apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Love the tile backsplash

Beautiful! I like your purple wall with the paintings and pictures most!

cool cupboards

i looove your metal & glass kitchen cabinets. where are they from?

I love that you seemed to mix expensive with eclectic. Like in the bathroom you have these very chic, expensive, modern basin sings but then you mix it with these eclectic interesting knick knacks on the counter.

The whole apartment is great. I love how well you kept the line going at the top and sides of your picture cluster.

What a lovely house. I´m totally in love with the Passion Plum!

I love your wall of frames and the purple wall with gallery style arrangements

love the purple wall

i love what you did w/ the frames.

i also am a bit jealous of the bones of this place.

I LOVE that back splash.

I think you both did a fantastic job. Definately shows an eclectic flare mixing the very modern and the vintage. I enjoy the frames very much. I definately have an affinity for the color purple so of course that wall is my fav. I can definately see myself getting ready in that bathroom every morning.

Love the colors, especially the kitchen. Great job

WOW! Your place looks amazing! It's so much color in such a small space but you did a great job keeping it in check. It's not Romper Room at all but very sophisticated and a perfect blend of the two of you! I love it and am so excited to see what's next!

i'm amazed at how such COOL colors on the walls create such a WARM environment. bravo! its beautiful.

I LOVE this house! It's so beautiful and chic! Very cool color palette. I am impressed!

Wow. I'm so inspired to go paint my house!
What wonderful colors.

The cabinets actually came out of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. They were a terrible institutional beige color so I ground all of the paint off of them to expose the raw metal and clear coated them. A lot of work but totally worth it!

I love the kitchen and the picture frame wall the most. Overall, beautiful space. Great job!

I love the colors. It's all so upbeat and hip looking. You have a great mix of modern and vintage. Very eclectic! Would love to see more of it!

love the colors -- i'm so impressed by purple walls. and i adore the symmetry of the kitchen. would really like to see more photos of the place!

This space looks amazing. I wish it were my house. I would love to see more shots of this place. It looks like it gets amazing light.

The book case seperated into little squares is my favorite part. The contrast of the brightly colored books and trinkets against the white frame is stunning-- plus it makes a lot of sense organizationally.

WOW!! Love the purple gallery wall!! Y'all have done some pretty amazing things . . . Architectural Digest will be calling you before you know it!! AMAZING!!

It looks like an ultra-modern dollhouse with an eclectic minimalism. Too cute. And I LOVE Passion Purple.

The house looks amazing!! I love the plummy purple and all the funky pictures. I am forever jealous of your wall space!

cool dudes the colors are awesome!!

your kitchen blows my mind.

the kitchen is the best...and all the posters and retro chotskys!

VERY IMPRESSIVE!!! It is clear that you have created an atmosphere of warmth with class and style. From the kitchen and all throughout; your home speaks "DESIGN with FLAVOR". I would love to see more.

Great bathroom! I also love your kitchen colors. So modern and beautiful all around.

This house is amazing. Really great colors!

Amazing!!

Awesome decorating style! Would love to see more!

i adore the kitchen! it's my fave!

I can't believe our houses are two blocks apart. Yours is so lovely!

the only thing that could make this place any cuter would be my dogs, Chops and Scraps

I love all your colors!!! NEAT kitchen...can I come cook in it? I see LOTS of cactus on those shelves! Good luck Rach & Damien!

I'm digging the colors in all of the rooms! The kitchen is my favorite though! I'd never eat out again...This kitchen would make a cheese melt taste delicious!!! Great job! Good luck! You win hands down based on that cheese melt...

WOW! Color doesn't intimidate you two. Bold and vivacious, yet classic and tasteful.

Can I live in your bathroom?

Purdy! Good luck! Winnie

Yeah!

Love the bathroom, love the frame wall, love the bold colors, especially love the kitchen! love it, love it, love it all! Makes me feel like you must be a fun couple!

I love your apartment! Good luck Damien and Rachel!

Fantastic use of color... vibrant and welcoming!

What a fantastic house! I love all the bold colors with the eclectic wall decor... by far my favorite house. Good luck!!

