apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

At the Apartment Therapist's family Thanksgiving last week, I worked with my mother's very traditional dining room, building a centerpiece out of plants cut from outside and many, many votives.

• Cure Clock: 1 week to go
• Assignment: Read Week 8: Throwing a Party
• Members: 1,735!

>> New Flickr Group: AT Home Cure
>> Submit your photos directly to AT

Only a few days left. Now is the time to work very, very hard, because you will soon be back on your own again. In writing the book, I really wanted there to be at least one calmer week before the end. Week's seven and eight are therefore both a little lighter and meant to allow you to slow down as you approach the end and catch up if you need to.

For the past ten years, we've had very low bedside tables. Whether it's a low cut side table or a vintage trunk, I've tended to go low slung. This past weekend, however, we rearranged and moved our IKEA Anes dressers next to our bed to shake things up a bit. What I thought I was getting was a new, clean look, what I didn't suspect was how MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE it was and how big a difference it made that the side table/dresser was a few inches above our bed.

• Cure Clock: 2 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Week 7: Sacred Space
• Members: 1,735 (closed now)

>> New Flickr Group: AT Home Cure
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Hey, take the survey below and give yourself a break. This week is a chance to catch up. I love this week. Not only was it designed to give you a little slowdown, so you could catch up before the end, but it also deals with with the bedroom, which is a fabulous space to work on, it can change a lot with just a little attention and you appreciate anything you do immediately when you get a good night's sleep...

When we worked with clients, we used Gary quite a bit to help with small jobs, particularly painting, and getting things done. He's unique in that he can do more than paint, and he works alone, which means that he may be a bit slower, but he's also more affordable. Gary's got an MFA, been painting homes since 1972, covers the NY metro area and will visit and provide a quote free of charge...

Every Friday! Here are all the home and garden sales across the country - painstakingly collected by our editorial team of over 70 bloggers. This is only place on the web where you can find them all in one place. Pass it on and send us your sale.

CB2 has been carving a path for itself as being affordable, hip and sophisticated, AND many of its designs lately seem drawn from other sources, where they usually cost a great deal more. Here is a short list of some nice new designs and the ones that seem to have inspired them. Design imitation is a big issue in the design community, but I'm not choosing sides, just mapping the territory.

Clockwise from uppper left: BluDot, Thomas Paul, Orla Kiely & Alexander Girard

During the Room for Color Contest (see all our entries here), many readers learn that one of the best ways to experiment and add color without painting or spending a lot money is to add throw pillows. Good throw pillows are hard to find, however, and it's nice to find ones that offer unique patterning, rich colors and something that you just won't see in any one else's home.

• What: AT's New York Design Meetup
• Guest: The American Design Club
• Members: 1,245
• RSVP's: 115 Yes / 13 Maybe (rsvp here)
• When: 6:30-9pm, Thursday, November 19
• Where: Knoll Showroom, 76 9th Avenue, Floor 11, NYC

Welcome to the next wave of design. Get ready to meet the American Design Club tomorrow, a loose association of young, talented designers that is based in New York City. In the house will be most of the founding members: Henry Julier, Kiel Mead and the trio from Rich, Brilliant & Willing — Theo Richardson, Charles Bril and Alexander Williams.

Clockwise from upper left: Pancake & Franks, Albertine Press, Mr. Boddington's Studio, Fugu Fugu

This is my biggest haul of great sources yet! As we struggle at the office to find really nice holiday cards that we'd be PROUD to send to friends, colleagues and business contacts, I'm on the lookout for great new letterpress designs.

• Cure Clock: 3 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Week 6: Light Therapy
• Members: 1,735 (closed now)

>> New Flickr Group: AT Home Cure
>> Submit your photos directly to AT

I can't believe that we're already heading down the final stretch! Now's the time to work very hard and make sure you are doing all you can. This is a good time of year to WANT to fix up your home, but with the holidays coming, there's a lot to do. I say work hard and rest after. This is your moment to do this work and it will pass. Go for it.

Here's a tip I got yesterday from Tina, who is an expert when it comes to finding and buying really nice photos and prints: Print Society. Print Society just launched, and is like an Etsy JUST for prints — photographic prints, screen prints and letterpress. It aggregates all artists and galleries that want to display their work. It calls itself "the first completely open and transparent marketplace for printed artwork." I would say that it's a really pretty place to go if you want to look at prints, and functions as one stop shopping for the print minded.

>> Enter 2009 Slideshow (it's the whole journey in about 35 pics)

We did it again, and this time with the biggest group ever and the longest route ever, but we still caught the sunset over the Statue of Liberty. Last Sunday just over 35 of us gathered out at Nathan's hot dog stand on Surf Avenue at Coney Island at 9am and set out to walk all the way through Brooklyn, ending up over the Brooklyn Bridge and finishing at the Battery. At 5pm, 27 of us finished and 25 got into the final picture.

Every Friday! Here are all the home and garden sales across the country - painstakingly collected by our editorial team of over 70 bloggers. This is only place on the web where you can find them all in one place. Pass it on and send us your sale.