Cool furniture, design objects and desiderata

[Gus]

I feel like I'll eventually get to this. My wife and I have moved a lot, and with the book collection, record collection, and clothes, it's pretty rough each time.

I've enjoyed collecting things all of my life and have had an affinity for anything music, clothing, decor, quirky vintage stuff etc. My wife and I accumulated lots of things from travels and kept pieces from family members for sentimental reasons. When we moved 2 and a half years ago to a new state we said, "What do have that we don't really use?". We also rented for a few months while looking for a home and during that time said," what do we have that won't look right in our new home". We ended up getting rid of all but a few pieces of furniture, excess kitchen items, art, books, rugs, etc. It was cathartic to move forward and free of so many things that we realized we were just holding on too but weren't using or enjoying.

Added enjoyment came from coming up with a plan for a consistent "look" from one end of the house to the other to fit our new home, lifestyle and the area. No longer did we feel the need to keep things, just because.

Minimalism is great.

 

[lefty]

lefty

 

[DapperPhilly]

Finally wrapping up the MEPs in our renovation and have some fun stuff coming together. I've already exhausted my friends and family with updates, so I figured I'd come gush to random men on the internet. Who needs therapy?

We're fully onboard with the floating basin trend, opting for floating basins in our downstairs bathroom and master. For the downstairs, we found a really cool slab of pecan that has a ton of visual interest and asymmetrical movement. Given we are tiling all the walls in the bathroom, we feel a busier wood will provide relief in texture and uniformity.

Still early days, but here is a view of the grain as well as the preliminary build:

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Vanity will have one drawer. Still deciding on the stain (the floors are mid-to-dark hardwoods and the walls are high-gloss black 4x4 zellige tile) but want to ensure it's light enough to keep the visual interest of the grain. We will be dropping a low-profile (~4" off of counter) stone vessel sink on top of the vanity. Plumbing trim will come from the wall.

We're also building an 8' stone (quartzite) basin and vanity in the master. Similar to the wooden vanity, though it will have mitered edges/no storage. For storage, we will flank it on both sides with vertical slatted towers (image included for reference, though our configuration will be different -- No additional storage under vanity, towers will run floor to ceiling, plumbing trim will be wall-mounted, one mirror with wall-mounted sconces). Really excited about the visual interest/depth of the stone. We've moved away from our initial inclination of honing it (want to keep the intensity of the colors) and will likely opt for a leathered finish. Sink will be built from the stone.

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Thanks for indulging me. Month 6 of this project and I'm getting unreasonably excited for the finished product. Hoping to have some finished pictures for the threak by the end of April.

That slab looks like fusion quartzite

 

[SixOhNine]

I feel like I'll eventually get to this. My wife and I have moved a lot, and with the book collection, record collection, and clothes, it's pretty rough each time.

I love books and have been a pretty voracious reader my entire life, but moving boxes and boxes of books suuuucks. It's not perfect, I've really come to appreciate my Kindle Paperwhite.

 

[Gibonius]

I love books and have been a pretty voracious reader my entire life, but moving boxes and boxes of books suuuucks. It's not perfect, I've really come to appreciate my Kindle Paperwhite.

Even without moving, books take up space. My parents have a whole damn library, but they live in an ex-urb in a 4k sq ft place. My inner suburb place? I don't have physical space for the 50+ books I read a year. Library or Kindle books for me, thanks.

 

[conceptual 4est]

Going to add to the apartment furnishing this thread has been enjoying lately. Super open to ideas, suggestions, inspiration, criticism, all of it.

We're finally getting settled into our place here in Tokyo, and it's an interesting one. It's physically pretty large compared to everywhere else we looked, but it has lots of unusual angles which makes us want to be smarter about how we use the space.

We took almost nothing with us from the states, especially regarding furniture, so really starting from scratch.

Some considerations as we furnish this one:

-If we do move again while here our next apartment most likely won't be as big as this one
-We have a two year old and while we take care of and maintain things, stuff happens! And I don't want to be overly precious about anything.
-Aside from some immediate necessities like a sofa, and more personal things like beds, we have a preference for secondhand and vintage and don't mind taking a little bit of time to find the right thing. It's been fun to look around and see what's here. Related to above, something like a secondhand but nice dining table makes sense to me. No sweat when it inevitably gets some mark on it that proves impossible to get off.
-We can't really drill into the walls, but in addition to freestanding storage I'm curious about stuff that uses friction above and below.

Floorplan below, but for now I just want to focus on the living and dining area, which is in the upper right.



From when we moved in:



To the right in this photo is the dining area, with that strange angle jutting out with windows. The door to the kitchen is next to me as I take this photo but it's a sliding door so no worries about space clearance in either direction.

The middle section is a sort of living room, so below is a photo of how it sits today. The tatami room next to it is also a living room for our purposes.



