that last photo kind of stole my heart (and super-cool vote)

Love the bedroom wall color (and the dog!)

Love the dog! Also love how the colors you picked out compliment the orginal workwork of your home (its a bungalow, I'm assuming). Warm & inviting!

whimsy in the kitchen--I love it!!!

This is a really interesting mix of modern furnishings and vintage bones. Your dog even seems to fit with the house!

I love the striped kitchen cabinet doors!

Love the colors, esp the kitchen.

love, love, love it

Wow. I adore your dining room. This is my style!

the striped kitchen is excellent! love those colors!

Beautiful color choices!

Nice Kitchen. This is a very nice space. Very cool!

love what you did with the paint... it really personalizes the classic bones of the craftsman era home

I'm tempted to call this my favorite entry so far, but 850 sqft? Sitting in my cramped Brooklyn apartment, the prospect of that much space sounds almost palatial...

Never-the-less, I love the space, it is so warm and gorgeous.

Wow...you are in the Twin Cities and didn't list the Room and Board Outlet as a favorite source ;-) I'm kind of astounded...can't tell you how much I miss weekend mornings in Golden Valley.

Great place. The colors are fantastic. Its great to see someone working with the woodwork in their place (instead of covering it with high gloss white paint). Your solution for making the kitchen more interesting is insprired (and since it appears to not have involved tearing out the cabinets, seems budget friendly and green too).

Bravo!

This is lovely! I loved everything! By the way, your poochie is super cute too!

I am begrudgingly voting "super cool." You do indeed have a super cool place and like siobhan, I love that you haven't hidden that beautiful woodwork under 8 coats of white paint. While I don't consider 850 sq ft "small" you've done a very good job.

Very cool!

I believe it was a secret requirement to own a black cat for this contest, including my own I think that's the 5th one I've seen in this year's contest.

The kitchen is a bit much for me, but i really like the rest of it! Great use of colour and pattern without being overwhelming, and keeping it cozy and interesting without being cramped and weird (a fine line exists between those two, i tell ya!)

Lovely kitchen. The stripes are fantastic, but for me the dark shelving above really brings things together.

Quite possibly my favorite entry so far.

We should have a no doggy policy. It's so cheating.

Plus this is easily a top dog apartment, so she doesn't need it. There are a couple pieces I would 'upgrade', but it's pretty awesome already.

I appreciate the brevity of the description.

This is amazing...just absolutely awesome and I love everything about it.

Has this already been featured here? I got some serious deja vu looking at that photo of the dining room.

I really like it, but think it would look better with the ceilings white, to make the rooms seem lighter, bigger and higher. But like the colors.

Wow ... neat color accents ... love the two orange chairs in the dining room and the funky stripes in the kitchen (although I'd lose the striped rugs ... it takes away from the great color on the walls/cabinets.)

LOVE the dog pic too. I'm not even really a dog person, but I love how proudly he's posing ;-)

So, so cute.

Not afraid of color are you? That is refreshing.

Love the dog!

I think this is more a contender for the color contest in the fall, but lovely work nonetheless!

That couch is fantastic! (As are the animals :) ) Where is it from?

Really adorable. I love the kitchen.

The striped cabinets in the kitchen are a miss for me. Clean white would open up the space, becoming more expansive rather than focusing on the face of the cabinets.

I hate to be a bastard about this, but I hate knock-offs more. And when you buy knock-offs people can tell :(

Otherwise a really good start to this place. Clean shapes and colors - the blue chair is inspired.

Where did you find that duvet?! I LURVVVE IT! PLEASE PLEASE TELL! =D

Very sophisticated colouration in the kitchen. I'd love to know whether Abbe installed the seafoam green tile or if it was inherited. If so, I'd say good save making it work.

I adore this. What personality! The stripes are bold and uniquely you. And your over-all color sense is amazing. Lots of great ideas here.

Super cool! Very unexpected color choices, cozy and alarming at the same time. And...love the dawg! That dawg's got attitude!

This is really lovely mature-feeling apartment! That said, I think the mismatched rugs in the kitchen are throwing me off (but who am I to judge? I'm a nerdy scientist, not a designer).

