Removing cinder blocks is not a cakewalk. Or quiet.

Name: Christine & Pierre
Type of Project: Kitchen remodel
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Type of building: Ground floor apartment of a triplex, 1,100 square feet

Recently engaged and hoping to plan a wedding that's both creative and unique without breaking the bank? Well, you're in luck! Because this month, we are planning on revealing some of the best (top secret) wedding planning tips — all sourced from the pros! We'll be starting with a small yet impactful way to keep your reception chic yet budget friendly. 

Apartment Therapy commenters can be an opinionated bunch, not hesitant to call homeowners out on perceived infractions. One of the worst offenses? Being a 'high hanger' — that is, mounting all your art so high on the wall that a person of normal height would have to crane their neck to look at it. But what about being a low hanger? Lately I've spotted quite a few rooms with art displayed just a few feet off the floor. 

Name: Eminé Avanessian & Nathan Cabrera of Pygmy Hippo
Location: Los Angeles, California
Size: 1550 square feet
Years Lived In: 4.5; Rented

Emi and Nathan’s unique apartment is not for the faint of heart. You might mistake it for a natural history museum, as taxidermied critters stare back at you from every corner. It’s not surprising - the couple met at Emi’s past job working at a museum. One might assume that they are hunters, but actually they are nothing of the sort. Rather, they are curators, collectors, self-taught artists, DIY enthusiasts, and the owners of the delightfully itty-bitty Mid-City West gift shop, Pygmy Hippo.

There's a lot you can do with walls - paint color, murals, decals and graphics, but one idea we've been seeing more and more of is adding texture with decorative 3-D objects. The most popular are inspired by nature - birds, butterflies and flowers - and they can be made very cheaply with simple materials. 

Today's Before & After comes from Jérémy, a very talented 16 year old designer from Canada. Here he transforms an old vintage fan from boring to bold with just a paint job. 

Italian for "The Rainbow," L'ArcoBaleno is a new magazine-style  retail site that launches today. Exploring "extraordinary" design pieces from across the globe as well as the creative minds behind them, the site combines content with e-commerce for unique pieces that won't be found anywhere else. 

In other news, micro apartments in Los Angeles explore how small is too small, and check out an extreme treehouse. See the headlines after the jump.

With a small space comes great responsibility...the responsibility of finding where to fit everything. Some decide to forgo owning a television completely, but even those living in the smallest spaces usually want a television for the occasional movie night, especially now that HDTV displays come in extremely flat form factors that allow installation in spaces where once no tube set dared to tread...

A ways back I posted about Yarn Bombing: The Knit Graffiti Movement and discussed the international stealth subculture of wrapping yarn around urban structures. This time, I'm diving a little deeper with one of the founders of the movement, Magda Sayeg. Follow me...