and my coffee. There's also two pairs of shoes under it. The dining table has one of the Mr.'s sweaty bandanas on it after installing a new porch railing yesterday, and there's a pile of sponge bits on the floor next to it. (One of the cats steals them from the sink in the kitchen and then destroys them in various rooms of the house.)

Also, I was unable to take pictures of any other rooms because even though I cleaned the kitchen on Saturday, it was already unsuitable for photographs. I will probably never take pictures of either of the two offices, or the bedroom, because they're all perpetual pig stys.

pitseleh, I hope you can get the tv working with a converter. It's too awesome. (I'm also in love with the top of the shelf covered in dear things.)

scaredsi11y, love love love the carriage house. Those doors! So great!
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the tiny yellow cottage

[Sewfie]

I love seeing other people's living spaces. My living is pretty much done. I'm trying to go for sunny and happy, with a little bit of macabre. All the furniture is from ikea & rooms to go, except the telephone table (craigslist). I'm thrilled to have a coordinated living room- it's my first ever!
Here's so pictures of before:

The front windows (to your left when you walk in)

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The tv wall:

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Fireplace:

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Built-in bookcase:

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And the afters!
Front windows:

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TV wall:

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Fireplace & built-in:

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Sitting area:

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Telephone table, edland tables (I decoupaged pictures to cover the ugly cardboard backing), and some of the pictures I have:


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And this is made from palm trees or something (it's from ikea), but I got it b/c it looks like human skin.

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edited to fix a link
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Eh, f*ck it
My new blog:http://brainsveinsandgrains.blogspot.com/

[PencilSkirt]

Glitter, I have been struggling, and I can't sufficiently explain the mess I'm living in. How about to say that I tried to apply for Clean House's messiest home in America? I did.

I am going to try a new approach and work backwards. I will dig up a couple of photos of when it was looking good and use this as motivation (and any I get here) to get it back to that.

dining area:

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some of those paintings are gone, but otherwise the same.

bedroom I am *still* trying to do all white, but I keep getting seduced by color. I posted this before when i painted that headboard.
please ignore wrinkled sheet, I'm impatient.

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and my kitchen when clean:

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Now to just envision this as I work.

Eta: This looks shockingly minimalist and the opposite of reality. I wonder where I had stuffed all the clutter?
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[mouche]

what great, creative homes! love all the vintage finds...
here are some shots of my house in the country;










http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4909836861_b45d2946d3_m.jpg[img][

[smokingmonkey]

That's it. I'm painting my living room.
mouche, that's exactly the color I've been wanting to paint mine since we moved in.

It probably looks better with white trim like you have, but the fireplace proves it'll be ok next to woodwork.
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the tiny yellow cottage

[mouche]

go for it! i almost see it as a neutral now :0)
my dining room is red and thinking of redoing it in the dark turquoise
cuz I like it so much. I have a lot of black against it too but just didn't post pics of that but I like that contrast too.

[scaredsi11y]

I'm so excited about the second wave of posts to this thread!

We should pick another room to show off soon... I focused only on my living room in my pics.
_________________
My zines are available here.
(#12 was printed 08/27/10)

[smokingmonkey]

Since PencilSkirt posted dining room & kitchen along with living room, how about we do that? Both, because some people don't have a separate dining room, and some might have a table in their kitchen?

Also, this will force me to clean those rooms really well. ;)
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the tiny yellow cottage

[scaredsi11y]

That sounds good. I think I might already have pictures of those rooms taken, too... so that's a bonus for me!
_________________
My zines are available here.
(#12 was printed 08/27/10)

[checkersumthing]

This is perfect! I have a kitchen/living room, so since I missed the living room round, I can just post both now, even though I took the pictures last month when we cleaned up big time (for us! there's still lots of clutter) for Christmas in July (thus, the Christmas tree).

We were really lucky when combining furniture from our two apartments last year, everything worked out super well, and we went with a black and white and glass theme (too bad the kitchen doesn't match). All that we bought for this room after we moved was the rug, and the liquor cabinet. I'd eventually like to buy an additional cabinet for storage, but D thinks it would be too crowded. We'll see.

So let's start standing the middle of the room, looking towards the entrance and kitchen, and move clockwise:


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P1070156 by checkersumthing, on Flickr

As you can see, nothing is staged here! There's the fan that keeps things ok during heatwaves, the leftover bottle of wine on the counter, and the pans on the stove. The kitchen is sort of tiny, but it works, and I like that I can do stuff in there while D or guests are in the living room/dining area.

The liquor/glassware cabinet, the cat + food + water, and dustbunnies (it sucks having a black cat and white tile floors, we really need a roomba to keep things in check!):

P1070157 by checkersumthing, on Flickr

The dining area (the table extends to seat 8) and the door to the front balcony:


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P1070155 by checkersumthing, on Flickr


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Chez nous by checkersumthing, on Flickr


The living area:


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P1070154 by checkersumthing, on Flickr

Bookcase and pantry (bookcase needs a good declutter and organize job, and isn't that a random place for a pantry?):


P1070158 by checkersumthing, on Flickr


Voila! That's our main living area. I hate the kitchen cabinets, and if we owned instead of renting I would totally rip them out and redo the kitchen layout.
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i live at the foot of a mountain

[ruggedchick]

I can't decide if I'm going to clean my living room and THEN take pics, or if I'm going to take pictures of the pet-hair, dusty, cluttered squalor that I live in everyday.
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beefy and confused.