Imagining International Playgirl HQ
[ 31 August 2009 ]
I’m almost at the end of my sublease in New York — my fourth one! (How is this possible?!) & as it draws to a close, I’m starting to think about what it would be like to have more permanent digs. Oh, permanent digs. The thought makes me salivate. When you’re used to living out of suitcases, the concept seems like a mystical fairytale. Even when you manage to unpack your things, which I have to do or I go crazy, your suitcases are still lined up in the hallway, knowing that soon enough, everything’s going to have to go back inside them, & it’s on the road again.
The next month is going to contain much more travel than could be considered reasonable, but when I get back, things are going to be different… because I’m going to get my own place. No more living in someone else’s home. No more mixing my things in with the owner’s belongings. No more of that constant, lingering knowledge that I soon have to pack up & go.
So I’ve been thinking about how I want it to look. This is somewhat compounded by the fact that Nubby’s in town, & we talk about aesthetics with obsessive fervour. I’ve also been strongly influenced by this incredible store in Williamsburg called The Future Perfect, which sells the most incredible, rad & fun home furnishings ever — & I recently discovered The Ace Hotel, whose interior design is SO in line with my own style it kind of scares me!
Here are some pieces I’ve found, pictures that are inspiring me & thoughts on how I’d like my ideal home to look…
I’m really obsessed with white interiors. White walls are pretty much my favourite thing ever. Every single bedroom I’ve ever had has either had white or violet walls.
The last place I lived in alone, in Auckland, had white walls, a wall of windows & black carpet. I had two little two-seater couches & two individual overstuffed chairs, one of each in black & one of each in white. I had a big white Flokati rug & fairy lights everywhere, with vintage typewriters, leafy green plants & a light-up globe along the window. My bedding was black pinstripe with white pillows, & I had hot pink accents everywhere: throws, pillows & lampshades. The décor was really simple but the colour scheme really pulled everything together. I just LOVE a black & white palette, because you can add any colour to it & it totally pops.
When I lived in Melbourne, all our furniture was white. I probably wouldn’t do that again, because I like to break it up with black & other colours, but it suited the place we were in (which had enormous windows & insane views). Some would say all white furniture is impractical (they are right), but you can get around it by being a) nuts & b) careful, both of which I generally am. Plus, I don’t have children, which makes it an okay choice for me…
A blackboard wall… Elaborate wallpaper… Vintage typewriters… Crushed cups for serving teeny tiny drinks… Lots of light… Stacks of books… A photobooth machine (ohmygodyes)... Big mirrors… Chandeliers… A ridiculously oversized walk-in wardrobe… Hot pink & white stripes… Big type & letters… This sofa... Collections of stationery… Bedazzled skulls (!!!)... High bookshelves… Jewelled pillows… Enormous windows… & a super-cute puppy for me to snuggle with. I would also like to be kissed awake every morning, & maybe for there to be an indoor lake with sparkly swanboats floating on it. Can we make that happen?!
How would your ideal home look? What colours would you paint it & what features would it have? Would it have a slumber party room? A secret mad science-type laboratory? A huge treehouse out the back? A trampoline room?
(Images: 
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Great post Gala! And I love the Future Perfect Site! Its inspired me!! Im about to move back to Wellington and cant wait to decorate! (Just have to find the perfect flat/job first!)
My current room is totally Violet! and the walls have a lite shimmer
Interiors is my drink of choice!
Nice post! I agree with the black/white + colour thing; I want to do my (dream) flat in shades of grey and ivory with flashes of colour. Do you think you will have a house with staircases, or a one-level apartment?
...and following on from this, you’ve now got me curious as to what a Gala garden (if you were to ever have one) would be like?! Good luck in making your dream home, in your dream city :D
Ohhh, me and my man were actually looking at houses recently and we found this old, eclectic crazy looking house that I loved! Unfortunately it’d take far too much work to fix up, but it look awesome!
