Apartment update

It's remarkable how easy it is to fall out of the blogging habit. Sigh. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things, because really — obsessing over interior design is no worse than a lot of the other ways I can waste time on the internet.

So... here's my new bookcase! Picked up on the street! Regular readers know that I'm a little obsessed with the idea of finding great things on the curb (which explains why I have a thing in my apartment). The sad truth is that I've always been very snobby about this type of bookcase — "books aren't meant to the stored on their sides!" — and yet here we are. The fact is that my existing bookcase was already completely double-layered and I hated that half my books were hiding. (Now I know I could get rid of some books — but I have bit of a hoarding problem, I think.) The opportunity of bringing my books back into the light, while not taking up much room in my little apartment, FOR FREE, was too much to pass up. Plus red lacquer!

The bookshelf was so heavy I had to carry it home in two trips (one for the base, one for the shelves). Aside from a big scratch on the foot, it's in pretty good condition. Still, I was nervous about it holding too much and so I just put my travel books (which are mostly paperbacks) in it. Art books would be prettier, I know.

Does anyone know who makes it? Is it from IKEA? I was completely stumped by these holes in each shelf, since they don't seem to correspond with any support mechanism inside. I just have to take comfort in the fact that I've had it for nearly a month now, and it hasn't collapsed.

Now that I've got my long-sought floor lamp, I've realized that the next big thing my apartment needs is a paint job, which is very hard to get excited about. People tend to talk about painting like it's the easiest thing in the world, but in a studio apartment that's packed to the gills, it's an intimidating proposition. If I ever paint (or get it painted) then maybe I'll finally rearrange my art wall.

Epic post over.