apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

That is a lot of color.

Having started chuckling at Maxwell's sense of humor in posting this one directly after the "why all white?" discussion, I now can't stop and am actually hoping for an attack of hiccups.

be nice, guys! i LOVE color!

and a lot of pattern, and a lot of books on one bookshelf.

yep, i have a lot of stuff.... :)

OMG. I think I've gone blinde. I'm kidding. It certainly has personality and I'd happily drink big fruity drinks with the owner. But I wouldn't visit with a hangover. Is it going to be in a decor magazine? Probably not. Does the owner have a great sense of humor and a lot of spunk? I'd vote "hell yeah".

Ok. I can't believe this one made it and mine hasn't so far. It has WAY too much going on for my taste.

This is the single coolest apartment I've seen on this site. I'm not much for the off-the-shelf/IKEA stuff you see everywhere else. She's got a superb eye for vintage aesthetics and she's created a comforting living environment out of it. The color spectrum is pretty wide, so why not do it up? Besides, all-white is for hospitals and old-folks' homes. So there.

Wild...I really like it. Great to see something crazy and totally opposite from the "minimalist" and modern entries I've yet to comment on. Not sure I could live there...but way to go.

It has such a cohesive theme and style (the '60s) that I can't help but love it.

What I wouldn't give to see a double feature of Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!

Now by the looks of this apt, you seem like a totally fun person to hang out with. In my neighborhood!

Pictures really don't do a small, colorful place any justice!

Nattles, you're all right!! Right on for having a sense of humor!

I wonder if those swirly circles behind the sofa are black-light responsive? That would be awesome.

OMG! I think I had that pendant lamp in my kitchen when I moved in, missing a few petals ....

The color is whats doing it in for me... It's so over saturated and at the same time, not. Having an over-sized dull blue sofa under a large brightly colored print... I do not want to sound mean, so I'm sorry. D:

I think it would help more if you had bookshelves that could hold all of your books neatly and that you can cover (like the billy system at Ikea and get the doors to close over them).

did you say waterbed? niiiiiiice.

just curious - how old are you? any answer would surprise me.

yeah, i definitely need a new system for my books, im a book whore. that dull-blue sofa is a Mario Bellini C&B Italia...MY MOST PRIZED POSSESSION which i found on craigslist for an insanely LOW price. it's a small space here, and HELL YES i love stuff. can you tell? lol.

DANG GIRLFRIEND!

It ain't me, but DO YOU!

i quite like it. i am a big fan of bold colors. well done.

yea well, im 33 turning 34 in October. i had red carpet installed in the living room, so it really is balanced. the colors might also look extremely bright since i used a digital camera and it loves saturation! i know it looks bright and crazy, but its really hard to capture what it REALLY looks like in a photo. i have tons more photos online, but dont know if i can post them for you all to see.

i would love to see more pics!

bl@ckd0g: It's a nice piece, but the colors all around it (i think) distract from it. Maybe you should paint a contrasting color where the blue is on the wall at the side of it? the bright blue there just hurts the sofa's color.

Dang. Well, I will say that it's interesting what makes some people feel comfortable and at home :) Personally I like very muted colors and I like a lot of grayish tones, it makes me feel calm and peaceful which is how I like to feel at home. Clearly that's not what you're into and that's cool, I admire your bold choices and your ability to live in a space that for me would feel totally overwhelming and chaotic!

Also, I know I just said I love muted colors, but I also covet your green chairs. Lovely.

I know I'll get slammed. Everyone's trying to be so nice in this contest and the entries so far are fascinating.

Your place is just not of the caliber as some of the others. There is no great design scheme, no great effort at problem solving. Your design in incohesive at best and your effort at problem solving is to shove as much stuff in as you can. I am honestly not sure why people are so drawn to this. It really is not an enjoyable way to live.

I do like your sofa, but I would love to see a more restrained hand everywhere else.

Ok, Patrick (the other one), bring it on.

Your dining area is really fun, but honestly, it looks like a color wheel vomitted in your apartment.

would a pillow or two on your italian couch in colors taken from the wall graphic unify the combination? That's not why i am posting. I love love love looking at apts that look like the one from the Sunday Times done by an architect with emerald trees outside his windows - all glass and light and fabbalus everthing but I couldn't live like that, not without a chambermaid every day! The thing I most love about maxwell's book is its support for cultivating what underlies decor, and that's what makes a dwelling that supports your life as yourself. And - is that a pic of Will Farrell and Jon Heder in "Blades of Glory" in your boudoir? Fun movie, hunh?

