Although I’ve been pretty quiet in the Apartment Therapy community the last year or two, I entered my place in the Small Cool 2011 contest last weekend. The contest has been running all month, and voting ends this week, so I’m a little late to the game, but it’s still really fun to see my place listed. :)

At 600 square feet, my place falls into the “Little” category, which is fairly massive compared to “Teeny-tiny” and “Tiny”. Makes me want to downsize!

Do you Apartment Therapy too?

Week 5 To Do List:

• Take care of repairs – hey remember when I crossed ‘fixing the wall’ off my list? I totally lied.
  
• Clean office area and related closets
• Vacuum, dust
• Declutter files – I did this last week so I could put stuff in my new Liberty of London file box
• Tackle the cord octopus – maybe next week
• Try a one-day media fast – this is definitely doable remotely…
• Buy fresh flowers – nope
• Choose at least one soft or hard thing to add or subtract from apartment – meh
• Cook three meals at home this week – nope
• Eat at home Sunday through Thursday – nope
• Get to bed early and read before sleep – does it count if I spend the entire day reading?

If I wasn’t already half-assing the cure, now I’m thinking about how awesome it will be to move in to my new place. :) Adios!

Week 4 To Do List:

• Clean up living room and related closets – closets? I wish!
• Declutter books and all media – did in 2007, and have since only added a lovely stack of travel guides. :)
  
• Cancel 75% of the catalogs you receive – I think the only catalogs I get are J.Crew and the occasional Crate & Barrel…
  
• Empty Outbox this week
• Confirm what you need to increase or decrease color in each room
• Identify what you need to increase or decrease softness in each room – bunnies?
• Cook three meals at home this week – does breakfast count?
• Send out your invitations

What I need to + / – on the color and softness scales in each room…

Area: color – to add (subtract)
Hallway/Entry:  warm – nope
Kitchen: warm – hang orange pan on wall?
Dining room: warm – make space for my “office” stuff, possibly get a desk
Living room: warm/cool – already perfect!
Bathroom: cool/warm – change the framed artwork
Bedroom: cool – remove red pillows

Week 4 is even easier than week 3. Oh and I bought a super bright Gerbera daisy this weekend. I think it might need a Liberty of London planter to go in… hmmm….

Cool colors (blues, greens, grays) are contracting and calming; warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) are expansive and stimulating. Just as breathing is made up of contractions (the in breath) and expansion (the out breath), you want to feel this movement as you walk through your apartment. This is done by alternating warm and cool colors.

According to AT, here are the rooms that lend themselves to warm/cool…

Area:  movement – color { my apartment!}
Hallway/Entry:  contraction – cool {warm!}
Kitchen: expansion – warm {warm}
Dining room: expansion – warm {warm}
Living room: expansion – warm {cool and warm?}
Office: contraction – cool {what is this “office”}
Bathroom: contraction – cool {cool and warm?}
Bedroom: contraction – cool {cool}

So in applying the 80/20 rule, I think my living room is a good example: 80% base colors – brown couch, white rug, espresso accents, with 20% blues and brighter colors mixed in. My bedroom however, is 20% bright Mediterranean blue (only one wall), but I also have a bright painting and colorful planters, so I think it could use some direction. But I guess that’s for next week.

Week 3 To Do List Recap:

• Vacuum/dust
  
• Clean entryway and closet – the closet is my Outbox at the moment
• Declutter entrance
• Move all old mail, catalogs, magazines to the Outbox
• Look into what you would need to create a Landing Strip -  already done
• Cancel any unused subscriptions
• Identify cool rooms and warm rooms
• Apply the 80/20 color rule
• Cook two meals at home this week
• Design an invitation for your housewarming

on to week 4!

I got a new Love It or Leave It coat rack from Urban Outfitters, which I… love, and framed the Going To See My Baby bicycle print that I bought at Flatstock Seattle during Bumbershoot this year (by Strawberry Luna).

Week 3 To Do List:

• Vacuum/dust
• Clean entryway and closet
• Declutter entrance
• Move all old mail, catalogs, magazines to the Outbox
• Look into what you would need to create a Landing Strip –  I still have my 2 IKEA boxes
• Cancel any unused subscriptions
• Identify cool rooms and warm rooms
• Apply the 80/20 color rule
• Cook two meals at home this week
• Design an invitation for your housewarming

I do have a bit of decluttering to do though…

I also hadn’t finished the “style interview” from Week 0, in which you list a bunch of your favorites, and then try to recognize some kind of pattern in your style tray. Here are a few of my favorites…

Actress: Zooey Deschanel & Audrey Tautou
Actor: Matt Damon, Owen Wilson, Ewan McGregor, Gael García Bernal,  Brad Pitt
Artist: Matisse, ones I never remember the name of
Writer: JD Salinger, Hemingway, Ayn Rand
Music: Beck, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, The Kinks, REM…
Restaurant: Petite Provence, a certain taco truck
Automobile: classic VW Beetles (specifically 1953-1957 oval windows) le sigh…
TV show: Flight of the Conchords, Arrested Development, Man vs Wild, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, The Office
Clothing (designer or store): MIA shoes, J.Crew, Zara
How would you describe your style? eclectic, vintage-y, bright
Where have you lived? Pacific Northwest
Who would you consider a role model? Abraham Lincoln aahaha, sorry, private joke.
If your apartment could speak, what would it say? “Stop buying Liberty of London stuff at Target!”
What one thing would you like to do more of in your apartment? sleep
Eight weeks from now, when this project is complete, if friends came to visit, how would you like them to describe it? So pretty, so very, very pretty. :)

In determining my style, I’ve found it rather difficult to say that I’m either cool/warm. As a person, I identify more with the cool side — I’m a thinker and I don’t get too attached to people/things, but decor/style-wise, I identify more with DIY and excessiveness (*cough, my recent Liberty of London craze) that goes along with warm people. Sooo for now I’ll just say I’m a cool person with warm style? So to finish this up… last time I did the cure I ended up with a defined style of eclectic organic modern, because “organic modern” just didn’t quite describe me. And after finishing my style tray, I didn’t realize I had such a crush on the 60s/70s! I think I can blame my mom for this somehow?

