I came across this image on Design Sponge which came from a before and after of a remodeling of a bathroom. Previously this had just been a mirrored wall with no border...and the border completely changed it! I thought this was a great idea for all those mirrored walls (which can sometimes look a little...well ugly) in tiny apartments that landlords use to make the space look bigger.

By adding some molding that you can pick up at any hardware store, you can create a mirror that looks like it was custom created for your space and style.

I would adhere the molding with Scotch Command Adhesive Hooks, since I use those to put up just about everything in my apartment. Just apply a couple of the adhesive strips to the molding, instead of to the hooks, and stick the molding right to the mirror. This way the molding can be easily removed later, not that anyone will want to remove it!

-Jessica Allyn

Make The Most Out Of It!

Looks like everyone is trying to make the most out of their tiny new york city spaces! This is actually an ad for the Home Depot! Clever!

My interior design classes start tonight! Wooowhoooo....

-Jessica Allyn

Rock 'n' Roll

I just had to quickly share these photos! I came across this on www.thedesignblog.org in a post they wrote entitled, "University of Karlsruhe designs an experimental housing, the 'Roll It'"


When I think about small spaces, this one takes the cake! But talk about using every nook and cranny. This roller home is equipped with a bed, dining room table, desk, storage, and exercise wheel...yes...an exercise wheel just like in your pet mouse's cage...weird.


So I'm sure you won't see one of these rolling around NYC anytime soon but you have to give 'em credit for perfect planning of this small space.


For the full post go to: http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/university-of-karlsruhe-designs-an-experimental-housing-the-roll-it/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedesignblog%2FntLw+%28The+Design+blog%29






Rock 'n' Roll -Jessica Allyn

Green With Envy

So I have been feeling rather inspired by green lately from divine in lime to clipped grass and every shade in between. Its so fresh and rejuvenating! It's the color dejour, well atleast its my color dejour! So here are some green rooms to envy....

Now pick your favorite shade and start painting. All of these are from California Paints. You can see the shades more true to color at www.californiapaints.com

From top to bottom, left to right we have : Field Day, Wasabi, Cabbage Patch, Parakeet, Jealousy, Fresh Cut Grass, Palm Tree, Golf Course, Weekend Gardener, Snow Pea, Artificial Turf, Get Up and Go

Hypnotic,Ripe Pear, Divine in Lime, Fluorescent Lime, Lettuce Be Green, Celery, Citrus Leaf, Melon Ball, Wedge of Lime, Lime Sorbet, Asparagus Fern, Clipped Grass
Wild Forest, In The Tropics, Green with Envy

Funky Flavor Paper

Apartment hunting has been causing me stress, a lack of sleep, my hair to fall out (well its not that serious...yet). Actually, the hunting part is fun, it's the part about possibly not finding the perfect place before my lease is up and then being forced to live in a cardboard box on the street...geezzz the stress!

But, yes, the actual viewing of apartments is quite a lot of fun, especially because I get to envision them in the future, how they will look after all my junk is moved in. So at this point I have pretty much decorated 24 different apartments in my head already! I'm on a roll.

What I am looking most forward to is painting! Currently I'm living in a blank canvas at my landlords request to NOT PAINT!! Whaaaaaaaa. But looking at all these places has been making me think about colors, and faux finishes, and lovely wall paper! I was poking around the Internet today and came across this amazing website for wall paper (which is making a design comeback, so apparently my grammy's place is cool again...go granny, go granny).

The company is Flavor Paper @ www.flavorleague.com. Their mission at Flavor Paper is to produce "unique vintage, contemporary and custom hand screened wall coverings that will add a burst of flavor to any environment"....and that is does!

These are a couple of my favorites:

This one is called "fruits of design". It comes in a misty lavender, a limey green, a chocolate and black combo, and an orange burst color! Sounds so yummy!


Meet "Dauphine". A gorgeous deco flower pattern. Very vamp.

The super feminine "Sakura". This wallpaper gives delicate little blossoms a bold presence. The blooms also come in super cool metallics!



Mr. "Mustachio". This one gets me every time! I just love the difference between viewing up close and at a distance. From a far this mustache masterpiece just looks like a great design of geometric columns and then up close you're staring at Colonel Sanders. Genius!




"Fishnet" is another look at it this way, look at it that way mind bender that leaves you wondering..."what is that?" It's very retro and definitely unique!


"Flower of Love" is a great, whimsical print. The brown, black and gold version is also super beautiful. This print I thought would look especially nice framed on a wall.


Framing artsy pieces of wall paper is a perfect way, especially for apartment renters, to add interest to your walls. It won't destroy your walls, but it still gives you that cool wallpaper look. And considering the above styles run upwards of $150 a roll, which means i could afford about enough paper to wall paper my door knob, framing is a great way to get a similar effect on a budget.


If framing wall paper seems like the way to go for you. You might be interested in going to your local stationary store and picking up wrapping sheets to use as framing options. They are inexpensive and are as perfectly pretty as some of the above wall paper patterns.


Here are a couple great ones I found from Kate's Paperie @ www.katespaperie.com

Each sheet is about $4 buck and measures 20" x 30". Not bad for some beautiful inexpensive art!


That's all for now folks!


-Jessica Allyn

My Current Humble Abode

Welcome to my current apartment in Manhattan! This is home sweet home, at least for another month. Lease is up soon and it will be time to move on and time to decorate another place :)

Cozy living room. Mostly Ikea and TjMaxx finds. However that couch is the love of my life. I found it at a warehouse sale in Trumbull, CT. It was my first adult furniture purchase...sooo exciting.

Great TjMaxx chair. The lamp I found at my grandmothers house. Just needed a little paint, a new shade, and it was good to go!

The cheapest way to get original art is to have creative friends! My friend Michelle painted these, as well as some other pictures I have around my apartment.

I found this mirror and table at another furniture warehouse sale. I fell in love with the mirror, so my parents made it an early Christmas present. They are the best!

My bedroom. Little corner nook.

My lovely bed and other odds and ends.

Sweet dreams........

My vanity. The Ikea mirror is great because it can be used as a little shelf for perfume and make-up brushes. The pictures are all framed antique handkerchiefs and the lamp is an antique from grandma's house.

I probably could not live without Scotch Command Hooks. They are an essential part of apartment living and they work fantastically as necklace holders.

This picture is actually a framed tapestry from Urban Outfitters.

With this picture I just photo copied some of the Russian dolls from the original tapestry and blew them up. Then I posted them on an old pashmina scarf to give the background of the picture a little bit of texture. Living in the city, pashmina scarfs are about the easiest thing to come by. You can pick one up on just about any street corner for $5.

These are old photos of family members that I just mounted on card-stock from Ikea.

Another Michelle Beatty original!

A couple black and whites are always nice. The pictures of the Eiffel Tower is from Ikea. The lowest picture is a drawing by Michelle of Billy Holiday and the charcoal drawing to the right is just a funny caricature of my boyfriend and I when we were being tourists in Times Square.

That's all for now! I'll be apartment hunting for the next couple of weeks, so wish me luck!

-Jessica Allyn