Category: At Home

Life in the Big City

Yes. That title is sarcastic. I live in a town of somewhere around 14,000 people. Not exactly a metropolis.

“Where are you going with this?” I hear you asking on the other side of the computer screen. I shall make my point. My door has an absurd number of locks. The only doors I’ve seen like this are a) on TV (or movies) and b) the aforementioned is set in a big city with actual crime.

Yes, three locks, all of different styles. The keyhole under the door knob does not function.

Bonus: look at that old light switch! 2nd Bonus: that long metal rod is used to open a window above the door. By pinching the little tabs, the rod can be slid up and down, thus opening and closing it.

The locks, window opener, and light switch, actually, are some of my favorite things about my apartment’s “character.” :)

PS. On a different note, I remember when people at Temecula Valley High School used to call Temecula a “hick town.” Give me a break. 60,000-100,000 (depending on when you counted) is NOT a small town. Try moving somewhere like McPherson before you make any grandiose statements. Of course, everything’s more dramatic in high school, even the size of the town you live in.

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Headboard on a Budget

Great news! After posting my New Year’s Resolutions yesterday, I got inspired to make my bed, so I did, and made sure to snap a few pictures of our new headboard. Now that I have a headboard, I feel like a grown-up :) Although, in my next place I’d love a modern-looking platform bed. Let’s begin with the “before” shot.

Headboard (Goodwill) $5

Please excuse the tiny cell phone-camera picture.

2 Cans of “stick to anything” spray paint (Ace) $12

Total: Around $17-18

We bought the off-white and gold headboard at the Goodwill store in Salina, KS, without measuring. I estimated it was approximately a “full” size. Originally, I thought it would look nice to keep the gold part gold, but ultimately would have been way more trouble than it’d be worth. We bought one can of glossy black spray paint (probably Krylon indoor/outdoor, the one that claims to stick to anything).  One can didn’t cut it so we had to run back to Ace hardware 5 minutes before closing and buy another can. Finished spraying, went out for a nice dinner with friends at Amics (where I work, shameless plug). We left the headboard in the hall so some of the VOCs (fumes) could disperse while we ate. In fact, I think we left it outside the apartment for a full day.

The lighting is weird compared to the one below... Took this one in the evening, the other during the morning. Big difference!
I believe this was taken right after we added the headboard :)

 

Now, just for fun, let’s remember what the bedroom looked like when Lisa let me move in with her last January….

I'd say progress has been made. Click for a tour of what the apartment was like 2 weeks after moving in.

Wood Pallet Room Divider

Update 7/12/11
Thank you to everyone who finds this page through google, stumbleupon or pinterest (among others). It is by far the most-visited page on my blog! I never thought this project would be so popular! Please leave a comment below with your thoughts!! 

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Inch by inch, the master bedroom is coming together. We still lack a headboard (looking for the perfect wrought-iron one at the perfect price takes patience) and we are in a rut when it comes to a couple of blank walls, BUT(!) we have divided up the enormous room into half-bedroom half-workspace by constructing a room divider like so:

While in Boston, we saw something like this in a fancy modern furniture store, retailing somewhere between $200-$300. Yikes! Knowing that we could make one ourselves, Doug surprised me one Saturday with pallets (free) which he had assembled like you see here!

After a bit of finessing and perfecting, we moved them into place where they sat blank for over a month. I simply didn’t have enough to hang on them and didn’t want to just do part. So patiently I accumulated New York-themed hangings and finally last weekend hung them on the wall. Using small nails and binder clips meant I didn’t have to buy frames for anything I didn’t want to poke holes in (like the RENT poster). This method of hanging also means I can switch out and add new things easily!

Now if only the perfect headboard would fall right into my lap… actually, that would probably really hurt…

Here is a wider shot of the divider in action. It was the perfect height and length to divide up a huge room into two normal-sized rooms for the office and bedroom.