[OOC; Shige's apartment]
First off--this picture is not scaled right. Kato the Pennypincher does actually spend a little more for his apartment than he does for most other things; it's his personality's safe turtle shell, and so worthy of extra money. But the spacing of my design makes it seem much larger than it actually is. This is a fault of my lack of spatial skills. While there is space to walk between furniture, and it is definitely large for a one-person apartment, this is not an extremely lavish place, as he really doesn't make that much. The walls are painted a simple white and the floors are a scuffed, darkly wood laminate. The kitchen is not state of the art or anything, and there are only windows in the kitchen and bedroom. But it is spacious (for Japan.)
The main impression of anyone coming in the apartment really would be that they're walking into someone's life--Shige has lots of STUFF and it's all over. Every surface has stuff piled, whether neatly or not... usually not neatly, unless you're special. There isn't usually like, wrappers and empty dishes kind of clutter, but magazines, stray photos, scribbed on notebooks, some folded socks, etc. It's a contained chaos.. as there isn't ever stuff on the floor. Outside of one white space in his room, all walls have framed famous prints on them or are covered by objects, like the lamp that bears many papers covered with famous quotes (and Tegoshi's autograph.) There are no less than 2 (sometimes more) vases of mixed flowers around the place, in handmade ceramic vases, and some of them are usually picked for scent.
All doors are sliding doors except for the front door in the lower right; it was just easier to depict them with that symbol. In that small space around the front door, there is a slew of coat hooks on the wall (some with different sweaters/scarves on them) that look like ninja stars/shuriken thrown into it. There is a basket of proper guest slippers there (thanks Mom) but they look like they've never been used or touched. Several pair of his own shoes are set aside along the wall, where it seems others can put theirs.
Green boxes in both rooms are closets. The upper right one in the bedroom is his clothes. The lower left one in the living space holds his guest futon, bedding, other crap.
The long grey box is all shelving. And it's all full--some of it unkept, some of it quite neat, depending on what he's gotten into since he last really cleaned. (rare.) Books, a slew of filled notebooks, trinkets, art objects, a plush toy, various visual art supplies, boxes of unorganized photos, etc etc. I will flesh this out with a lot more specific examples at a later date.
The grey square with the red and black boxes is his living space. The grey is actually the huge grey area rug real!Ryo gave him that he prizes and will never get rid of. The black is a long (but not tall) entertainment system, ie more shelving for dvds, games, game systems and some more manga piled in tight that didn't fit on the other set of shelves, with a large flatscreen tv atop it. The red boxes are his long couch (long enough for him to fit without hanging off) and some chairs, end tables with two mismatched but artistically shaped lamps. The furniture is different shades of grey and there are some red and white pillows around. None of it matches well enough, as he doesn't really have an eye for interior design, but most pieces have something interesting (to him) about them. At least most of it is in a red/white/black palette.
Yellow room is the toilet room; Pink room is the bath room. Neither are remarkable save that there's a Dali print on the wall above the toilet.
The two olive boxes are his self-created dark room... sorta. He still does developing in the bathroom but all of his developing stuff is stored on shelves, piles of photography crap, his bunch of film-cameras, strings of pictures hanging. It looks disorganized, because it is.
Brown is the kitchen. The back wall has the stove top, a microwave, open shelves, sink, etc. There's a wide island in the middle that he has stools to one side on, since the 'dining area' is taken up by his photography, and there are shelves under it on the kitchen-side.
Peach box is a small, outdoor balcony. He doesn't use it much. There are some gardening supplies in one corner, two folding chairs that are also in that corner, and it's otherwise abandoned except for some lines for hanging laundry--which are also generally abandoned since he doesn't do his own laundry.
The last room is his bedroom. Purple is his computer/writing desk. Blue is a chest of drawers with crap piled all over top of it, accessories, hats, etc. Disheveled. Behind his bed is another set of shelves and a small end table. The (large) bed is aqua and is couched in the bottom of the smaller room so that there really is only one side you can get out of. His bed linens and blankets are all coffee browns.
And this is Shige's place. Much of it is based on items and arrangements I know of. The rest is me filling in blanks. We found this layout necessary (and have gone through several iterations of his living spaces, over the years) considering how his favorite place to see friends is his apartment, and there's a lot there that's more telling of Shige than Shige himself ever manages. We will continue to update with placement of things, as he collects them.