how to "Russianize" your home?

[Chelchov]

I have been thinking about getting my place to be "Russianized" when I move to a new apartment later this year.  I would like to hear from anyone in how to make my apartment to be totally in Russian-style and the Russian language. 

I thought about ways...

1.  Cooking Russian food
2.  Watching Russian TV
3.  subscribing to Russian publications

and more ideas from you guys? 

I am thinking about subscribing a Russian TV network for my TV.  So, I can brush up in listening to the Russian language.  Which is the best Russian TV company here in the USA?   

[BC]

Hang large rugs on the walls.
Install a nuclear powered heating system that cannot be regulated.
Add a 'shelf' type toilet.
Install a 'flash' type gas water heater inline with your new toilet.. flush while showering for full 'effect'.
Sell your car and buy good walking shoes.
Collect books and more books..
Curio/icon/souvenir cabinet facing east is a must.
Buy and use house shoes.
All furniture must be 'overstuffed' type.

[edit]  ahh forgot.... paint your house in bright blue and green, add psychedelic wallpaper.

[Elen]

 To be totaly in Russian style your appartment should have typical Russian kitchen not more than 12 sq m , bathroom - not more than 2,9 sq m and toilet - not more than   - 0,7 sq m (  I know I know  it's almost impossible for typical American a## but you have to push it somehow there.Throw away soft toilet paper and replace it with old newspapers.

That would give you feeling of living in Russian appartment 

PS shower MUST be with flexible pipe ( or how it's called there) 

[catzenmouse]

And don't forget to get one of those pullout style beds with a thin mattress and a board underneath that doesn't quite fit right so you have a hard hump in the middle of the bed all the time!

Ken

[jb]

Hang large rugs on the walls

Yep, we have one hanging in the guest bedroom.  Great big sucker showing a woodland scene with deer and other wild critters.

Russian curios and Icons?  Yep, got those too.  You forgot to mention the ever present matrushka dolls and lacquered boxes

Russian art?  Yep, got that too.

Throw away all your pots and pans that match, keep only that which is at least 40 years old, battered, blistered, and way passed down from your granny.  Same thing with dishes, glasswear, and tablewear, spoons, forks, knives, etc., throw away anything that looks like a set.

Buy a second refrigerator for your kitchen, it will be useful to store all those veggies you will be growing in the front yard.

Cooking Russian food,,, forget about ever using the oven, it is useful only for storing those old pots and pans.

I LMFAO when I started thinking about this question...

[prince_alfie]

I have been thinking about getting my place to be "Russianized" when I move to a new apartment later this year.  I would like to hear from anyone in how to make my apartment to be totally in Russian-style and the Russian language. 

I thought about ways...

1.  Cooking Russian food
2.  Watching Russian TV
3.  subscribing to Russian publications

and more ideas from you guys? 

I am thinking about subscribing a Russian TV network for my TV.  So, I can brush up in listening to the Russian language.  Which is the best Russian TV company here in the USA?   

My goodness!...

Well, you could start with the literature...

Of course, I'm an IKEA guy so I'm pretty much international so I wouldn't want my house to be Russified par se.

P.S. I am skeptical that a Russian-looking home will win over the heart of the RW however.

[I/O]

forget about ever using the oven, it is useful only for storing those old pots and pans.

I LMFAO when I started thinking about this question...

Nope.  Mine's a great one for "Oven Cooking" (Much to Babushka's disgust)

I/O

[Elen]

Of course, I'm an IKEA guy so I'm pretty much international so I wouldn't want my house to be Russified par se.

IKEA ???  Shame on you boy For god sake don't tell that to your future Russian girl ( if it would be any some day) - just friendly advice

[I/O]

( if it would be any some day)

Don't think he needs to worry. I doubt there will be. -Just a friendly opinion.

I/O

[groovlstk]

Go to your bathroom and throw away all your bath towels. Replace with the most threadbare, rough-textured piece of cloth you can find.

[catzenmouse]

Go to your bathroom and throw away all your bath towels. Replace with the most threadbare, rough-textured piece of cloth you can find.

And get some of that narrow rough brown toilet paper too! Might as well get the "full" experience!

[El Rock]

Make sure your apt is 5 floors up over a busy street .

