apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Since I don't live my life in a magazine I am never going to do this. My dresser top is the one place where I dump the crap out of my pockets/handbag/etc.

The rest of the apt is as styled as it can be, but the dresser top... never.

I would love this in a guest bedroom, but in a master bedroom the dresser top is used frequently, so I don't imagine this would be very practical. But I think it's beautiful.

Removing/reducing that huge stack of books would be a huge improvement.

I'm with medusa. "Styling" shouldn't mean "putting so many useless items on your open surfaces that if you put a sweater down on the bureau top while digging out a t-shirt it would fall to the floor."

Way too cluttered. Why are there two huge lamps on that dresser? Get rid of the most or all of that stack of books, one (or both) of the lamps and all the little silver things scattered around and then we can talk.

I concur. Way too impractical. Regardless, I do think that too much stuff is on the dresser. This would assume that the same level of "stuff" is on other things in the room. Because as a focal point, it can look too piled on. Maybe he should have shown the dresser in context to be more useful?

too much stuff for my taste. ditch the books, the silver knick knacks, and the candlestick; move the flowers to the left where the books were. a little silver bowl (or maybe that larger cup) for keys and coins would be pretty and practical.

what I do like about having *some* things on a dresser is that it can help prevent it from becoming a big, messy pile (*cough* my boyfriend *cough*).

I agree... not practical! I would loose one of the lamps, the candle, the books, and either the artwork or the flowers. My dresser is a functional place where I put on jewelry, touch up makeup, and also my landing strip for my bedroom. Give me a couple trays or bowls and I'm happy. I also don't care for Eddie Ross...

I agree with Kathryn....way too many mags and books..

When do you ever need a stack of books on your dresser?

The mirror looks nice, but you can't really see how you look in it. Maybe your face if you're the right height.

I don't think this dresser is wide enough to carry a pair of lamps.

A picture is good, flowers are good. Could be less bushy, but they look pretty. I think the candle is weird. It's not like it didn't have enough, we have to tie a bow on it, as it were, and then bauble it with the silver cuppy milk pitcher things.

Arranging things to be nice, to be useful, is good. This looks to me like "merchandising," rather than a pleasant assortment. Pack as much stuff onto the surface, like they do in a store. It looks as though someone looking at that wall wouldn't have enough artistic vignetted stuck on it with just a lamp, mirror, and small plant, too boring and empty.... and useful, and normal!

If you want to have the stack of books, they might look cute on a small wooden chair next to the dresser, that's #1. Being able to use the mirror instead of just working it like a nonsense accessory is #2. I think the candle and the cups are OVERkill, plus the candle when lit might burn all your books and then you'd have to start all over.

totally agree with everyone about removing the stack of books (who stacks things that don't stack straight??) and all the little silver things, save the bowl.

I actually like the lamps. I'm not a fan of the lone candlestick, but I do love the shot of hot pink. The combination of the pink with the driftwood is the one inspiring thing I took away from this post. I love it.

the only things needed on that dresser are:

mirror
print
lamps
flowers (moved to middle)
silver bowl (near the flowers, for keys and loose change)
maybe those two white boxes that I didn't even notice were perched rather silly-ly on top of the Vogues.

This looks way too cluttered for my taste and, moreover, there's no discernible purpose to some of the clutter. You don't really need TWO lamps that close to each other. You probably don't need the milk and sugar containers on the dresser either. It just seems random and non-functional, which might be fine for a magazine layout, but not as advice to people who actually live in their homes. Aside from all that, I'm not in love with the way it looks in a photo either.

OH! And who needs to stack magazines like that when you have wall-to-wall bookcases behind you?

It's totally contrived.

On my dresser, I have a vase (currently empty but not always) and a gravy boat that holds things I might want in my purse -- iPod headphones, chapstick, etc. The rest of the space is reserved for laundry I don't feel like dealing with at the moment. This dresser is really cluttered, with not a lot of discernible purpose to most of the stuff.

That huge pile of books really bugs me. Doesn't seem practical, especially if you use your surface often, like I do.

It reminds me of the saying that I've seen on AT before. Something to the effect of "You know you're done designing when there is nothing left to take away." or something like that. I think the majority of stuff on this dresser is just useless clutter that renders the top surface of the dresser unusable. What a mess.

Where would I stack my clothes after folding them with all that other crap on top?

I like the point being made though. It takes layering to get a vignette.

