apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

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...

Each month the oh-so-chic-and-on-trend editors of Daily Candy team up with Target to bring you the latest and greatest items to buy for yourself, your friends and your family. This month's picks, as well as appearing online, will be showcased in pop-ups in selected Target stores. Check out their offerings, guaranteed to add a bit of cheery spring to your step, from a clip-on Bloom lamp to a Chef's planning kit that will let you share the hard work so you can also share in more of the fun...

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...

• 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?"

Last night, we made ourselves a cup of tea and settled into bed early to read the third book in the Twilight series. Suddenly, a door swung open and then slammed, the lock jiggled, there was a series of creaks that seemed to shuffle across the floor. Our heart raced. Who was there? Had we somehow conjured up the vampires and werewolves we were reading about...or was it something more sinister. Like a character in a bad movie, we got up to investigate...

Apart from a great cup of coffee, a great bathroom can start your day off on the right foot. Unfortunately, if you rent, your hands are tied. You can't exactly start ripping out tiles and replacing fixtures. But you can do a couple of things that will take your bathroom from drab to fab...

We recently read a Craig's List post advertising the sale of Ikea's Expedit with the line "It's soldiered its way through two homes but now it's time to let it go." Clearly this poster didn't know that this versatile piece has at least 9 lives. Here are ways that they could've used it in 7 more homes...

Centered around "doing it yourself," is this weekend's Los Angeles Times home section made for us or what? From an Eagle Rock bungalow to a converted smog shop, a barn transformed into a loft and a concrete patio in a backyard beauty, there's something here for everyone, including a source list for everything from discount tile to furniture-grade tile...

Nicolezh is in the kitchen and deciding about the box she just hung, we're swooning over her open shelving
• Cure Clock: 6.5 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Read Week Two, pp. 70-99
• Members: 1653 and growing!
Wow, two down, six to go. You're starting to get into a rhythm, starting to see the results of what a good cleaning and clearing out can do to your home, starting to look at ye olde homestead in a new light and appreciate some of her finer qualities. Gotta say, we're liking what we're seeing...

Flu-mania is making people a little nuts. My mother leaves constant reminders to get a flu shot; at my office they've handed out masks, anti-bacterial gel and wipes with instructions to wipe down our phones, computer keyboards and desks before we leave each night; and, a friend of mine turned to me the other night while we were watching "Glee" and said, "You know that woman who wears plastic gloves to do everything? I'm thinking maybe she's not so crazy after all."

We grew up on a block in New York that boasted a house with a ghost. Living in an older home, a spectral visit doesn't seem that unlikely, so we thought we'd get into the spirit of the season (pun intentional). After you determine whether that was a ghost (after all it could be your imagination playing tricks on you), then you have to decide what to do about it. Of course, you might think about keeping something under the bed in case your bump in the night turns out not to be a ghost...

Shabby Nest is one of the many sites we lurk around, reading but not participating. If this were an actual place and not just an address in cyberspace, they would've noticed us this weekend, obsessively reading the entries to the Frugal Friday Linky Party, a monthly smorgasboard of DIY's submitted by handy folks around the blogosphere. We've noted a few you might want to try your hand at...

With the approach of colder weather and more time spent indoors with the windows closed, we're more conscious of the scents in our home. Usually we burn candles but since we discovered that some friends are allergic, we've come up with other ways they can perfume their home...