 You just walked into the new apartment, condo, or house. It’s got everything you need: bedroom, bathroom, a living and dining area, kitchen, and a great view of the river (OK, maybe not the view). Maybe you’ve been living in group housing (dorm, shared house, prison), or moved out of your parents’ basement. Could be that the ex just sent you packing, or you finally decided to upgrade your living situation. Either way, there are four rooms with a bunch of blank walls staring at you. Now all you have to do is furnish it and make it home. What are you going to do to set up your bachelor pad?The very idea of decorating your bachelor pad may make you glaze over and revert to being 15 years old again. Slap up a few posters, grab Grandpa Jake’s vinyl lounger from the garage and stick in front of the TV, and call it done. Well, you’re grown now, so that’s not going to cut it, especially after you visit your buddy’s crib with the nice living room furniture and good looking bedroom that looks like a home, not a dorm. Still, how do you get from your situation to the swank place you just saw? Relax, BBG can help. With some helpful suggestions and a little direction, we can move you from dorm room chic to urbane in no time. But first, you have to answer a few questions before you buy a thing.
- What do You Want It to Look Like? Are you a modernist (white furniture, clean lines, lots of stainless steel), a traditionalist (overstuffed leather, dark wood, with a sort of clubby feel), or urbane (blond wood, cocoa colored walls, with a Restoration Hardware aesthetic)? Flip through a magazine like Architectural Digest, Modern Home, even Esquire with their “bachelor pad” special issue. Invariably, there are some rooms or furniture ideas that are specifically aimed at men. Pick out a look for your place and then focus on the main pieces.
- Where Will You Spend Your Time? Most likely, more of your waking hours are spent in your living room area, but don’t short-change the bedroom, where being comfortable is critical. Buy a 50” plasma flat-screen, but don’t get a comfortable bed or make the bedroom enjoyable and you’ll regret it, especially when your company isn’t interested in the Giants-49ers game. Figure on getting sitting and sleeping furniture first, then the electronics. Some nice bedding can’t hurt, either.
- Can You See It? Can’t imagine how a room with layout to know if you have the space to make your grand vision happen? Check out www.floorplanner.com, which let’s you create a virtual apartment, with furniture to scale, rugs, move walls and fixtures to match what you’re working with. Damn sight easier than drawing it by hand and hoping you got it to scale or worse, guessing, only to find out the entertainment center won’t fit in the room.
Several years ago, I found myself in a situation where my ex and I split and I had little or no furniture left from the live-in situation. I had my clothes, a computer, a stereo, a futon mattress and dresser, and a rocking chair. I was as close to being a clean slate as you can be, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Then, I found the perfect place, except that my “perfect” place was formerly the condo of a discredited priest who committed suicide, painted in deep shades of maroon and gray. But that cheery note aside. . . .
Now that you found the place and gave some thought as to what you needed and wanted.
Making a Splash with Color
Creating a colorful accent wall is an easy way to incorporate color into a room without overwhelming it. I did one at an old place – in deep orange. It sounds over the top, but it was great. I applied a low-hide paint, which sucks for covering up but is perfect for an accent, using a sponge technique over a cream-colored base coat. The cream came up as yellow highlights on the deep orange. The wall was a conversation piece as opposed to a Halloween nightmare. - Less is More. Chances are you don’t need a sofa, loveseat, and two chairs, five TVs, multiple lamps, and a moose head. It’s better to have a few more interesting, nicer, functional pieces, than a truckload of pressboard crap from whatever McFurniture store is near you. B.M. (Before Marriage), I had a great table of century-old oak from an old alms house, two accent chairs that happened to be really comfortable, a make-shift sofa made of a wrought iron bench, futon, and throw pillows. A defined look to the place that always made a great impression.
- Splurge on one nice piece. Buy one thing that you love and build around it in that room. This is the time for the Eames Lounge, or the ultra-fashionable coffee table.
- Used furniture is your friend. Thrift stores, flea markets, used furniture boutiques, Craigslist.com, Freecycle.com, even eBay.com – any of them can get you want you need. Be it an end table, lamp, or armoire, you can get great stuff used, as long as it isn’t a mattress or other bedding, I wouldn’t worry about buying new.
- Take advantage of expertise. Places like West Elm, CB2, and Design within Reach have done a lot of the work for you in creating color schemes, providing examples of furniture that fits the scale of your place, all within different price points, so use them.
- Color is your friend. Paint is the quickest way to add character to a space and yet, it’s the biggest fear most guys have. And the cheapest to correct – less than 100 bucks and some time can make a huge difference. You pick a color, put it up and see how it looks. Don’t like it? Paint over it. Chances are the apartment or house is painted some shade of white anyway, so you probably don’t need to prime the walls (a neutral base paint that you put on to keep any old color from bleeding through). Grab a bunch of swatches and find a color that works with your furniture and idea. Swatches not working for you? Paint manufacturers like Benjamin Moore make sample-sized paints in jars that cover enough of a wall space to give you a true sense of how the color will look. Then, you can make an informed choice. Remember, dark colors absorb light, making a space feel more intimate (read: smaller), which is a good thing for a bedroom or dining room. Want it to feel spacious? Go lighter with a white or cream ceiling.
- Put something on the walls. If you’re into photography, frame it and hang it. Like band posters? Then frame some. Check out local artists and get a piece or two. Galleries always have something you can afford. If you can’t afford art, use candleholders, floating shelves with books or other knick-knacks on them. Even hang objects, like platters, or driftwood (seriously). The key is to break up the expanse of wall space and make it interesting, make it you.
- Light it up. Overheads are fine, but use lamps, dimmers, even candles to create an atmosphere, to set a tone. Replacing old, ugly fixtures are really easy and can be cheap. Not to mention, it saves on electricity using less wattage.
Ultimately, setting your place up is about making it comfortable and enjoyable for you. You want to be in a nice place with things you chose, not your Grandma’s hand-me-downs. Plus, ou never know when you’ll have unexpected company, or decide to have people over and realize you’re not ready for prime time. Most of this can be done over time and at a minimum of expense, so you won’t have to defer to your buddy with the nice place next time an impromptu after hours hangout comes up. Make your place a place you’d want to hang out in.
|
Your Place 