OMG, the Padma thing. Yes, this is as awful as that.
I mean, why bother putting a portrait on the dresser if you're just going to block it with flowers anyway?

AT showed the house of I believe Ester and Dan some time ago (California?) and their dresser had a small mirror or picture above and a budha on the dresser top. That was all. I thought it was so restfull that when I get stressed I still look at that as a source of peace. This is just dreck.

Nix the books. Use one lamp and keep the rest with a dish or case for watch, jewelry, etc.

I think it's pretty, if a little clunky. If you read the original post, this isn't a bedroom dresser, but one in the living room, which means it doesn't have to serve bedroom dresser purposes (holding change, a place to put on makeup etc.). In a living room, two lamps are useful as well as looking nice, and the mirror provides still more light. The composition should be a little heavier to balance the bookshelves across the room. And like other occasional pieces in living rooms, it's being used to display a small collection (the silver) and store something not immediately in use (the magazines).

There are only two things I find weird or useless about this. First, putting the coffee table books on the BOTTOM of a stack, backward! Huh? The whole purpose of coffee table books is to invite people to look at the pretty pictures. This makes it impossible. I guess it's okay to have them at the bottom of a stack if there is NO WHERE ELSE in the apartment to store them, but the "textural interest" of putting books spine-in defeats the actual purpose of having books. And second, why put the flowers mostly blocking the print? Especially if the print is so "beloved." Either use much lower flowers or put the flowers on top of the (lower without the books) stack of magazine and the boxes in front of the print.

WOW. You people are reading waaaay too much into this. Chill out. It's not in the bedroom. It's a display.

I think it's lovely, and hits the "lived in look" that everyone around here seems to scream for every single time a minimalist interior is shown.

Sometimes, it seems, there is no winning for AT posts.

But I love this style of layered vignette. Funny (to me) that it needs a step-by-step, but it's interesting to see the bones of it come together, I guess.

Junky, cluttered and ...granny. One of the lamps, the flowers, and the three silver pieces were all that was needed. Edit Eddie! Edit, edit, edit!

Hanging the print on the wall would have been better than that huge mirror reflecting the cluttered bookcase.

The only reason I can think of to put all of that cr@p on a dresser is because it was on the floor beforehand.

I am particularly confused by using a stack of paper as decor. If I saw a stack of books like that in someone's home I would totally be creeping behind them to read the spines and see what sorts of dirty books they didn't want me to know they had.

Wow. The majority of people who comment on this site must have the most retched lives EVER. I feel kinda sorry for how awful life must be if you have to expend energy to make such unnecessarily snarky and hateful remarks about a DRESSER. A. DRESSER.

I like it, I think it looks nice. Would I copy that exactly in my own home... probably not, but I'd pull a few style ideas from it as inspiration. And then again I don't actually have room for a dresser in my tiny apartment anyway.

Oy! So much crap on that dresser!

There's a difference between "lived in" and posing. I don't know who could defend this large pile. Imagine this is the way you treated all your open surfaces because you just kept adding stuff to make it look like a spectacularly busy vignette. You would look insane.

How, exactly, do you get that ALL the open spaces in this place are treated this way? Jeez.

And YOU may think this a "spectacularly busy" vignette, but I don't... the limited palette, the repetition of shapes, the symmetry (built then broken)... all keep this from "busy" to me.

I think it's lovely, and lots of ideas to glean from, even if this particular style or the items assembled don't float your boat.

this looks like something you would see in the south - in one of those cute boutique home stores - or Veranda magazine. if there was an AT Atlanta , this post would be a hit.....

patrick (the other one) a.k.a. patrick (in cahoots with Eddie),

you can defend it all you want, but to stack magazines in a way that is not only useless, but leaning (DOES NO ONE ELSE SEE THAT THEY ARE LEANING?) is just plain silly.

Everything else is subjective. But there is absolutely nothing functional OR aesthetically pleasing about that stack of books/magazines...especially when there's a ginormous bookcase reflected in the mirror.

So sad that you think because I can find *something* about this to learn or be inspired from that I am "in cahoots" with Mr. Ross.

from my earlier comment:

"...I do love the shot of hot pink. The combination of the pink with the driftwood is the one inspiring thing I took away from this post. I love it."

sheesh. take a joke? maybe you ARE in cahoots.

Ah, so you TOO are in cahoots with him! I KNEW it!!

there we go.