Midwestern cool! Great color scheme.

the dog and the cat! LOL great house btw.

absolutmarie - i agree.

love the dining room!

I love your place, your dog is adorable, and I'm green with envy. I have a hard time voting super cool, because I think that it's ridiculous to call 850 square feet "small" (my family spent 18 years in an 820 square foot Cape Cod style house with four people), but I think this is a wonderful place.

I like the cozy feel of the place. The colors remind me of the green, reds, and blues of the Amelie movie. Good job.

Then what would you suggest we buy, Modfan, if our budgets are knockoff-size?

I think your place looks great Abbe, and that snobs make bad dinner guests.

Hey all. I'm the owner of the house in the pics above...

I thought I'd respond to some of the questions/comments above...

The duvet cover is from Ikea (super inexpensive - somewhere around $17).

I purchased the couch at a "model home" furniture auction so I have no idea where it originally came from.

The sea foam green tiles in the kitchen were left by the previous owner... I had to reconcile with a couple of incredibly out dated items in that room on a little budget so I decided to go a bit over the top with color... embrace rather than disguise, if you will.

I totally recognize and agree with all of the comments on how large my space is (I just moved to MN from the east coast). To be honest, I felt a bit weary about entering because my place is relatively large and one doesn't have to have much in the way of creative genius to make such ample space comfortable... but what can I say? Done did it anyway.

And I know... my pup in the bedroom picture looks like a shameless attempt at getting positive votes. My apologies.

Thanks for all the comments.

I love everything about this apartment, the colors, the warmth. It looks pulled together but still super inviting. And I love love love your doggy!

Holy CRAP, that kitchen is fantastic.

And your dog is effing adorable.

I'm not that fond of the kitchen paint but I love the rest.

You worked with the woodwork instead of covering it up! Beautiful. Your house is nice. I live in the south and here anything under 1000 sf is still small. Our house just went from 600 to 900 and I don't feel a smidgen of guilt over the extra space.

Great space and the kitchen is wonderful.

Loved the cat jumping off the chair and the hilarious dog!

Anyone who can make green paint look great has my respect.

love your doggie!!!!! the house is also awesome.

I love the color scheme in your place, the subdued hues are very tasteful. But the kitchen, oh goodness... I really think it ruins the aura of everything else. The cabinets are just too much. It's like "oh this apartment is so serene OH GOD COLOR OVERLOAD."

Nice house, but I can't fathom the stripe paint job in the kitchen. Too much work with little aesthetic payoff.

Really like everything with the exception of the wall to wall (it's a personal thing, I suppose). I can't help but think how much I (speaking for myself) would love it if you had two rugs in the room instead of the carpet. But the colours are lovely, and the quirkiness of the kitchen is wonderful.

love the kitchen, hate the rag rugs! Chilewhich rugs would have been a better choice.

The first photo made me inwardly groan, "Oh my God, yes." Subsequent photos did not disappoint. I would live here in a heartbeat.

Love it! Great use of colour! First I didn't like the kitchen then I went back and looked at everything again and I did.
The paint colours complement the artwork and vice versa. Supercool!

Hand over the dog!

So inventive and visually rich, one of my favorites from all the contests. Beautiful.

love love love.
thanks for showing how to successfully mix the modern and the creative with the minnesota craftsman home. You got it spot on!

What a fun use of color in the kitchen!

Wow
really nice spaces in this home.

How about choosing just one color from the kitchen cabinetry palette for the walls?
Get rid of the undersized, pointless rug under the coffee table?
The tiny picture under the living room window is unnecessary. Maybe leave the space alone.
Frame the mirror in the dining room.

Nice place to work with here.

I agree with Paul. Rugs out of scale really bother me, better a bare floor than an awkward rug. I agree with the others about the kitchen cabinets (the repeat of the stripes seems kitschy), and would paint the ceiling in the bedroom white to make it less cavelike, but otherwise I love your color choices. The bones of this space are beautiful and you have shown them off well. Great job!

Gorgeous and seems spacious!

This is very cool. I'm just sorry that I didn't get to vote in time. I don't know how this slipped in under my radar.