A few years ago a friend asked us if we could decorate her apartment in Brooklyn. She didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on it — which was fine as we didn't like to spend people's money anyway. The apartment was a basic new-remodel, with the original space broken up into basic drywalled rooms, which lacked any character. Sometimes of course this is exactly what you're looking for, but we wanted to make it look more feminine and European.

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Having something upholstered or custom-made is a complex endeavor — and for most people it is a world that is unknown. Taking your sofa in to be reupholstered is similar to taking your car to the mechanic: your car needs a tune up and the mechanic tells you “this needs tightening, that needs fixing and this needs overhauling” and you stare back at him or her and blankly say “OK” because you have no idea about the inner workings of the car that you drive every single day. You probably sit on your sofa every day and do not really know what is on the inside that makes it so comfy (or not so comfy)... More

Being color month at Apartment Therapy we thought we'd start our month of guest posts with one that combines yard sales and color. Linda and I go yard saling every weekend, and from this collections grow. They could be books, dishes, prints, furniture, records, clothes — whatever catches our eyes. Speaking of, we've put together a collection of blues-and-reds, a color combination which usually gets no attention other than a passing thought that together they may be slightly incompatible, dated, and even optically unnerving. In large expanses it might be totally unnerving (see Syd Barrett), but here we're just (re)considering it as an accent.

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(Welcome to Molly from Portland. She is one of the bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the NW. Comments welcome!)

Name: Sarah and Jason
Location: Portland

Molly sent us a House Call post featuring photos of a super creative and hardworking space - Jason and Sarah run The Wurst Gallery out of their home. Molly writes: Sarah and Jason have put a lot of love into restoring their tri-level mid-century home. They’ve pulled up the carpets, renovated the bathroom and opened up the kitchen by knocking... More

(Welcome to Jessica from SF. She is one of the bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the NW. Comments welcome!)

Name: Melinda Gorham and David Charles
Location: Glen Park, San Francisco

When Melinda moved into her two bedroom Glen Park apartment five years ago, the cream walls and gold fixtures were definite eyesores. Luckily, her amenable landlord gave her free reign to remodel, so the painting, fixture replacing and personalizing began immediately. Now with a new housemate, her fiance David, the home is... More

(Welcome to Heather from Portland. She is one of the bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the NW. Comments welcome!)

As graphic motifs go, the modern cross is great when used as a bold punch of color in the right place. In traditional red and white, it recalls the Red Cross logo or the Swiss flag; when the cross is extended to the borders of the object it adorns, it can read Scandinavian. In off-red or mixed with a shot of cool green, the mod cross... More

(Welcome to Sarina from Seattle. She is one of the bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the NW. Comments welcome!)

Name: Sarina (and my dog, Richard)
Location: Seattle, Washington

Sarina shares her own home as part of her blogging tryout - she writes: I'm not an artist in the conventional sense; my apartment is my canvas. I'm entertained through my surroundings and love to feel like I'm the curator of my own little art gallery, which is my home. It is important that my apartment be visually interesting from... More

(Welcome to Ally from Seattle. She is one of the bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the NW. Comments welcome!)

Name: Ally
Location: Seattle, Washington

Ally is sharing a "House Call" of her own home with us as part of her tryout. She writes: Our house is a green built contemporary in the middle of Seattle. We instantly fell in love with the open layout, exposed beams, concrete floors, and all the natural light. It was a dream of a blank slate but decorating proved to be a bit of challenge.... More

(Welcome to Olivia from Portland. She is the first of a group of bloggers trying out for a place on the Apartment Therapy editorial team, covering different cities in the Northwest. Comments welcome!)

Planting a container garden is all about usable foods and efficient use of space. As this has been our first gardening season, we've been making note of what we do and don't want to plant next year.... More

I've always said if you can only invest money in one room of the house — or, in this case, one section of the studio — pick the bedroom. It's where we theoretically spend 1/3 of our life sleeping, so it makes sense to get the healthiest, greenest and most comfy components for a restful sleep. When you skimp on bedding, your body feels it. So for Part 3 of this $500 makeover, I decided to invest about $300 in the bedroom with some surprising results. More