Get a fridge that's 2' wide and 6'  tall.

Hang plates from y'alls  holiday travels   on the walls .

Furniture from goodwill

[Shadow]

For Prince_Alfie, IKEA furniture will do well in a Russian Apartment.

Re Cooking:
Buy fish, hang then on a string to dry.
Get a big glass bottle, fill it with fruits and vodka and put a medical glove to cover it. Hide it but show to all friends.
Eat bread with every dish.
Always use mayonaise as main ingredient for salads.
Use sour cream (get real smetana if you can) on anything else.

Get a 20 year old TV, but the latest PC and DVD player.

[catzenmouse]

Get a 20 year old TV, but the latest PC and DVD player.

You're living upscale there Shadow! No DVD player. Get a 20 year old VCR player to go with the TV. And the TV stand will be just barely big enough for the TV with no shelves so the VCR will balance (sort of) on top of the TV.

Ken

[Nando]

Put some old style wallpaper on the walls with flowers, this is really a must

Shame on you boys who have been painting your house rooms.

[prince_alfie]

Perhaps add an early 1990's Pentium I 90mhz desktop and large 19" CRT monitor for best effect of technological advances in the household.

[El Rock]

Put some old style wallpaper on the walls with flowers, this is really a must

Shame on you boys who have been painting your house rooms.

Put up some used wallpaper ,  so it's faded and peeling .



What's with their music ??????
It's  high energy music that just keeps on going & going   , never   seems  to go anywhere   and maintains the same   level  of   , I don't know  how to describe  it , I'm referring the  Ukraine music  , never been to Russia.


Instead  of her having a  car ,  get her a personal taxi  to take her ever where  .
And of course , with   Russian music  playing   via the radio

[groovlstk]

Furniture from goodwill

The Soviet-era furniture is definitely not cheap stuff. It may not be hip or fashionable but it's sturdily constructed of real wood, not the particle board and veneer crap you see at IKEA.

[Elen]

Perhaps add an early 1990's Pentium I 90mhz desktop and large 19" CRT monitor for best effect of technological advances in the household.

No Alfie Here you are wrong and Shadow is right There could be old TV but if there is a comp it's rather mordern model

[jb]

We are all having a bit of fun with this thread, however the comments from those of us who have actually spent time in Russia do fairly accurately reflect the lifestyle of the typical Russian apartment dweller.

Sad but true.

[viking]

Gee, for a minute, but only a minute, I was getting a bit nervous.  The only thing Russian in my home is the dog and a bottle of Ruskie standard in the freezer. Hmmm. Freezers are allowed. aren't they? 

[LEGAL]

Russian style   


Olga (LEGAL's wife).

[Turboguy]

Yes, of course move your bed into the living room, (make sure it is not a full, king or a queen, something army cot sized will do,  board up all your other rooms except that (look how much easier it will be for you to clean for her.) and put a divider in your bathroom so the toilet is in one room and the tub and sink are in another.   You should be able to find a perfect mirror in a garage sale someplace but you may have to import the fawcett that swings from the sink to the tub.  Then off course there is the full sized bookcase on one wall of the combination living room, bed room, game room etc.

[Chelchov]

I knew that you guys would respond about those old Russian stuff that would seem to be too obsolete for the Western world...  I'm not surprised.  I am kind of an old fashioned guy and I like  to have some antiques for my place..    

Olga, thanks for all of the nice pictures of Russian styles.  The first two pictures are really my ideal place to live in.  A cozy rustic log home with all wooden furnitures including the dining table and chairs and rustic and old fashioned styles.  I like my "dream" home to be furnished with a blend of old fashioned and rustic furnitures and some modern stuff.  I fantasize living in a cozy log home out there in the open space.  That ideal place of a log home and its rustic and old fashioned style has been in my dream for long time...    

It is apparent that that log home from the first picture is built using a Scandanavian Chinkless method.  I am a certified log home builder.  That's how I can tell about various log home construction methods.   

[jb]

Chelchov,

You may fantasize about living in that log cottage, but I don't think you will find a modern RW who would want to live there.  The girls you, at your age, would be interested in, are going to the disco and enjoying the modern day life.  They are as westernized as you are,,, maybe more so.