Of course I love the use of color, but thank goodness you've got STUFF. There is nothing sterile or cold about your fabulous home!

Rachel, your home reflects your personality so well. I love it!

Is this that crazy house you built Damien? It is FANTASTIC!
xo kim

The empty picture frames are a great idea. They accentuate how big that wall is without being gaudy.

I love the frames in lime and white mounted on the dark wall.
The Kitchen is stunning. Good Job Guys!!

Also the framed prints on the violet wall look great, is not an easy job to put this pictures together, choose a nice wall color and make it work! Yours looks amazing, even though violet is not the color of my choice, it really works with you place, congratulations again for a job well done!

I was following all last night - and was so happy to see that you are still in. I think your home is the best OF ALL featured. Good Luck

The glass doors on the kitchen cabinets allow you to accent things very well, not to mention show off your organization skills. Was any of the patterns or designs from better built by Barnes? Looks kinda familiar.

WAY TO GO - I am glad others, besides myself, see that your house is SPECTACULAR!!!

YEAH!!! I am excited you guys are still in this? Damien your true handy skills are shining through!!! I still want the bathroom to get ready in every morning....mail it to me? Feel free to mail the purple wall as well, providing it fits of course.

what a home!

This is by far the best I have seen!!!!!!!! Just love it!!!

You guys rule! Thanks soo much for all of your support! We are hanging in there and I want all of you to know that we really appreciate your comments and votes!

i must say, it simply amazes me that you keep getting through to subsequent rounds of the competition. your submission pales in comparison to others you have supposedly beaten. this contest is obviously about popularity, not design.

It looks as if you are going all the way. It is clear you deserve to be on top. Congratulations

To ikeaboy - I agree with the first part of your comment: that it is amazing how Damien and Rachel's entry keeps "beating" superior designs; but I disagree with the second part of your comment, your analysis. They're not "winning" because it's a popularity contest; they're "winning" because they are exploiting the flaws in the voting system. Because the folks at apartmenttherapy.com are not limiting votes to one per ip address, anyone can create multiple email addresses and login in under multiple identities and cast an unlimited number of votes for any entry. A time and date stamp on each entry would also reveal that Damien and Rachel's entry came from way behind to beat out the entry that had received more votes than ANY other entry in the contest by amassing enough votes to "win" in just 5 minutes in the final 15 minutes of voting in the middle of the night. I think it is a big mistake to let this kind of "voting" to take place right before the most important presidential election of our lifetimes - even if it is just a design contest. Let's hope the folks at apartment therapy will learn from this mistake and improve things for future contests. What they will have lost though is the trust of many people, our future patronage - and the chance to have launched the career of the most talented designer.

In the interest of fairness, I amend my previous comment to say that "someone" is exploiting the flaws in the voting system. I apologize for indicating that it is Damien and Rachel, themselves. I obviously have no way of knowing who is doing it.

ikeaboy & b4thyme -- I might take some stock of your insinuation that someone is "stuffing the ballot box," except for two things: 1. Apartment Therapy could not possibly make it MORE DIFFICULT to vote; and 2. Damien and Rachel have clearly made much better use of bold and contemporary colors in all rooms, not to mention they have STYLE WITH A PUNCH, compared to the competition!! I think it's pretty clear why they've gotten this far.

To anyone that may doubt our standing in the competition- When we made it through the second round we were stunned and in total disbelief. We went to bed that night assuming we'd lost the battle (we were down more than 30 votes)- even though we had tons of friends and family supporting us- and to wake up that morning to find that we'd won was amazing and totally shocking! Yesterday's competition was just as fierce, but we owe it all to the support of a huge number of family and friends and even friends of friends. If there is any accusation that we're staying up until the last minute voting, then these people clearly don't know us (we're certainly not night owls-3am is a little ridiculous). We appreciate all the help and support we've received from everyone through this competition, we're so proud of our newly decorated house and glad you are too. To anyone that thinks we're cheating somehow, I'm sorry you feel that way, and we wish we could do something to convince you otherwise. It's a shame to make this competition such a drama. Apartment Therapy has made an awesome opportunity for us to be apart of and has done a great job of making it fair. Thanks to all and good luck to the final houses!

