apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Finally! We've often wondered if the extravagant "outdoor living room" concept could be done on a non-extravagant budget, or at least look nice but not as fussy as the slick magazine spreads on the topic. Portland homeowners Richard Rolfe and Stephen Rutledge have accomplished just that with what they call their "fort," cobbled together from local salvage.

While perusing Canadian House and Home, we found a how-to for a very involved (for us) DIY headboard project. The instructions called for creating a frame out of two-by-fours and attaching plywood, resulting in a tall, door-like headboard. Being the carpentry-phobes we are, we thought, "how about using an old door and cutting out the middle man?" We're not the first to think of it.

Proving that there are many folks far more resourceful than ourselves, The Oregonian featured this handy way to reuse an old croquet cart, for which the actual croquet set had long been missing pieces.

Claire had some really funky wainscoting in her bedroom. While wainscoting is often a beautiful and coveted feature, this job involved mismatched boards of different widths and thicknesses -- not necessarily the period feature of her dreams. So she ripped it out and started over...

Container gardening is well-established as a way to get a measure of the beauty and, sometimes, fresh produce of a backyard garden, without the actual backyard. But Sunset shows us that the container garden has yet more potential - this time as a beachy background for our staycation.

Lighting has such an impact on interior design, yet we constantly struggle with it. Overhead lighting tends to be flat and unflattering, yet it can be tricky to strategically place lamps around the room in such a way that all of one's tasks are adequately lit. The resident of this tiny studio apartment in Bucharest apparently doesn't share our bafflement, and has instead created a lighting scheme that changes the feel of the room dramatically as the day's light changes.

As we plan our fabulous summer vacations (or modest weekend getaways, as the case may be) it's all too easy to overlook potted members of our households. The Oregonian has some quick tips for keeping plants alive when you're away.

We've seen the picture storage technique with shoes, but this Ikea hacker has put the idea to use in perhaps a more intuitive way, with faces.

Old hotel silver is one of those things we find tons of for cheap in antique stores, but unless we're organizing a wedding or a similarly huge sit-down dinner event, there's not always a lot we imagine being able to do with it. Not so Etsy seller monkeysalwayslook.

Many of us aren't going anywhere for the summer, and incorporating travel-related decor into our homes can be either a sore reminder of our homebound state or a kitchy souvenir of travels past. We're not terribly keen on the lamp, but the rest of the tableau above showcases an easy way to incorporate vintage suitcases into one's home.

Ah yes, we can certainly appreciate impromptu, but correct and recyclable wine storage. Putting one together on the spot would be a great ice-breaker at a party to hold everyone's wine contributions, but then again, an intimate get-together with that amount of wine may not have much ice to break.

We've been on record to appreciate color for color's sake outdoors, and this yellow patio wall tickles our fancy. This is obviously a serious architectural feature of a highly designed residence, but there are plenty of low-end ways to get a similarly color-saturated space.

Our indoor and outdoor planters and vases might match, but that's simply because they're standard terra cotta you can get anywhere. We've enjoyed Melissa Borrell's etched glass lighting, and thought these planters — and matching vases, if you please — were an interesting addition to her collection.

It's got all the features of a modern patio, without the small detail of the outdoor part: the indoor patio at Seattle's Ace Hotel. Check it out after the jump...