You’ve probably heard of the Art Deco style of art and design popular in the 20s and 30s, but considering it for your home is a much more involved task. This style was born of the post-World War I optimism and offered a more elegant and eccentric form of expression. Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent characteristics that define the Art Deco style.
Rich Colors
The most common colors from this era of art and interior design were palettes of black with green and red, including highlights of gold, chrome, or silver. The rich assertiveness of these color schemes serves to portray a minimalist mindset while also bringing in the boldness of the pre-World War II years.
Textures and Surfaces
The sleekness of this era comes through in the smooth textures of furniture and finishings. Tables and counters will often be left clear in a minimalist style, and sometimes glass is used as an accent piece to really soften and smooth out the feel of a room. Smooth-finished wood and clean designs really bring the Art Deco style to life.
Streamlined Furniture
Sleek and modern, but comfortable, Art Deco furniture often features chrome accents and an influence from many different countries from around the world. The post-war era brought about a new excitement for travel and international interest, and this showed through in the styles and designs. Pieces made after French, English and Mediterranean styles would have been extremely common, and Art Deco often brought a little of all of this together in one unified fashion.
If you’re starting the Buffalo apartment hunt process and don’t know what to expect or what to look for, we’re here to help! Finding a new living space can be overwhelming for a newbie, so here are a few simple tips to keep in mind as you hunt for that perfect Buffalo NY apartment for rent.
Keep Your Budget in Mind
Experts have said for years that 30-35% of your monthly take-home pay is a good range to aim for when considering rent and housing expenses. So if you take home $2000 per month, you should aim for something in the $600 range, and so on. If you don’t have a budget set for your self on a monthly basis, you might want to sit down and think things out before you commit to an apartment lease. The 30-35% rule is usually a safe reference, but if you already have an auto payment that takes way more of your budget than you can sustain, you don’t want to splurge on Buffalo apartments either. Find what will work best for you in your own situation and then start searching for Buffalo apartments from there.
Find a Good Landlord
At The Kissling Interests, we really try to provide the best professional service possible to our tenants. Living in a situation where you don’t get along with your landlord can be extremely difficult, and it can turn a great apartment in Buffalo NY into a stressful mess very quickly. Before you sign anything, make sure you’re comfortable with the lessor of the apartment, and ensure a good relationship for the life of your lease.
Get Enough Space
Having enough space for yourself is a very important factor in in your search for apartments for rent in Buffalo. If you feel cramped and cluttered in your apartment, your experience will suffer, and you’ll regret not finding someplace with more room. If budgeting prevents you from affording the extra space, try to find a roommate that you can split the bill with. Buffalo Apartments are often easier to afford by adding a bedroom and sharing common spaces with roommates. That’s not to say you should cram 6 people into a 2 bedroom apartment, but talk to your landlord about your options, and see if finding a roommate would make things more affordable.
If you need more guidance on your search for Buffalo Apartments, just give us a call! We’re happy to review some of our housing options with you, and make sure you’re on the right path.
Living without a dishwasher is just the worst, but for some of us, it’s a very real situation that we just have to live with. And even though it might not be ideal, let’s not allow doing dishes to hold us back from all the cooking and hosting we want to do. Here are a few quick tips that will help ease the pain of dirty dishes and get you back to doing what you love.
Rinse
Even if you can’t get to washing the dishes immediately after you drop them in the sink, rinsing food and sauce off right away will save you a lot of scrubbing later.
Soak
For those pots and pans caked with residue that just won’t come off, fill up your sink with soapy water and come back to it later. Just make sure not to procrastinate the part where you actually come back and wash the pans. If you let them soak for long enough, the residue will come right off, and your job won’t be nearly as bad as you expect it to be.
Get a Drying Rack
If you leave all your clean dishes in the sink to dry, you’ll get backed up on dirty dish space and end up creating more problems for yourself. Drying racks are usually pretty cheap, and they’re definitely worth it for the amount of headache you’ll save.
These might seem like obvious suggestions, but for those without a dishwasher, every little bit helps. Good luck out there, and don’t let dish pan hands get you down!
Apartment lighting determines a huge part of the character of your living space, and you might feel like there are limited options out there to introduce some better light into your rooms, but don’t underestimate your choices! Your Kissling blog friends have some new ideas for you to consider that might help you find the right solution. A quick note before we dive in though: some of these ideas are a little invasive, so make sure to clear any serious construction with your friendly management staff before you start drilling into walls and making other significant or destructive changes.
Recessed Lighting
Recessed lights are fixtures that are actually built right into the ceiling, and they’re great for apartments with lower ceilings. Recessed lights can also shed a softer light on your space that helps to brighten things up without being too intense. They’re a great alternative to fluorescent ceiling lighting that can be just too overwhelming.
