apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Words cannot describe how tired we get of washing dishes. Our sink is small, and our landlord will not install a dishwasher. Even though there are bigger fish to fry in the world, when it comes to party time — we break out the disposable party plates.

Serving Dishes are a dime a dozen now a days — every store thinks they have the next big thing. It's rare that you find a serving dish that really stands out from the rest … in a good way.

It seems as though there's always something or some area in our home that we want to transform. During this particular time of year — it's usually the dining area that gets the face lift.

We're always so thrilled when we can share great Philadelphia homes with a larger audience. Philadelphia has its fair share of great Interior Designers and Mona Ross Berman is certainly near the top of the list. She's pioneering to bring Philadelphia out of the shadows and into the spot light.

Name: Elizabeth & Kevin
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Graduate Hospital neighborhood
Size: 1,600 square feet, 3 BR
Years lived in: 1+ years

Philadelphia is an area that is becoming more and more known for its young, hip and eclectic design scene. Elizabeth & Kevin's Eclectic & Very Narrow Rowhome is a shining example of the fun and youthful direction that traditional row homes are heading!

We've talked about inspirational Entertaining Serving Pieces for really informal dinner parties; where seating doesn't seem too relevant. However, seating is a whole different story when it comes to formal dinner parties and that's where place cards come in.

November is the start of the party season and that makes us both excited and a tad bit nervous. We love throwing dinner parties (and attending them too!) so this year we wanted to make sure our parties were ones to remember.

As a resident of Pennsylvania, the news of this Northampton home receiving top honors for design is so exciting! It's refreshing to know that just an hour outside of the city (a place typically known for coal and concrete) there's a home that looks like it has been transported from the city of Philadelphia.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again — Philadelphia is a great walking city. With walking comes sitting and Philadelphia is certainly prepared for that. Due to the popularity of benches in the city, a bench invention sprung up and designers jumped at the opportunity to use a new material in a new way.

Pieter de Leeuw is a new designer and fresh out of college. He's created a shelf made out of wooden letters and arranged them in his own unique way. The letters also function as seating when they aren't holding your books for you.

Maybe it's because the cold weather has swooped in so suddenly and unexpectedly; we're craving change in our home to prepare to hunker down. These dramatic dark decor ideas are sitting nicely with us right now.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to change the look and feel of a room to is to change the art. We tend to like a little humor in our home (can't take ourselves too seriously!) and text art seems to be a great way to accomplish that.

There are so many ways to bring color into each room of your home. You never really know where you can find that next amazing purchase, and you certainly don't know what kind of prices to expect.

We're all looking for ways to get more organized, whether it's at home or in the office. A great way to help stay organized is by utilizing color. The task of organizing by color isn't as daunting or OCD as we may first think.