There’s also Mike Tyson’s old mansion (his Ohio one) not too far from me, which again, would be awesome if it didn’t need fixed up so bad.
I saw that one pink picture you used in the upper right corner on an awesome tumblr and that definitely be in my dream house!
Oh, and you can see the cool home here…
http://www.gmaceatongroup.com/listings/detail.php?lid=43653812&limit=0&offset=10&&&posc=15&post=128&cfq=limit%3D10%26state%3D39%26pricemax%3D999999999%26property_category%3D1%26radarea%3D1%26searchtype%3D1%26sort%3D2%26restype%3D1%26areas0%3DWarren%2520NW%26searchtypesent%3D1%26yb_l%3D0000%26yb_h%3D2009%26vtycount%3D2%26SRSearchDate%3D1251726053%26SRRecordCount%3D128%26SRPageCount%3D13%26SRPage%3D2
The exterior’s actually bright yellow!
I like to cultivate my interior design style by using Apartmenttherapy.com ! I subscribe to the RSS feed, which delivers about 40-60 items per day. I ‘like’ or ‘share’ the pictures I really love, so I can look back at my page of liked/shared items and see the running theme! Looking back at my Shared Items page (linked above), it’s apparent that I’m into white interiors, books as art, daybeds, lots of light, accent fabrics, and low furniture. Try it out!
I know how you feel. I’m craving a more “permanent” home myself. I have never lived anywhere longer than two years, which is just enough time to settle in & accumulate a bunch of stuff before you have to pack it all up and move again. My cat is the most well-traveled kitty ever!
I love your style and ideas. My favorite porn is looking at kitchen designs and washing machines. I want to stay in my next place for at LEAST 5 years and have my artsy friends adorn my walls with huge comic book drawings in black and white!
A blackboard wall would be fantastic! Wouldn’t work so well for me because chalk is my worst nightmare…but aesthetically, it is insanely awesome.
As for my ideal home, my love and I have plans to build an elaborate treehouse. There’s something so magical about living in the sky, and being so intertwined with nature that you could reach out your window and touch your tree (home)! It would have seperate rooms in individual trees, connected by an bubble-d walkway system…so in the winter the snow would be glistening all around you, and the same with foliage in the spring and summer. Fall is my favorite season – can you even imagine having gorgeous leaves falling all around you, right outside your bedroom window? Ahh, bliss…
oh, and again reading in my mind. i just moved to newcastle (UK), and i am living in a really tiny room. i was searching inspiration in loads of interior sites, but everywhere are photos of big spacy rooms. it kills me how to put all my room together and make it look as amazing, as i am imagining that…
so all i can do is imagine my perfect home. spacy, bright, with huge windows, enormous bookshelves. all in a little bit loft style. with big comfy sofas in livingroom, soft carpers to walk bare foot on them and feel their fluffyness between my toes. a large kithen with a lot of space- to cook, and also it has to be big, because the best part of house parties goes on in the kitchen). i would have lots of nice flowers and herbs on the window in my kitchen as well. lately i am a freak about white interiors as well. mixing it with bare brick walls, semi post industrial spaces, enormous low beds, monochromatic details, fuzzy carpets, very plain design, mixed with decadent, rococouesque accesories such as chandeliers. my perfect home would definitely contain big workspace with big desk and chalkboard wall above. lots of mirrors in gloden elaborate frames, cozy armchairs, big dining room to throw parties, dinners for friends and stuff. also- big walk in wardrobe with one part for my everyday clothes, shoes and ccesories and other for dres up stuff for me and my friends (i adore dress up parties). i would like to have old wooden floor in bathroom with a bath standing in the middle (oldschool one with lion-like legs) and big mirror as well. and a sofa. and gala, you’ve just opened a pandoras box:) i could go like that for ages..
how it was for you to live in other people’s stuff. like intruder? or mole like you have known them and just flat sitting their place. or maby in other way. do you travel with some stuff to personalize flats whwew you live, or is it always a freestyle impromptu interior designing?
lots of aesthetic love,
I’ve been thinking about this kind of things for a while as I am hopefully moving into my first apartment in the coming year. I love places that look clean and expensive but I always remind myself that comfort is the key and I don’t want to live somewhere that I have to be careful about keeping together. For me, this means finding a comfortable balance between old and new, thrift store finds and ikea splurges (I know, considering ikea a splurge is a bit silly, but I’m a student). It’s actually really overwhelming for me to think about. Having so much freedom to make decisions about the place I’m going to live. A little scary too, I think.
