f13.net

This is my apartment. It's roughly 1100 square feet. I have no idea what to fill it with.

I don't have any photo editing software, so I'm going to have to rely upon the WONDERS OF ENGLISH to describe the way I have things now.

The two areas jutting out of the main square are bedrooms. I have plans for those. However, the central area is pretty much up in the air. I currently have a dining set in the upper left corner, a living room set in the upper right, which very nearly perfectly bisects the length of the right wall. In the lower right hand corner, I have nothing.

What should I put in the lower right hand corner? Someone suggested a pool table, but it's just not wide enough, and I really don't want to be Pool Table Guy. Another suggested a sitting room, but I'm not eighty, and I have no grandchildren, so that's out. I was thinking I might use it as a greeting area/forier, but it's a shame to waste that much square footage if I could avoid it.

Help?

Two words: Air Hockey

That would be the perfect place to put in a tripwire-activated Gatling turret to repel intruders.

Or perhaps just put the TV there since it's easy to access the kitchen and bathroom from across the room.

Where are the computers?! Will somebody think of the computers?!

LAN PARTY!

I used to have a similar floorplan. I used the dead half of the too-big room to set up my bicycle on rollers and a crafting/gaming area (card table and storage.) From the bike I could see the TV/stereo (helped keep down the boredom of spinning pedals for an hour) and by keeping the craft/game stuff off the dining table I still had a place to eat without having to interrupt a project or game in mid-stream. Of course it also pegged my place instantly as Bachelor Geek House.

Man, you got a fucked up floorplan.

What I would do, since I dont really use a dining room.

If both bedrooms are used by, you know, people sleeping in them, I would put a big computer desk, or two, in the upper left part of the "L" where you said your dining room is now. Put the TV and living room in the Elbow of the "L" and put a small dining room area near your entrance, depending if you have space, and what furnature you have.

SOCIAL AREA. Prick face. Maybe you just don't have enough friends to make a social area matter.

I'll second the "LAN PARTY!"

You people suck at interior design.

Why don't you indulge us, Martha Stewart.

Why don't you take his odd shaped apartment and shove it up your ass, bitch.

As for you Joe, you're a single bachelor with decent pay. Buy everything here: Bo Concept (http://www.boconcept.com/Default.asp?ID=10242).

A monkeh could design a rockin apartment from that shit.

You're really hitting the homoerotic jokes hard tonight.

schild always has a hardon for homoerotic jokes.

Bruce

First, since you have an open area that should actually be three seperate areas, I suggest wall dividers. Something that looks classy and would help give the impression of three distinct rooms instead of one overarching hodgepodge.  Something with an Oriental theme works well if you can design around it. (http://orientalfurniture.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=RD) Next, as a younger male you have no need for a dining room, but if you want to keep it, that's your call. I would suggest really making that a classy area you could use as a showpiece of the apartment should you decide to use it. Put some art on the walls there, preferrable framed prints for their low cost. Also, a few end tables with family pictures and a bookcase would go a long way to making the dining area better. Now the kicker is that dining area should go in the lower right corner, not the top left. It's closer to the kitchen there and it becomes the nice part of the house people see when they walk in. A TV area is key, which you seem to have already, and that should be completely designed around your needs with little to no frills. The third area should be something equally functional, but with a bit more flair. I would think about putting a gaming table in there for cards, if you like that sort of thing. A nice game table with good felt and carved wood compliments a room nicely.

Room dividers are a bad idea. One doesn't want to live in 5 cubby holes. The walk-in area shouldn't have too much furniture. Bookshelves and a nice 10'x8' rug would give the apartment a good open feeling upon entry.  If you have a stereo cabinet, it could go across from the kitchen entry. You will want a table to the 'east' of the apt entry for throwing your shit. I would also put up wall hooks for jackets or they will end up on the table instead.  Dining set near the patio is a good move.

All in all, it is a pretty standard 2 bedroom apt in NY. You must have friends in similar setups. What have they done?

Actually, this layout is pretty unique to the area. I looked at a lot of places, and this (along with a kickass 1600 sqft loft apartment that was just out of my range - next year) were the most originally designed. The wall divider idea isn't bad; I thought about it, but I don't think I have the ability to pull it off without looking like a dick.

The dining room is also going to double as a gaming room of some sort (there is also a bar area so you can view the kitchen from that spot), but I'd like to keep my geekiness concealed, at least to the naked eye.