I LOVE your sofa!! What a steal!

Oh, and is it me, or does everyone have that same Wasselmann poster from the Munich olympic games?

This is a breath of fresh air. Minimalist and Modern is starting to look really tired, I hate to say it. With Tori Spelling's mod nursery and so many homes looking like Jonathan Adler for Target, I'm starting to feel about Modern the way I do about Shabby Chic, big time over... Godd for you for being different!

I love this, esp the eating area. The color is great, the artwork is great. The couch does come across rather dark, but it's so nice to see a place that's not all white (or white with pops of neutral).

If there's any part I'd lose, it would be the little "stuff" (the figurines and other tchotchkes).

Hi Nattles,

Just our of curiosity, are you a graphic designer??

"Explosion" is right! Well, it's certainly different from the other entries. I'm not averse to crazy color schemes, but I'd like to see more consistency among the rooms. If I didn't know better, I'd say each of the pictures were from a different apartment.

It had to happen, didn't it?

I like bright colors too... and this place obviously means a lot to you and reflects your personality, which is what a home should do, IMHO.

However, I'm concerned that this is being presented as the alternative to the minimalist, sterile, white box entries we've seen thus far. This place is crazy and fun, but color doesn't need to be. You can use color very seriously and not have it be a whirlwind of colors and patterns everywhere.

While this place sure is fun, I'm with Peggy - I don't think its on the same level as all the rest.

I want that foot poster. Where's it from?

"any answer would surprise me" made me laugh totally out loud.

Love it!!!! So vibrant and alive! Life is too short to be afraid of color. Great job.

This looks like Peter Max threw up on a Delia's catalog.

love: the lamp, the colors, the chairs, the POSTERS!

confused: how does the couch fit with the chairs (i.e. room arrangement).

don't like: the book mess in the closet.

However, I'm concerned that this is being presented as the alternative to the minimalist, sterile, white box entries we've seen thus far.

See, that's why I was amused... this is the other extreme... and I do mean extreme. The resident's personality is splashed on the walls. If some of the Great White Decor Hopes feel like a blank canvas, this one feels like such a total externalization of the dweller's very expressive personality that it's hard to imagine him/her leaving it. You almost need to wear this apartment, like a coat. (Joseph's Coat of Many Colors, bien entendu.)

What we're not seeing often yet is color used in a more traditionally design-y way. But I'm relieved this look has its partisans.

See, I always find it funny when the people who are usually so quick to say "It all looks like it came from (insert DWR or IKEA or Pottery Barn here)" don't have the same complaint about it looking like it all came from one vintage store, which this, to me, does.

Agreed, a SUPERB eye for vintage posters (make sure those suckers are framed well, cuz you're sitting on some serious dough in a few years) and a great and obvious sense of humor and love of life.

Reenter for "I've Got Color" in the Fall!

There's no accounting for taste, but this ROCKS.

I'd take this over some sterile, monochromatic showcase home ANY DAY.

A bit much clutter for me, but, woot! This has a lot of personality and I love the overall vibe going on. I absolutely love the dresser. Also: is that a Flin Flon poster above your bed? What's up with that? :)

WHOA!!! I like color but...

Ultra-Fun. Points for the Valley of the Dolls/Beyond the Valley of the Dolls poster.

Love!

love peter max, even if he vomited...so thank you. ive been a collector of vintage design pieces for close to 15 years now, so no doubt i have a lot of stuff, but that's what makes me happy...and to fit it all in a small space really is difficult.

i agree wholeheartedly that i need a new system for my books..hands down. i also need a new system to store all of my video games, dvds, and vhs tapes. this is why i entered this contest, to be able to afford shelving units.

alternative to the stark white apts or not, this is what i love. i love color, i love supergraphics, i love patterns, i love design, i love nicknacks, and i love furniture. and, yes, im a graphic designer. if i lived in a minimalist apt, i'd probably kill myself. staring at stark white walls with no interesting items would bore me to death. im the kind of person who has the tv on volume down and a record playing volume up at the same time. my eyes NEED constant movement...but that's just me.

peggy, it doesnt surprise me that you dont like my apt, since you love the P D one. it's OK, i know it's not for everyone. i just wish you all could see this place in actuality, not by the photos...the flash on the camera really didnt capture the color as to how it really looks like.

can we post more photos with explanations? or not? that flin flon poster was created as a series and given to us for the tour. it's green and its beautiful. matched my room perfectly. x

This place reminded me of a spread in Nest magazine.

