My landlords must have hated me!

Yikes! I am about to get very personal. I can't believe I'm about to share this with you, but its so bad and funny its kind of good. My husband cleaned out his storage space yesterday and brought a box of my things home.  In it I found this Polaroid of an old apartment I had back from 1998-2003...

This poor apartment got painted and redone A LOT! It was my testing grounds. It got me thinking back to other apartments I had.  I dug through boxes of old photos and was able to find some gems.

 This one here was from my super funky and colorful period. We are talking 1997-98.  I lived in New York. I remember lounging around here and watching alot of Absolutely Fabulous on Saturdays with my girlfriends after a big Friday night out...

Way out there! I ripped the rug out of the place and painted the floor with orange stripes.

I had a brief phase of palm tree love, until I killed them all.

I upholstered the sofa in purple velvet remnant I found. I remember Friends was on and I was in love with Monica's multicolored apartment...that is the only explanation I have for the craziness. 

Here I am...

So embarrassed. I actually went out in public in a slip!

At the time I was in school and working as a decorative artist...

So I practiced alot of my decorative painting on my pads...

Ripped out another carpet and practiced "faux" marble and stone on the floor.

Can't believe I got my security back!

Right before this I had another apartment that I went through a

"DRAG ANY CRAP OFF THE STREET AND DECORATE WITH IT"

phase...

Didn't everyone decorate their T.V.?

WTF is going on here???

A hanging branch, ivy with ornaments on it, a wall sculpture I made with junk.

This was 1995-97. I was in art school and looking back at my paintings I was also in a

dark introspective phase...

this was actually one of my more cheerful paintings.

I also went through my hippy phase at this time.

Here is me and my little sis KK at Bread & Puppet...

A few years later we cleaned up a bit and I moved to Boston.

My little apartment in Salem, MA saw more paint than any other. Come to think of it I tore the rug out of this place too.  Brazen! I was here for 5 years...

I was attending the Boston Architectural Center and working at fabric showrooms in the Boston Design Center.  Discontinues patterns were my friends. I began slip covering just as often as painting.

Lesson learned. Satin is a gross and ugly choice for a slipcover.

I wallpapered the ceiling of my stairwell. I also tented the whole shabang too. I wish I had a photo of that! It took 50 yards of white drapery lining. I really was/am nuts.

This room got painted 6 times that I remember and wallpapered twice... once with stars (here) and lastly with grass cloth.

I made my zebra rug out of a drop cloth and paint. It actually held up well.

Below I made a painted "leopard" runner out of canvas.

When the hell did I sleep? No wonder I look exhausted.

I also think its funny that my accents for this room were navy and  fuchsia, a combo I am really loving now.

It is interesting to look back at where you came from and find similarities and growth.  I experimented heavily, and throughout this learned a lot through mistakes. I really think mistakes are one of the best parts of life, be it in design, choices or relationships. The learning curve is so much bigger

than sailing safely along.

 I still love over the top, color and pattern... and I think I can safely say I always will.  It is also safe to say that junk is junk, and I will not be bringing it into my house.  Anyone else have angry landlords ot there?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!