Rach, good comeback to the sour puss' out there. It is a friendly competition of homes and no one should become that worked up over the voting process. Yes, you and Damien have amazing family and friends who support you on this continent and others. We have built a huge base of support over many years. As a person in the design industry I tend to agree with gypsymoms comments about the 'style with a punch' and the use of bold colors. It is very easy to 'copy' a design you have seen in a trade magazine. Taking bits and pieces and adding your own style is important so you can call the room your own.
To me, their comepetition today is fairly weak. I know exactly where the other people's ideas came from and I feel, never being inside either home, that Rachel and Damien have the stronger design. They have personalized every room based on their own taste.
I feel that to tell someone they are cheating rather than merely campaigning to their family and friends who may not have known that the entered the competition to begin with is more than fair. If someone is registering unknown e-mail addresses, which is not a safe assumption, that has nothing to do with Rachel and Damien's design.
Furthermore, isn't every competition a popularity contest unless it is judged by an actual panel of judges?

I wouldn't paint Rachel and Damien as anything other than honest but let's all be truthful - it is so easy to sway this vote. The # of people voting is low and you can make a new profile as many times as you'd like - it's very easy to do.

There are homes making it through that are so clearly subpar to others that aren't making it through that you have to wonder what is going on.

damien and rachel...see my note to you under my submission. thanks so much for the kind words you shared about my entry. Good luck.

Yo, yall's place is dope...how much does it cost to spend the night?

I look at all the other competitors pictures, but I keep coming back to your kitchen. It looks so awesome. Good luck and ignore all the negativity. You can tell alot of hard work was put into this.

Rach,

It looks great! What great style!

There's a lot I like with this entry and some that I don't. The first shot with the purple walls and the art work knocked me out, until I noticed the dark brown leather chair in the lower left hand corner. It looks like a stain against the purple. A slightly lighter shade of leather would have looked more neutral.

I loved the squared deep shelves, which looks to be built in. The use of accessories throughout the shelving is inspired. Question: are the shelves big enough to hold full size books? If they are not, the effect in real life would be to make a visitor wonder where the owners are keeping the real books.

The two oversized square sinks next to each other in the bathroom are over-the-top, and in this time of conservation and thrift, ostentatious. I have come to accept the two-sinks-in-the-bathroom phenomena, as I can see two people might want to brush their teeth and otherwise get ready at the same time, but is it really necessary to have two over-sized sinks side by side?

I'm not a fan of the color collision in the bathroom.

The layers of tchotkes over the two green cabinets are not particularly distinguished in any way. A ceramic fawn is a ceramic fawn.

I think you did a beautiful job of finding and reclaiming the metal storage shelves from an old hospital and creatively using them in the kitchen.

I've seen the empty frames on the wall done many times before. The first time I saw it, it was social commentary. The next few times I saw it, the effect was arresting. Now it's a wall full of clutter, even if the color combination is vibrant.

I'll stay out of the voting controversy, except to say a design contest is not of the same importance as a Presidential election. If anybody went overboard, it was due to an excess of enthusiasm.

One more comment -- the candle on the design book is a house fire waiting to happen. Please don't do this, people!

Bathroom - Peaceful and Zen-like.
Eventhough organized, I find the nic-nacs in the other rooms too overwhelming for me.
Kitchen - Definitely has a cohesive style. Eventhough it is not my style, I still like it.

Thanks.

Damien & Rachel -
Congrats on making the finals today! It's a joy to be in the company of a space with such style and class. Good Luck!

AustinSarah-

Thanks for the comments! Those are more along the lines of the kind of feedback we're looking for (as opposed to accusatory comments)

I'm glad you found things that you liked and more importantly didn't. Our home is newly decorated and the constructive criticism is very helpful!

As far as the Eames goes, we're hoping to recover it in a much more appealing color as soon as we have the money! Unfortunately we haven't found any leather at the flea market (which is where we've gotten most of our stuff!).

The shelves are definitely big enough to hold books, they even hold all of my W magazines, we just had more shelf than we did books so I had to split them up quite a bit!

