apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Greystone Show House 2008: Unlike other years, in which the rooms felt like a series of "over the top visual stunts," this year's Greystone Mansion Show House feels like a cohensive home, although one designed for a wealthy homeowner with meticulous taste by 28 of the top interior designers. Admission is $30 and the home is open through November 16th.

Solar Power Incentives Make It Easier to Switch: Dreaming about cutting costs starting with your energy bills and going green at the same time? Maybe it's time to make it a reality. For homeowners considering going solar, the Wall Street bailout includes a nice little something for them: an extension of a homeowners tax credit for homeowners that install solar power through 2016. The old $2,000 cap will be replaced with the dollar amount equal to 30% of the cost of the system. Susan Carpenter, who we last encountered when she installed a gray water system on her own, weighs the pros and cons.

The Scout: A look at letters as a design motif, a motif we noticed in coffee tables earlier this year.

In the market for campaign memorabilia: Whatever happens Tuesday, don't be so quick to toss those campaign buttons and t-shirts you've been wearing. Turns out they may be collector's items.

On L.A.'s Clara Street, working-class dreams met an anti-minority mind-set in the 1920s: The small house on Clara Street, now Vignes, was witness to the changing history of Los Angeles, from its beginnings as a starter home to its later life as the part of the epicenter of the plague that devastated Los Angeles in 1924.

[images: Gary Friedman for LA Times; Gary Friedman for LA Times; Jesse Bornstein Architecture; all other images via LA Times]