Anyway, good luck with finding a great place and making it a home. For inspiration you might want to check apartmenttherapy.com. It always gives me new, fun design and decorating related ideas.
(p.s. I’ve been taking the magic vitamins and so far, so good)
This is a GREAT entry to read at the end of my day, as I spent it turning our Japan apartment into a home. I am from New England, and so my idea of a home-space is cozy, comforts, squashy chairs with warm hand-made throws, full bookcases and steamer trunks. I’m delighted at how Hemmingway my bedroom has turned out :D My husband prefers much more modern pieces though, so it’s created a very interesting hybrid.
Hey Gala, awesome post – I’m moving house in three weeks and this stuff has been on my mind a lot lately.
I tend to be bad with colour schemes. I am just a general fan of colour: lots of it, everywhere.
For me new flat, I’m excited about lining one side of my bedroom with red bookcases from IKEA, customised with a bit of wallpaper. I like being able to see my stuff! As I won’t have a walk-in wardrobe anytime soon (sigh), I’m planning to have my shoes on display, along with teacups, saucers, bottles of paints and bowls of bangles. I cannot wait.
I am constantly thinking about my future apartment, because, I can’t wait to be living out on my own again.
I’m dying for wall to wall bookshelves, overstuffed couchs that turn into beds, the proper amount of trinkets and splashes of color here and there (right now i’m living with Black/White/Teal – It’s lovely!). I really like both Salvage Style and I’m also fairly minimalistic. But I’m also a Cyberpunk at heart – putting all these things together will be quite interesting when it is time.
I love the idea of having the most gaudy, lush, “bordello-chic” type of home. Lush fabrics everywhere, dark hardwood, chandeliers, huge fireplaces, dark greens, reds, purples, plums, burgundy, gold accents everywhere, taxidermy, vintage posters, antiques, huge gilded mirrors.
And I’ve always wanted a room made to look like the Black Lodge from “Twin Peaks”. Red & white zig/zig floors, greek statues, red drapes, and groovy art deco chairs. To die!
I’m Really Loving Duck Egg Blue, I’d Have This Bed:
www.argos.co.uk/static/Product…
When I think about my dream habitat, I usually skip through the apartment phase and get right down to business: I want to be a wife and a mother, so I need a nice big house with a front yard and a backyard. I’d like heating in the floors and a delightfully efficient A/C (since my apartment right now is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter); I dream of rich jewel tones and artful clutter; ridiculous amounts of books (that are actually well-read and well-loved); I dream of fairy lights and mismatched flatware, oversized couches.
My biggest dream is having a mini-house (basically one of those garden sheds overhauled into a comfortable structure) with too many pendant lamps hanging in a corner, thick rugs that encourage people to sit on them, a nice selection of chairs and a grand sofa; I want the walls to be painted beautiful colors and covered with beautiful pictures and posters and hanging necklaces; I want french doors that open onto a mini-patio with a private garden. Basically, it will be my outdoor living room, a place where I can read, write, meditate, stretch, play, entertain friends. I want to make babies (or at least practice!) in it and then play with those kids when they are old enough in the mini-garden. It will have a fabulous name and will be spectacular.
My yards will be full of small trees, flowers, and vegetables. Peas growing their vines up a vintage bicycle frame. A mud pit for my kids to play in.
Home will be where my heart is, for sure.
Oh, and a hot pink kitchen. I had decided this two years ago, before I met you and peeked your gorgeous hair.
