apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i always get a twinge of dishonesty from before and after sets like this. the before photos are blatantly desaturated and uncomposed. that said, the design work is lovely :)

This apartment makeover strikes me as uninspired. Like it was something purchased straight out of a Pottery Barn/DWR catalogue. Generic.

I think they did a great job and it looks stunning!

The make-overs are very nice, but what strikes me is how the inhabitants apparently had no interests or personality of their own -- at least, none that the designer felt was appropriate for a "nice" setting.

The spaces look great, as do the firm's other spaces in their website portfolio. Perhaps I'm missing something, but in looking at all the projects, I felt as though they had fulfilled 90% of my desires and managed to leave out the 10% that would make the spaces truly inspiring enough to make me wish I lived there.

I think its nice, but I thought it was a DIY project...to see that a design firm/team did this is a little disappointing...seriously I could have done it. Thats not to say I don't think its pleasant...just not professional.

It's nice but a bit sterile. I want to see more of the owner's own personal touches...

One thing I see is a lot of people have no design capabilities, much less take the time to think things through when it comes to furnishing an apartment, secondly, what the owners brought with them didn't do justice at all to what I see is a wonderful space in and of itself.

That said, I do agree that the after photos look fine but a little sterile perhaps. I do wonder though if the space was simply staged for the photo shoot but in the end, it really does have some of the owner's things in it?

However, that said, I've done better with the mix and match furnishings I have than the owners had. That large black leather couch was simply too much for what the rest of the room had in it in the before photo. If anything, the room needed a stronger dose of color and less tan/beige although the warm toned tan carpeting is nice against the white walls, just that the furnishings needed more color and more personal artifacts in the rooms to make it truly a great space

The 'after' pics are taken with a wide-angle lens, thus making the place look bigger. That said, the mattress on the floor is not hard to improve on... even I could do that.

You're right, the wide-angle is common dishonest "trick of the trade", alongside the lighting discrepancies. But there's a lot of "I could have done that" comments here without considering the aspects of working on a budget and with someone else's opinions shaping the direction of a room. If you can do better, let's see it (and I bet a few of the people here at AT could match or exceed this example), because half the fun of AT is peeking into everyone's place and complimenting and criticizing!