One of our favorite annual architecture awards is the AIA Chicago Small Project Awards. It's an opportunity for small firms to recieve recognition for work that might otherwise be shadowed by larger offices. The AIA awards innovation, low budgets and small firms — this year there were 15 winners, ranging from a table on two wheels to a studio renovation in the Hancock building.

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Since you only get one chance to make a good first impression, make guests smile with a charming welcome mat. Whether you're greeting guests with a simple "hi" or a silhouette of the four-legged member of your family, a good door mat and a handsome door will put your best foot forward.

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If you don't know of Isabelle Palmer already, you will soon enough. Isabelle Palmer is the talented founder of the online shop The Balcony Gardener and author of The Balcony Gardener. With the spring and summer seasons upon us, it feels even more important to make a small green space in the city. Isabelle was kind enough to answer a few questions to help urban gardeners create green spaces to call their own.

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Looking for a natural deodorant sans parabens, aluminum, and other yucky toxins? If so, you may have discovered that it can be difficult to find an effective brand. With a handful of ingredients that you may already have on hand, you can make your own effective, healthy deodorant in about five minutes. I get that it sounds crazy, but once I started making my own deodorant several years ago, I never looked back.
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It used to be a boathouse. Then Jacques and Agnès Choï found this building and cleverly converted it into an elegant, back-to-basics cabin. 

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What to do when you've got a couple of flea market finds (or dumpster scores) that you're not really crazy about? You combine them into this crafty project that doesn't even look like the original. Can you guess how this bench was made?

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Modern Sprout planters are stylish, simple-to-use hydroponic planter boxes that grow organic plant life indoors. Check it out!  

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With all of the recent focus on gardening here on Apartment Therapy, it can be easy to feel left out if you are, like many city dwellers, without any real outdoor space. Enter the vertical garden, perfect for the balcony or fire escape with the smallest of footprints. 

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I've been noticing a trend in the garden world that is loosely related to the ubertrend of vertical gardening.  Shelf Gardening (as I am calling it) solves the same challenge of creating a lot of planting space in very little square footage, but provides a whole new range of options for adding your own sense of style.   

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As a city dweller, I envy anyone that has an outdoor space they can call their own. A balcony, backyard, even a stoop can make for some good hangouts in the nice weather. Lately I have been especially into rooftop gardens — I think it is fun to see how plants can transform an otherwise unremarkable rooftop into a beautiful place. Here are a few that I think are particularly pretty. 
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