Track Lighting
Track lighting is a great change-up from your typical ceiling-hung light fixtures or standing lamps. It’s just a simple mounting system that holds lights suspended from the ceiling, but often allows for the freedom to change the direction of the light or adjust the lamps. If you have a DIY feel to your apartment, track lighting might be a perfect pairing since it shows off a little more hardware than typical light fixtures.
Wall Sconces
Wall-mounted lamps are another great example of a lighting solution for people with low ceilings or smaller apartments. They can also help with the direction and distribution of light in your room. Wall lamps aimed up at the ceiling will help diffuse light throughout your space and brighten up a room without being too intense.
See! We told you that you’d have more options than you thought.
When you sign the lease on your apartment, there can be limitations that come along with the living space, and as a result, you can’t always paint walls or put up wallpaper wherever you’d like. At The Kissling Interests, we try to be as flexible as possible with our tenants, but we also try to assure that our future tenants will enjoy the best experience possible as well, so we have to institute certain rules. So if you found some wallpaper that you absolutely love, but can’t use it on your walls, here are some great ways to be creative and spice up your apartment.
Frame It
Some wallpaper is artistic enough to stand on its own without having to rely on the wall behind it. If you can find a particularly cool pattern or even a mural-style design, find some good frames and go for it. You’ll save some money as opposed to buying a painting, so this solution is perfect for your walls and your wallet.
Paper Your Furniture
This idea is perfect if you have an old shelf or dresser that’s looking a little worse for wear. Try using wallpaper right on your furniture to provide an accent and liven things up a bit. If you work within the color palettes of your rooms, you can find a nice, bold accent color to really make things pop, or work with a softer complement color to help tie things together.
Lampshades
In the same way you can bring a room to life with wallpaper on your dressers, you can really make a statement with a DIY lampshade. Find a look that fits your style and give it a try! You’ll never know if it’ll work or not until you see it live, and doing it yourself is a lot cheaper than buying an expensive lamp to accent your room.
These cool ideas are just a start for your inspiration. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box, and if you aren’t sure if something will violate your lease, you can always call the friendly staff at our management office. Happy papering!
What’s up, Buffalo? It’s Wednesday, and if you’re anything like us, you’re probably already looking forward to closing out the week and heading into the weekend. We’re going to take a break from our interior inspirations today and inspire you to get out of your apartment and find something cool to do this weekend. And there’s plenty of options out there!
Before you decide on anything, a quick check of the weather might be helpful. Let’s hope for sunshine.
The Erie County Fair
One of the biggest WNY events of the summer is finally here, and even though it starts bringing summer to a close, we’re still excited to get out to the Erie County Fair and see what excitement they have in store for us this year. You’ll definitely want to make sure you get out there on a nice day, but the grounds are open from today, August 6 to Sunday, August 17, so if you don’t make it up for opening weekend, you still have plenty of time. Check out their official website to plan your trip, get event details and buy tickets.
Edgefest
If you’re a concert-goer, check out Edgefest at the Buffalo Outer Harbor this weekend. The annual show put on by Buffalo’s 103.3 The Edge is bringing Weezer, Brand New and other special guests to the harbor this Sunday, August 10. Gates open at 3 P.M., and tickets are still available if you haven’t grabbed yours yet. There’s also a pre-party going down at Soho Burger Bar before the show if you’re looking to make it an all-day event. The Edge’s website has all the info you need and a link to get your tickets.
Mummies of the World
The mummies of the world exhibit at the Buffalo Museum of Science explores the secrets of the past with an unrivaled mummy collection, and it won’t be here in Buffalo much longer, so take advantage while you still can. It’s the perfect rainy day activity for history buffs and science lovers. The Museum has some great images and other information posted to entice you to visit, but the best way to encounter these human works of art is to get up close and see for yourself.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of modern interior design, you might think it just refers to a style of design in alignment with current trends and contemporary developments, but that’s not necessarily the case. The heart of modern design actually mirrors the traits of the modern art movement, which was a noted departure from the lavish styles or the artistic movements that preluded it. But while modern art often delves into the abstract and the experimental, modern interior design keeps a focus on simplicity and function.
Here are some defining characteristics of modern interior design and why you might want to consider including them in your living space.
Straight Lines
In keeping with the simplicity of the modern theme, rooms designed in a modern style usually feature straight lines and clean patterns. In contrast to the carved decorations and textured furnitures that preceded modern design, this style will keep things simple and mostly flat without adding additional detail and complication.
