Believe it or not partly inspired by my Moleskine notebooks, I’ve been doing a bit of home redesign and redevelopment. Aside from carrying my notebook around to look cool, I’m also getting an enormous amount of use out of it due to the extensive planning involved with my latest project for the Laureus Foundation. It has helped me come up with great ideas, as well.
Since I’m spending more time at home than usual because of my business redirection (I suppose I’ll post more on that later, for those that don’t know), I have needed to make the spaces here feel more comforting and stylish — inspirational.
The Puzzle Bookcase
The first thing I needed to do was fill some space (I did rearrange my home office prior to this but this post seems to have skipped that altogether for some reason). I have a rather large living area and it just seemed empty. I don’t utilize a “dining” area (which is kind of funny since my girlfriend is the editor of Dine Magazine). The space which normally would be occupied by a dining room table and chairs is instead taking shape as a stylish urban library of sorts.
The Puzzle Bookcase (SKU 386685) from Crate & Barrel is a perfect fit. I went on an expedition to various stores in search of a large bookshelf — let me tell you, there is virtually nothing out there available for instant gratification. It’s sad, really.
The nice thing about this bookcase is the expandability. This is important as I have a good chunk of wall to fill and want things to look put together, not space. Aside from my growing book collection, one of the shelves displays my super nerdy LEGO Imperial Star Destroyer. I also have some speakers connected via AirTunes for streaming lounge beats to the living area.
While not all that expensive, it is very nicely made and the color is brilliant in person. Which brings us to the next issue…
The Puzzle Entertainment Center
I do like what my television sits on right now. However, it is dated. The color doesn’t match now either. The mood has changed. Plus, my AppleTV would look so freaking hot on a dark wood.
Solution? Get the matching piece: The Puzzle Entertainment Center (SKU 333670)!
Ah yes, perfect. The silver accents align with my silver LCD TV and AppleTV perfectly. Mmmmmm…
I’m considering rocking the AppleTV on one side and the Mac Mini on the other — although, I’m not quite sure what purpose the Mini would serve just yet. It’s kind of the excessive way to get the MacOS X on TV effect.
The biggest issue with the Puzzle Entertainment Center is there’s no instant gratification for my Nintendo Generation mentality as it’s order-only and takes 7-10 days to arrive. I’m pretty much locked in though, as I already have the bookcase and it just works so freaking well.
Next is a nice area rug to fill some floor space and break up the room a bit.
One Response to “Urban Hipster Living”rss
Ian Adams, on April 15th, 2007, said:
The funny thing about this is that I just went through nearly the same thing. I just moved into my first-ever apartment by myself, and I had a perfectly blank slate from which to design my new home. The only furniture I already owned was one nice-looking mahogany bookshelf, a glass L-shaped computer desk with matching under-desk filing cabinet (on wheels!) and a mesh computer chair. So I broke out the graph paper and opened Safari, and got to work on designing my apartment.
The bathroom’s done, but that’s about it. I haven’t had a chance to order anything yet because I just moved in last month and I’m leaving for Holland on Wednesday, so the money just hasn’t been there. But when I get back, I’m going to start ordering stuff online like crazy.
You should check out CB2.com. It’s Crate and Barrel’s consumer-level store. Think of Crate and Barrel as the PowerBook, and CB2 as the iBook, and you get the point. Same good design, but lower cost. I’m getting my couch from there. My coffee table is coming from Crate and Barrel proper, though, which shows that you won’t find everything you need there, but it is another good place to look for furniture.
Oh, and homedecorators.com and homedecoratorsoutlet.com are good sites to look at, too.
Good luck with the redesign!
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