apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Last night I was out with one of my Apartment Therapy colleagues and suddenly the mood got quiet and serious. She turned to me and said, I need help solving a problem:

"I'm thinking about buying these end tables but they're a fortune. But I've been thinking about them for six months now and they've just dropped the price on them. They're still expensive but...should I do it?"

I hate throwing clothes out. Oh, I've tried. I've gone through those "I am banishing all colour from my wardrobe and only wearing black" moments and, not two days after handing over all my rainbow coloured togs to Goodwill, felt a burning desire to nurture my inner five year old's Crayola-derived fashion sense. I got that feeling again on Friday, only this time it was in regards to my house.

Having mentioned that I'm going to be an orphan at Thanksgiving this year, I've suddenly received a boatload of invitations. It's one of the reasons I love this holiday so much; there's always room in your heart for one more stray. Of course then you realize that your Thanksgiving for six has morphed into a dinner for twelve and your table only fits eight and your turkey only feeds ten. Dinner can be stretched with a few extra sides but how are you going to stretch your table and your home?

Those of us who blog for Apartment Therapy often find ourselves on the receiving end of the question "How do you come up with stuff to write about every day?" Our inspiration comes from our readers, our homes or something we've experienced. Usually it's in response to a problem that has to be solved or an obstacle that has to be overcome. The articles that caught our attention in this week's Los Angeles Times Home & Garden section look at various kinds of inspiration: a Brentwood restaurant's design, a landscape designer's home garden, a family that lives in 380 square feet and a concrete patio.

• Cure Clock: 3 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Week 5: Getting Into the thick of it
• Members: 1,735!

Thanksgiving is in a week and a half. My decision to stay in LA instead of heading to the site of this year's festivities has been the subject of many phone calls back and forth since Thanksgiving is a major deal in my family. When I mentioned that I might be spending it alone: taking a morning hike in the mountains then having dinner at a restaurant and seeing a movie or two, there was a long silence before my mother responded, "You're spending it alone? Where are all your friends?"

The other day we were at a diner with a half-dozen friends and the busboy came to clear our table-full of plates. Our attention wandered away from the conversation as we focused on the way he stacked all the dishes, saucers and cups on his arms; the table was cleared in one trip. That is a skill we definitely do not possess and, now with entertaining season kickin it up, the Link Mugs by Jonathan Aspinall would definitely come in handy in our less-than-graceful hands.

Uh Oh! Where has the year gone? We looked in our mailbox today to find the first of our holiday invites. Already? Then we checked the calendar and realized it's only two and a half weeks until Thanksgiving and the start of the crazy chaotic holiday season. We're trying to put some last minute touches on our home. We're tidying up our garden, we're decluttering, we're decorating and we're busting out Mom and Dad's old-school vinyl collection as the soundtrack to our chores. When we're finished at home, we'll scope out the sales around town and online. Turn to this week's Los Angeles Times Home & Garden section to help you out...

The other day Beth suggested some ways to loosen up the dining room. Funny, we're not even sure that in our increasingly informal lives there's even much of a need for this room anymore but then the holiday season rolls around and we all find ourselves scrambling to transform it from its use as a catchall for mail back to its original purpose. Here are some other ideas, courtesy of Metropolitan Home, of how to work this room to its best advantage...

Last week Beth asked whether you look in other people's medicine cabinets when you're at a party. We're among the "yes" contingency. Knowing where we stand, we clean out this space before the festivities begin (we're thinking of appropriating the marbles idea). But we also have some other odd habits, as a friend reminded us this weekend. Once, before a very large party we threw at our house to which a very famous singer had RSVP'd, we found ourselves on our hands and knees cleaning...

Scary! Frightening! Haunted! While our job at Apartment Therapy is to make sure that those words don't apply to your home, tonight's the one night that all bets are off. This week's Los Angeles Times Home & Garden section spotlights a home where those are exactly the words the owners want to hear. Maybe you'd rather dress up your house than get dressed up in a costume? Get out of your comfort zone and try on something for your home that's a little out of the ordinary: a few new ideas in the garden; colourful George Nelson Bubble Lamps; or, flamboyantly bold Lilly Pulitzer sheets. Links to these stories and more, after the jump...

This landing strip might be more elaborate than what you were considering, but she who has rabbits has been inspired by Morgan's shelving.

• Cure Clock: 4.5 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Week 3: The Landing Strip
• Members: 1717!

When I joined Apartment Therapy my brother became a reader. "They're always talking about a landing strip. What the hell is a landing strip and do I need one?" I thought about the piles of mail that littered his dining room table, the sweatshirts, back packs and odd toys his children left hanging around, that there was never any place to put my handbag when I walked in so I ended up toting it around his house til I found someplace that felt right. "Well," I said, trying to be diplomatic, "not having so much stuff lying around might make your house seem calmer when you walk in after a long hectic day, what do you think?"