apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We're fond of the selection of salvaged hooks from Etsy seller Half Pint Salvage. Half Pint rescues old pieces of wood molding or other architectural remnants, gives them a little TLC, then morphs them into useful hooks and racks.

The weather today in Boston is perfect. THIS would count as a consummate spring day — a rarity in New England. Even I might consider boat living on day like today. But for those who live year round at moorings in Boston Harbor, they bargain for a whole lot more than 60 degrees and sunny, as in 10 degrees and windy.

I've got a big crush on this hulking lucite trunk. It gets my imagination churning, thinking of the infinite possibilities for displaying unexpected and colorful objects.

Nothing like a provocative Tuesday afternoon "good quote". And this one, "color is like sex", comes from an unexpected source: Stephen Drucker, editor of House Beautiful. While I'm not so sure about Drucker's metaphor, I certainly appreciate the sentiment behind it, which he explains in a recent Huffington Post piece.

We're posting about this specific tub caddy in part because we think it's lovely but also to raise a question — what, if anything, have you rigged to set up shop in the tub?

Anna and Anders, a couple of close friends of mine, are serious gamers and sportsmen — they LOVE the sporting life. So much so that for the past couple winters they've built a small ice rink in what I should emphasize is a small urban backyard. You don't need acres of land to turn this beauty into a reality!

Name: Emily & Nate
Location: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Size: 700 square feet
Years lived in: 1½ years - rented

As an avid fan, Emily (a graphic designer) knows her Apartment Therapy stuff. Within minutes of walking through her door, Emily tells me that she's pretty sure that the layout of her place is exactly the same as another house tour I recently posted. And funny enough, this other tour was also home to a Nate. The tour and home that she was referring to was Ila & Nate's Corridor of Color.

I spotted this lovely application using simple twin flat sheets at a client's home recently. Only one simple step was required to turn these Garnet Hill clearance sheets into sweet curtains.

I was at a color consulting job last week and before I could pull out my color samples, my client whipped out her own fan deck. The rod that typically holds the deck together broke a while ago so she replaced it with a piece of shoelace. I marveled at how much easier it was to work with a fan deck in this loose design.

Everything about this photograph makes me happy. I find the colors, the scale, and the visual energy really delightful. The wall mural comes from a company that Apartment Therapy has blogged about before.

We sheepishly admit to buying a friend's gigantic used television. The embarrassment about owning such a ridiculously large TV recedes into the background when we're engrossed in watching LOST on Tuesday nights. But most of the time we don't want this big black void staring at us or our company.

We're always on the lookout for unique and beautiful storage solutions. These fair trade "hampers" sold by Swahili African Modern in three different sizes are among the loveliest baskets we've spotted.

When you peruse Apartment Therapy House Tours do you ever crave to see the house in person? Well, we can't offer that option, but you can see the artwork collections from a few of our house tours, live at Boston's Laconia Gallery.

Most of us struggle with the design conundrum of how to disguise or hide messy cords, particularly if you want to use a leggy piece of furniture as a desktop or electronics docking spot. One clever, affordable idea (as in $4 affordable!) comes from Michelle, whose dreamy home we'll be featuring in a future Apartment Therapy House Tour.