Oh right, so when I have a dimly lit area in my apartment, I'll just knock out that wall that's blocking the sunlight and wah-lah! It's bright! While I'm at it, I'll just remodel the whole apartment's architecture as well. While I mean not to bash the author or the post, it's a bit of an impractical one, really. Just my two cents..

I agree with grafxnerd! Also, what the hell is that peeking out the door in the after picture? Looks like something from the muppet show or fraggle rock.

lol, Fraggle Rock. I loved that show it does look like that. I like this article. While I'm not going to implement it in my home either, I think it's still good to get ideas from. You don't have to knock down a wall; one could add a divider wall of glass to their space...

Apartment Therapy has evolved to encompass ideas for homeowners and homeowners-to-be too, grafxnerd.

I think it's a neat idea. So often, borrowing light from another room means losing privacy. This retains privacy, adds interesting storage, and lots of light. Beautiful!

Wait, what? I can't make out the etching on the glass, but "the DNA pattern of a harbor seal" doesn't actually make ANY sense.

Beautiful.

Elegant solution.

jesster - sequenced DNA is represented as horizontal bands on a series of vertical bars. The unetched bands on the cabinet match the pattern you would see when looking at sequenced DNA pattern of the harbor seal.

While I get that this isn't really feasible in a rented apartment, I think that some sort of note needs to be added to the beginning of posts that focus on homes instead of apartments. Afterall, it is Apartment Therapy, right? ;)

Don't get me wrong, the idea is great, albeit a bit creepy with the specimens.

Apartments can be owned -- like coops and condos. Not every post has to be rental-friendly.

Mmm, dead things in jars are now beautiful and elegant? Nasty, so many lives lost in the name of pseudo "Naturalism."

In the last photo it looks like being in a shop, like une "parfumerie". How strange to live in such a decor!

We applied a similar idea to allow light to flow through our condo by installing frosted glass doors throughout instead of solid ones. It made a huge difference in lightening up a dark hallway.

Our guests were a little paranoid about the frosted glass door on the bathoom, but they figured out pretty quickly that because of the layout of the room, no one could see any hint of what you were doing in there.

We're going to replace all the doors in our house with frosted glass as well. I love the idea and I'd do an entire wall in frosted glass if I had the budget!

sad that they ripped out all the victorian details when they made their modifications.

i think it's a great idea and people can decorate the way they wish.
however, i do think Before and Afters are more helpful when the shots are from the same angle, the same place. the first before image looks like it's from one end of the hall, the after image, from the opposite end. it's tough to see the transformation that way imo.

Did they knock down a wall on the right as well? There are too many differences between the photos and I cannot focus on what they did with the space.

Well, I think it's cool and I don't have trouble understanding the layout, AND if an artist can have crazy art all over their place, surely a scientist can have specimins related to his work in his office. Sheesh, people, nobody sugested you live with all the components, it was just a way to demonstrate making a wall translucent...

(And as a homeowner who lived in MANY apartments in the past, let me observe that design ideas cross all boundaries. My house has mostly small, apartment sized rooms. An apartment shown in another post has 6000 square feet. Some homeowners are reluctant to modify their homes similarly to renters who can't. Some renters have permission to do anything that improves the property or at least is reversible. Nice inexpensive furniture is something we all love.)

From what I can tell, they did a lot more than knock down one wall. It looks like a complete interior renovation to me.

@LilyC:
I don't mean to nitpick, but I'm a biologist and I look at DNA sequence all the time. Sequenced DNA is a series of A's, T's, G's, and C's, representing the identities of the DNA bases.

_Chromosomes_ can sometimes be viewed as bars with a banding pattern on them, but at that level of resolution you're not looking at the sequence of the DNA per se, rather the DNA molecule itself. Are the vertical bands supposed to represent chromosomes? Or is there something I'm missing?

Oh geeze... I think this is not a very attractive solution. I love the collection of specimen. And I like the idea of creating a frosted glass partition to allow light and privacy at the same time. I don't, however, like the both together. I think it is far too busy and complicated. Maybe if there was no pattern on the frosted wall it would be better, but such a modern design, I think, requires a little more modesty and simplicity to be cohesive. The pattern of the glass and the collection just seem to be fighting with each other for attention.