Bold Use of Color
Modernist thinking was all about shaking free of the norms, and this can be seen in the use of bold colors that add visual contrast and stand out from the rest of the space. It is common in modern designs to see one sitting chair or an accent pillow of bold contrasting color included to set itself apart from the room around it. Use of modern art itself hung on walls can be a way to bring out strong colors or add a sense of abstractness to an otherwise straight and even space, adding to the modern design aesthetic.
Minimalism
Modern design focuses on removal of the unnecessary and inclusion only of pieces that provide function or purpose. This leads to a general lack of clutter and open floor plans. It is common in modern interior design for walls to be minimized and shelves or other storage to be built into recesses instead of protruding out into the floor plan.
With all the tech gadgets we’re buying these days, your apartment can quickly turn from neat and clean to a rat’s nest of wires. Not only is it not visually appealing, but it’s usually a safety issue as well if you have wires protruding out into walking spaces. Here are three neat products that can tidy up your wires and send your rat’s nest packing.
These little twisters will wind up your wires and keep them all neatly organized together. They’re better than tape or zip ties, because they’re easy to put on and take off too.
Even better news – they’re cheap. A set of 3 usually only costs about $10, so you won’t have to break the bank for the sake of organization.
This neat little box sits on the floor below your desk and winds your extra cable length inside it – preventing the classic rat’s nest. It’s a pretty inconspicuous little box, so it won’t take up much space, but it definitely gets the job done.
This one’s a pretty good bargain too, selling for only $25.
If you have a lot of cables running from your computer, printer, phone and everything else on your desk, this one is perfect for you. The desk leg cord manager is a steal at only $9, and it’ll keep your ugly cords out of sight and looking fresh.
Your apartment style is a big part of the way you and your guests will feel while hanging out at your place, but there are a lot of small aesthetic changes you can make to your living space to make it more conducive to good moods and positive feelings. Aside from your place of work, your home is probably where you spend most of your waking hours, so staying happy while you’re there is important to your overall quality of life.
Here are some easy tips to think about that can revamp the energy at your apartment and get you back to feeling the good vibes.
Lighting
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’re more likely to feel depressed and down if you aren’t getting adequate lighting into your living space. Try to get at least two or three different lighting sources in each room at your house or apartment, and consider changing up the intensity or mood of each light. You might not always want to sit under bright fluorescent lighting, so change it up and try getting some softer lamps to change the color temperature of your rooms.
Be sure to take advantage of windows and natural lighting, too. Sunlight can work wonders on your mood and your apartment if you can find good ways to let it in. If you have an apartment with a lot of windows, open up your curtains, and let the light in.
Plants
Plants have a great way of freshening up your living space and bringing life into a room. If your space is lifeless and dull, you’ll probably feel that way too.
Reduce Clutter
Look around your apartment and take an inventory of all the stuff you have laying around. Do you really need it all? Is that stuff that’s been sitting on your desk or your floor really important to hang on too? If the answer is no, just ditch it. Having lots of clutter and garbage around can add tension and stress to a room or to your mind.
And on that note, cleaning up in general never hurts. Dust and mildew can affect your ability to breathe clean air and harm your health, and all of that leads to a sadder you. Even cleaning once a week or once every other week can really turn around the mood in your apartment.
Shake It Up
If your apartment feels stale and stagnant, move things around! Re-arrange your bedroom or your living room and try out new setups for your furniture. Day after day of the same routine and the same living space setup can wear you down, so try getting creative with your space and changing it up every once in a while when you get sick of it.
We know you might think our blog is a great source of inspiration for the interior design of your apartment, but there’s plenty of other places on the web to find inspiration as well. In today’s Three Things Thursday, we’re giving you some great places online to go when you need to get inspired and get ideas for spicing up your apartment.
Pinterest
Pinterest might be notorious as a place for wedding planning and baby pictures, but there’s tons of apartment inspiration there as well. If you’re looking for storage ideas, the latest trends in interior design, or something creative to hang on your walls, just do a simple search on Pinterest and see what comes back. There are sure to be thousands of results to get your inspiration flowing.
Apartment Therapy
ApartmentTherapy.com is the perfect place to go to keep up with interior styles and find DIY projects for your home – no matter what size it is. They keep content fresh with new updates every day, so you’ll always have plenty to browse through if you need some new ideas.
HGTV
HGTV might be the king of interior design for the television world, but their website is pretty awesome too. They have huge photo galleries of designer rooms, kitchens, baths and everything in between as well as a section to help you through decorating your place. If you need to redesign a room or even your whole apartment, this is a perfect resource to use before you get started.
And if you just can’t get enough creative inspiration, you can always keep checking back in with the Kissling Blog.
