Stupid box-housers unite --now with pictures!

1577 Views 20 Replies 11 Participants Last post by sapphire_chan, Oct 16, 2006

sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · Apr 4, 2006

I've decided that I'm simply not clever/creative enough to work with plain rectangular rooms. Even the few times I've had rooms in my house completely organized they were just sort of pleh.

Come and commiserate or if you've had sucess in creating a vibrant beautiful living space with a box-house, please share! Even if it's just one perfect room.

(I'll admit it, I'm jealous of the people who have houses that look terrific even when totally untidy.

)

I think part of the problem for me is that most of our furniture is thriftstore/hand-me-down chosen more for price/availability rather than our tastes. Also, since we're in school we're only in this house for another couple of years so I'm leery of changing anything too drastically from the standard sorts of things you'd find in an apartment. For instance, I'd love to knock out the shelf and bar in my craftroom closet and build-in shelves, but I don't want to ruin it as a "bedroom" for a future buyer. While I wouldn't have had a problem making the changes for a house we'd be in for another 5+ years, I've only come to realize that I could improve the house by changing my assumptions about closets and things fairly recently.

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Autumn Breeze

· #2 · Apr 5, 2006

Yeah, I've got one of thoes too (but what else do you get for less than $100K?)And what's worse, is our living room, dining area and kitchen form a U shape..well.. more like l__l and on the _ there is a door to the carport. Then the kids bedrooms are small, with thankfully kinda big closets.

I wish I had pictures online.

But at anyrate. My house never looks awsome, but I'm happy when it's clean. I found putting things at odd angles helps clear out the uniformity of following the walls. For example, our TV is pointing out from a corner, instead of sitting flat against a wall. We used to have one of our sofa's the same way, but my parents brought us their old sofa (odd that we have two in the same room I know)

I've also done this with a bed, but right now that isn't possible, but it is a lot of fun to point a bed from a corner

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LEAW

· #3 · Apr 5, 2006

Well can't you add shelves above/below your bar/shelf in the closet and maintain the "closet" part so the next owner can take the shelves out? You could either get those brackets that mount to the back wall with height adjustable shelf supports, or just put in |____| wood around the 3 walls and shelves across (that's what we did, but our closet is tiny) that lift out.

I have a cool old house that doesn't have any storage - NONE. There is exactly one closet in our bedroom, and nothing else. No front closet, no coat hooks, no closet in the other bedroom, no bathroom closet, nada, so we have nothing

I'd love ideas on soem cool storage and/or functional stuff. And ways we can do it with less $$, as it's tight here most weeks for the regular bills.

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sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 5, 2006

At the moment, I've got a dresser in the craft room closet and everything in plastic storage boxes stacked up.

I'll admit it, one of the other huge problems to organization is my own laziness. I also don't feel like spending money on shelves and things until I'm sure of the effect I want.

Yep, no storage at all would suck wayyy more than my situation. The track shelving shown in the media storage post could be good. You could start with 2 tracks and brackets and one shelf even and add on as you have more money. It's a better option money-wise than book cases, plus it has a lot of flexibility.

dynamohumm6

· #5 · Apr 5, 2006

Not only do I live in a pretty box-y house, but we rent it and that means I can't even paint the walls. I have found that GREEN works wonders to soften a room and dress it up and make it look purdy. So I've been on a plant buying mission. There's a market I go to for veggies & fruit that has a houseplant section, and I can get little plants there for $3. Every time I go, I buy one, and my house is now becoming full of green. I'm amazed at how a simple houseplant can completely change the mood of a room.

sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 6, 2006

I've also learned that I kill houseplants. I've had a plant in my cubicle since January and *just* realized that I put it in the pot wrong. It's poor little roots were sticking up above the soil and having to support the weight of the plant.

It's better now though, fixed it between the first and second sentences of this post.

See, this is why I need pictures of competent people's houses. Or I should get around to getting the digital camera's batteries working and post pictures of my house for people to critique. I just want to get the clutter dealt with first, y'know? Making the house pretty is secondary to making it tidy. Or maybe that's the problem, maybe I should decorate and *then* clean up the house.

The really

part of this is it's just me, dh and the cats. So I've got *no* excuses for the mess. (Okay, yeah, I do have excuses, they're just not good and valid excuses..