The sinks were there before I moved in, but I must say, as much time as I spend in front of the mirror, it's been very helpful having an extra one for Damien! (yes, I'm a mirror hog) I totally agree with the color collision in the bathroom (if you're referring to the blue and grey) and we are considering painting it a deeper, slightly darker blue that we feel might compliment better.

The frame and tchotkes I guess are love'em or hate'em, luckily I love'em!

And thanks again for helpful feedback instead of voter-drama! That's why we put our house on display!!

-Rachel

Amazing Rach! The purple wall is my fave!

rachel...are the bookshelves ikea expedit? we have one we use for a toy/bookshelf, and i've been thinking about stacking another on top, but i'm worried about making it stable. did you anchor them to the walls?

love your colors, good luck!

thanks, norah

Hello, Rachel. I'm glad you didn't take offense at my comments.

After I wrote, I had two more ideas for the purple wall where you have the empty frames.

1. Replace the green frames with inexpensive black frames, find a collection of black and white photos you like. Double mat the photos so that you have a thin outline of matting -- in the shade of green you like -- around the black and white photos. Damien seems so handy that he could learn to mat and frame photos. I think the effect would be cool and elegant, and fresher than the empty frames.

2. Keep the bright green frames, but fill them in with maps of the places you like the most. You can use state maps, city maps, bus maps, and subway maps. There's probably maps of places like Disneyland and some of the great estates in the South. Ski slopes and the National Parks have maps. There are maps available for the oceans. Maps are colorful and cheap, and a lot of careful draftmenship has gone into them. The similarly framed maps would be thematically uniform, but hold a lot of interest for the observer.

Good luck!

HOLY COW! I loooooove the maps idea! I'm going to start searching the internet now! I've already thought of a few to use!

I have to ask, you've got such a keen design eye, are you a designer of some sort? You should be!

Thanks again for the helpful tips, I'm stoked to get to work!!

-Rach

norah28-

Yes Ma'am, Ikea it is! And yes, my very handy boyfriend anchored them to the walls and they are totally stable. I have loaded them with so much stuff, but they are fine against the wall. I covered up any of the visible metal anchors with the really tall books! Gotta love Ikea for shelving needs!

Good luck!
Rachel

sweet pad homes! perhaps a tour one day...

Hey Guys!

Thanks for the really great comment.

I think you're space is amazing!

This has been a really interesting competition especially because regardless it takes a lot to put up something so personal and have to save face as people post really hurtful things about you that don't even relate to the space...

Either way if there are enough people out there that want to "drop kick me off my bike" and I lose this round, you have my vote to the end.

Good luck!

-Jesse

It's very nice, and I'm getting ready to use Million Dollar Red in my daughter's bedroom so it's great to see it out in the world, but I keep getting the odd feeling that the bedroom is photoshopped...the way the edges of the plants and the lamps look against the windows...too flat...

Congratulations Rachel & Damien on making it to the final four! You have some real competition, but yours is the best! Patti

diyordie - you're right. I think the image of the plants, bed and lamps was superimposed in front of the red wall. The light is steaming in from the right and there isn't a shadow to be found from the objects in front of that wall. Or perhaps the red was brightened in the photo. If I'm wrong, sue me.

You guys are right, it looks superimposed, however, it is most definitely not! If we were going to superimpose anything, we would have stuck the picture that we've been meaning to hang up on the wall behind it! I guess it's just the lighting that makes it look that way! There are skylights that surround the bedroom so light comes in from every direction. Good for pictures, bad for sleeping in!

oh and ps. diyordie, Million Dollar Red is a color you will never get sick of, and always be happy you used!!

I am so impressed with your home. I am not a contemporary person. My home is like others that have entered into this contest, though lovely, yours is one of distinction. Yours is a step above the others. Good Luck

Damien & Rachel - so glad to see you made it to the finals. Contemporary has never been me, but as I view all of the entries, and they eadh have their own quality and something to like, they do not make a statement as yours does. Yours is so interesting and I continue to invision more and more ideas for your home. I could really get into addidng to the decor. Best of luck