White walls are beautiful to me too! It’s the same effect as a blank sheet of paper. I’ve just painted the new “Drummbellina HQ” – AKA my new studio – brilliant white and literally everything looks amazing against it. All my stuff is bright and colourful and it just makes me so happy to be in that room!
I want to paint the rest of the house white too with random walls of beautiful colours here and there. I want a library area at the top of the stairs and lots of kooky pictures all over the house…I dunno, it’s a work in progress :)
I adore your old apartment pictures that are on Flickr, with your strings of pictures and stuff, back when you had blond hair I think! Also, love the chalkboard quote in this entry – so true :)
Gala Gala Gala! My husband and I spent our honeymoon at the Ace Hotel in Portland, OR. [Yay Nubby’s home sweet home] It was amazing. The Ace fits our design aesthetic PERFECTLY, but we’re having issues figuring out how to implement it. But yeah, the Ace is incredible. The stairwell leading up to our room had this smell…wood and old books, kind of, that we’ve been trying to find in home fragrance forever. Viva la library smell!
Great post! I love pieces on weird, creative interior design. Btw, have you ever heard the of the book Interior Alchemy? It might be a bit cluttered for your taste, but it’s abou tdesigning your apartment like a stage set. I adore it
Ohhh, you make me really want to reconsider the posters I was planning on just plastering my dorm room with!
Hi Gala! Great post – have you ever been to Moss in Soho? It is an amazing design store…really inspiring. Here’s their URL...http://www.mossonline.com/category-exec/category_id/0
Ooooh, I love blank white walls and white ornate detailling, too!
I kind of waver between a light, airy, white/light neutral colours, everything is in its place, gives off a Gwyneth-Paltrow-in-a-commercial-for-fabric-softener-vibe aesthetic….and a cozy, cluttered, eclectic, eccentric dark wood, bordello-esque, tartan accents (a Scottish bordello?), lots of red walls, books and terrifying-to-a-small-child art-pieces on the wall aesthetic. Hmmmm.
I have no idea what this says about me, or how I’ll reconcile the two. Anything wierd and creative….yet easy to clean?
Amazing! I love my home, but often wonder how I’d make my house look if I lived on my own. I have a husband to accomodate though, haha.
Today was my first day of orientation for interior design school – so I was super inspired & excited to see this post before I left! I can’t wait to see what kind of magical space you’ll create!!
My dream house would be organic-futuristic, Gaudi-inspired, orientally exotic…
Here are some photos of inspirations:
trippinwithrip.wordpress.com/2…
Auroville: www.panoramio.com/photo/275975…
You can actually live here for around 35$ per day !
www.flickr.com/photos/the_eter…
www.flickr.com/photos/63122153
blog.designpublic.com/wp
www.flickr.com/photos/12684393
100% love! I’m a huge interior design nerd! :D
Ooh, those pictures are gorgeous. I swear, I’d rather look at interior decorating masterpieces like those than anything else; it’s like porn to me.
Also: they do make blackboard paint, I don’t know if you knew that. I used to have some of it in my room, it works well. You could buy some and paint your whole wall!
Hey Gala , I’ve been back in Malaysia for about 5 months now. I’ve lived in Wellington for 1.5 years. Part renting and part flatting. When I rented my second home, It was so amazing, I picked out the dining tables, the sofa’s and the a vintage armchair. I also have a red velvet lampshade and lampstand. The look was Red, White and Beige.
Coming back home now, I have slowly redecorated my old room. I am lucky enough to have the biggest room in the house (master bedroom :p)Only cause my parents doesnt like climbing up the stairs. So I have all the necessity space I could use. Usually I stay in my room and do my work and hang out.
I wanted a comfortable space as well as peaceful. So the look I’m going for my room now is Pink, White and anything subdued and not to contrasting. Although I have a very colorful painting up against the wall near my bed.
