apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Adorable pug in the one shot!! Oh, and the designs are great, too. Love the first and last room the best.

Home as art....they don't all look terribly liveable, nor practical, but sure as heck look beautiful.

I love that wall color in the first one.

anyone know who painted the portrait in pic #2?

I had the same thought as CliveChristy- some really beautiful photos, but a few seemed a bit too staged to be practical. People talk about how photos of skinny celebs only serve to make average women feel bad about themselves. I look at interior design photos like these and have a similar reaction because I know my house will never look like this! I suspect that many people with small children feel that way!

wish i could see more of the rooms in context. what was shown was very beautiful.

I like the feeling of density in the kitchen shots - these photos make storage into a really lively art form.

I think some of the subtle touches could be quite livable - the wall of white oval plates in the last photo, and her combination of utilitarian metal shelves with warm antique-feeling shades of paint and light caught my eye.

I don't have small children, so maybe I can't be objective, but I try to make the view through every doorway and down every hall a vignette. It's not that hard, and if you cleverly don't permit the surfaces involved to become catchalls, even with other areas being messier, those views can make a place seem tidier overall.

One of my favorites is looking upstairs from the stair landing (halfway up the flight.) A small section of wall faces the stairs (it's the side of the closet in the hallway) and next to it is an open hallway that terminates in a bedroom, and through the bedroom, to a window. In the bedroom you can see a black leather chair and ottoman next to a trunk, with a ficus tree behind, in front of the window. That's in the distance. On the small wall facing the stairs, I have a heavily carved Indonesian (or something) panel that is an ogee arch shape, hanging over two very small nested tables holding an arrangement of silk orchids. There is no room on the tables to stash stuff, so they always look nice.

SherryBinNH, I really like your idea about focusing on the views through doors and hallways. That makes sense that you can compensate for less perfect areas elsewhere in your rooms with this trick, since almost no one can pull off perfection all the time, in every corner of each room. I'm going to try it!

I love the yellow toaster. Can you tell me where you got it?

I agree ThreeBySea. I love the beautiful pieces in many of the pics....but they are mostly impractical around young children.

this is an old post so but i'm commenting anyway!
I WANT THE KITCHEN IN PHOTO 6!