The way I have things set up now, I'm thinking the front area could just be a sort of anteroom until I really have a need for it. I can find a cheap carved table at a hotel liquidation sale or some such to give it a better look.

I'll find a digital camera and take pictures once I'm done, whereupon you can make fun of me for sucking at design.

You'll want to put a small forge and an anvil in the back, and leave the front left room for your 5 vendors.

I think that wins as the geekiest response thus far. Kudos to the Hat!

There's a time and place for homoerotic jokes - when a guy asks another 500 guys for apartment advice - it's time for homoerotic jokes. That said, Bruce's joke was homoerotic, mine wasn't. I was just telling you to hurt yourself. He made a cock pun.

It's joe. With a fedora he can say anything.

I still say a lan party will do ya some good, Joe. IKEA!

The Rainbow Pride crew just called. They want their gay back from that furniture.

Some people like European design. Some people like Al Bundy design. It's your call. Personally, I'd prefer a little gay in my furniture. Just as long as it's not ON my furniture.

So many ways to go with that.

Now that the stuff that was there is gone, the potential for the room is far more apparent. As it is now, it almost feels better to leave a bit empty for purposes of gathering. I might toss up a painting or two, but the idea of additional furniture when I'm a bit of a minimalist is starting to grate.

Traditional + minimalist = win?

More like tacky.

As far as room dividers goes, IKEA has these kickass light panel/room divider thingies.  They don't give off a TON of light, and look pretty nice.  They're also rather short, so it doesn't totally cut off the other areas, it just adds a line of demarcation between one space and another.

Their stuff is also cheap and relatively easy to assemble.  They also have stuff ranging from Euro-looking to almost Ethan Allen ripoff looking.  I snagged a nice coffee table and TV stand there that just look like nicely stained wood, not ridiculous Euro-mod geometrical stuff.  Although that stuff can be cool if done right.

IKEA's owner is also approximately as rich as Bill Gates, depending on the current exchange rate.  And unlike Mr. Gates, he doesn't have a stranglehold on the industry, which would kinda imply that he makes good stuff, rather than required stuff.

--
Alkiera

Wrong. He makes cheap stuff. IKEA is a fucking hellhole, and the vast majority of the furniture to which I have been exposed is cheap, shoddily made, and in danger of exploding into flinders at the slightest provocation. It doesn't belong anywhere outside of a college dorm or apartment.

IMO that's what IKEA was made for. An apartment and low budget living. I've never seen it good for a house setting. My buddy did up half his apartment in IKEA. Looks good, but if it were a home it wouldn't do the job.

When I move out into my apartment I plan on IKEAing the fuck out of it for the sake of saving my ass alot of money.

The evil of IKEA knows no bounds. (http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=50867&d=2&m=9&y=2004&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom)

FIFY

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Alkiera

You could turn it into a LARP fantasyland. The 12 by 12 room could the dwarven hall of honor with a few stolen lawn gnomes. The L shaped area could be the Frightful Wilderness  with some potted plants and tiki torches. The 12 by 11 area could be Ye Olde Tavern with stacks of stale empty beer cans and old broken up furniture. The Bacony could become the Drow Darklands where you could put shoe polish on your face and then go outside to shoot hand crossbows at the neighbors who refuse to pick up their dog poop.

...

minimalist decor sucks. Its for poor people.
Classical Victorian decor is the way to go, Joe. Expensive, but unlike the IKEA shit, 10 years later you'll still be using it.

this is what your apt should look like:
(http://www.stirlinghouse.ca/images/interior.jpg)

Did Joe suddenly turn into an 82-year old Victorian England spinster from a Thomas Hardy novel?

Yeah nice touch Arc, he can live in Grandma's house.

Make sure to invite people over for Bridge.

Hmm, in that picture, there's a mirror between the two windows. And I'm probably wrong, but it looks like the mirror is reflecting the exact spot where the photographer should be. I smell a photoshopped pic! :P

I think that picture was taken from the spot where the casket sits.

And that means the photographer is a vampire, so no reflection :P

Wouldn't the camera still give of a reflection? Vampire cameras!

Cue the X-files theme!

Let's cover the furniture in plastic, put out a bowl of hard/lumped candy, put the hummells up on the fireplace mantel, and move my grandmother right in.