I had some of the built in cabinets pulled out to make it more accessible. As it was in the way a lot last time. And space consuming. I repainted the wooden wardrobe cabinets white and all its shelves. I had my walls painted in a very light lilac color, And my doors are bubblegum pastel pink. Its a delight to look at everyday. My curtains are crinkly white fabric one one panel and a dusty shade of pink on the other side.
I still don’t have a dressing table as the built in cabinets was part of the dressing table. >.< So I’m on a hunt for a great looking white dressing table. And maybe a full length mirror too .
I’m also setting up a sewing/design studio in my room. So far I’m happy with my fengshui repositioning of my desktop computer and the big laser printer >.
I hope you have a good time planning your more permanent chillax!
White walls; oh god yes. I cannot WAIT to have my very own space that is truly mine. As far as what I’d want it to look like, well. It would need to be someplace waaaay out there, so I could own a huge hunk of foresty (with bits of meadow here & there) land, filled with all of the awesome that is nature. Giant windows to welcome the sun; a great big library overflowing with books. Exposed stone in places; logs as well, maybe in the main living space. A fire place in the bedroom; a balcony to grow lots of amazing plants. A sunny kitchen to grow herbs & tomatoes. I’d use nature as decorating pieces everywhere; you’d walk into my home & see not a giant screened tv monstrosity but a grand piano, well loved & well used.
seems like our tastes are pretty similar. our house (or the rooms that we’ve actually got around to decorating) all have white walls and one feature wall with awesome wallpaper. our bedroom has a silver, black and white wall and i heart it. when we do our kitchen it will be all white but with a few black tiles and one bright pink wallpapered wall.
im with you on the monochrome thing with adding key pieces or art to change the cool and add colour.
I am freakishly obsessed with interior design. The majority of my house is currently pretty simple with a lot of white, black, and pale colors (Something that my mother and I compromised on). However, my room is a total color explosion. Usually when I’m trying to explain my room people get a queasy look on their faces immediately, but it looks much better than it sounds.. One wall is zebra striped, the one parallel to that is pale pink and yellow striped, the other two are blue. I have red curtains. All of my furniture and the majority of my decor are basic black, to keep the crazy colors from being too overwhelming. It looks better than it sounds, I swear.
My girl and I talk a lot about what our future house will look like and it is pretty much gonna be more crazy colors, odd furniture, and faux-taxidermy.
That’s how I roll.
Ooh yes, white is the best choice because it’s so versatile. You can decorate any way you want with white. Of course, that can get boring as well :[
The only interior decorating desire I’ve consistently carried with me is to paint my future living room’s walls in diagonal bright pink-on-pink stripes. I’m also very drawn to mixing cute, bold things like that with more soft, traditional romantic elements (oval victorian-style picture frames/mirrors or vanities, for example).
Oh, and white where black would normally be used (like on the aforementioned frames) because I have an irrational hatred for the contrast between black and bright colors.
My best friend’s bedroom had lime-green walls, a black-and-white checkerboard floor, and sheer black curtains for the windows.
Ah-mazing.
I think I spend half my life doing fantasy interior design…When I finally grow up and live someplace for more than a year, I want my home to be a combination of gypsy caravan, English library, Victorian boudoir safari.
Although there’s the potential for disaster, it would be totally awesome if done properly!
hi gala! everything looks so fantastic! with all your traveling, how do are you affording all this? do you have a bunch of things in the works? only asking b/c i’m also a freelancer and i’m having trouble making ends meet…
I always thought it would be amazing to have a walk-in closet that looked like a dressing room from an old Hollywood theater! The low lights, the ridiculous glamour…
I love very feminine yet slightly shabby interiors, so my room is currently a mix of distressed white wood furniture, faded dusk-pink roses scattered across the wallpaper, floral prints, gingham, duck-egg blue stripes, framed vintage La Vie Parisienne posters, antique mirrors, birdcages, typewriters, a huge bookcase that is pretty much my pride and joy, and a general mishmash of all things pretty and girly. I love it!
you reminded me of my dream house I drew when I was 12. It has a checkerboard floor and a bowling alley in the basement.
