apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Daddy, you so crazy.

Thanks, everybody! The end is nigh.

I love the white cut out! Very, very nice.

The building is covered with vines, and even some growing through the windows. So that was my inspiration. Honestly I've been shocked by all the positive feedback. I'm glad you like it, too. :)

...and if I remember correctly you're moving from this place!? I think I saw it listed on CraigsList and for a moment was praying that my landlords would kick me out...

I particularly love the shifting of focus away from the non-existant windows to other visually exciting areas.

Bravo, really.

I love this entry! The illustration you have painted ties everything together so nicely and adds a feminine touch to a lot of masculine shape and material (leather?) pieces. I really like the turquoise sheers next to the chocolate walls, it is a nice way to separate your bedroom space without making it feel closed off.
Looking more closely, it appears that the area painted behind the television isn't the wall but something that is attached to the wall. Is this a gigantic canvas? I'm always interested in solutions like this since some rentals restrict what you can do with paint.
You mentioned that you only have 5 windows, but the bursts of white and pops of color and your lovely illustration are so interesting you don't even notice that there isn't a lot of light!

I just took a look at your website and seeing your place I now believe that your home was in fact designed with the path tool. ;)

The pen tool would have made it a lot easier, I'm sure. :D

I do so hope this is a finalist, even though the second shot shows 90% of the apt., I want close-ups of the details! The touches of green in the living-room area are certainly unexpected, but it works! This color combo is fantastic....I might just have to steal the crap out of it, I mean, flatter by imitating, it!

Instafinalist!

The funny thing is, I think you make an effective use of WHITE!

I love you Brooke! You're my favorite sista! Your apartment is awesome as usual and definitely is a great representation of your artistic perso-Natalie! HAHA! I love you!

Leave me alone, biatch.

absolutely gorgeous! i, too, want to see detail photos!

I better hurry up & take more pictures then. Yes, I'm moving out at the end of the month. Can't wait to go crazy on my new place!

OH MY GOD!!! I LOVE THIS! The colours you used are soooooooo nice together and work so well. The contrast with the wine wall and the white design is amazing. I second that the turquoise curtains looks great with the chocolate walls. Two thumbs way up for me. The orange and the turquoise and the chocolate are such great colours to use all together. I would love to see a before/after pic. It must be a stunning difference. Absolutely beautiful.

Insta Finalist indeed. Good luck hun!

You rock! I love you! I sent this to people at my job as well (ones I trust of course) to vote for you. Good luck!

This part of the voting doesn't really count, wench. But thanks for the support.

yes, insta-finalist. this is really great.

This is absolutely beautiful! One of my favorite entries. I love the strong color and your perfect sense of balance. I love house plants but am always annoyed when people have them all over the place with mismatched pots - too cluttery. I love the uniform way you lined them up in the red pots. I also really love the little sleeping area you designed. Really beautiful. I would love to live there. Great work.

hi brooke, i love the white illustration on your walls--can you tell us how you did it? was it all freehand?
thanks!

Great use of Ikea furniture, too. Proof positive a well-designed space doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

haha i was totally thinking of you for this contest Brooke.....too bad i still havent come to see this place! i need to!

oh and you shoulda put the lil dog in some of the shots too :)

V

It's wonderful. I want to see the kitchen. Hope you make the finals. I want to see more pics.
Thanks,

One of the best! Beautiful!

Your Mommy has some good ideas, doesn't she? ;)

fabulous use of color and lighting to resurrect a clunky room. that maroonish/brown color is really lively, great with the brick, and is related to the purplish brown so often used by museums as the background to fine (COLORFUL) art, especially flesh tones, which shine against it. sexy. and the turquoise chiffon lingerie curtains -- very loretta young.
the plain white curved big graphic is perfect and opens a window to the outdoors, and to biomorphic shapes in a boxy space, which otherwise in a dark wall might be oppressive. smart.
excellent. i think you win.

Brave and original. Showing the world that seemingly outrageous color combinations work!

Love it!! One of my favorites definitely! I love the big brown canvas(?) with the white design on it, that's such a great focal point. All the accent colors look great, but what really brings the space to life are those blue-green curtains by your bedroom. They're such a beautiful color and they're so different from everything else in the apartment that they're a perfect complement. They look especially beautiful against that brown wall. You have a great place!

Wow :)

Not my style but you definitely used color boldly and well. Lovely sense of imagination!

Hey, Brooke? I've been looking for turquoise sheers for what seems like half my life. Any word on where you scored yours?

Two questions to answer:

1. The vine paintings were done freehand on a piece of drywall attached to the actual brick. (It is not a canvas.) The small wall by my bed is also a drywall partition.

2. The turquose sheers are from IKEA. They have a great selection for just about everything. There is nothing too terribly expensive in my apartment, sans the TV & my computer stuff. Even the little brown leather couches were bought from Overstock for quite the bargain. I know my apartment is not your typical "cool" & "trendy" living space, but I think I've done alright with what I have.

Voila. And thanks for all the compliments, y'all.

Hey I'm vectorgirl on all my fave message boards- it's like your my long-lost vector soulmate! :p

LOVE IT - it took me a while to notice the wall to the right and the ceiling are white. On first glance the whole thing looks like a box of color. The sheer curtains are unexpected and so friggin' fresh against that red and that brick-ish color.

Damn, this contest is finally getting interesting.

absofrickinlutely gorgeous!
I love the white cutout around the mirror, and the wall...
and the color around the white cutout...
how did you do it and may I use it in my living room? I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with my living room since my other art idea has been killed.

the white vine graphic on the dark colored wall is exquisite and bold. very nice.

This ROCKS. You are using bold colors in a unique way. AND the bold is so CLASSY! I LOVE IT! The white is carried from the furniture on to the walls! Stunning!

