|
Youth Decay posted:One thing about crappy Edwardian San Francisco apartments is that they tend to have lots of nice built-in cabinetry. (I'm not that into glass-fronted cabinets, but that seems like a recent change, and wow do I love built-in storage)
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:17
|
|
i like nice words
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 17:24 |
|
|
Come to the interior design thread to offer ideas. Stay to have insults projected at you by the OPTiny Brontosaurus posted:Haha come on, to hide the terrible shame of owning 90-year-old technology? If this was the 50s you'd be knitting a telephone cover. Just sayin':  My grandparents hid their TVs. My parents strove to hide our TVs. So what can I say, third generation TV hider. For me personally, I'd prefer my guests' eyes find other things in my living space to catch their attention. Hearing, "Wow, what a beautiful TV" doesn't fill me with the warm glow that I've made good design choices. Conversely, I have plenty of friends with double recliners and TV tables in the living room with a TV right in the middle--no judgment. Do what you want with your house. Some want form. Some want function. As for: Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Are you so insecure? Are you so judgmental? You are the OP of an interior design thread, right? Not everyone's tastes will align. Calling people insecure or judgmental for offering interior design suggestions in a thread asking for design suggestions is a bit on the strange side. Just going to leave this here for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:24
|
|
|
Anne Whateley posted:In what way is this a crappy apartment??? Those are three different apartments. I don't know about the individual places (just plucked them off Craigslist) but besides lacking "modern" amenities (vent hoods, disposals, outlets, etc), being in very old buildings they often have maintenance/pest issues that go unresolved because the landlords know they can rent them in a split-second for $2500+ without doing anything.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:29
|
|
|
Hide your tv by never turning it off. It's a flat screen hung on a wall, pretend it is a classy painting by having it display a classy painting. Sure, the electrical bills will pile up, but think how classy it will look. For bonus points, put a big gaudy picture frame on your tv.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:32
|
|
|
Hide you tv by not even owning a tv.  Dedicate the living room as a shrine to the almighty computer instead. Die cold and alone like the goon you are.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:37
|
|
|
Youth Decay posted:Those are three different apartments. quote:I don't know about the individual places (just plucked them off Craigslist) but besides lacking "modern" amenities (vent hoods, disposals, outlets, etc), being in very old buildings they often have maintenance/pest issues that go unresolved because the landlords know they can rent them in a split-second for $2500+ without doing anything. Facebook Aunt posted:For bonus points, put a big gaudy picture frame on your tv. Anyway my solution is just to stack a ton of books around my TV. It's, uh, a look
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 04:42
|
|
|
Youth Decay posted:One thing about crappy Edwardian San Francisco apartments is that they tend to have lots of nice built-in cabinetry. That looks just like Bertie Wooster's kitchen!  HycoCam posted:You are the OP of an interior design thread, right? Not everyone's tastes will align. Calling people insecure or judgmental for offering interior design suggestions in a thread asking for design suggestions is a bit on the strange side. Just going to leave this here for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection Yes, exactly, I'm the OP of this thread and this is a positive place where we don't judge people, so get your nose out of the air and quit dogwhistling calling people trash. All the jokes about "I don't even own a TV" before you came in here should have tipped you off that that everyone thinks that nonsense is ridiculous and you are impressing precisely no one.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 06:09
|
|
|
tetrapyloctomy posted:and not only did it wreck a great haven for all of the local deer, foxes, and so forth, Just gonna point out that deer are rats on stilts
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 06:18
|
|
|