)

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4

Stone Fence

· #7 · Apr 6, 2006

My little box house has one small advantage. We designed the room layout (it's modular). Occasionally I think that I'd make some changes but overall I'm happy with the layout. Also, It's so small it takes about an hour to pick-up and vacuum.

My living room is the big issue. It's rectangular, it's carpeted (yuk), We don't have any furniture that we love, it's kind of stark and it faces North.

The kitchen/dining area is my favorite place in my house. It faces south, there's a sliding glass door and I love to cook. It's as close to decorated as any room I've ever had.

rabbithorns

· #8 · Apr 6, 2006

I put matching slipcovers on a thrift store chair and loveseat that didn't match. That really helped pull together one look. I also found an ottoman that is big and rectangular and fits right into the chair and loveseat. It was hideous but I covered it with a related-colored fabric so it isn't exactly the same but goes nicely. We can put our feet up and also use it as a coffee table because the top is flat and I have a wooden tray I got last year at target for $10 on it where I put my tea.

That "ensemble" pulled together an altogether unmatching mess. Because I use floor lamps, I don't need end tables for lamps, although we have a shelf in the corner at the end where the chair and loveseat meet and I'm looking for a table to go there. But since it doesn't need to match any other tables, I can look for just one - at a thrift store of course! The only other thing in the living room is a rocking chair and that seems to pull together a seating area that's cozy. It's probably not magazine beautiful, but the way it's put together fits the rectangle of the living room and doesn't assault the eye due to the matching slipcovers and lack of distracting extras (no wall art, no tables full of knickknacks and magazines, etc.). It's the one totally peaceful uncluttered room.

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boingo82

· #9 · Apr 7, 2006

I may win the box-house contest. Ours is:
#1 - a perfect square. Doesn't get boxier than that.
#2 - small enough that putting the furniture at angles is impossible.
#3 - furnished almost exclusively in stuff that was handed down - and obtained at yard sales before that!
#4 - but you can't really see the furniture at all (nor the floors) thanks to the efforts of a destructive 2-year old who lives here. We pick up and vacuum every other day but you can't tell an hour later.

sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 7, 2006

Ouch. That *is* the ultimate in box-houseness.

What with one thing and another I'm really starting to see more potential in my own house. Thank you everyone.

natrowmum

· #11 · Apr 15, 2006

most of the time these things are a plus--my husband gave me a set to install myself for my birthday/mother's day gift (i wanted him to not touch a tool at all, 'casue he likes to hog them). we buy the pre-fab ones that you can customize a little bit from lowes or homedepot. we usually put a pole for hanging clothes all the way across, then we put shelving on 1 side w/a pole 1/2 the way down for shirts & pants and since it's with those bracket thingies people can take them out or put more in whenever they want. so if they wear long dress--just the top pole in shelf. or if they don't need it as a bedroom they can put shelving all over without installing anymore brackets! when we sold our last house--prospective buyers were really positive about it and complimentary. we kept the bits we didn't use in the shed & left them for the new owners in case they wanted to change things.

something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=228013

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sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #12 · Apr 16, 2006

I'll have to talk to dh about those. Thing is, I mostly don't even need a closet at all, but I'm not sure what I'd put into the bedroom closet if I added decent shelves. If I did a bit more purging, I'd be better off with an armoire and a chest for sweaters than a built in closet.

Do I work with the basic arrangement we have now, or do I make a concerted effort to completely rearrange the house so that things are in a logical place rather than a typical place?

I've just rearranged the living room furniture to force a sort of entrance area. I'm still trying to decide if it's cozy or claustrophobic, but I won't be able to tell for certain until I finish tidying up the miscellania.

I really have a ton of storage space in this house, it's just poorly utilized.

Oh, good news though, got the rest of the rails for putting up shelves in the study so hopefully we'll be able to start buying more wood and brackets and get that all together.

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sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 20, 2006

My living room

This is what I'm dealing with in my living room. One wall is the front door and a huge window, one wall is goes between the front door and the kitchen and one, as you see, is basically two doorways.

This is my current solution

I've decided to define the living room as the space outlined by the door to the kitchen and the hallway to the bedrooms. It looks somewhat cramped, but is actually fairly cozy and makes watching tv/playing on the play station easier while not hindering reading or snacking (any guesses as to what we normally do in the living room?

