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The 2022 Small/Cool Contest Is Here — and Better Than Ever!

Alison Goldman
Alison GoldmanSpecial Projects Director
Alison Goldman is an editor, writer, and TV binge-watcher based in Chicago. She's held editorial positions at Boston.com, WomensHealthMag.com, and Glamour magazine. She's also worked as a full-time freelance journalist, crafting lifestyle and culture content with an emphasis on women’s issues for publications including Cosmopolitan, The Lily from The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Chicago Magazine. She is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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updated Mar 15, 2022
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Small Cool winner 2021
Credit: Lucía Gogenola

What’s small, cool, and back for 2022? The Small/Cool Contest! 

That’s right: It’s once again time for a favorite tradition. Each year, Apartment Therapy hosts the Small/Cool Contest to search for the smallest, coolest real-life spaces around the world. And starting today, you can find all things 2022 Small/Cool Contest on our full contest page.

This year, we’ve given the contest a makeover to make it even more thrilling than before. In previous years, every entrant submitted their home in a size bracket, ranging from Small to Teeny-Tiny, and readers voted for one winner per bracket. Then, judges awarded a grand prize winner out of those finalists. For 2022, though, rather than vote for four bracket finalists, voters will have the chance to weigh submissions against one another regardless of their size — and whittle them down to just one reader-chosen champion!

What will said champion win, you ask? A whopping $3,000, as well as the chance to be featured in an Apartment Therapy house tour!

Plus, this year, Apartment Therapy editors will choose eight superlative winners, including Most Unexpected Use of Color and Best Painted Accent, presented in partnership with BEHR® Paint. These superlative winners will get social media badges — and endless bragging rights.

The fun will officially kick off when submissions open from March 1 at 9 a.m. ET to March 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET. If your home is 1,000 square feet or fewer, you can start prepping your entry now by checking out everything you need to know about the 2022 Small/Cool Contest and perusing the full terms and conditions. You can also read up on how to best take photos of your space. Additionally, this year, you’ll need to submit a room pan video, and you can learn more about that here.

Whether you choose to enter or just want to browse the entries for the small-space inspiration and eye candy, mark your calendars for May 2: After a qualifying round judged by the Apartment Therapy team, that’s when public voting will open on ApartmentTherapy.com. Public voting rounds will continue throughout May and into June, when three finalists will go head-to-head and readers will be able to check out a full video tour of each one’s home.

Then comes the big reveal: We’ll announce the grand prize winner and superlative winners on June 21. 

Ready for all of that? Us, too — we can’t wait to see your Small/Cool homes!

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