Apartment Updates
..and possibly, finally, repairing last year's water damage
We’ve been making some upgrades to our apartment. Many of these are changes we’ve been discussing/planning and were finally pushed to undertake by the upcoming visit of Carolyn’s mother, Lynn.
The gentleman who lives above us had workers repairing his water damage a few weeks ago and we grabbed one of them to ask if he could also do our repairs, inviting him into the apartment to have a look. He seemed enthusiastic to do the work. We set a date (this past weekend, after Lynn’s visit) for him to start, he thought it would take three days. I woke up on the scheduled morning and quickly began moving things out of the music room so he’d be able to work (and to protect our stuff from the dust). He didn’t show up, didn’t answer his phone, didn’t reply to text messages. It’s a very typical French situation, we have come to understand.
Neither of us were angered at the painter’s failure to respond or show up (Yvon, we’re not angry, we’re just disappointed). Given that I woke up and started prepping for his arrival, it seems that my optimism hasn’t been completely stamped out. The apartment is now cluttered like a homeless camp in an abandoned subway tunnel; I’ll have to move everything back before the cleaner comes on Wednesday.
Much of our recent work has been replacing light fixtures. The most critical light to replace was over our kitchen island where the extant fixture was four painfully bright unshaded bulbs which threatened to give Carolyn a migraine every time she tried to talk to me as I cooked dinner. The new lamp has deep shades which direct the light down and the metallic gold finish inside the shades creates a warm glow that makes the produce (and hopefully my skin) look gorgeous.
We also bought new fixture for over the dining table. The old fixture was an Ikea piece, a dome of thin perforated aluminum which looked like an inverted pasta strainer. It hadn’t been properly grounded and the ceiling support was just a broken piece of wood with wires wrapped around it. The new fixture (the Kyoto Lamp) was made by a French designer with a stoneware dome which has been perforated around the rim to integrate a wicker shade.
The shop, Bloo Concept Store, has been one of our go-to places for home decor, the owner is completely charming and doesn’t speak a word of English so we REALLY get to practice our French there. This light came wired with a wall plug, so I spent a week ordering parts to rewire it, because of this he shop owner gave us a slight discount.
We also replaced the pendant light fixture in the music room, disposing of yet another Ikea lamp and replacing it with a slightly larger pendant and a proper bracket at the ceiling. The previous fixture had been grounded properly but was (again) supported by a piece of wood screwed to the ceiling with the canopy wedged over it, a friction fit rather than a mechanical attachment. I found the dangly canopy embarrassing enough that I edited it out of my Instagram pictures!
In the kitchen/living room we installed a new wall mounted bar for glassware.
We also put down a new carpet, had a new sofa delivered (after the usual delivery difficulties), and Carolyn got us a new TV to replace the aging one that was left by the previous owner.
We ordered new bar height chairs from Bloo to replace the upholstered Ikea chairs left by the previous owner. The new chairs might arrive before we leave. We decided to get only two chairs since it’s doubtful three people will ever sit at the bar and one fewer object in the room is almost always a good bet, design-wise.
I installed a few towel hooks in the bathroom ahead of Lynn’s visit as well as two hooks for hanging wash cloths in the shower and an additional metal shelf for shampoo and soap.
Finally, here are the colors we picked for the various rooms, all from Farrow & Ball, which has a lovely little shop right in the heart of the old city. For the WC bathroom we chose Brinjal No. 222 which is a deep, earthy red color. I wanted a very saturated color because it will contrast against the lovely beige vase we found for the shelf in the WC.
For the music room we chose Studio Green No. 93, a very dark shade of green. We want to cover the dark green wall with old-fashioned, ornate, gilt frames containing pictures of our favorite musicians.
In the guest room (which has become Carolyn’s working space) we will use Babouche No. 223, a cheery yellow color with a hint of ochre that makes it a little more serious.
Finally for our bedroom we selected Cromarty No. 285 which is a faint green/grey color. This room was the most challenging color selection. We started out looking at a lot of earthy neutrals that ended up reminding us both of Band-Aids.
Finally, we were able to hang some art that we purchased in the US specifically for our apartment in France. This series was done by Adda Jones, the daughter of one of my former colleagues at TenBerke Architects. I love it SO MUCH in our apartment!
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time)
Roberto & Carolyn
I totally get it in both accounts. When we finally get to move we’ll be on a fixed income and will have to be careful about how we acquire stuff. I’m hoping we can get our place mostly sorted before we move. Only two years to go!
WOWED !! thans for sharing all the design and notes on electricity but the Yoga Dangly Canopy was le comble for moi !!!