apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Now here's something a little different: a display shelf, with picture frames hanging from the bottom of it. We like framed wall art, and we like collections on shelves — we even like framed art leaning on shelves. Here's a way to get it all if wall space is really at a premium.

While many of us work on coping with challenges specific to boxy apartments — vast blank walls, lack of character, how to eke an eating area, workspace and den out of one room — David Podsiadlo and Amander Schuler, owners of Gus* Design Group sought out such a space, trading their Toronto townhouse for this 2,500 square foot cube, beautifully appointed in its squareness.

Ikea Hacker posted this project from Alice, a mom who needed a solution for a Vika table that had seen some abuse in the form of repeated water spillage by her daughter. Vintage wallpaper was topped with a sheet of glass to both hide existing and prevent future damage.

When we left home for college, our mother thoughtfully sent us off with one of these for our dorm decor and maintenance needs. And it still sees regular use many years later, even though we have a well-stocked toolbox and far more sophisticated multi-tools (think Leatherman).

The world of 3' x 5' mats seems endless, like pillows or cute dishes; there are so many affordable, workable options to choose from that it's best to go for something with personal significance or gut feeling alone (as opposed to a table, where you might be constrained by space, or an 8' x 10' rug, where price can significantly narrow the options).

We love bamboo as a sustainable fiber and building material, and Bamboo Hardwoods founder Douglas Lewis clearly shares that love, to a great extent. His store is an outpost of every type of bamboo product imaginable.

We can say, with absolute conviction, that we've never been intrigued by a backyard water feature until today. We think it's the popping blue color and thin, unfussy tiers of this one that have suckered us in to the concept at last.

Fashioned as screens, curtains or room dividers, Michelle Brand strings together the flower-like bottoms of plastic bottles for her repurposed creations.

At first glance, we passed this piece off as way too tacky. On second glance (and we were surprised that there even was a second), we realized the bright blue ground and oversized white nautical graphics lifted our mood. Fitting for an entryway piece.

We've blogged about a "time table" before, but this is not that one. Instead of a full-size dining table with a gigantic digital clock surface, Umbra's take is a more understated, analog clock side table.

The new issue of Northwest Home (which, since last month, is now a pull-out in Seattle Magazine) features AIA's Home of the Month pick. The rambler in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood comes in at just under 2,000 square feet, and it's serene, modern and beautiful.

For those of you whose introduction to Seattle and our houseboats came via the eponymous Tom Hanks film, here's one for you. The houseboat is on the market — for a cool $2.5 million.

Velocity has significantly boosted its online bedding offerings in recent weeks. And though the weather is warming, we were still drawn to these beautiful hand-knit thrown blankets by Andrew Morgan.

CNN put out a call for readers to submit pictures of their man-caves, and what intrigued us most were the categories the pictures fell into. Are these really the basic elements for a stereotypically male-genedered space?

It took us a few minutes to figure out how this works, but when we did, we appreciated it — mostly because it's a sturdy, wall-mountable solution that requires only two little screws.

We don't have this many pairs of sunglasses to store, but if we did, this wall of open-faced shoe boxes to store them in would make us feel pretty cool.

We found this over at Uncommon Goods, and we'd love to see it in use, full of colorful fish. The two-handled shape reminds us of a Victorian punchbowl, and it in fact could be used as one, or as a vase, or for storage.

This clock is a bit too clever for its own good. It works by illuminating a number of squares in a grid to correspond with a digit in the time. It perhaps comes as a surprise to no one that we found it in SkyMall.