The whole look is way too grannie for me! Also, from what little bit of the show I did see... he has a horrible attitude.

I love a blog where so many people will weigh in on "accessorize" a dresser! I'm lucky if I can even see the top of my dresser, for all of the stuff I dump on top of it.

As for stacked magazines and books, they might make sense if the dresser were next to a bed, acting as a side table. They make no sense here, and make the area look clogged. The flowers are blocking a framed picture, which again makes no sense and looks messy. The colored candle looks lost, and silly. A candle needs room around it to be functional -- if it's not functional, it doesn't belong there. And why is there a sugar and creamer set on there?

Remove the stack of reading material, move the flowers to the left, ditch the candlestick entirely, place the silver bowl in front of the framed photo (where it can hold jewelry or spare change), and add a small tray in the center if there is room (to catch odd bits). Then you would have a usable dresser top.

It looks like there is about one solitary inch to place stuff that I would use on a daily basis if this were in my home.

That aside, the "dressing" or the "styling" is too poky for my aesthetic, reminiscent of the "Kountry Klutter" look.

The look is a too cluttered for me...maybe if it was toned down a little? Still, I have enough trouble taming my dresser with my everyday things like makeup and jewellery to even think of dumping more stuff on it.

"Impractical", "Useless", "Creepy"? Really???
I LOVE books. I love living with my books. Most importantly, I READ books.

Sometimes, I stack the books I'm using on tables, even though they lean to one side or there is a bookcase nearby (gasp!).

Whew! I'm really tired from reading all these posts...must take nap now!

A little too much stuff for me, but good ideas for creating a vignette for a dresser used in a living room.

Granny gone wild.

Where on that dresser could Rue Mcclanahan place her tube of Bengay, after rubbing her sore muscles from a hardcore night of bingo, chairobics and re-enacting scenes from Maude at the rec centre?

Maybe she could us bowl? A pretty box? An empty can of low sodium pea soup? Anything with an actual purpose would've been better than this contrived mess.

I agree, two lamps on this dresser is one lamp too many (and too much top-heavy symmetry for this size dresser).

But what I hate most is that he seems proud of disguising the "bookness" of books, as if books are a bad thing, and they exist purely as objects to be used for decoration. Books are a good thing and they should be treated as books, not trinkets. Nobody who actually reads books would ever put them with the spine to the wall, because how would they be able to find the book they are looking for? Not to mention that being surrounded by books you love is the best way to feel at home in a space. This guy might as well use "books by the yard" in his house.

And to think that he may be incapable of even reading all the comments here - with the way he treats books it's very possible he's never learned to read.

Two lamps for one dresser....wow what a waste of space.

That's a giant stack of wank mags, for sure.

I'd go with just one lamp, 3-4 books, keep the propped up art, and push the flowers to the side. Result: more room for odds and ends and you'd be able to see yourself in the mirror.

I'm w/patrick (the other one), I found the look charming. Without going to the website I assumed that the bureau was in a living room. The lamps plus mirror mean more light for a dark corner. The flowers in front of the picture: flowers are temporary, so you can put them anywhere you need their loveliness. The books are leaning? They can be straightened. Sheesh! It's an idea, not a tattoo.

As someone who used to hold on to a lot of magazines (I've recently recycled all but Domino and Elle Decor), I know all too well that stacking magazines is useless. They're slippery, they slope backwards...either they will just collect dust or you will forever be frustrated when you go to access them.

The rest of the look is very polished. Stacking magazines is something I thought was cute when I was in college. It's the kind of thing you do one Sunday night because you're bored and then you move them the very next week.

Hey now, I am all for Eddie bringing clutter back. It's my only hope.

I actually liked the black of the dresser picking up the dark colors from the kilim. The flowers in front of the picture bug me, but I think the camera angle is a bit to blame. Looking at the dresser top from above, which we would be if standing by it, the picture would probably be visible behind the flowers. My house is always cluttered with stacks of books (I'm an academic), but I surely don't stack them such that I can't see the titles!

I actually adore it! How fabulous in a living room.

If they are going to leave the clutter, at least remove the mirror - it makes the clutter look doubled. A simple lamp on one side and a vase of flowers on the other would have been perfect - maybe a small book in between.

@foodefafa

Yes! boyfriends and their huge, unnecessary piles of clothes!

Sigh. Someday they'll learn.

Cheers!