apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Looks like an IKEA showroom.... and thats not a good thing.

What a hateful thing to say about someone's home bonline. It looks lovely. K & M, I hope it brings you many happy times. I love the orange stripe behind the woodstove.

Where the furnishings come from doesnt have much to do with how they're used for color, does it?

I like the use of color to differentiate the spaces: warm and earthy in the kitchen, cool and calm in the bedroom and bathrooms. The orange stripe on the grey is great (altho that space IS a bit confusing in terms of furniture - a lone tv with no seating?)

Overall - in the running.

What a neat home! Great interpretation of organic modern.

The bedroom in particular is heavenly - I love the way the teal accent wall interacts with the wood tones. But is that a piece of art I see nearly hugging the ceiling?

If that's indeed art (and not, like, a vent or something), try lowering it back to earth. It'll work well with the low, grounded elements in the room.

me likely the fireplace! that's awesome.

and i don't think you should chide people for being hateful. they're just reacting to what they see. i imagine they'd do the same if it was really good or positive.

And if It is a vent (as mmadden questioned above)...try covering it with a large canvas-type piece of art. The canvas would allow space behind the art so that the borders of the vent would not make the art stick out from the wall (as opposed to a flact-backed piece of art).

The home is quite warm and nice.

There's nothing wrong with an Ikea showroom looking home! I think you're home is lovely!

Though not my style (I've had a grudge against pine since forever) I love the use of colour! How clever to paint the triangle in the kitchen, and the stripe is genius!

I think your home is lovely. there are some haters in here! i personally think it is one of the best! now this is COLOR!!

In the first photo I like the blue of the wall art, the brown wall, and the orange wall stripe. I find the red curtains distracting though and think would be better if the curtains were the same color as the orange wall stripe or even a green to contrast with the orange. Fine job overall though.

What is the tree on the wall? Stencil or wall vinyl? I really like it, and am looking for something like that.

Am I imagining it, or do the number of homes outnumber the apartments/studios in the fall contest about 4 to 1? I miss seeing how color is used in apartments, particularly rentals.

Colors are great...beats out most of my friend's dorm-room vibed domiciles.

Thank you all for all your comments, all are appreciated. The tree on the wall was first outlined with a pencil and later filled in with the left over paint from the bedroom.

Love the 70s vibe, plays up the architecture.

I happen to love the way Ikea does their showrooms and have gotten a ton of inspiration from them.

Love the bathroom. Is that a converted Kitchen cart? Brilliant!

Soothing and calm, overall. That bedroom artwork is up WAY high though -- reason? And the rug at the foot of the stairs looks like a bad thing waiting to happen, but then again, I pretty clutzy.

LOVE the wall stencil, and the fact that all the colors are cohesive.

The red curtains make the lovely living room look rather drab. I loved the bedroom and bathroom:not fond of the stripe in the room with the fireplace. Looks like a choppy wall was chopped even further.

But I do like how you've embraced colour so whole heartedly, yet it isn't overbearing. Great job working with all that pine. Tough vote for me.

Just wanted to clear few things here: Red curtains are not really red they are a darker shade of orange, and that is not a living room area it is a dining area that is connected with the kitchen. The wall in the wood stove room is made out of concrete and was later painted. Smaller stripes in that corner cave in little more than bigger stripes adding dimension. This was our alternative to stone tiles or brick, with the ability to change the color whenever we want to. May I just remind everyone that this contest is not about the furniture in our spaces its about the use of color and I happen to like IKEA.

Not MY style, but still nice.

Well done. You're an insta-finalist for me.

some interesting things going on here. blue b/r, orange kitchen, brown wall all good uses.

like the wall colors, especially the bathroom.

i love your bedsheets

For me this is a home of contrasts. On the one hand I find it fairly predictable, but on the other hand I find I am intrigued to the point that I hope to see more.

The bathroom and bedroom are my favorites - I love the tile backsplash, and the blue is wonderfully serene - I'm glad it's only on the one wall. It looks great with those sheets.

The furniture might not be worth a million bucks, but the color choices are excellent! Very home-y.

I really like it, but I feel like it´s missing personal touches.. I love the building structure and the bathroom is really pretty.

mmm, loving the airy feel to it. good color choices.

I think the first comment isn't pointing towards the quality or source of the furniture, but the lack of personal touches. Nothing in this home speaks to the lifestyle, interests, age, friends, family, travels, etc... of the homeowners. It looks like a blandly staged home for sale.

I like the conversion of the IKEA kitchen cart into a bathroom piece.

I think the home overall lacks cohesion. None of the rooms connect to each other stylistically. If you told me each picture is from a different house, I'd believe you.

The wooden staircase is handsome, but (at least from the photos) it is jarring when set next to the color scheme of the living room. This is especially apparent to me in the middle enclosure in the second picture. One can either choose a different color than the grey/orange wall (which is handsome by itself), remove the wooden landing enclosure entirely (my preference if there are no young children in the house) or paint that middle section.

I agree with Thomas. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with Ikea--or any other inexpensive source--but it takes over so easily.

Then again, there are probably a lot of DWR or Crate and Barrel showrooms in this and other contests on this site. I wouldn't be able to identify, simply because I don't have the resources to go to those stores, but I get the feeling that people would be much less likely to hold that as a negative.

I like the wall treatments here, but the rest is simply too generic for me.

Also, I disagree that the furniture shouldn't be considered. It's all part of the space.

I disagree, I don't think this is generic at all. I think K&M were very creative with the space around the fireplace (I haven't seen that type of stove in a typical/generic home). I also think that people shouldn't get negative feedback just because they can't afford to have higher end designer furniture in their homes. I like this space for its simplicity and cleanliness, and for me the color combinations work in their own way.

Ah, the builder's staircase - we had the exact same thing in our apartment in the Village. Memories!

It's a nice vibe overall, but in the tv/wood stove room, the colors are too similar to the wood - and there's already a lot of wood in there. My favorite room is your bedroom.

K & M,

There a quite a few things I like about your space...one being the simplicity.

IKEA has great pieces that are inexpensive. All of us decorators and wanna be decorators have gone to IKEA...we all have to appreciate IKEA place in the decorating world. A few of us (me!) are guilty of going "IKEA overboard". At the time, it was all that I can afford. Now I slowly adding, keeping and taking away the items I don't love.

I don't feel you are guilty of an "IKEA overdose". I didn't get the impression it was a IKEA showroom.

One thing that comes to mind is (you all can laugh) decorating is a form of art. Art invokes all types of feelings. Your space has clearly done that-some people love it, others like it and some don't care for it.

I appreciate you sharing your pics and you have given me quite a few suggestions for my new space.

yeah, it kind of does look like a trip to ikea...I think it's the cluster of paper lamps in the corner.

What I don't get is the thin strip of multi-color tiles in the bathroom. How did that come about?