Spawning An Idea

I created this site to document my experiences with keeping intriguing fish (and large amounts of water) in my small apartment. The simple idea to get a single aquarium was spawned a mere three months ago and things have gotten a bit crazy since. The story starts in late July when I signed a lease to rent a second-floor loft apartment in downtown Austin. It's a modest place -- quite small actually -- but a suitable size and location to put together an attractive bachelor pad.

Since it's a studio loft -- this means one main room -- I immediately envisioned an aquarium to separate the bed "room" from the living "room." I wanted a kind of free-standing see-through wall. A wall that's alive and full of strange and wonderful fish.

Coincidentally (or is it destiny?), at the same time I was set to move into my new place I also began dating a new woman. Her contributions to this project have been immeasurable. She has been supportive and enthusiastic from the start. I just want to acknowledge that since day-one this has been a shared adventure.

So I've got this loft, but before I could build the aqua-wall, I had to take care of one thing: I had to get a king-size bed. Only a king would do. If you want accommodate a lot of activity in your bed, you have to get a king. Here's another tip: Get rid of the frame and headboard. You just need the box spring and mattress. No extra noise.

On my king bed I keep a nice comforter and several folded blankets made with a variety of textures. I have 16 full-size pillows. Half of them are black and the other half are pairs of red, maroon, burgundy, and gold. It's basically a really comfortable six and a half foot square with lots of space and lots of pillows.

It gets better... another early project was to cover the entire wall next to the bed with fabric panels. There are a total of 16 "tiles" made from adhering fabric to 20" by 30" foamboards. Continuing the black-red-burgundy-gold color scheme, I just nailed them into place. I then bundled some burgundy curtains along the top and side to effectively cover the corners of the not-quite-straight walls. I've been told that this makes the bed look like a stage.

There it is: A king-size pillow-pit with a fabric covered accent wall on one side and a free-standing aquarium serving as the opposite wall. I also put up a large circular mirror adjacent to the fabric wall and a nice burgundy ottoman at the foot of the bed. So there it is: Overall these ideas make things seem more enclosed as a separate bedroom (or at least a room that is just a big cozy bed) in the small loft.