wasson, I love your house!
Ditto the “look at lots of magazines, catalogs and books” comments. Collect pictures of things you like and you will refine (or discover) your style.
I have a one bedroom condo that badly needs a kitchen/bath renovation. After looking at magazines and cutting out pictures, I’ve got a good idea of what I want, but I’m definitely not handy. There’s a business in Old Town Alexandra called the Alexandria Kitchens and Baths. I guess it’s a soup to nuts business that handles the design, build, finance part of remodelling homes. My questions are: how much more expensive will this type of remodelling be, will they even want to work on my living quarters knowing how small it is?
Thanks for your suggestions.
queer eye for the straight guy is a good idea.
re decorating is fun and easy. home depot also has home services for those things you find hard to do. ie cabinets, walls, etc.
check out hgtv.com for really cool ideas and nifty items.
I think that HD is probably going to be your best resource. Obviously, they sell the stuff, but they also have contacts with contractors licensed to do the work. There is only so much you can do yourself, I also live in a 2br Manhattan apartment, and the most I feel comfortable doing here is cutting a shelf to length. There is just no big empty space to work in, and no place to store the tools you really need to do jobs correctly.
Let the pros do your walls, floors, cabinets and plumbing.
Floors, cabinets and plumbing fixtures tend to be pretty neutral, so as long as you don’t go crazy with a color scheme here, you should be good to go. Your style really comes through in your furniture, paint and window treatments.
The idea of getting help from your furniture salesperson is pretty good, that’s what I did when I bought a couch and easy chair. She helped me pick out the fabric, then helped match paint colors to be complementary. This was at a fine furniture store, so I paid good money for the stuff, but without her help, god knows what I would have picked out.
The cheap places are great, if you have a good idea what is going to work in your space. If you’re clueless, you’ll just wind up with mismatched junk.