Make it Small in April. Once again we're revving up our engines with Design Within Reach for our biggest contest of the year: The Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest.
Started three years ago, the premise is simple; somewhere out there in the wide, wide world (yes, were opening it up!) is a home so SMALL and so BEAUTIFUL and so DAMN COOL, that is represents the very highest achievement in its class.
Is this you?
The prizes this year will be more BIG gifts from DWR, more Apartment Therapy books and TONS of exposure for all aspiring interior designers, DIYers and irrepressible stylists.
All the details will be announced on March 19th and submssions will then be taken until April 9th. After that, our editors will be selecting the top 40 submissions to be posted at a rate of two a day. Each AT Home site will be posting, and The Kitchen and The Nursery will be holding their own Small Cool Contests.
Our size limit is still 650 square feet, the home must be your primary residence and you HAVE to live in it to enter. You can be anywhere in the WORLD.
More info coming soon, but if you're thinking of entering start getting ready.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Please oh please have a subcategory for super small! Maxwell, you especially would know that there is HUGE difference between 650 and 300 sq. ft.
You're opening it up to international entries, but only 40 entries will be posted?
Or is that 40 entries per site (NY, LA, SF, and Chicago).
I'd love to view 2005 entries, but they're all "file not found". :(
I think last time it was 40 per AT site.
2005 entries are linked from my name
Oh, I get it. The entries themselves don't work!
yeah, that I can't figure out how to fix. Even Googling the titles isn't working!
I also vote to reenable the links from the old posts -- at least the finalists!
Yes! I spent a lot of time poring over the 2006 entries; I'd love to see 2005!
Be afraid. Be very afraid. This contest always brings out the irate lurkers, along with the geniuses.
Hey, I totally second L's idea to have a category for supersmall, supercool!
Woohoo! Here comes Canada... and Europe and Asia and a lot of other places where small is the norm, not the exception. Looking forward to it.
ATL,
I've decided that I am not going to allow myself to read the comments. I think it will protect my soul from the nastiness as well as save time so that I don't get smallest, coolest burn out.
I vote for the Super Small catagory as well!!! I live in a less than 350 SF one bedroom apt in NYC and I defintely plan to enter but it's not fair to have to compete against someone with almost double my square footage. And while we're at it, how about rental vs. own catagories. I don't have the luxury of built-ins. I have had to make do with paint and furniture placement. Something to think about AT people!
Thanks guys for backing me up! I live in roughly 260 sq. ft (haven't measured completely yet) and I know I sure can't compete against someone with 600!
I also second the rent vs. own.
I know ya'll like to keep the contests simple but seriously, compared to my place, 650 sq. feet is NOT small.
Avocado, I'm with ya on neither reading the comments nor contributing to them. If I like your apartment, I will vote for it. If I hate it, you will never know why -- but since you love it, you probably don't care what my opinion is anyway.
And kudos to the cleaned-up rules, which address a lot of burning issues from earlier competitions!
I love the idea of a super-small category--I've always been amazed by the under-200 or 300 square foot crowd and would love to encourage more entries.
Actually, I don't think 650 sq. ft. is small at all. Now, of course, it can FEEL small, but doesn't have to. I'm now in 593 sq. ft. that feels like 1,000. I love my place. Before this, I was renting 550 sq. ft. that felt like about 200 sq. ft. and I hated it.
I guess 650 sq. ft. is pretty small when there are kids involved, as opposed to just couples. So I think there should definitely be a super-small, super cool category and, really, I think the small/cool contest as a whole should be for places that are max 500 sq. ft. Definitely under 600.
"Small" is relative -- 650 may sound huge if you live in 300 (and I've lived in both) but it sounds TINY if you live with your mother-in-law! :)
I just can't wait to see the submissions -- I'm lucky in that I've got too much space to compete here, but some of the best space-saving ideas come from this contest!
I agree with L, there should be a "rent" category as renters are unable to make structural and or appliance changes. Seems to me most of these apartments and homes are owned.
yes, and there should also be a "with children/in-law" category. please also add a category for those who work-from-home and another category for those who lose square-footage from having to store the water-heater within the apartment. and what about another category for super-super-small (under 150sf) as opposed to super-small (151-299sf) as opposed to small (300-500sf) as opposed to small-huge (501-650sf). 'cause it's just not fair! it's like asking to combine special olympics with regular olympics!
It's March 19th today.
Is the contest still on? I'm really looking forward to it.