apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Name: Asya Palatova of gleena
Location: Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Size: 750 square feet
Years lived in: 5

The first thing we noticed about Asya’s light-filled loft was how similar her home feels to the delicate ceramics she creates under the name gleena. Both the space and her handcrafted porcelain dishes have a minimal quality, but her playful color palette and use of graphics give both the loft and the tableware a warm approachability.

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Name: Susan & Matt Sandler
Location: Bedford, New Hampshire

Susan is an interior designer who studied design and architecture in Boston and recently relocated back to her cozy hometown of Bedford, New Hampshire. She and Matt bought this 1940's ranch a few years ago and make all of their design decisions mindful of the home's architecture.

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Name: Wes, Kayla & Bacon
Location: Brookline, Massachusetts
Size: 990 square feet
Years lived in: 1.5 Years

Begin with an architect and a graphic designer — engaged but living separately. Move them into a big apartment in need of a holistic overhaul, merge all their earthly possessions, and make them freelancers for Apartment Therapy. Toss in a Bacon and a wedding. Sprinkle with do-overs. Simmer for about a year and you’ll end up in our home.

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Name: Libby and John Lodge (of John Lodge Architects)
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Most Boston dwellers are familiar with the pitfalls of living in period houses: small rooms, miniscule closets, and dim lighting. So when product designer Libby and her architect husband John stumbled upon a Cambridge Greek Revival with not one, but two large sunny common rooms, they jumped at it. Nine years later, they couldn't be happier with their choice.

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Name: Bella
Location: Prospect Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts

I fell in love with this apartment as soon as I saw it a little over three years ago. It's located high on a hill that is steeped in history. The first Union flag was flown here on January 1, 1776 by order of General George Washington. In 1902 a castle-like monument was erected to commemorate the site. The views of the city are fantastic and it's a great place to watch the annual Fourth of July fireworks.

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Name: Boston Home Magazine Concept Home
Designer: Hacin + Associates
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Size: 2,180 square feet + 1,000 square feet terrace

Boston Home asked Hacin + Associates — architects of the FP3 loft building — to furnish one penthouse as their 2009 Concept Home. Straying from the usual mishmash, this concept home is like a good mix tape of design: continuity throughout, sprinkled with surprising elements like a pink master bedroom ceiling, giant window graphics, and a glass bubble sculpture over the tub...

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Name: Amy
Location: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Years lived in: Rented for 2 years

The timing of this house tour, in concert with Apartment Therapy's September Art, Craft, and Collections Month, is fitting — and a great segue into October's Color theme and Room for Color contest! Walking into Amy's first floor, one bedroom apartment is a delightful experience. The colorful walls and bunches of large and small collections make it impossible to feel gloomy here. In fact, I had to tear myself away from taking photo after photo.

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Name: Greer Goodman, husband Sam, 18-month-old son Ozzy, dogs Ursula & Alice, & Jonathon (sic) the cat
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Size: 1,800 square feet
Years lived in: 3

When interior architect Greer Goodman bought this 100-year-old house in 2005, she was intending to flip it, but after 6 months of renovations (view the tour for some dramatic before & afters), she moved in with her growing family and transformed it into a cheerful and relaxed temporary home.

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Name: Bill and Natalie
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA
Size: 2250 sq ft
Years lived in: Owned 7 years

Peace is among the more ephemeral of spacial qualities — a fleeting moment captured, for instance, in 20-minutes of soft, yellow sunset washing across a bedroom wall. Peacefulness is something most of us stumble upon but, in Bill & Natalie's Jamaica Plain home, it seems every room was designed with peace in mind...

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Name: Joyce
Location: Stow, Massachusetts

"We live in an eco-home that we designed and built on the foundation of a 1959 ranch. It was designed to embrace the beauty of simple natural materials, open spaces, and carefully thought-out systems for health and comfort. Inspired by Sarah Susanka's The Not So Big House, every aspect of the design aims to maximize space, making use of the entire footprint (and the vertical space) to accommodate the way a family lives. The result is environmentally sustainable, aesthetically delightful, and lovingly suited to the needs of a family."

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Name: Sarah Lewis & Hillary Rhodes
Location: Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Size: 1,800 square feet | 2 bedrooms
Years lived in: 6 months

Roommates Sarah Lewis and Hillary Rhodes aren’t shy about showing off their stuff. The loft they share in a converted former cotton mill is filled to the brim with collections of artwork, Etsy finds, and vintage treasures. Minimalist? No. But if you've got it, why not flaunt it?

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Name: Jen & Rob French, Hank & Dexter French (twin 2-year-old boys)
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Size: 2,200 square feet | 3 bedrooms
Years lived in: 1½

They may have dark-colored walls and a few dead things displayed here and there, but Jen & Rob French’s 1920s bungalow is still bright and full of life — thanks to a carefully curated art collection, a whimsical sense of humor, and the happy squeals of their twin two-year-old boys, Hank and Dexter, echoing through the house.

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Name: Kat, Jon, Canada the dog, and Corso & Sabine, sibling cats
Location: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Size: 750 square feet
Years lived in: Rented 2 Years

Natural born thrifters, Kat & Jon have a thing for worn wood, chipped paint and soft leather. Their philosophy is that if something has held together long enough to make it to the thrift store, it probably has lots of life left to live. Theirs is a traveling feast of finds, a space chock full of personality...

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Name: Jason Thompson
Profession: Founder & Owner, Rag & Bone Bindery
Location: Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Size: 3,000 square feet
Years lived in: 2 years, owned

Jason Thompson converted the cavernous warehouse space above his bookbinding studio into an art-filled, family-friendly loft in a mere six months and on a tight budget — proof of what some creative ingenuity and a lot of elbow grease (he performed the demolition and much of the installation himself) can accomplish…

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