I think they're all great - all winners to me!

I am so DISAPPOINTED in all of the final FOUR entries.

NONE of them are cool in the least bit. They are all damp, cluttered and messy looking. Just a hot mess for entries.

I can pick out about 10 other entries hands down that smashed these spaces to smithereens. The next time I suggest the other entrants encourage their supporters to create like 50 emails each so they can get votes...especially like that last A frame house mess thingy.

Train Wreck.

Here's the thing for me - once you hit over 500 feet I just don't feel it's that hard to furnish - HUGE numbers of NYers do it, no big deal so unless you do something amazing the smallest space is going to impress me the most - around here 900 sf isnt' small - it's big enough for a family with 2 kids.

^ 519Wilson, they IP check for that, I'm sure.

Congrats to the finalists!

@Cashew...they dont. I know one of the photographers. they honest dont.

oh...so they are quick to delete my emails, but arent quick to check IP addresses.
Quite lame

519Wilson - they do NOT IP check. I tried it out myself. You can vote as many times as you like from the same computer, as long as you sign in with a different AT registration. The cheating was rampant and I emailed AT days ago about it--they didn't respond and they didn't do a thing to stop it. I'm going to email Benjamin Moore about it because I can't imagine they'd want their name associated with this thing.

le_mond is correct. i tried it myself too. they do not IP check.

There are websites like mailinator.com that give you an instant email account -- you don't have to register or sign up or anything. Everytime you refresh the page you get a new email account. And using that, you can register over and over and over again on AT very quickly, voting each time you do it. Imagine if you have two people doing this together? You could easily vote a couple hundred times for yourself in less than an hour.

FYI to all who are concerned: Rest assured, we did a thorough review of all the IPs once the voting closed yesterday at noon. Corrections and adjustments were made as per our rules: they can be reviewed right here.

That's baloney, Janel.

Some clarification is probably in order. My place finished yesterday with 900 'favorites', and Nicole's finished with 954. She was the clear winner. But today I look at my place and it's down to 708 faves and Nicole's is...954. Are you saying that almost 200 IP addresses voted for my place twice and not a single one voted twice for Nicole's? I'm not claiming I should have won, clearly I didn't, but I just think the process should be spelled out more clearly.

Also I of course wish the cheating hadn't happened at all. If all I truly earned was 708, that's what I should have received.

As a suggestion for future contests - in addition to the space, I'd like to see a division between renters and owners. I think there is a significant difference between a renter who can make a killer home in a small space and an owner who does. Renters aren't as likely to be willing to commit major dollars to the effort and are more likely to be living with stricter restrictions to what they can do to their space.

I agree with Heathah. Bigg difference between renting and buying. Good Point!

There is probably a way for computer savvy people to disguise their IP address.

I also think that it takes a lot more imagination and talent to make a great living space out of under 400 square feet than it does to do the same with 800 to 999 square feet. This is the first year I actually participated, having just looked at archives of last year's contest when I discovered Apartment Therapy. I guess I mistakenly thought there would be a bit more voting in some brackets, etc. This process is unfair that the earlier one gets their entry in they obviously have more time to collect votes and perhaps cheater-voters as well.

Well, my whole reason for looking at contest entries every day is to see the teeny tiny and some of the tinys.

Thanks to all entries in the teenys and the tinys. You are all the real winners.

Levelor: it's pretty simple if you use the right type of proxy.

That said, I really doubt that most of the people here would go to such lengths. Besides a few of the more rabid commenters, the contest has seemed to be pretty friendly.

Also, I like how different the vibes of this year's division finalists are from last year's winners. Keeps things interesting.

My one suggestion: can we bring back to playoff system next year? I thought that was a lot more fun! And, for those who freely favorite many different apartments (and why shouldn't they?), it gives them an opportunity later on to really decide which apartments they'd prefer. Plus, just a month after March Madness, who isn't missing the fun of a bracket?

I agree with azr2005 - I liked the system better in previous years as well, with a round of favoriting however many you wanted, and then having the apartments actually compete against each other.

I liked the playoff system too!

I'm usually inclined to believe in the honesty of AT and that the voting was fair. However, it's difficult when three of the four are new york apartments, particularly three being in Brooklyn. That feels fishy.

AND... the last time I checked, "cool" didnt necessarily have to mean pale walls with big dark furniture artfully arranged in a small space. What happened to some of the other types of small cool homes?

Concerning the IP filtering and cheating. You are correct that there is no mechanism to *block* multiple votes from a single IP. The reason for this is due to NAT Based networks where entire offices share a single public IP. We certainly don't want to bar an entire office from participating and voting for a friend!

As the rules state there needs to be a single user per vote but abuse will be tended to. We do look for blatant abuses where a number of votes are coming from a single IP and follow specific patterns. It's tricky and it may even be *too* sensitive - sometimes the Apartment Therapy offices even show up as suspicious!

But rest assured, every cheating allegation was looked into (including le_monds) and while we cannot catch every single one we spent a great deal of time trying to catch as many as possible while not invalidating legit votes. We will continue to refine the process and do what we can to keep the voting clean and fun in spirit of the contest!

I also miss last years system, seemed more exciting and I was much more engaged. I also think a rent/own division would be a great addition next year!

