@futurebird Re: Interior design for renters: https://youtube.com/@alexandragater

Her channel is the primary one I've seen that regularly shows how to customize your space as a renter.

But, yes, not being able to customize your living space is deeply distressing and demoralizing. We are still animals and we need to feel a certain "ownership" of our nest. There is a cruelty to the renting experience that goes unacknowledged.

@futurebird Define "customizing" here? I've lived most of my life in rented flats, and even when I moved into the first flat with my then girlfriend at 22, I thought I had plenty of opportunity for making this my own place.. (But then, I'm living in Germany, habits and things are different here)

@futurebird The studio fix series on Alexandra's channel covers smaller spaces and the types of furniture that can make them feel more functional.

I keep hoping to see more folks tackle this kind of interior design because it expands on the technical work that happened with tiny houses (expanding small living spaces) but brings it to the renter space where you just can't do as many things with the structure itself.

@clarablackink

I find a lot of advice for renters. The problem is advice for apartments that are NOT rentals.

@futurebird @clarablackink btw: I find myself for the first time in my life in an apartment that I actually own, and am still figuring a lot of stuff out. INCLUDING dealing with the HOA equivalent. (In which I somehow ended up being a member of the board, so I can nip the most egregious things in the bud. So people are allowed to put solar panels on their balconies now without any undue hassle)

I guess this is a "downside" to condo/coop ownership. When you get ready to make big changes to your home no one knows what you are talking about and none of the advice makes any sense.

"Consider adding X to your kitchen island" (ya'll have islands and oceans in there? What is going on?)

"This furniture will look great in many different sized apartments when you move." (That's nice but I will never move.)

"In your laundry room..." (What is that?)

The Interior Design Odyssey Continues:

The rental and housing markets shape a lot of the ideas and advice available about interior design. People who move often and rent aren't looking at making permanent changes to their spaces. People who own have houses not apartments. So, advice to make permanent changes to apartments is very rare.

I hoping this is just a US thing and maybe by looking abroad I can find some more useful ideas.

@futurebird

My favorite thing about owning has been the ability to go hard with customizations. Here is the desk I made in a little unused nook next to the kitchen:

George B (@gbargoud@pixelfed.social)

Old picture, new account. Here's the desk I built into my apartment that I built and finished weeks before I pretty much entirely stopped working from home. Above it are 4 shelves, one has a computer built into it and the other 3 are used for books that are too big to fit on the regular bookshelves and below it is firewood storage. I still need to figure out how to protect the desktop from dust, it's still just sitting in the open right now almost a year and a half after those pictures were taken.

Pixelfed (pixelfed.social)

@gbargoud

That's a nice quality of plywood. I love the build. You might try sanding it a bit and then doing layers of minwax wipe on poly.

Wipe on poly can allow you to slowly make the surface more glossy and it will be easier to clean and less prone to staining. (right now some red kool-aid could ruin your day. )

@futurebird

If you scroll through to the last picture you'll see that I painted it white to match the walls.

I finished that like a week before my kid was born so I am very aware of what stains it could get

@gbargoud

I can only see the first photo.

@futurebird

There are 5 on the post but you need to scroll through to see the others if it opened on pixelfed's site instead of directly in your mastodon app

@gbargoud

There is no way to scroll?

@futurebird

I have it on a phone so it's swiping on the pictures, there might be arrows on the edge if you click there

It's clearly a very Instagram coded UI and there's a reason I only really made 2 posts there before mostly abandoning the account

Note the 5 dots on the bottom of the picture that hint at the existence of more