7 Pictures from This Year’s House Tours That Apartment Therapy Editors Saved Immediately

Have you ever gone online to do one very specific thing, like respond to an email, and then found yourself in a dreamy house tour trance half an hour later? It’s not your fault. Striking images of beautiful homes can be totally mesmerizing.

For editors at Apartment Therapy, spending hours looking at stunning rooms is just part of the job. They’re used to seeing clever accent walls and beautiful arched doorways pretty much every day. Every once in a while, though, they’ll come across a space so drop-dead gorgeous or shockingly creative that they have to save it as inspiration. Check out these photos from house tours this year that made AT editors hit the save button.

It was love at first sight when managing editor Terri Pous spotted the soaring wood-trimmed windows in Naj Austin’s home tour. One of the Brooklyn apartment’s best features is the bedroom, which is flooded with light from a set of three windows. Austin has turned the window wall into a calming nook with a low cushy chair and plenty of plants. 

“How am I living someplace that isn’t simply flooded with light like that?” Pous says. “I saved this the second I saw it as a reminder to always put windows and natural light at the top of my list of must-haves in a home.”

Color blocking has been around for a while, both in fashion and in home decor, but it doesn’t show up in the bathroom that often. That’s why real estate editor Madeline Bilis was so delighted by this California cabin’s multi-hued sunset-inspired shower that’s straight out of the ’70s. “I’ve often fallen into the trap of thinking that bathrooms should be bright, white, and clean, but now I know that’s simply not true,” Bilis says. “Seventies color palettes belong in every room!” 

If you love being gobsmacked by bold design and color, then you’ll probably adore this Victorian home as much as Tara Bellucci, Apartment Therapy’s news and culture director. “Every mural in Rich O’Gorman’s Birmingham, U.K., home punched me in the face with bold color and pattern, but the dining room is my favorite,” Bellucci says. “I knew I would be saving every single image the moment I saw the overlapping shapes that not only took over his walls, but his ceilings as well.”

O’Gorman bought the home just before the COVID-19 quarantine, and used the time to adorn his home with hand-painted murals and squiggles. He calls the style “retro futurism” inspired by Louis Vuitton and Prada. 

Editorial assistant Sarah Everett was immediately drawn to the simplicity and shapes in Mindy King’s minimal, modern home — especially the sunny little reading nook nestled in a cozy corner. It just so happens to be the homeowner’s favorite part of the house, too. “The sunlight can’t be beat, and we worked to include so many design details to make it feel special and of the original era of the home,” King said in her tour. “Plus, it houses all of our books, and we are all book lovers!”

“While my own home isn’t maximalist, I tend to gravitate toward house tours that are busy and have vibrant pops of color,” says Nicoletta Richardson, senior associate editor of news and culture. That means she loved writer and actress Julie Klausner‘s bold, vibrant, groovy Manhattan apartment — and there was one specific picture she saved immediately. “This bathroom in particular brought my wildest palm leaf dreams to life, with the same pattern covering the walls, ceiling, shower curtain, and even the door! The cheetah-printed floor was an added bonus.”

“I have a little bit of a thing (see: a total thing) for bookshelves,” says special projects director Alison Goldman, “so Becca Freeman‘s bright and airy built-in on a wall of white brick immediately joined my ‘Saved’ posts on Instagram.” The custom bookcase from Soil and Oak ties the whole room together and brings tons of personality to the space. “The brass pipes add a little glamour to the brick walls and is the perfect system for us to display all of Becca’s books and personal items,” said designer Emma Beryl in the tour.

Sara Wenokur, an artist and floral designer, and her partner, musician and software developer Garrett Jones, have a stunningly colorful home built in 1910, known as a “classic Chicago worker’s cottage.” They kept their cottage’s interior walls all white, but managed to fill the inside with tons of color through art and accessories. But indoors isn’t the only place that they added color. House tour editor Adrienne Breaux fell completely in love with all of the color in the backyard, from the added art pieces sprinkled around to the amazing burst of vibrant hues thanks to the flower garden.

“We built raised beds in our last apartment and planted vegetables, flowers, and herbs and it’s been so nice to have our own garden,” they wrote in their house tour. “We’re still both very new to gardening and we made a lot of mistakes this year, but we’re already planning our garden for next year (where we’ll make new mistakes). We have plans for a cut-flower garden, which Sara wants to use for a neighborhood flower stand.”