[tor]

I have a large room which has white walls and 4 poles and exposed beams painted black, it is pretty awful. In keeping with my habit of having 5 year plans I figure I'll start thinking about how to make it cool. Any ideas?



Photo is taken from the mezzanine floor. The girlfriend doesn't come down here so often which is why it is such a shambles.

[Ugg]

tor, on 04 October 2011 - 06:16 AM, said:

I have a large room which has white walls and 4 poles and exposed beams painted black, it is pretty awful. In keeping with my habit of having 5 year plans I figure I'll start thinking about how to make it cool. Any ideas?

Have you tried an air conditioner?

I had a friend who turned his sister's bedroom into a rock-climbing/bouldering room. Get some 1 inch ply-wood and screw on any surface you can find a stud (damn, those double entendres keep popping up everywhere). Go wacky with a drill so that you can then screw handholds everywhere and change them when you get bored. Keeps you fit and your mind active and works a treat as a 5 minute break from posting on the internet. Not very aesthetic but certainly pleasing.

[Easy Tiger]

Your into martial arts ..... specifically Japanese martial arts. Ditch everything in that room and turn it into a Japanese Dojo, with the rice paper walls and tatami flooring etc. That’d be awesome.

If nothing else ditch the paintings

[ummester]

Girlfriend doesn't come down eh?

Needs a disco light and pole dancers:)

[tor]

Easy Tiger, on 04 October 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

Your into martial arts ..... specifically Japanese martial arts. Ditch everything in that room and turn it into a Japanese Dojo, with the rice paper walls and tatami flooring etc. That’d be awesome.

If nothing else ditch the paintings

At first I thought that was a daft idea. The room is kind of three levels, I have my gym area below (kind of a downwards mezzanine) and my office above (an actual mezzanine).

Thinking more about it though it is just crazy enough to maybe work. I was going to put a rack for all my weapons and armour on the wall anyway (practicality, not style). This idea grows on me at an alarming rate.

(the paintings are for the smoking room which I have yet to do as well, mostly they are on the wall so they aren't on the floor)

[tor]

ummester, on 04 October 2011 - 09:01 AM, said:

Girlfriend doesn't come down eh?

Needs a disco light and pole dancers:)

Careful, you'll attract Anders to the thread

[ummester]

tor, on 04 October 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

Thinking more about it though it is just crazy enough to maybe work. I was going to put a rack for all my weapons and armour on the wall anyway (practicality, not style). This idea grows on me at an alarming rate.

That would look cool - who cares about style.

I have some replica broadswords I left in perth and I miss them:( Bladed weapons on walls always look good IMO.

[Ruffian]

Easy Tiger, on 04 October 2011 - 08:52 AM, said:

Your into martial arts ..... specifically Japanese martial arts. Ditch everything in that room and turn it into a Japanese Dojo, with the rice paper walls and tatami flooring etc. That’d be awesome.

Great idea - it works both with the physical parameters of the room and the taste of the principal occupant.

A slap of black paint on all the timber and white paint on everything else would make a good base to work from, and unify the three different levels.

All subsequent design issues are automatically simplified, too - lighting, flooring, artwork etc all just has to fit with the Japanese sensibility. Best of all it works both ways along the time-line, permitting antiquities and technologies to co-exist quite comfortably.

That said - I'd also try to find oriental cabinets to put at least some of the clunkier bits of hardwear in. There are lots of 'Japanese' cabinets available (at least in Adelaide) and they are cheap enough and modern enough that knocking the back out in order to allow for cabling and airflow wouldn't break anyone's heart - but will improve the ambiance more than those microwaves? - whatever - etc currently do.

[AndersB]

tor, on 04 October 2011 - 09:11 AM, said:

ummester, on 04 October 2011 - 09:01 AM, said:

Girlfriend doesn't come down eh?

Needs a disco light and pole dancers:)

Careful, you'll attract Anders to the thread

[staringclown]

Those columns are the problem. Can they be removed? They look structural.

What about the gentlemens club? You could enclose the columns (plaster or carved wood) roman style

 interior-columns.jpg (41.28K)
Number of downloads: 5

You know the rest. Wood panels Green or burgundy. Velvet Curtains. Persian rugs. Wingback chairs. Leather, Cigars, large map of the world with a wooden pointer, Giant globe liquor cabinet. Weapons are good as are animal heads. Books. Wooden bookshelves. Large portraits of oneself. Gadgets in glass cabinets and steam punk. Polished brass. Antique lighting. Stained glass wood framed windows.

