I have a project I recently completed that might be of interest to fellow Apartment Therapy readers: I decorated an entire apartment using only retail stores and their catalogs (Room and Board, Crate and Barrel, Wisteria, Z Gallerie, DWR, etc) with the intent of creating a fresh, eclectic look that would be an inspiration to the do-it-yourselfer. It's about using catalog products but mixing them in a way that won't make an apartment look like it's from one store, generic, or mail-ordered.
Tell us what you think about Matthew's Los Angeles interior, as we think he's done a fine job of mixing and matching from multiple shops and online sources without giving a recognizable specific brand style. Perhaps we should hold a contest of whom can name as many of the products and retailers showcased in all the rooms. Amusingly enough, one of the chairs used is the same as we listed for today's Scavenger post.
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Very interesting food for thought. What is that lamp over the small dining room table?
Nicely done. Is that Marimekko fabric hanging over the couch?
pretty sure that white low roundish chair was on AT-LA's Roundup earlier in orange.
in other news, i covet that coffee table. where's it from? WANT. O.o
I'm going with Ikea for the cowhide.
Clever. I do think it's the trend of the future to buy EVERYTHING from catalogs online. Who needs retail stores?
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com
While everything in this space is certainly great...one must consider cost. How much are these various pieces?
I'm not sure I get the point of this. Considering that 95% of the population shops for their homes through these same reatail stores and catalogs, I guess it's the mix that's noteworthy.
If you're comparing these rooms to client's homes where you've acquired everything from the Design Center and antique stores, you need to get out more. We get it, but that's such a small percentage of the population, who can still hire a decorator, that the point here seems lost (at least on me!)
The rooms are very nice, though.
A room with nothing OLD in it has no soul, IMO.
If you want "real world solutions" that are "easily attainable" (phrases from the post) you'll steer clear of most retail sources in preference for second-hand shops, thrift stores, yardsales, curbside finds, etc.
"Mixing and matching from mulitple shops" is a poor imitation of true mixing and matching. These shots ALL look mail-ordered and generic... anyone (or no one) could live here.
Hoorah, mirandabee! I couldn't agree more. Can't imagine living with all new stuff - chemically treated, made under god-knows-what conditions, and without any history. I treasure my houseful of used, thrifted, and inherited stuff - and am always happy to pass it along to another grateful person for yet another incarnation.
Would love to know the sources for the bed and art over the couch.
I think it looks great and is a very useful source of inspiration. We see a lot of houses featured on apartment therapy that have so many great vintage finds that people have spent years collecting. I find those really inspiring and I have made a point to swing by thrift stores when I get a chance and look, but not everyone is as lucky when it comes to finding good pieces at affordable prices there!
Things like personal photos, favorite books, a few house plants, a few personal items from you or your families past would make it into this house if it was for a real person, and little items like that can do a lot to warm it up and add a lot of soul.
djfoakland - I agree, why is this even a post? If you don't get your furniture from retail & catalogs, where the heck are you supposed to get it from??
I think this is good info for a lot of us. It looks like a lot of people on this site have the good fortune to inherit treasures passed on, have an eye & patience for shopping antiques.
For the rest of us, information like this helps us slowly build up on what we have, and pass it on to our children so they can claim that new furniture has no soul!
In general, I like - particularly because of the mix of traditional w/ modern and obviously new pieces with pieces that appear to be older.
However, there are some off-notes here - such as the white plastic egg-chair thing: The scale is all wrong for the room...
...and the end tables - far too low for the arms of that sofa...
...and the lamps on either side of the bed appear lopsided and unrelated - either place matching lamps with the one on the shorter table placed on a stack of books or decorative box to even the height - or place a taller lamp on the shorter table and a shorter lamp on the higher desk to even out the tops, and use matching shades to bridge the styles of the differing bases.
i don't get this post. at all.
i do like the coffee table though, where is it from?
I don't get this post and the rooms look like model home rooms for mac mansions to me or staged, so flat and boring.
I just looked at the bedroom, I see what bepsf is talking about so whats up with the cockeyed lamps and tables, strange.
Found the art over the sofa at Z Gallerie, it's about $500
Personally, I'd find it more helpful if homes without white woodwork were featured.
I also love the coffee table and would like to know where that is from. I dont really get the post either though, dont most people get their furniture this way these days?
I love this space. In fact, I love all of Matthew's work. For people like me, those that aren't the best at taking their time and are in a rush to get rooms finished, it's nice to see rooms furnished and designed by using retail stores and catalogues. In a way, it makes me feel like great design is very accessible.