Week 2 Follow-up:

• Fix one thing in your apartment – filled in the nail/screw holes from hanging curtains, pictures etc.
• Clean kitchen from top to bottom – AMAZING
• Water filter
• pretend your apartment is a whale – oh hai whale!
• Designate an Outbox area
• Clear one area using the Outbox
• Buy flowers
• Determine your style
• Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home
• Choose a date for your housewarming

On to week 3!

Week 2 To Do List:

• Fix one thing in your apartment – this will be filling in the nail/screw holes from hanging curtains.
• Clean kitchen from top to bottom – requires its own list…
• Water filter
• pretend your apartment is a whale – oh hai whale!
• Designate an Outbox area – my storage closet is already an “outbox” of sorts
• Clear one area using the Outbox – Use it? Love it? Need it?
• Buy flowers
• Determine your style
• Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home – I already try to cook/eat at home at least 3 nights a week
• Choose a date for your housewarming – in eight weeks you say?

Less blogging, more kitchen cleaning… I think I need to create a Ramones/Rancid station on Pandora first. Ciao!

All successful journeys begin with a positive vision.

This post is part of my Apartment Therapy Spring Cure 2010, so if you’re not keen to follow along then come back in 8 weeks. ;)

Now, for some honesty… I didn’t actually do anything cure-ish this week, but perhaps that’s because I already have a “vision” for my apartment and I did the cure a few years ago. Anyway, I did re-read chapter 1 and I suppose this next week will be a little more work, since it focuses on the kitchen. :] Join the cult.

Week 1 To Do List:

• List of repairs – drywall mud to fill all the little holes I made while hanging curtains :P
• Vacuum/mop floors
• Remove one item from your apartment and put it outside – does my kitteh count?
• Buy fresh flowers – purple tulips from the farmers market :)
• Sit for 10 minutes in a part of your home that you never sit in -  in <600 sq ft there isn’t really part of my home that I “never sit in”, unless you count the floor directly in front of my balcony, which I did spend some time napping in the sunshine over the weekend. :P
• Look into earth-friendly cleaning products – I use Method.

On to week 2 and the kitchen! Oh and an update on my Liberty of London obsession… I now have: a storage bin, file box, 2 mugs, tray, gardening gloves, sundress, piggy bank… and. that. is. all. I’ve decided on several occasions not to buy anything else… but I would probably tackle someone if I spotted one of the teapots in-store… and I wouldn’t mind the bicycle either…

How to:
Get the book (or check it out at the library)
Sign-up for the weekly cure emails
Start reading the book, and participate as much as you want with the discussions, flickr pool etc

The Plan: (March 15th through May 10th)
Week 1: Creating Your Vision
Week 2: Clearing a Path
Week 3: The Landing Strip
Week 4: Retail Therapy
Week 5: The Thick of It
Week 6: Light Therapy
Week 7: Sacred Space
Week 8: Throwing a Party
Week 9: Graduation

Should be fun, and I may just have an excuse to pick up some new home goods — Liberty of London for Target is calling my name at the moment. Anyone else a little obsessed with this line right now? The LoL (heh) line is like a “few of my favorite things” roundup: gardening stuff, bicycles, flipflops, piggy banks, dresses, tea pots, and all in the sweetest patterns. <3

Who else is doing the Spring Cure?

Now I get to complain about mattress manufacturers and retailers… #1. Having several names for the same product for different retailers is UNCOOL — I don’t want to play games, just give me the facts! #2. If you refuse to quote me a price when I walk in your store, I will leave and not return (*cough* BedMart *cough*). /rant

I wish IKEA would bring back the Hopen bed frame in a lighter color. I love the design of the HOPEN, it looks like a park bench… hmmm not sure what that says about me, but… loves it!

“Always buy good shoes and a good bed as if you aren’t in one you are in the other.” –some random quote I heard once

In other news, I considered painting one wall in my bedroom last weekend, and then promptly drove to Home Depot. For making disturbingly quick decisions, I was conservative and bought a sample paint for $1.50 (awesome deal, yeah? I was chatting to an employee and they said Home Depot is closing out all of their Ralph Lauren paints and switching to Martha Stewart, so deals galore!). Anyway, Mediterranean blue is officially awesome and I can’t wait to finish my paint project next weekend. :)

I’ve also been considering putting Blik artwork on the blue wall or leaving part of it a white outline of some kind. Unfortunately, I found a Blik “headboard” and it’s called the Olivia. Dammit, don’t they know I have issues with wanting to buy things that say my name? ugggh. I don’t really like it, but the narcissism is totally calling my name. ;)  I really like this one though. Thoughts?