Edit: plural

This post has been edited by staringclown: 04 October 2011 - 10:38 AM

[ummester]

AndersB, on 04 October 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

That man ain't dancing on the pole - the pole is dancing on him:O

[tor]

...and a thread revival. Not for the same room, I am switching between the fake greek column theme and the japanese minimalist theme everyday so let's just assume that it is indeed a 5 yr plan

However I have almost finished my main room upstairs (the bit where the kitchen was the starting point). New ceiling fans and in-wall speakers are now done. There are two things left to do (in my opinion):

1. This ought be easy but hasn't been, you know those "chinese" cabinets that have the large round copper / brass handles on them? I want one of those handles, don't need to buy the cabinet. About a metre across is the kind of size. Am about to just go to the local sheet metal guys and ask them to whack one together but I figured it should be cheaper if I can find a place that sells them, anyone seen a place that sells just the handles?

2. I want a clock that is stupendously huge and cool. I saw one in a Jeeves & Wooster / Poirot or similar BBC art deco themed show. The hands were 4 or 5 feet long. The mechanism was mounted in the wall and the clock face was just painted on the wall in black with part of the circle done and some dots for a few of the numbers. I can't find a picture or even find the episode. I don't even know where to start with this idea.

[staringclown]

Number 1. This site has the chinese style brass fittings.

Number 2. sounds bespoke. You can pay someone a fortune or you can buy a suitable mechanism and make it yourself. Need a mechanism capable of pushing 5 foot hands so what about carved balsa wood hands?

[tor]

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 09:34 AM, said:

Number 1. This site has the chinese style brass fittings.

Number 2. sounds bespoke. You can pay someone a fortune or you can buy a suitable mechanism and make it yourself. Need a mechanism capable of pushing 5 foot hands so what about carved balsa wood hands?

First site, awesome, exactly what I was after.

Second idea, yeah. Oddly enough the girlfriend was reading an SMH article about some penthouse that was an ideal bachelor pad that had a round window as the clock. That looked pretty cool. Not sure I want it to be a window though, although where I want it can be seen from bed so you could always see what time it was...

[staringclown]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 09:43 AM, said:

First site, awesome, exactly what I was after.

Second idea, yeah. Oddly enough the girlfriend was reading an SMH article about some penthouse that was an ideal bachelor pad that had a round window as the clock. That looked pretty cool. Not sure I want it to be a window though, although where I want it can be seen from bed so you could always see what time it was...

The giant clock sounds 60's bachelor pad. At least how I picture it. Are you after art deco?

[Ruffian]

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 10:01 AM, said:

The giant clock sounds 60's bachelor pad. At least how I picture it. Are you after art deco?

Huh. I visualised it as steampunk meets Alice in Wonderland.

[staringclown]

Ruffian, on 07 November 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

Huh. I visualised it as steampunk meets Alice in Wonderland.

All I see is lava lamps and groovy furniture with an absurdly large clock. Although the Alice in wonderland theme is appealing...

A melting, dali-like clock mural? Or full size photo realism picture of the section of Big Ben with the clock face - to scale of course. Man I'm on fire.

[tor]

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 10:01 AM, said:

The giant clock sounds 60's bachelor pad. At least how I picture it. Are you after art deco?

This is the video with the wall clocks which are windows. Kind of cool but not really what I am after, same sort of size though. Can't find the tv episode with the one I like (which is art deco).

Imagine painting an clock on the wall on that scale with the black and white art deco motif, then put a motor in the wall and attach hands. So daft I love it.

[tor]

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

All I see is lava lamps and groovy furniture with an absurdly large clock. Although the Alice in wonderland theme is appealing...

A melting, dali-like clock mural? Or full size photo realism picture of the section of Big Ben with the clock face - to scale of course. Man I'm on fire.

I have always wanted to build a melting clock. You can get those ones where the face is melted but the arms aren't. I figure if you had a ball bearing race going around the edge and attached a stretchy hand to it then you would have something much closer. So the hands would deform in line with the face as they move around.

[wim]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 07:12 PM, said:

This is the video with the wall clocks which are windows. Kind of cool but not really what I am after, same sort of size though. Can't find the tv episode with the one I like (which is art deco).

Imagine painting an clock on the wall on that scale with the black and white art deco motif, then put a motor in the wall and attach hands. So daft I love it.

Why not paint the hands on the wall and rotate the clock.