We received an email from Stephanie the other day and thought I’d share it here to see if our reader’s had some ideas for her.

“I am in the process of closing on a new apartment in Brooklyn! The apartment is completely white now, and I want to do something fun with it. The layout is very open, which isn’t totally obvious from the photos, so maybe the color change from room to room shouldn’t be too drastic? The middle room (with the huge closet) has no windows, so that might be important to consider. Questions: What is worse, leaving ratty-looking brick exposed, or covering it up with paint (in the kitchen)? How should I deal with the panel molding that covers the entire lower half of the living room (with the blue sofa)? It’s the smallest room so I don’t want it to feel too disjointed. Warning: the rooms all feel smaller than they look in the photos (damn that fish-eye lens!). Any help would be great!

P.S. The furniture in the pictures is the previous owner’s, so no need to match any of that (the photos are from the original listing and taken by a company called VHT, for credit’s sake).

I’m sure a lot of good ideas will come from this. That kitchen brick is really in shoddy shape in real life and I think I should paint it, but since it’s irreversible I’m nervous. Anyway, the apartment is truly “cozier” than it looks through a fish eye!”

What a fantastic apartment – love the tin ceiling (!!!), the brick fireplace in the bedroom, the open floor plan. Here’s my 2 cents. Leave everything white and paint out a wall in each room in an accent colour. That way the white keeps the open spaces unified and flowing into each other, but you get some colour in each space to define them (ie. the wall the bed is on). Judging by the poor condition of the brick in the photo, you should go for it and paint it out. And I’d go bold with that wall. Stephanie had sent a link to this post from Apartment Therapy, which included this photo:

That colour would be AMAZING over the brick. I’d keep the rest of the kitchen white and punch it up with accents in that colour and a bit of red. (Or do the opposite – paint the brick white and the walls/backsplash the yellow). And use a bench like the former owners did – great space saver and emphasizes the brick wall. I was going to say that you could paint the panel molding in the living room but it’s right next to the brick wall in the kitchen…so painting that would depend on what you do with the kitchen. I’d maybe leave it white and paint the upper part of the walls (something coordinating with the kitchen colour…a grey maybe). Anyway, I’d love to know what our readers think so comment away everyone!

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Something creative and personal you can do with empty wall space is print some of your favourite photos large-scale. Parrot Print Canvas offers such services. I am looking to do this in my living room over my sofa. Fun!

We recently received an email from Natasha with the following request: “I’m just wondering if you can do a post on bedroom vanities for some inspiration – preferably ones with a mirror (not necessarily attached). I love the antique + glamorous style but I also love simple, steamlined, and functional. Some of the main colours in my room right now are ivory, silver, and antique gold.” My personal favourite for bedroom vanities are small mirrored desks/tables for some sparkle and glam with a vintage mirror from the 40s hanging above. I did seem to have a hard time finding vanity photos in my stash – I guess they aren’t as popular as they used to be. And the ones I did find seem to be on the sort of french/country side and almost completely absent from more modern bedrooms. But below is a selection I did find – hope this inspires you Natasha.

Udom	Homes & Gardens
Tori Golub	Living Etc.
Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles	Country Home
Katie Sellers	car möbel
Sköna hem	Lucyina Moodie

Kate Hume

Oak Management

Lucyina Moodie

Zownir Locations

Graham and Green
Traditional Home

Max von Eicken

Living Etc.

Living Etc.

The following is a creative idea for a vanity. Take an old metal desk (imagine the black glass in the photo is where the chair pulls up), sand off the old paint down to the metal, and add a funky mid-century chair or an antique boudoir stool, hang an ornate mirror above and you’ve got the funkiest vanity around.

Kishani Perera

It’s been over two years since I blogged about San Francisco interior design firm Jugendstil Design. Gari Camaisa emailed the other day with a link to a bunch of photos of design projects they’ve completed in the past year. I was stoked because I’m a big fan of their pairings of rustic, earthy and ethnic pieces with mid-century classics – totally unexpected, and it works. The result is sophisticated, warm and timeless. (Thanks Gari!)

Jennifer Merritt Koskinen emailed the other day to share a gorgeous photo of her friend’s cat for the next Monday’s pet on furniture post and it turns out she’s an architect turned architectural photographer. I took a gander at her portfolio and almost fell off my chair. WOWZERS. Her crisp and bright photos are beautiful, and she has photographed some of the most spectacular homes – most of which are located in Telluride, Colorado. She has captured the grandeur of the homes as well as the beauty of their surroundings. So impressive. (If her photography is this impressive I can only imagine what her architecture work was like). Thanks for letting me share your work here Jennifer!