*salivates*

my vote for the winner so far, for sure.

awesome. This apartment, along with the warmth of these posts make a pretty convincing argument for moving to Chicago (minus the whole lake effect snows all winter thing...). Definitely an insta-finalist for me.

Nicely done, Brooke, I like the cohesive quality and despite not having many windows (I used to live in a place like that... now I have gobs of windows) you've really made it feel nice.

I, of course, like the letters on top of the wall by the bed ;)

This is just beautiful. Clean-lined, yet warm. VERY nicely done. VERY high on my list.

Love the turqoise and the bed area and everything.

Brooke, will you please tell me where you got the fabulous orange-y armless chairs? I am looking for something exactly like those.

Thanks!

I don't see how this can be ANYTHING but an Insta-Finalist.

I love the blue accents- they really work here.

This is smashing. Absolutly Insta-finalist. It looks like a party, even without people in the room. Conrats!

Absolutely gorgeous. I wish that room were mine.

This is my favorite room on here (I like it even better than my room that I entered!). It shows color, design, theme, it's lovely, and looks comfortable. Congrats on a truly fab room!
Insta-finalist indeed and if this doesn't place somewhere in the top 4 by the end I will be shocked.

Other contestants take note: this is what you call insta-finalist.

you too can live in an Urban Outfitters

Wow. Now THIS is impressive. Definitely an insta-finalist.

Seriously Brooke, excellent work. This is the most elegant and cohesive entry. It has a strong central color statement and theme and a beautifully balanced combination of textures, understated elegance with a touch of frivolity. :)

This place is a basement? It is absolutely beautiful! I think you have broken out of the trendy trendy color scheme and found a style that is truely original. Here is the best praise I can muster-I wish I lived here!

Now THIS is a winning entry. Truly brilliant. My favorite entry of the entire contest. Gorgeous and inspired!

Yes, your loft space is pimp!

I love this. It's like living in a boutique. Sexy room! Insta!

I am normally a super neutrals, monochromatic type, not boring, just simple. But this design blew me away. I could actually see me there with out flipping out. It is dramatic but soothing. And of course I love the white accent.

To "anon": I don't see ANYTHING that came from Urban Outfitters. This design is the MOST original of ALL the contestants.

YEAH. Dammit.

(Thanks, Myra! :D)

And PS. -- Thanks so much for all the niceness everybody! I really can't believe all the positive feedback. You guys are the bomb.

Hi Brookie! What I like most about the whole shibang is your originality! To me that's what separates a true artist from those who wish they were! It comes naturally to you Brooke, that's why you're so good! Keep up the amazing work!

Wow, that's absolutely cozy and comfy!

It's really thoughtful of you to provide a nicely decorated sociable area where your clients can sit and have a chat while they wait their turn to pummel your snapper, though I'm not sure about the color choice for the bed covers as they are likely to show stains quite easily. Maybe you are more of a specialist in the brown arena, and I imagine that the staining process of your sheets adds a certain interactivity your clients no doubt enjoy, and would certainly be in sync with the white patterning on the walls, an excellent and creative solution to a 'sticky' problem.

I've always loved brown and turquoise. I think you've chosen just the right hues of each. It's really nice to get that long deep view in the photograph so you can see how the entire room is laid out. It makes those vines (for lack of a better word) really stick out. The room looks very expensive, eventhough you say it's not. Are those slides on the pole by the desk?

Anyway, this is very nice. Should be a finalist for sure.

Love it!

This reallyis freakin' beautiful. Just popping back in to say that I hope you win. :)

This really is creative and sexy -- but most of all it feels very personal. Bravo - you really know what you're doing here, and not just picking up a catalogue and copying a room from start to finish. Great job!

Insta-winner! Contest over!

hmm....am i the only one who feels clunked over the head with "color"? too many elements fighting each other, my eye is taxed going from one intensity to the next.
for example the top shot -for me- would work if the outside wall were a toned down variation, instead of "Pigment!" -it fights the star feature of the mini-boudior.
the black tv bureau in the living room space cuts into the scroll mural. a visual ouch! the bureau also fights the white table n pillows- i think a choice could have been made there for one or the other- i think the white would have worked out, but nothing heavy should block the mural feature- (how do you watch a tv with artwork directly in the field of vision?). or some use of neutrals, or softer variations of the colors would work as accents (tables/pillows) as well.

Well, I guess "visual ouchies" are just a matter of personal opinion. The room was already quite neutral moving in. It needed some love & definitely some life. Although it may look cluttered in the picture, the space is actually quite large & spread out, not to mention the high ceilings make it look even larger. Never ever had issues with watching tv with the mural behind it either. Also, I had no intention of making my living space soft & drab like most designer'y-type homes. It needed to refect my own personal lifestyle more than anything. More contrast, less neutrality.

I actually expected more comments like yours, Sofia, when I posted the link to some people I knew, which is why I never told anyone to automatically vote "insta" anything. I knew not everyone would like it. I respect that you have your own opinion of the space.

This should be an insta-finalist. Her color tip #2 is dead on. There are many entries that used only one or two colors, without any complementary colors (decor pieces for example) in the space to tie it all together. Some use too many colors and it clashes. Brooke mixed together bold, saturated colors and it looks both vibrant and serene. I really love it.

Bonus points by taking a problem many NYers have: basement apartments, few windows with little or no light and making it spectacular with color.

Great job! You have incrediable talent. You gave a small room dimension and character. A place to escape to, and come home.

It's different and flows nicely because of the color and pattern on the wall. Nice!

I love your story about how you started off working with the "natural" colors in the room and then started adding the spectrum to it. This looks like a really fun space to live in, not to mention that the main wall design is beautiful!!

I know this contest is over but can I just say that I think I found my design soulmate! I love it.

Please share the new place as well!