Even your floorplan is colorful!

bl@ckd0g you can't post more... i think its really distasteful of contestants to do that. the rules are 3 photos. if you were allowed to post more there wouldn't be a limit.

thats just my take on that though.

Sure, there's a ton of color and no two rooms look alike, but within each room the colors are well-matched, with the exception of the sofa that was noted above. That can't have been easy. There's too much going on visually for my personal taste but I feel like I'm in good hands--like I'm traveling through a strange land, one I wouldn't want to live in, with an expert guide.

Oh, and if this looks like "it all came from one vintage shop," I would LOVE to go to that vintage shop.

This is one COOL apartment. I love the bedroom colors especially, but overall the place looks like a fun, lived-in home. I think it's great!:)

WRITE BACK!!! Hi. Please write back to me. Where did you get that white and green dresser next to your bed????

I think my mom had the same one! She got it at her family's furniture store outside Boston around 1970 I think! It was a white dresser, and the drawer covers were reversible, bright yellow on one side, 70's bright lime green on the other, with a silver handle. It had two mirrors above in weird vertical trapezoid shape.

It came with a tall dresser, and two small nightstands, and can't remember the headboard.

And, she still has it!! but, they painted the green part white now, so it fits in better. Please write back where you got it! That is so funny!

haha. yeah, mine also has the yellow behind the green!! i want the rest of the pieces...too bad i cant fit it in my apt. i bought it at a thrift store around DC somewhere, probably in MD. what did the mirrors look like? damn, i wish i had those!

I think the space really has it's own personality and there is definitely commitment to the design style, but I'm getting claustrophobic just looking at the pictures and that can't be good.

explosion is the right word.

On my monitor the circles on the wall and the color of the couch clash tremendously, thereby eclipsing the couch (which you say is your most prized possesion). Maybe if you painted the circles in colors complementary to the couch, it would work better. Though I suspect that part of the problem is that the blue of the couch is so much more subdued than everything else in your apt. that it looks out of place. That said I think it would be very enjoyable to come over and watch a film by the brothers quay.

i'm not a big fan of the all-white spaces either... but I guess this, for the same reason as them, can be "has potential"-- I'd want them to buy color and warmth and Ms. Nattles to get rid of stuff and add more "eye breathing" space... That sounded gross, sorry.

man, I forget how hard this contest is just on the voting end.

Ack!

I think it's funny that you'd probably kill yourself if you lived in a minimalist apartment and I'm twitching from color overload just looking at your photos! (I am saying this with good humor, which probably isn't easy to detect.)

I love your enthusiasm, but I would never be able to relax in an apartment with so much color and stuff. Not that I wouldn't enjoy going to a party there, but I wouldn't be able to live in that kind of jangly color busy-ness day-to-day.

I like excitement outside my front door, tranquility inside. That's how I roll.

i'm sorry but seriously this apartment is my worst nightmare.

but hey my all white apartment is definitely some other's worst nightmare....that's why design is personal.

i just don't see a cohesive design scheme here. and maybe that's entirely the point.

I love love LOVE it, and I registered just so I could say so. But, it ain't unconditional, I'm afraid.

Your use of color and your vintage aesthetic tweaks me in all the right ways, but I am a bit on the OCD side, so the clutter I see here and there tweaks me in all the *wrong* ways. My chief complaints:

Nattles, we love you!!

..continued!

- organize the bookshelves
- free up some of the horizontal space -- just a few less objet here and there would help
- ditto the walls; I think where you've used color or pattern on the walls is sometimes interesting enough without slapping something framed on top of it or next to it. Maybe you could store some of your awesome collection and show some, and rotate as the mood strikes you?

Overall, groovy, baby!

The Brady kids would so love your place!

It's not my taste. It's too over the top for me but I do like the blue room with the VALLEY OF THE DOLLS POSTER. I really would like to see what the rest of that room looks like.

Tony G.

Cant. Breathe.

Seriously - there needs to be some kind of place to rest, some sort of pause between the color and the pattern.

