Do-It-Yourself Decorating with Laura Jane

This past week, my father and I took a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Seabord, traveling from Toronto to New York City to Montreal over the course of three long and arduous days. Kind of sadly, this journey acted as my official farewell to NYC, but we parted ways on good terms, with a t-shirt binge-buying sesh at Uniqlo, several raspberry tollbooth cookies from Lifethyme Natural Market, and the expected deluge of madcap misadventures that New York City tends to ignite in my madcap-enough-already life. That being said, I have now moved to Montreal officially, and have spent the majority of my very-recent past decorating a new studio apartment. Now that it's all said and done, I think it looks pretty hot. Allow me to impart some of my droves of interior design wisdom upon y'all.

Lesson One: How to Decorate Your Walls Cool-ly

(clockwise): Detail shot of Kelley Walker poster in my gold-painted nook (the gold paint barely photographed); Crapola on my yellow wall, Pt. I; John and George appreciation-fest on my bedroom wall (not shown: RFK Jr. pin-up); Crapola on my yellow wall, Pt. II

Lesson Two: Whimsical Decorative Touches Go a Long Way

clockwise: All that remains of my New York life is this Empire State Building lamp, purchased for $10 at Indigo Books (located next to the window; if you squint, it looks like you're really there!); nerdy little figurines left over from early childhood; gorgeous calendar found on sale at Nota Bene, embellished with the pom-poms that fell off my Laurentian Chief winter boots last January; my beloved Fuckscrap

Lesson Three: Be Self-Indulgent

This wall displays an ongoing project I am working on called The Aging Process. It is a pretty easy project. All I have to do is take daily photobooths and watch how long it takes before I can visibly see myself age. In the upper lefthand corner of this image you will find a pin-up of a hot boy.

Lesson Four: Be Smart About Storage

left: I impulse-bought this hangy orange thing at a little shop here in Mtl, and find that it's a really handy tool for storing accessories, which are always awkward to deal with organizationally. Note the John Lennon sunglasses and their overwhelming visual impact; right: This musty-dusty old trunk was a mere $30 at a junk shop, and I'm using it to store all my clothes that I never wear, since I don't really care if they end up smelling like rotted-out wood. I'm sure it will end up doing double-time as a coffee table as well.

Lesson Five: Display Your Cool Shit for all the World to See

I bought a giant wall unit from Ikea. I am not exactly sure of its Swedish product name, but I must say I highly recommend it. Not only does it fit every single thing you own pretty much, in my studio apartment it also functions as a divider between the bedroom and living areas. I have been going organizing-crazy this round of moving. In the upper righthand image, you can see every notebook I've had since 1998 organized chronologically. And see those red and yellow binders in the lower righthand image? Everything I've ever written on looseleaf (also chronological). IMPRESSED???

Lesson Six: How to Make your Bathroom Tasteful & Elegant

Affixing an image of Her Majesty above your toilet makes a really strong statement (although I don't know what about).

And lastly:

Posted by Laura in D.I.Y.
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