I like where I live now. It’s kind of perfect, but kind of small. I say its perfect because it suits the classier side of my personality. The main room is very spacious, with a gold painted brick wall, another white wall with a little secret window near the light blue staircase, a view of the street with gold light curtains, and it also has a ladder leading up to the loft, where there is an extra bed.
I would really like to live in a place where things aren’t complicated. I’ve often dreamed of living in a shack on the beach. Not a mansion, just a cottage or something. I don’t like collecting things because I don’t like clutter. None of my walls have anything stuck on them, and I haven’t decorated anything. I define myself by color and texture. Think modernist Coco Chanel. If I were to live in New York, I’d have the walls colored white, light dusty blue, gold and light pink. Perhaps later in life I’ll experiment more, but for now this is what I’m about.
It’d be an apartment on West 10th street, with a wall of bookshelves, a room of old antiques and vintage knickknacks, a living room that’s minimalistic, bright, sharp, with fresh yellow roses or tulips and a few paintings on the walls. Mirrors everywhere (especially the bedroom), which must have a big closet. And most importantly an office/writing room, with books and books and books and inspiration tacked on the walls, photos and a typewriter, stacks of notebooks and pens at the ready, and a big desk with a comfortable chair and a teapot by the side. And big windows! Bright lights! And air conditioning to hide from those horrid New York summer days.
I can’t can’t wait to get my own apartment one day. It’ll be the most lovely feeling in the world.
Oh i love house styling! Since a little kid i would just rummage around the house and put furniture/stuff in my room and redecorated every 3 weeks or something. I tend to go for lime or white walls most of the time. Nature is always present in my rooms, branches against the wall, herb gardens, dried flowers. I love pratical&multi functional furniture like an old door for a table. My favourite piece of furniture was this coffee table with rounded corners on the feet that i bought for my birthday at the salvation army and a little cabinet on wheels from my grandparents wich contains a recordplayer/radio/tapedeck. Currently i’m in love with ropes & knots.
I’m in travel modus right now but i’m collecting soo much ideas for when i get my own home again.
My dreamhouse would be a mix of this
by jonathan and annie zawada
and this house by Cary Leibowitz
Candyass is badass
Haha, I’m always near-obsessed with plotting my ridiculous dream home. Aesthetics and interior design are some of my favorite things.
One idea I love is a refurbished Victorian House [a painted lady maybe?] with a giant indoor tree and tree house as a bedroom. I’ve always loved the idea of tree houses and was always jealous because the trees where I live are not supportive enough for small forts of wonder and awesomeness.
My friend Kenzie and I often plot our dream house: a crazy artists’ loft with murals and cool furniture and paint and crap everywhere. She was going to paint giant eyes in the bathroom to creep guests out. XD
And I seriously wouldn’t mind living in one of those aquariums where it’s all made of glass and the fish swim over your head; those places always thrill&creep me out at the same time. I’m seriously a fish.
I’m a college student, and I can’t wait to move into my apartment in May…which I do know is 9 months away, but all I can do is think about ways to decorate. I’ve already begun shopping, because I know it’s going to be an expensive task. As I’ll be living with a roommate, I won’t have entire freedom on the main living room, but my bedroom is going to be amazing (as well as the kitchen). I want white walls in my bedroom, which very ornate decor, candlesticks, flowers, books, etc. I want classic movie posters, and pictures of Audrey Hepburn & Marilyn, all black & white decor, and then I want my bedspread to be a stunning color, perhaps red or purple. It’s sort of modern and classy combined; it’s going to be fabulous. I would love advice on where to find non-expensive decor (not cheap, though!). I love decorating, it’s just so much fun!
