Today is the last day! You can VOTE HERE until 10pm tonight (scroll down to "best topical blog").
We've been nominated yet again for a 2007 Bloggie award for Best Topical Weblog. For this we can only thank our readers, who must have written in in numbers big enough to put us on the ballot. More
Check out the new issue of House Beautiful (Feb.), if you get a chance. We got a great highlight on page 74, in which we outline the Apartment Therapy mantra of less is more. Why? Because new editor-in-chief, Stephen Drucker (who built Martha Stewart Living from 1996-2001), is shaking up House Beautiful, the oldest still-published magazine and original shelter title. What a better way to do it than to headline us with the words, "Toss it!" and start digging into what we're all doing online.
Clearly Cool
Find A Special Spot For See-Through Furniture To Shimmer by By VALERIE FINHOLM:
An acrylic see-through table draped in a transparent "tablecloth" seems to float through the air. A huge clear glass tub and a glass sink turn a bathroom into a showroom. A clear Lucite coffee table in a regal apartment shows that the owner is confident enough to poke fun at tradition.
Trendsetters are replacing some of the wood pieces they collected in the 1990s with clear furniture made of plastic or glass, experts say.
"People who decorate with clear furniture do it to make a strong style statement," says Maxwell Gillingham Ryan, a New York interior designer behind the website apartmenttherapy.com.
"It wouldn't have been cool five years ago, when people were more into solid furniture and even, dare I say it, natural furniture," he says. "Now people are into the manmade ... unnatural. More space-age modern."
"It's very, very hip," Gillingham Ryan says. "There's something sort of sexy about it ... revealing."
Jocelyn Hutt, editor of www.homeportfolio.com, a website of premium home-design products, finds a gracefulness in many clear pieces, especially those made of glass.
Hutt says she has seen stunning chandeliers made of clear glass, and another favorite is a mirror framed in clear-cut crystal made by the French master glassware company started by René Lalique.
"It brings an incredible feeling of elegance without being overwhelming, because it's clear," she says.
Brian Ogan, co-owner of www.TheMagazine.info, a website that features clear furniture in its collection of modern furnishings and accessories, says transparent furniture works well in small and large homes alike.
He says that, initially, people who ordered transparent furniture lived in small houses or apartments where clear furniture gave the impression of more space. That has changed as people in larger homes buy transparent furniture so they can "show off or highlight" a particularly grand sofa or a beautiful space in their home.
Gillingham Ryan says his clients are attracted to the look because clear materials "don't really have their own ego."
"They sort of pick up whatever else is in the room, absorb whatever else is around to create an airy quality," he says.
Handmade pieces of clear glass furniture can be costly - the Lalique crystal cactus table, for instance, is priced at $86,000. The Ghost chair, an accent chair made by Fiam Italia out of a single piece of glass, costs $5,240.
But many pieces made of clear plastic are more affordable. For instance, the Illusion side table by Essey, handmade in Denmark of clear acrylic, costs $235 at www.TheMagazine.info. And Gillingham Ryan - who says that most of his clients seeking clear furniture are interested in coffee tables - purchases them at CB2, where the Peekaboo Clear coffee table costs $229.
Meanwhile, the Lalique cactus table and several other designs in the high-end line are on display - and for sale - through Jan. 1 at Lux Bond & Green in West Hartford Center.
The cactus table, a thick round glass-top table supported by eight crystal "cactus" branches, "would be elegant in a dining room or in an entrance hall," says assistant manager Laurie Durant.
The store also is showing less-expensive Lalique items, such as table vases and figurines. A clear glass wall shelf held up by a serpentine piece of glass, for example, is priced at $3,000.
Hutt cautions that a little bit of clear furniture goes a long way in home décor.
"It would be a very cold look if you overdid it," she says.
Instead, she suggests finding "one sweet spot" to place a piece of transparent furniture.
Contact Valerie Finholm at vfinholm@courant.com.
Big pictures, little spaces. It's all about small spaces and organization this week. Upfront and center-stage, the Gillingham-Ryans!
Whoa! According to a piece in the latest issue of New York Magazine Maxwell isn't a fan of Murphy beds! This special fall design issue also includes, New York apartments (past and present) and how the current owners have intrepreted their historic spaces.
