Seventy Five Hundred: Design on the Cheap...

I'm a great fan of Interior Design and all things home related, considering...I'm a student of Architecture. For some reason there always seems to be this monumental rift between the professional fields of Interior Design and Architecture. I'm sure it has a little something to do with the two professions working closely with each other, a little bit of miscommunication, and a dash of misogyny, but I for one refuse to prescribe to such petty infighting when all either of them want to do is provide a life-enhancing space for which people can grow, be happy, and live life to its fullest.

I've always been someone who's had a natural knack for feathering-one's-pad, collecting vintage maps, oversized lamps, and the odd eclectic objet'd art. Thats why when I had to pack my bags and move 1000 miles to Boston, a city I'd never been to before, I knew I couldn't take anything other than the barest of minimums. For the first three months I lived on the floor, calling it my "neo-minimalist-tatami-lifestyle" phase. Its hard living so far away from home in the first place, but living life without all the beautiful things I had amassed was surprisingly easy yet bittersweet. I've had mixed feeling since then about all of that wonderful "clutter". On the one hand its things that really don't get used alot...I mean who needs a 1940's vintage mahogany travel alarm clock, or that 1960's brass elephant money-bank...or the Tibetian hand bells that get rung what...every bi-annual room-clean out where I only ring them because I'd forgotten what they even sound like.

But for all the beautiful clutter, life without beautiful things is hard at best, painful at worse. Because I'm just a lowly Architecture student here in Boston that also meant that my aspirations of living the "Boston" lifestyle were harshly and swiftly put out of my mind upon seeing the average monthly cost it takes to even afford a studio in these neighborhoods. Instead I settled in Cambridge, in whats known as a "triple deckah". Or in other words...a soul crushingly spartan rooming house that consists of a long narrow dark hallway, a dark kitchen and four very tiny, very small closeted linoleum tiled bedrooms. Needless to say, the walk to school every day through Beacon Hill and down Commonwealth sent pangs of frustration all throughout my very being.

And thats when I decided I'd had enough. I'd always sort of had this idea in the back of my head that I wanted to trompe l'oeil the walls of my home with something fun. Not entirely a fresco, yet not entirely abstract. I wanted to give myself something to look forward to coming home to at the end of each day. Everybody needs a little grandeur in their lives which is what makes Boston so special a place to live. The only problem was that the minute I passed my threshold into my apartment it was like my heart sunk. Being an Architectural student I wanted to do something that was architectural, and like much the things I like...a little like an assault on tradition. So thats why I decided to use a 2" painter's tape to create the look of a Georgian Townhouse complete with fireplace. After all if "I couldn't live in a Back Bay apartment, I'd bring the Back Bay apartment to me"...

...the outlet was chosen as the symbolic "hearth" or focal piece and logical
placement of the fireplace in the room...age of technology and all...