Nattles is a punk rocker! I love her music, and her apartment is pretty rad. Lots of personality, could be toned down a little (the wall mural in the living room would have been great, maybe paired with white walls as opposed to turquoise), but a great effort. The Max Ball poster is great!

Some nice pieces, but a bit too busy for my taste...

right there with you, frontiersperson. love flin flon.

Gotta love a place that's not bashful and isn't into the current trends.

I love this apartment! I find it confusing that so many people consider an nigh-empty white box the best way to deal with a small apartment. Your home looks like just that - a home. It is beautiful, full of personality, and I would feel comfortable hanging out there.

(full disclosure) I submitted some bad old snapshots of my last apartment to this contest just to make sure that there would be at least one entry that was not an uncomfortable white box. I know my entry wasn't up to par, photographywise, for the standards of the contest, so I am extra thrilled that yours is so great. I have created an account on this website just to say that!

...the walls are closing in on me...

very cute. i hope you enter the color contest next year.

btw, tidying up that bookshelf would do wonders. organizing by color might look really neat in your place.

What a shame you are scared of color! Was it some traumatic experience as a child involving crayons? I bet you are quite the shy young woman!

Nattles no need to explain your place or make any apologies. It's incredible... the way everything is layered and our use of color. The time you took to look for just the right pieces.I for one hate matchy matchy and tone on tone which by the way isn't found in nature too often unless your in the artic or you are using green !!! I have resolved to not bring anything into my house that comes from a catalog. Part of that is to reuse ( the other green ) and the other part is I don't want to go to my sister's house and see the same damn chair from the same damn store. I forbid here to shop at west elm anymore (contolling ?) and to start hitting up the thrift stores so here place can have some personality. For sure this place is you and nobody else and that my dear is a beautiful thing.
Something that bothers me on this site is the way people covet other peoples things....it's weird !!!

Dude, your placemats rock.

Angie here, Tysons girlfriend in Montreal. The kitchen is my fave. When you come to see us here in Montreal we'll take you to some great vintage shops by our store, you'll have a blast!

Oh and Tyson says "hi"!

I love the utter quirkiness of the apartment, and I like that it looks like it's actually lived in. I'm not sure I'd be daring enough to commit to so many colors in my own apartment, but it looks like it would be a fun place to hang out and play Uno once in a while.

Wow... That's... really loud. I think my opinion of this is one is it's an apartment I might want to visit, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there.

I would like to see how the evening shade of calm looks

I have no problem with colour - much as I love white apartments I also like colourful ones - I think the sofa goes with the wall mural just fine - and the dining area is lovely...

except for the untidyness of the bookcase - that could so easily be improved on 500% with half an hour taken out to rearrange those books in more suitable positions

Its the bedroom I have a problem with - whats with all those unframed pictures stuck to the wall? - you're not a teenager any more - if they are worth putting on the wall then they are worth getting framed - it would improve the look of the apartment so much

The sofa is great and the circles are fab, but not right next to each other! I actually like the colour combo in the 1st photo, particularly the bedspread, just not the busyness of it all. The 2nd photo makes me want to tidy your house - I'll bet you're glad when you get some proper shelving in place.

yeah!
I love mixed patterns, and this is fun.
Fer sure straighten up the shelves and re-enter for color, although I love you in the mix for Smallest Coolest
'cause grrrrl, it IS

welcome missmobtown and everyone else flushed into registering by this post

I swear these kind of apartments don't photograph as well or as easily as the minimals, but they're fun spaces to BE in.

It's quirky.
And that is fabulous!
I love it!
I would so much perfer to see interesting homes like this that are stylish collections of individuality rather than the standard, mid-century, clean line home-in-a-box that I see all over the web.

:) Can I say Groovy?

I like this space, it's fun, colorful, and expresses lots of personality! Compared to the all white, does anyone live here spaces (excluding one I fell in luv with) this place screams I'm here!
Hope you win so you can replace the shelves your not happy with!! Good Luck!

Maybe, since there are so many walls with sometimes contrasting designs painted on them, it would be good to (of course leave some!) but paint over a couple with one bold color, and then have one of your posters (or a new one!) ina groovy/busy/whaterver print framed (preferally a big one) on that wall, so that it's not the wall itself that's busy. You know what I mean? The one-color-wall would counteract all the busy-ness, giving that "rest for the eyes" so many people are talking about, without giving up your wonderfully eclectic design scheme. Like, I love everything in the bedroom - individually - but you could paint over the striped wall (is that wallpaper?) in one color that would tie all the rest of the stuff together. ?? maybe ?? Just a suggestion.