I can't put in any outlets because I dont own the building. There's actually a light switch on the sink side of the kitchen and the wall backs onto a bedroom but the landlord said it was 100% electrically impossible to add an outlet there no matter how many tenants ask. He also said the same about adding an outlet in my garage even though half the other garages have outlets wired from their light switches. The landlord did redo the tile around the sink and put in new cabinet doors right after we moved in which nicely updated the space. Out microwave used to have to sit between the stove and fridge but he also built these little microwave shelves for everyone.   And there's matching built-in glass cabinets separating the little dining room from the kitchen which are also nice  If I had an outlet or two on the sink side and maybe a couple more feet of counter I'd be 100% fine and happy in this kitchen. Oh and maybe a range with better working elements and a fan that actually dumps the air outside not just into a useless filter. The lighting is great in the kitchen though as the landlord put in these super nice LED fixtures with a bunch of adjustable heads. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Jul 12, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 06:33
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:I can't put in any outlets because I dont own the building. There's actually a light switch on the sink side of the kitchen and the wall backs onto a bedroom but the landlord said it was 100% electrically impossible to add an outlet there no matter how many tenants ask. He also said the same about adding an outlet in my garage even though half the other garages have outlets wired from their light switches. It would be trivial to non-destructively sneak in an outlet in the same box as that light switch. Here's one with GFCI, even, which you'd want by the sink. Progressive JPEG fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Jul 12, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 07:25
|
|
|
I want some sort of dresser unit to hide my TV because it won't hang on the wall and tomorrow chairs are going in front of it so it's going to look silly. The alternative is to get my granny make me a TV sized toilet roll crochet doll.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 09:06
|
|
|
This is more of an exterior design question but after seeing this house I really want to know why it has a bunch of outgrowths, and why half of the building is brick and half of it is covered in what I assume is vinyl siding. Is there something about not having consistency in cladding that's trendy? Also, do apartments in the US not require *a* balcony, somewhere? 
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 09:30
|
|
|
As far as I know they're not actually REQUIRED, just they're a nice amenity. But as to why it looks like that? Yeah, inconsistent cladding is 'trendy' I suppose, and it can be nice to break up the texture and outline of a building instead of having it be a giant monotonous rectangle with some windows plopped in it, but it would look better with better quality materials and either a bit more harmony or a bit more artful contrast between the sections. Also the fake colonial-style details (including the crappy obviously-not-real shutters that are practically touching eachother as is) aren't doing it any favors and honestly it would look better without them. Why vinyl? Because it's cheap, just like the lovely plastic fake stone and the lovely plastic fake shutters. There's something about that picture that makes it feel like a computer rendering. The lighting or the perspective or something, but then if it were a computer rendering the trim bits around the roof probably wouldn't be all hosed up, so I don't know.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 09:44
|
|
|
hailthefish posted:As far as I know they're not actually REQUIRED, just they're a nice amenity. I thought the third layer with the black railings at least had french balconies but upon closer inspection it doesn't even have that. I like the options below (roughly in ascending order of price), you can stay within brick and do much with it to make your house something to look at from outside:  Braided brickwork  Polymetric  Textured  Pretty colours.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 10:15
|
|
|
Progressive JPEG posted:Just gonna point out that deer are rats on stilts Not true, they also have lots of ticks! I'm fine with the deer. Sure, they get all of our raspberries and blackberries before we do, and they mean you have to be more careful driving, but in the grand scheme of things I'd take them in a heartbeat over Yet Another Luxury Townhome Development. We've got just under two acres, and I could add almost three more if I could convince two neighbors to subdivide under the conditions that we wouldn't develop and would allow them continued access/use, it be great to have my own little park in suburbia ...
