apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Now that the night temperatures have dropped to around the freezing mark, all of the container plants from our front steps and deck have moved in. We've got pots on the floor next to the sofa, on our bedside table, and on the kitchen counters. Some of them look a little lonely, which is why we're loving this metal garden table (featured in Lonny magazine) which brings all sorts of pots and plants together...

We've never had enough sink real-estate in the bathroom to store makeup. While we look wistfully in magazines at spacious double sinks with room for extra towels and lotions, the reality is that we keep makeup on a shelf across the room and then carry it over to the mirror to use. But after getting tired of rummaging through containers every morning, we found an idea that's portable, and keeps everything in its place...

Move over Mary Poppins, you're not the only one who knows how to make cleaning fun. There's a whole community of folks that make art by dimming the lights, opening the exposure on their camera and letting their Roomba go to town on a dirty floor.

With no one blinking anymore at chairs that don't match, or mixing decorating styles.. would you draw the line at mismatched curtains?

You think you have it bad when you have a cold — this little guy looks about as stuffed up as we feel this time of year. But he's so adorable in the bathroom that you'll never forget to wash your hands. And oh yeah, you guessed it, the soap runs out his nose!

We're big fans of simple window treatments like white shades and roller blinds, but occasionally they need a little something-something to hide the hardware at the top, and to look more finished. A detail we like if you keep it simple and don't overly swag, is the addition of a structured valance, or pelmet box...

One of the things about lettered stencils is that they invoke random flashbacks like art school, industrial signs, even summer camp (pretty much everything was labelled there, even underwear). We've always meant to use them to decorate furniture. Thats why we love this step-by step modern transformation of an older, shabby chic cabinet into this....

Lately we've been obsessed with unusual desks. People who put boards on sawhorses, paint bright shiny colors on plywood or use antique doors on file cabinets. One of our favorites was put together by David Butler (Amy Butler's husband) for his studio. Its made out of a.....

Some of our favorite paint colors are Milk Moustache, Salt Water and Vintage. We've also used Chit Chat and Old Pickup Blue. And one of our friends recently picked out C2's Final Straw for a room in her home after a particularly bad breakup. Which made us ask — is anyone else picking (or at least narrowing down) paint colors based on their names?

We just moved and love everything about our new kitchen. The previous owner was a chef and we're not kidding, if you ever renovate a kitchen, see if you can invite a chef over to help you plan the layout &mdash you won't regret it. One of our favorite details in the kitchen is the industrial cabinet hardware...

We were talking with friends the other night about dinner parties and how even the most formal of events seemed to have gone casual in our houses. Our friend Jen talked about never ever using her wedding china, and in fact not even liking it anymore. We wondered if there were others who dutifully registered for wedding china they never use?

Half-bath's don't have much room to make a design statement, so we humor ourselves by writing secret messages to each other in our tiny one. The messages on the back chalkboard wall can only be deciphered when you look into the mirror....

I bought my house three years ago because it had a lot of potential (and back then I had a lot more energy). Since it needed so much work on the inside, I concentrated on that and hoped the neighbors would bear with the peeling pink outside (one friend called it band-aid). Finally last fall, after understanding the house better, I was ready to paint it. Click after the jump to see the transformation — you won't recognize it!

Need a lock for your yoga stuff? German product designer Matthias Megyeri will make your locker stand out with his adorable Billy B padlock. His company, Sweet Dreams Security also makes other whimsical security items that not only work, but they take the edge off the menacing "stay away" look....