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Apartment foo-nishing

TheFoo

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It is an ugly ******* room precisely for the reasons you give. However, you are able to make such inferences because the room is so bad that they are the only inferences one can make.

My living room is open for more interpretation. Why don't you start by making the most charitable assumptions possible and work from there. If then you think it sucks, at least you would have contributed an opinion worth reading, whether or not I ultimately am convinced.
 
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StephenHero

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Your search for validation is the ultimate proof that none should be given. Drift into the wilderness, stand face to face with your own reality, and then emerge a man to show us your coffee table.
 
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TheFoo

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If you can find interiors which hint of disingenuous arrangement, then you've found "decorated" interiors, and thus bad ones. The ones I post are overwhelmingly indicative of honest living, to the best of my perception. Yours isn't one of them.


Ah, I missed this point. Now we are getting somewhere.

I sort of agree on your premise, but far from entirely. "Honest living" does not account for everything in what you identify as a good interior. Take any individual piece of furniture. Inevitably, it has been styled and finished with effort not necessary for "honest living." Rather, such things are executed to also achieve a certain visual and tactile quality. In other words, decoration is unavoidable. There is nothing dishonest about liking the way certain things look or feel, either alone or when combined. Good taste is not a rejection of decoration, but an intelligent, thoughtful selection of it.

I once debated coffee table books with Fuuma. His position was that it is tasteless to buy books one only intends to put on their coffee table, as opposed to lazily leaving about books one reads day-to-day. I argued that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with selecting books that you think others will find interesting. After all, our living rooms are public spaces within our own homes. It's important that they are welcoming and hospitable to guests. It is also an important human need to express to our friends and family what we enjoy. So, yes, coffee table books are decoration for the most part--but that does not impeach them in the least bit.

Many of your endorsed interiors show piles of coffee table books carefully and meticulously arranged. Do you really believe the owners read them day-to-day? Bullshit. They are decoration. It just so happens you liked it.
 
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TheFoo

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Your search for validation is the ultimate proof that none should be given. Drift into the wilderness, stand face to face with your own reality, and then emerge a man to show us your coffee table.


You've been on this forum for more than four years. So you should know that approval is not what I ever look for. Ninety percent of the time I do what I will regardless of what the consensus is. It's not a good or bad thing in and of itself, but it disproves your accusation here.
 
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StephenHero

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None of us tell you which shoes to put on in the morning either, foo. You know where you're walking.
 

TheFoo

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None of us tell you which shoes to put on in the morning either, foo. You know where you're walking.


Yes, exactly. So maybe you shouldn't assume I'm looking for validation. If you or anybody else has a credible, convincing opinion or suggestion, it will change how I think about things.

I believe in improvement through the exercise of thought. More people thinking is often (not always) better than fewer.
 

TheFoo

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The operative word is "think." As in, to share thoughts. Preferably good ones. Very few in this thread so far, sad to say.
 
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SkinnyGoomba

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Foo,

I think what can be gained is that this stuff your choosing has little reference to the space or use. Instead it seems to be in the room to impose your taste upon your guests. Do you really use a lamp next to the television? Do you really need two lamps, one having 5 bulbs in it to light a 15ft by 10ft space?

I like to use historical context for this reason (which you aggressively criticised me on); it offers a starting point for making cohesive decisions outside of 'which lamp makes me seem cool'.
 

StephenHero

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Also, your Spiderman coffee cable is going to really **** up your LeCorbusier book's paper dust jacket. That book is way too heavy to escape the peril of friction against all those exposed edges.
 

TheFoo

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Foo,

I think what can be gained is that this stuff your choosing has little reference to the space or use. Instead it seems to be in the room to impose your taste upon your guests. Do you really use a lamp next to the television? Do you really need two lamps, one having 5 bulbs in it to light a 15ft by 10ft space?

I like to use historical context for this reason (which you aggressively criticised me on); it offers a starting point for making cohesive decisions outside of 'which lamp makes me seem cool'.


Of course I want to impose my taste on my guests. Who else's taste would I impose?

The lamp is next to the television because it has to be. It is not ideal, but neither is the space for the furniture we must use. Our Florence Knoll must fit exactly where it is, because of the corners jutting out of the walls. No lamp will fit in that corner of the room, adjacent to the sofa. We need that second lamp by the TV because the other lamp is not in a position to adequately light the living room area at night. It's where it is so it can also light the dining room, south of the diagram. A third light may be needed near the dining table, but we are less sure of that. Given what we're working with, we figured this is most efficient.

Also, your Spiderman coffee cable is going to really **** up your LeCorbusier book's paper dust jacket. That book is way too heavy to escape the peril of friction against all those exposed edges.


The coffee table has a glass top.

Anyway, if I recall, it doesn't have a dust cover, does it? Ours has been stuck in storage for two years.
 
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SkinnyGoomba

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One juxtaposition is adequate, 8 is simply excessive.

You suffer from a need to light the place like you are attempting to land an aircraft and also the inability to do anything outside of jamming all furniture against a wall.

Stephens advice is sometimes a difficult pill to swallow, but it never fails to be anything less than incredibly accurate. The sooner you put it into effect, the better off you will be.

That is all I will contribute to this.
 

TheFoo

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Stephen didn't give any advice.

The only thing against the wall is the sofa. Yet, moving the sofa forward does not accomplish anything--it would just create six to nine inches of awkward dead space. If there was more room, we could put a bookshelf back there (bookshelves are going in the bedroom). Also, because of the positioning of the TV alcove, the sofa must be facing the direction it already is.

Another consideration that you cannot make out from the diagram: moving the sofa forward (and hence the lounge chair and side table with it), would cut deeply into the pathway entering the living room area, and bring the lounge chair too close to the dinning room table.

You said yourself, I'm working with about 15 x 10 feet worth of space. How exactly would you reposition the sofa? If you have a genius strategy I haven't thought of, please do share. I'm serious.
 
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TheFoo

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It sounds like a lot of you have simply never contended with renting small Manhattan apartments. Your furniture tends to be more permanent than your living space, and so, compromises must be made.
 

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