This is an awesome post! You have awesome ideas and made me think of what I’d like if there were no restrictions moneywise etc haha. I totally loved the white room photo with the pink bed. I think I’d love a place with high ceilings, white walls, classy black and white furniture and a think it’d have a different bright popping colour in each room. Like really pretty bright flowers and the odd bright funky rug (timber floors). And I would love to have a room where everything is just Pink and white, like totally girly! I love being girly! Oh any how can i forget a massive massive walk in wardrobe with one whole wall for shoes like in the sex and the city movie!
Francesca Lia Block’s imagination spilled out into a room with the artistic mastery of Andy Warhol. :D Bright pink walls, a mound of delicious quilts and mattresses for a bed, blanket forts, impractical amounts of artistic clutter, a huge bookshelf covered wall, a stereo & sound system covered in rhinestones & a big shelf to display my CDs that I adore, a big space for painting, a little loft made to look like a treehouse for perching, writing, napping, and dreaming, & one of those little projectors that makes a room appear to have stars at nighttime. And of course a city view—a real one.
I adore your indoor lake & swanboat idea. WHY ISN’T THAT INVENTED ALREADY? I’m considering getting a big pink inflatable kiddie pool to lounge in. Flood risk??
xoxo Sprinkle
Whenever I think of my dream house I always base it around one room. A huge room walled and floored with mirrors with a clear plexiglass celing so at night you can be surrounded by the stars.
it’s tough to know how my ideal home would look, because i am in love with two very different aesthetics. one of my favorite styles of decorating is what i call the “rose red” style… lots of polished dark wood, weird statues, old books, antique furniture… very victorian and slightly creepy, i wouldn’t keep all the silver polished and would treasure well-worn vintage pieces. but then i’m also like a little kid. i love pink and mint and turquoise and hello kitty and a lot of things designed for little girl’s rooms for target and jc penney. i want a hello kitty teacup clock and if they made the disney princess tvs in a twenty inch screen that didn’t have child-locks on the dvd players and a slight tendency to break due to being too heavy, i would want one more than a flat panel. I am not a fan of modern looking furniture at all! I like heavy, comfy furniture made from wood and fabric, very organic, no glass, steel, or leather. I love the way dharma’s apartment looks on “dharma and greg” and the way weetzie bat’s house is described. in my current tiny apartment i have mix-matched vintage china and tarnished silverware, a collage on my wall of rockstars and candy and bones and roses, and a leopard print armchair i found by the side of the road. but i picked out my apartment because it’s the front room of an old, run-down victorian mansion. i dream of having one of those study/libraries you see in vincent price movies and period films. i have no idea what my first real place to live will look like once i’m not just going from stuff i can get at thrift stores or furniture i stole from my mom. will hello kitty or ellen rimbauer win? will i invent some new fusion of steampunk and little girl? it’s fun to dream about, though.
i love the sofa in the second photo!
That quote “Life isn’t about finding yourself, but creating yourself.” is actually be George Bernard Shaw. :)
i’ve always liked the idea of blackboard walls! ^^
i read somewhere that all you do is buy a can of blackboard paint, paint the walls and that’s it! :D
OR you could just hire your good friend Audrey to come across and set up your new digs for you since he has his own interior design company now.
Good call with the Ace Hotel for inspiration though. You have no idea how much stuff from that place is crammed in my look books. I based my new office at the new job on their aesthetic.
Miss you. A lot.
- A.x
I would live in a loft. Cozy, verging on too-small for it’s content, but with a large open window. I’ll have thick plush carpeting. My loft would be in shades of grey, with soft buttery yellow, and maybe just a touch of deep plum or a bright midnight blue, though my walls, too will be white.
I would have a simple, but amazingly comfy futon, and an oversized armchair, and vintage posters from the 60s, and a bookcase, though it would be covered with pictures and trinkets and notebooks, and my books would be in stacks wherever they were left. I would store my treasures in the back of a kitchen cabinet, and I would have an old fashioned wardrobe instead of a closet, and a coat rack, and too many incense burners.