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 10:41
|
|
|
Raised by Hamsters posted:- You will never, ever, ever use it. Once a year would be pushing it. Alright Captain Culturally Insensitive, perhaps in your socal beach hut this is true, but in rainy miserable English winters you can bet a fire in an enclosed living room is a warm, lovely thing. That said in the reno I have cut the house down from 3 to 1, since it was built when they were used for heating and cooking. Re: kitchens, I've now got a 6m by 7m kitchen/diner/summer space and the freedom to design whatever kitchen I want in it. When I spoke to some bespoke places I had to keep insisting I didn't want appliances hidden away. It's a functional room, not a drawing room in a gentleman's club.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 11:48
|
|
|
Raised by Hamsters posted:I don't think this got hammered on enough in fireplace chat, so, in brief, gently caress fireplaces. I mean, my parent's house has a fireplace and I have a bunch of good memories of having a roaring fire going around the holidays. Every time my wife and I come to visit for Christmas, we'll build a fire every night and sit in the living room and chat with some drinks while the fire crackles and pops; it's nice. My folks live out in the woods, so they have a bunch of trees that have been felled as part of driveway maintenance, or that just fell in a storm, and my dad will whack them into sections with a chainsaw then use a wood splitter to split them into firewood. I'll help him split the logs sometimes, it's a good workout. If you have a fireplace, you should use it. They are nice.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 14:37
|
|
|
I used the poo poo out of a fireplace when it was in my hotel room, but I know I'm not going to do the same d I have one at home.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 15:04
|
|
|
Hambilderberglar posted:
Yay, bricks! Let's all take a minute to appreciate the beauty of flemish bond:  And here it is in action:  
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 15:48
|
|
|
Baronjutter posted:Yeah I've found the size/niceness of a kitchen is pretty inverse to the amount of actual cooking done on it. It's just like with trucks in the city, the bigger the truck the less likely it's ever hauled anything because the only people that can afford the luxury of a huge truck are not people hauling landscaping waste away as a job. Just like the only people who can afford these all granite stainless kitchens with all the gadgets only live here 3-4 months a year and eat out or order in their food, while all the working class people stuck in a tiny apartment galley kitchen that hasn't been updated since 1970 are trying to cook full meals for their family every night because they have to. I assumed that back in the day, large kitchens were that way so multiple people could use it (as if catering a party or have kitchen help). In practice, the kitchen has been overly enlarged in order to accommodate the fact it is a meeting area or the 'buffet table' area for parties. I look at a lot of kitchens, and they're just too loving large to be useful for anyone cooking. "Hold on, I have to get the flour. I have to walk all the way around this 20ft island that is angled like California's eastern border to get to it." HycoCam posted:Some people are super proud of their TV. Some people are super proud of how they hide the TV. If a TV is the most used item in your room--go for the dielectric mirror or folding shutters. So, you're saying that even if TV watching is the main function of the room, I should still hide it with Rube Goldberg mechanisms for no reason at all. That makes sense. Jaded Burnout posted:you can bet a fire in an enclosed living room is a warm, lovely thing. They don't make these fireplaces in enclosed rooms these days, though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 16:16
|
|
|
This (the big kitchens not the fireplace thing) is why I'm going to MVP the kitchen first to make sure it's feasible before putting real cabinets and worktops in.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 16:26
|
|
|
My kitchen is absolutely psychotic and I want to re-do the whole loving thing so bad but to do it right it'd mean moving it in a major way and changing windows and flooring and baaaasically redoing a significant chunk of the house, which is expensive, and I'm pretty sure I'd rather just take that money and put it toward building a new house, as the kitchen here is just a symptom of an underlying problem, which is lack of foresight in designing the place, and slapdash execution throughout.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 16:30
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:My kitchen is absolutely psychotic and I want to re-do the whole loving thing so bad but to do it right it'd mean moving it in a major way and changing windows and flooring and baaaasically redoing a significant chunk of the house, which is expensive, and I'm pretty sure I'd rather just take that money and put it toward building a new house, as the kitchen here is just a symptom of an underlying problem, which is lack of foresight in designing the place, and slapdash execution throughout. Yeah I'm kind of in the same boat. Our kitchen doesn't have nearly enough counter space, but it has a lot of space where counters could go. Only... the windows are much lower than counter height, and one of them faces the front so even if we took a drastic step it would make our house look lopsided. I'm hesitant to even put a prep table in there because I just hate obstructing windows for any reason. Luckily the window has glass shutters like this:  So we get neither a view nor a breeze from the windows no matter what position the stupid things are in.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 16:35
|
|
|
Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Yeah I'm kind of in the same boat. Our kitchen doesn't have nearly enough counter space, but it has a lot of space where counters could go. Only... the windows are much lower than counter height, and one of them faces the front so even if we took a drastic step it would make our house look lopsided. I'm hesitant to even put a prep table in there because I just hate obstructing windows for any reason. Luckily the window has glass shutters like this: I have six islands. They range from a respectable 12 square feet, to like 2 square feet. Well, two islands, one of which houses the sink, two peninsulas, one normal counter with the range, and a desk counter in a pocket. It's insane.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 16:57
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:I have six islands. Does anybody ever use those desk counters? McMansion Hell calls them "etsy battlestations" 
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:01
|
|
|
Can we get a floorplan sketch? How does so much even fit into one kitchen? I think the desks were actually useful in like the '90s and earlier, when you would have to sit down and pay bills, deal with mail, keep records, etc. Not so much anymore.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:09
|
|
|
I'm buying a real buffet from the 50's along with a dining table and 8(!) chairs and I'm so stoked to have the extra storage space and seating. It will be my third "island" though because I lack so much space and I like to be a masochist and attempt large dinner parties in a 750sq ft. apartment. People don't seem to mind though and it's always a big crowd. I'd kill for a larger kitchen. I love entertaining. My parents never did growing up and I make an effort to keep up connections as I'm going into my 30s. I'm debating finding a very large credenza to merge the bar with the small bookcase that hold my records, record player and receiver. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jul 12, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:15
|
|
|
Tiny Brontosaurus posted:. Only... the windows are much lower than counter height, and one of them faces the front so even if we took a drastic step it would make our house look lopsided. My kitchen needs more counter space/cabinetry and there is an inconveniently placed window in the way. I'm looking into making the window smaller. I don't really care how it affects the exterior look because it is the rear of the house. Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Does anybody ever use those desk counters? McMansion Hell calls them "etsy battlestations" That's the place you put your bills and other mail after you take it out of your mailbox, as far as I can tell.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:15
|
|
|
Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Does anybody ever use those desk counters? McMansion Hell calls them "etsy battlestations" Yeah, my wife does, but she's way more organized than I am, and it's an interim solution until we get her office in order, which is an actual thing she needs for her line of work, so it makes sense to not have that kitchen desk thing be JUST clutter. Once we get her in there though, we'll probably put a family computer there for the kids, as they're getting to the age for that to be necessary.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:51
|
|
|
Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Does anybody ever use those desk counters? McMansion Hell calls them "etsy battlestations" My daughter uses ours to draw or do homework while I make dinner.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 17:51
|
|
|
Here's an exact duplicate of my kitchen from a real estate ad: It's fairly small, but it's so stupidly usable. Having a giant island with no sink or cooktop interrupting the space is amazing, and I would have to think really hard about moving somewhere that didn't have one. It's a tad larger than 3' x 5'. You can have 4 baking trays on it and still have plenty space to roll dough out. There's also plenty of countertop space next to the stove, so my ingredients are all right where I want them, rather than across the room. I do hate the builder-grade cabinets, and I would hate the small amount of kitchen storage if we didn't have a huge walk-in pantry. I do wish I had a gas range and an actual range hood with an exhaust fan. But for an inexpensive townhouse, what we got is great. It makes cooking so much more enjoyable compared to the absolutely crap apartment we came from.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:00
|
|
|
Jaded Burnout posted:Alright Captain Culturally Insensitive, perhaps in your socal beach hut this is true, but in rainy miserable English winters you can bet a fire in an enclosed living room is a warm, lovely thing. That said in the reno I have cut the house down from 3 to 1, since it was built when they were used for heating and cooking. Then again neither fireplace was in an enclosed room, because for some reason we as a nation have decided only bedrooms & bathrooms get to be fully enclosed now. re: kitchen layout chat. This is my current apartment kitchen setup:  Not bad, but I'd remove the dumb pass-through thing and steal a foot or two from the dining room. Or just remove the division completely and have the dining table in a more open kitchen area, with countertop going all along the back wall. Compare to one of my old apartments:  What is this poo poo. What are you even supposed to do in that space. If you keep anything on your countertops at all(like, say, a microwave, or a utensil crock) you have basically no counterspace left. Bonus points for letting the ancient yellow oven stand proud, I guess.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:06
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:If it's cold enough that you're using the fireplace for heat, it's cold enough to bump the thermostat up a notch.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:27