). It does make bench pressing on the exercise ball more difficult, but that can be done in another room.

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kerc

· #14 · Apr 21, 2006

one thing that strikes me is that facing the couch you have basically 3 pieces: tv and two shelfy things on either side. I think asetically it might look better to move the tv to the corner (unless you forked over some serious cash for a bookshelf/unit to hold all three).

sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #15 · Apr 21, 2006

I agree entirely, but there's no way to orient the couch in that direction and as dh pointed out, it's just not comfortable to watch a movie together if the couch isn't centered facing the tv.

I'd like to be able to afford some sort of one piece unit eventually. Although I did like that I was able to rearrange the furniture all by myself in about 20 minutes.

Before pictures! Argh, I knew I was forgetting something.

Oh well, I'm not about to move things back to do that.

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2

sweetangelbrynlie

· #16 · Apr 21, 2006

Hey! I think your living room looks so nice and cozy. That kitty is sooo cute!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan
My living room

This is what I'm dealing with in my living room. One wall is the front door and a huge window, one wall is goes between the front door and the kitchen and one, as you see, is basically two doorways.

This is my current solution

I've decided to define the living room as the space outlined by the door to the kitchen and the hallway to the bedrooms. It looks somewhat cramped, but is actually fairly cozy and makes watching tv/playing on the play station easier while not hindering reading or snacking (any guesses as to what we normally do in the living room?

). It does make bench pressing on the exercise ball more difficult, but that can be done in another room.

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sapphire_chan

Discussion Starter · #17 · Oct 13, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabbithorns

View Post

I put matching slipcovers on a thrift store chair and loveseat that didn't match. That really helped pull together one look. I also found an ottoman that is big and rectangular and fits right into the chair and loveseat. It was hideous but I covered it with a related-colored fabric so it isn't exactly the same but goes nicely. We can put our feet up and also use it as a coffee table because the top is flat and I have a wooden tray I got last year at target for $10 on it where I put my tea.

That "ensemble" pulled together an altogether unmatching mess. Because I use floor lamps, I don't need end tables for lamps, although we have a shelf in the corner at the end where the chair and loveseat meet and I'm looking for a table to go there. But since it doesn't need to match any other tables, I can look for just one - at a thrift store of course! The only other thing in the living room is a rocking chair and that seems to pull together a seating area that's cozy. It's probably not magazine beautiful, but the way it's put together fits the rectangle of the living room and doesn't assault the eye due to the matching slipcovers and lack of distracting extras (no wall art, no tables full of knickknacks and magazines, etc.). It's the one totally peaceful uncluttered room.

Dragging this thread out because I just realized I never asked you for pics! That sounds wonderful, is it still spiffy?

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Aguazul

· #18 · Oct 13, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

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I've decided that I'm simply not clever/creative enough to work with plain rectangular rooms. Even the few times I've had rooms in my house completely organized they were just sort of pleh.

Come and commiserate

I'm here to whine. I have no sense of style. I know what I like when I see it in a picture or something, but can't figure out how to do anything pretty in my own apartment. I dont' know how to arrange things, how to decorate, nothing. Things just get set down in whatever spot and there they remain. I'd love so much to be able to create a warm, pretty, cozy, simple atmosphere in the apartment.

I hope I can learn something that I could incorporate from this thread!

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boingo82

· #19 · Oct 14, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aguazul

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I'm here to whine. I have no sense of style. I know what I like when I see it in a picture or something, but can't figure out how to do anything pretty in my own apartment. I dont' know how to arrange things, how to decorate, nothing. Things just get set down in whatever spot and there they remain. I'd love so much to be able to create a warm, pretty, cozy, simple atmosphere in the apartment.

I hope I can learn something that I could incorporate from this thread!

Are you me? By looking at my house you'd think I was 3' tall, because all the furniture ends about that height and we have no curtains or things hung on the wall.

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Aguazul

· #20 · Oct 14, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by boingo82

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Are you me? By looking at my house you'd think I was 3' tall, because all the furniture ends about that height and we have no curtains or things hung on the wall.

That is exactly the same way it is here! I wonder if there is hope for people like us? Or a support group at least?

:

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