In regards to cheating, I believe these are all great spaces that deserve to be in the finals. AT puts on a great contest and I am sure they did what they could to keep this fair. Unfortunately there is a ton of technology dedicated to creating false IPs and AT can't be held accountable if some bored hackers with too much time on their hands want to ruin everyone else's honest fun!

Michael's home is the best..so perfect.

Why doesn't AT just have a team of professionals judge the contest? You could still have a vote and recognize the most popular entry, but if the winner was determined by judges it would take away the incentive to cheat with the voting.

@mholtgreive - I agree about the white rooms with a few pieces of big dark furniture. I noted the same elsewhere for one of the contestants (not in the finals) - that there seemed to be (boring) trendy trend this year of apartments with white, white, white (white walls, white curtains, white sofas, white dishes, white dining room chairs, etc.) accented either with a piece of dark wood furniture (or cabinet) or other dark furnishing. And that those types of spaces appeared to be climbing the charts. Someone elsewhere called it the West Elm look.

Seems to be the "hot" look this year. I miss the more eclectic, individually unique space of prior years in the finals. I'm pretty surprised that the "Jewel Box" entry didn't make it in its Tiny category - Jordan's space, while nice enough, is pretty boring in comparison.

I've often thought that voters should have to have been a member of AT for at least 6 months. What I find when I look at the people commenting on the entries is that so many have just registered that day. That's the fishiest thing to me.

I second other's suggestions for revisiting the voting rules. I think either a bracket, combining judges and voter scores (dancing with the stars style) or requiring people to vote for more than one (so arbitrary... but 3-5?) entries would make it more time-consuming for the cheats. I've read this site nearly daily for the last year and it was disheartening to see bad sportsmanship. Soured the 2011 competition. I know that it isn't life or death, but contestants put so much of themselves into the contest that they deserve a contest free from BLATANT cheating and over the top offensive comments. This community exists year round and usually is a fun place to read and interact, learn and become inspired.

Thanks for the votes everyone! My entry was only up for a week and I came in 3rd. Look for a full AT house tour soon!
-casey
reclaimedspaces.net

Was Ariel's Jewel Box disqualified? I thought it was leading the Tiny category when voting ended and now isn't even listed as one of the entries. It could just be my work computer, it's pretty buggy... but seems strange. Am I wrong about this?

@dezzy2...she's still there. Jordan's space won that category

I was so bummed when I found out the play-off style voting of last year wasn't going to be used again. I found that much more engaging - it continued the fun, and let you really hone in on the spaces that you loved. Really hope you'll bring back this method of voting for next year.

Wow, its unfortunate there is all this innuendo and controversy.

I loved Jordan's and Julia's from the get go, I don't think they are damp, cluttered and messy at all. Both of these are completely different from my own style, but I can appreciate just the same. I was surprised there are no finalists with a modern asthetic. I don't really get Michael's, it never appealed to me. And Nicole's, well I loved her couch but it was all very dark for me, not well lit.

I guess I was just confused because the comment thread from May 1 has Jordan congratulating Ariel. Also, someone posted on Jordan's that they were sorry she hadn't won. I think this may be a case where some votes were disqualified because of IP address after the round closed. Either way - congrats to the 4 finalist and the International winner.

Yeah, dezzy2, Jordan wasn't in 1st when the voting ended. But after the recount she was in the lead. Or at least that's my guess.

Congrats to the finalists, but I have to admit I don't like any of these apartments as final choices. So, I'll refrain from voting. As someone else said, there were just so many interesting and well -laid spaces. It's hard to believe this is what rose to the top. Not for nothing, but perhaps having the "Dancing with the Stars" pro's plus popular votes is the way to go. This contest could use the turn of a critical eye. It seems the masses are beginning to buy into an aesthetic and vote the "right" way, rather than bringing an eye for creativity to the system.

I also liked the bracketed system from last year a lot more. It appears people would defenitely benefit from an opportunity to rethink some of their choices...

As for rent vs. own category, that's an idea. But in the end, the house with the builder's standard brass chandelier will not be getting my vote, even if "landlord's rules" won't let you touch it. So long as we're talking about applauding someone who truly meets a challenge, and not giving a "pass" for a marginal design, then I'm all for it.
Sometimes we just have to take a harder look at our surroundings. Just because your space works for you doesn't mean it's primed for competition.

Oops! "pros" and "definitely". Don't kill me, Spelling Police!

I'm with you on the finalists 519. I can't believe these are the finals out of the spaces I saw. The same thing happened last year too.

I guess I'll forego participating in the future if this is not tallied properly.

hmm, guess i will enter the fray. i see no problem with any of these entries winning their category; i trust that AT took whatever steps it deemed reasonable to reduce or eliminate cheating. however, it seems that maybe in the future a rule should be added that contestants should have to wait until after the contest to have their homes featured on other popular websites. ahem, jordan's sneak peak on d*s today... seems like some really great timing?? i would love to see more than 5 photos for ALL the entries; not fair that only one gets this privilege by being featured on another website that i am sure shares a lot of readers with AT. just my 2 cents.

Just to add another vote: the play-off system seemed more fair, and so was the limited time of favoriting each new batch of entries. Last year had its share of unfair (e.g. AT-picked highlights from the pool of entrants, which mostly ended up placing on top), but this time borders on arbitrary.

methinks Small & Cool has finally jumped the shark :(

and not based on the entries, just based on the comments in the comment section and poor sportsmanship in general. Way to go folks! You've ruined it.