Also potentially interesting to ATers... More
If you picked up AM New York while trooping down to the subway, you may have noticed that we got a few great quotes in "Get more space without moving" (perfect, don't you think?). Also interviewed is Laurie Ward of Use What You Have Interiors. Our favorite quote? "Mirrors allow your eye to move more deeply around a room." So groovy ;-). Big copy below. More
Did you see Real Simple this month? Even if you don't get it, we urge you to pick it up at the newstand and check out Sizing up a Small Place on page 162 (or online, but the pics aren't as good) in which we are featured. This is the stuff we like. When real people get a chance to refocus and revamp their own homes (especially with the help of a big magazine).
Disclaimer: although we visited and interviewed Wendy Kuncken and submitted many ideas to the article, we did not do the makeover. Chip Cordelli, a stylist at Real Simple, put the ideas into action and did an amazing job.
Book Review: "Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure" by Jennifer Lai:
Home may be where the heart rests, but what about the homes where there is no heart? What if your home is cluttered, sterile and empty or doesn’t address your needs? Apartment Therapy, written by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan in straightforward, passionate prose, will show you how to add or restore heart to your home through decorating, furnishing, and cleaning. Though “apartment” is in the title, this book could be applied to any type of home, owned or rented, mansion or loft.
Gillingham-Ryan, a trained interior designer and elementary school teacher, believes that to make a home, the space must be both beautiful and personal to the inhabitant. In the introduction, he states, “it was clear to me that beauty had much more to do with how a room supported its occupants than with how it defined a look. Bringing the two halves together was the key.” Behind this statement is his philosophy that once you develop a connection with your home, other areas in your life—love, career, family, self-fulfillment—will fall into place.
The 8-week Programs
The book is made up of two parts. The first outlines how homes can create stress in your life, and the second describes two eight-week programs that make over either your entire home or a single room--all with the purpose of eliminating aspects that are a hindrance to your lifestyle. The programs walk you through cleaning, decluttering, developing a decorating sense, planning the makeover, and implementing the changes. Meanwhile, each week, the book suggests some new lifestyle changes, such as cooking dinner once a week and bringing in fresh flowers. All of this is to teach you how to make the most of your space and become aware of how a home affects your life.
Unique Decorating Philosophy
Unlike most decorating books that focus on making rooms look pretty, this book explains how to evaluate the use of an apartment, make a budget, and then develop a design sense. Instead of showing photographs of neat decorating tricks that may not work in your home, this book gives you a crash course in interior design, so that you can make small adjustments to your apartment that will make the space visually attractive and more functional.
BY BARRETT NEWKIRK
Medill News Service
CHICAGO | Chicagoans now have the same localized resource for cheap, hip home decorating ideas that residents of New York City and Los Angeles have had for years.
Apartment Therapy Chicago, a blog of home interior ideas and tips, was launched in April. It's the third member of a family of Web sites revolving around the philosophy that a flat that's under the weather puts its occupant in the same mood.
The site, //chicago.apartmenttherapy.com, probably won't elevate the entire city's spirits, but it could reveal some of Chicago's best kept design secrets.
"In New York it seems like shops and products and design-type things are everywhere," said Heather Blaha, one of the site's editors. "If you're out walking around Chicago you have to look for them a little bit more."
Blaha, 29, said she's been encouraged to take inspiration from her own living space and that the search for good content is continuous.
"I talk to a lot of friends. I look at a lot of magazines. I wander around the city a lot," she said.
Other recent posts have included a list of recommended IKEA bathroom accessories priced under $10 and a list of furniture Blaha found for sale on Craig's List.
She said the site will focus on furnishings and retail stores and eventually branch out into services and artists as the blog's following builds.
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, cofounder of Apartment Therapy, launched the New York blog in 2004, followed by Los Angeles last year. A trained interior designer, he continues to work with clients in tandem to managing the collection of blogs. He still edits the New York site.
"Everything I do for clients goes into the blog and vice verse," he said. He called blogging "a glorified side job," which he does with the help of his wife, brother, and a small support staff.
"Our goal was that we wouldn't get rich, but that (the blog) would pay for itself and pay us for what we do," Gillingham-Ryan said.
Contest seeks the smallest coolest apartment
Erica Orden
Columbia News Service
Apr. 24, 2006 12:00 AM
Ana Creates a Community at Home
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