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:Compare to one of my old apartments: Welcome to the early 70's. The microwave wasn't cheap enough yet to be considered in kitchen design. Also, convenience foods were all the rage, so people really weren't expected to spend a lot of time actually cooking.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:33
|
|
|
Iron Crowned posted:Welcome to the early 70's. The microwave wasn't cheap enough yet to be considered in kitchen design. Also, convenience foods were all the rage, so people really weren't expected to spend a lot of time actually cooking. Yeah and builders still clung to this idea that no one lived in apartments except young unmarried men, who'd just live on cigarettes and coffee for the year or so until they hitched up with a secretary and moved to the suburbs. The idea that an apartment would be a place people consider their permanent home and want to do normal homey things in is a very difficult idea to get across in America.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:36
|
|
|
TheMadMilkman posted:I do hate the builder-grade cabinets Man, thanks to the thread that inspired this one, I chuckle every time I see or hear this.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 19:43
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:I grew up with cold-as-balls miserable Midwest winters, and we used our wood fireplace approximately zero times from what I remember. The gas fireplace got used a couple times, but it was more for the "ooo look at the fire" factor than actual warmth. If it's cold enough that you're using the fireplace for heat, it's cold enough to bump the thermostat up a notch. I've never been to the midwest especially in winter so I can't speak to what it's like at that time, but I wonder if it's a distinction between being cold as gently caress and needing heat right now please vs coming in from cold biting rain and settling down for the comforting warmth of a crackling fire. Any decent enough central heating will deal with the cold, but they won't bring you tidings of comfort and joy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 20:03
|
|
|
Fireplaces are illegal on new construction in my city leading to old houses with existing fireplaces being yet another huge premium thing. In one case a guy tried to "renovate" an existing house by demolishing everything but the fireplace and chimney and building a huge McMansion around it but the city said nope.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 20:06
|
|
|
Anne Whateley posted:Can we get a floorplan sketch? How does so much even fit into one kitchen? By just aiming your "countertop shotgun" in the general direction of the kitchen and seeing what happens. Counter fragments everywhere. Here:  I labeled everything as best I could, and put alpha identifiers on the various bits of countertop for the sake of discussion. It's not a great sketch and it's not to scale, but hey, the kitchen itself is not a great design and, well, it's not to scale either. Some notes: Counter "D" is our junk pile that would live on the desk "C" in most homes. Counter "E" is just big enough for a coffee maker, a knife block, and bananas. The mixer lives in the NE corner of counter "G", that actually works okay. The red lines are countertops. The brown lines are cabinets, except the table/chairs in the nook and the deck, obviously. In the original plans, that "dining room" at the far north was a guest room, and the wall was not open to the kitchen, it opened into that entryway, and there was just a wall running across east/west from the north wall of the nook there, with a countertop along it for the stove/range/fridge/etc, and the one big sink island still roughly where it is now. It would make for a much smaller kitchen, but it would be vastly more functional. As it is, doing anything in the kitchen involves doing laps around that square, central island. Two people in the kitchen means you're trying to squeeze past each other between DEF, or having to loop around because the oven is open and blocking the way through FG. If you open the drawers on the east-most end of FA, they touch in the middle of that path. Here's what I want to do: knock out the rest of that partition wall, make the entire right wall from the NE corner all the way down to the corner of the nook a long-rear end countertop with the sink, range, and dishwasher, and possibly oven. No cabinets above, put in a couple big windows that look out over the back yard to the east. On the west side of that, tall cabinets on the whole thing with the fridge, oven, and microwave. Get rid of the existing island altogether, donate that space to the great room. Remove counters DEF. At the south end of the new long-counter, a small L out from the wall, double-depth so as to allow a large prep area, or somewhere for the kids to sit while we make dinner, and just enough of an L to fit the dishwasher under that part. The closet at the back of the new kitchen becomes a really nice walk-in pantry. That weird angled part by the garage entry behind D gets opened up so it's just a straight bit of wall. C can stay as-is I guess. Countertop along the east wall an extra 6" deep, since I wouldn't put cupboards above it, and that'd give on-counter storage space for various things (toaster, crockpot, mixer, frequently-used baking ingredients, stuff like that.) Here's an equally rough sketch of what I'd do if I had 50k burning a hole in my pocket that I also didn't want to put toward an ideal house:  It's sort of a galley kitchen. Sort of. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jul 12, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 20:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 17:24 |
|
|
This is delightful, more hand-drawn blueprints everyone.
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2017 20:24
|
|