I love this apartment but there are just a couple little things that I would do to add some cohesion, but still keeping it cool, awesome, and funky.

Different,a lived-in apartment, though not too much my taste. I love the sofa, though!

i love it, and nattles, i love your music! cold cold hearts and flin flon are two of my favorites. i also remember your crazy blue-and-green website with bertrand the doggie quite fondly. definitely a fan. : )

your pad has personality, sass, and a lot of dynamism. and i am obsessed with your green chairs.

when i had a 10x10 cinder block dorm room, i aspired to be as fabulous as you, only without any bit as much of the cool vintage, and with a lot more dutch bunnies. (anyone interested in seeing blurry photos of my crazy dorm room, they are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40358840@N00/sets/72157600094647288/ )

anyway, keep it up. you rule!

allison

biskinikill, I thought you misspelled "dust bunnies" but you really meant dutch bunnies!

WHERE DID YOU GET THE "DOLLS" DOUBLE-FEATURE MOVIE POSTER? DO TELL!

Aside from that... I couldn't live here as I am prone to seizures, but I love that the space has PERSONALITY in spades — really, you deserve some kind of prize.

I think this apartment is a work in progress. To me the real difference between this one and some of the white apartments is a degree of polish....of worked-out-ness.Which is why I would not vote for it to win, not because of the clutter or the color, both of which are valid design choices, whether or not they are my taste. One of my favorite homes I have seen on AT is the one by the director of "Divan". It seemed much more complete than this one.But constant change mabe be part of this homemaker's aesthetic.
I would love to go to a party here, though ( then go home to an all-white loft).

ok, it makes me a little bit anxious, because there is so much going on...that said, you have a lot of great stuff. I realize you love your space, and that is wonderful. Personally, I think if you edited at least half of your stuff and presented it in a slightly more cohesive manner it would be AMAZING.

rainbow exploded.

whoa.
You obviously love colour and its great that you seemed to have decorated totally for yourself (not caring what others will think). I love colour too but for me it is too much and too...random. The foot over the bed and mannequin head in the kitchen would scare me every single time. But - kudos for decorating for yourself and having the guts to post it to AT.

k*

Great potential, bad execution.

It looks like somebody found the discount bin at Paint World and and hit Value Village on clearance day. This is really too bad, because there are some great pieces in here, their impact is just lost in the 'explosion'

A little bit of editing and thought give to highlighting your favorite items would go along way.

It is refreshing to see contestants like this one. This is the reason why I visit AT, I want to see creativity!!!! not some re-run of what I would see out of a design magazine.

Nice Job Nattles creating a space that reflects you - Not what the current trends are. Please, you don't need to explain yourself any further.

I enjoyed seeing such a colorful, daring space.... Good Job!

Love the color, but it seems to ver power the room a little. Girl you must have a lot of energy!

Like the others have said, it seems like it would be a really fun place to hang out...but when I first saw it, my feeling was that it seemed a bit stuck in the 1990s--the whole neon-glow rave-inspired thing. Is it crazy that I think that? I'm 33, the same age as the contest-entrant, and this reminds me a bit of the way my place looked in 1995, when I was 21,22 years old. But very cute, creative and energetic!

I love the energy and freewheeling style of this one.
kudos!

My own personal sensibilities aside, this apartment is the best answer to industrial, minimal BS since Philippe Stark introduced Americans designing outside the box. It has all the charm, humour and yes, colour needed to make coming home a pleasant surprise everytime. People's apartments tell alot about the person living there, and most people with these 'blank canvases' are often just that- blank. Oh and in defense of the overflowing books on the single shelf, I think people may want to hold back their spite of a lack of literary material on their own shelves. Good work Nattles. I haven't given up my white yet, but if I do, you're on call.

i LOVE this!!! are those sheets attached to the bedroom wall? how did you attach them, and where do you get such cool sheets? i want to do that in my bedroom to hide some crapiness. also - how did you do that livingroom wall? awesome :D i would love to see some more pics, if you ever feel like posting them somewhere... :D