Instead of a sectional we went with a sofa + ottoman which allows us to reconfigure as we need and also gives us more flexibility if and when we move. We got it from a domestic brand called Unico, which I would put in the camp of "very millenial-friendly type brand". Affordable and straightforward but a step nicer than Ikea or Nitori, which is like a domestic IKEA. The color palate is a little boring for our tastes but whatever. This grey has a decent slub and mix of colors to it at least.

Stereo is a mess of wires but wanted to make sure everything worked with the transformer I picked up. It does

The slider you see leads to a small balcony but it's not one you'd really hang out on - it has those unsightly AC/heater things on it and is pretty small otherwise. Really just for access to those and drying some laundry, but we have another balcony for the latter. We aren't averse to TVs at all, but are in no rush to get one. If we do, I can actually see placing it there on a low console, likely to the fixed side of the door with the frosted slider.

For dining, I'm floating the idea of something non-rectangular, just to play off of all the angles otherwise. But everything that has struck my fancy has been standard rectangle.

So, top of the list in order of priority is dining table, storage for books, and something to store the amp and record player.

More than happy to hear other ideas of what we should do with this space though!

 

[conceptual 4est]

Oh, some quick shots of the tatami room as it sits. We eat meals at the low Tendo table. It suits us fine for now although starting to really crave the normalcy of a proper dining table.



That nook through the sliders in the second image is a really nice place to sit and chill, but again with a weird angle going on. Might be the kind of place to just have a decent chair, potted plant, and end table for coffee and book.

 

[Journeyman]

That nook through the sliders in the second image is a really nice place to sit and chill, but again with a weird angle going on. Might be the kind of place to just have a decent chair, potted plant, and end table for coffee and book.

O-hikkoshi omedetou!

That space reminds me of those little "balconies" that you always see in ryokan, where there's a small armchair, glass-topped coffee table and, sometimes, a little bar fridge.

I'm not recommending that you put a bar fridge there, but it looks like a really nice place for a comfy chair and little side table, where you can relax with a book and a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy the view.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

You really don't want to have anything nice on a balcony in Tokyo - it will be covered with sooty deposits from the air pollution within a few weeks. Balconies are for plants, aircon and hanging washing. That's it.

Looks like you're definitely in the posh end of town, @conceptual 4est ! The biggest places we've ever lived in have been 2LDK (and mostly 1) and never such interesting shapes...

 

[bourbonbasted]

That slab looks like fusion quartzite

It is indeed. I believe the name of the slab was "Brazilian Fascination," which reminds me of all the times girls shot me down in Rio. My wife felt it would keep me grounded.

 

[DapperPhilly]

It is indeed. I believe the name of the slab was "Brazilian Fascination," which reminds me of all the times girls shot me down in Rio. My wife felt it would keep me grounded.

We probably went to 15 different stone slab warehouses when we built our home finally settling on 3 specific slabs of fusion which were more on the green side with waves of blue. Our kitchen island was made with a full slab approx
8x11. Our cherry wood cabinets and backsplashes are all fusion with cabinet top bookmatched with backsplashes for uninterrupted flow.
Quartzite is quite durable and rather impervious to stains once sealed correctly. Although this can vary from batch to batch as is the case with any natural stone.
Many a red wine has been spilled and we often cut/slice directly on it.
I don't see any problem for a bathroom application depending on the porosity of your specific piece. A good stone guy can look and touch your piece and tell you. Perhaps you already know stone well enough to assess on your own.
I am eager to see pics of your finished project.

 

[1969]

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That nook through the sliders in the second image is a really nice place to sit and chill, but again with a weird angle going on. Might be the kind of place to just have a decent chair, potted plant, and end table for coffee and book.
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Is it this space on the plan?

If so, maybe a plant in that very back corner and bench or chair in front of it. Alteratively, pack it completely full of plants?

 

[Gibonius]

We probably went to 15 different stone slab warehouses when we built our home finally settling on 3 specific slabs of fusion which were more on the green side with waves of blue. Our kitchen island was made with a full slab approx
8x11. Our cherry wood cabinets and backsplashes are all fusion with cabinet top bookmatched with backsplashes for uninterrupted flow.
Quartzite is quite durable and rather impervious to stains once sealed correctly. Although this can vary from batch to batch as is the case with any natural stone.
Many a red wine has been spilled and we often cut/slice directly on it.
I don't see any problem for a bathroom application depending on the porosity of your specific piece. A good stone guy can look and touch your piece and tell you. Perhaps you already know stone well enough to assess on your own.
I am eager to see pics of your finished project.

Your poor knives...

 

[DapperPhilly]

Your poor knives...

We do abuse our knives. Hopefully nobody will turn us in.

 

[brokencycle]

Why would any sane person cut something directly on a stone counter? Can you not afford a cutting board after spending tons of money on stone?