If it would fit, I would get a vanity table. My makeup would be in perfect, obsessively organized alignment, but everything else would be thrown about in that worn in, purposeful clutter way. I would have an old-fashioned desk with a roll-down top, and a low coffee table.
I would have a single bright house plant, a beta, and a goldfish. And a cat. I would have suitcases filled with useful things where ever I saw fit, and I would have strings of wooden beads act as a curtain. Guitars would be stored on the walls.
The doors would be plastered in collages of photographs and poems and silly stickers. My fridge would have nothing on it at all. I would have a typewriter and a record player and a Magic Bullet. I don’t think it could happen, but in an ideal world I would have a wood stove. I would burn beeswax candles and keep a collection of lava lamp.
I don’t much care if it all “fits” together, as long as it feels right.
Nice post, Gala :)
After some profound brain-storming, I have concluded that the following are essentials:
un. MASSIVE comfy bed with lots of soft pillows.
deux. Wooden swing suspended from bedroom ceiling.
trois. Big-ass bathtub & shower for splashy sexytimes.
quatre. Dishwasher and/or slave.
cinq. Fireplace
six. Something similar to the Chai tent on Confest <3
sept. Bookshelves with a sliding-ladder thing, like what Belle has in Beauty&theBeast OMG OMG I have wanted this since I was five.
I’m also in love with the idea of ‘wallpapering’ an entrance hall with polaroids of house guests.
&&&&&& much much good luck to everyone who is trying to create their dream house.
xxxxxBisous, Ekerplay.
P.S. Gala, I noticed that you’ve modified the header of this blog since the initial big change, and… I LOVE IT! Changing a couple of those photos was a great move – I love the colours in this much more – the black & white wallpaper is divine – by any chance is it Nubby’s? ;D
Pass my regards on to the design team – they’ve done a great job.
xxxxxBisous, Ekerplay.
Such a shame you were subleasing, your house seemed super nifty to me.
I just moved to my old apartament again, and i’m taking the chance to redecorate it. The walls are Yellow, a color i don’t exactly like, but don’t loathe, and i’m covering one of the walls of my bedroom/studio into the Inspirational wall. I decided i would cover it with quotes on post-its, pictures, stickers, and magazine cuts that inspire me, oh, also a big bunch of star stickers, cause stars are the most amazing thing ever.
Hi Gala! I just wanted to ask you how can I contact you through email, I have a problem and I’d need some of your always wise advice! (Oh! I’d also like to congratulate you for your site’s stunning new look ;)!)
Kisses ♥
Oh wow!!
When I move into my new place (Crazy Children’s Librarian/Domestic Goddess/Creep Machine HQ) there shall be MUCH color. But not eyesore color, cool spring. Painted and peeling. Sparkles, stripes, floral, chandeliers, animals, cartoons, bows and feathers. Eclectic, funky, vintage, well used, disheveled, mossy, kitschy. Although it will be an apartment, I’d adore to someday have a kitchen cave (completely closed off from the rest) with swinging doors. And a breakfast nook. And a casual dining room. And a HUGE BED!!!
Oh the dreaming, oh the planning.
It would be neat to have an apartment where one room is soundproof, so I can blast and record music as loud as I want without causing any of the other tenants to call the police (or the super). I can turn that room into a small home recording studio. Instead of a mood board, I’d have an entire “mood wall,” so I can expand my ideas and put as many pictures and words as I like. I’d also have a wide desk in my workspace, with everything around it organized in smaller compartments (I’m a geek). I don’t have a particular color scheme in mind, but there would definitely be splashes of really vibrant colors. Rich reds, golds, intense blues, lemony yellows, oranges, purples… you get the idea. I’d also have paper lanterns hanging.
Also, I’d have a pet. Preferrably a dog, but anything that wants/needs love can have a home with me.
I would love to have an Anthropologie-esque interior for a study room, but I always thought those geodesic dome houses would be an interesting home.
LOVE the sofa. And I really want this bed: www.clubfurniture.com/drfaorle…