Apartment Therapy Archive: Aug 2012

Say you’re going to have a dinner party and you’re using tumblers instead of stemware. Well, this simple balloon trick makes your average cup look like high-end dipped glassware. Want to see how it works? • Balloon Glassware The Kitchn

Nothing is quite as frustrating as knowing you have something and not being able to find it. And when you work from home — whether you’re meeting with clients or just handling the family finances — frustrating can quickly turn into agonizing. Instead of scrambling, employ a ‘First Order Retrievability’ organization philosophy, like Adam Savage of Mythbusters.Nobody knows tools better than the Mythbusters.

When most people see wood pallets they think only of garbage or maybe even kindling. When Olga saw the pallet pictured above she saw possibility. She lugged the pallet home and set about finding a way to use it. After it sat in a corner for a month, Olga finally gave the pallet new life.The cracks, knots and other markings on the pallet were part of what Olga loved about it. So when it came time to make use of the pallet in her home, Olga didn’t want to change the character of it too much.

Living in a small space, we’ve had to get creative with play time. There is no toy room or even toy corner for that matter in our home. Every toy either has to be incorporated into our adult furnishings or have the ability to be stored in the few nooks and crannies that we possess. Here are ten clever ideas I’ve discovered that allow your child to play in a big way without sacrificing space.

This is more of a new-to-me cleaning tip, since apparently I’m very late to the black tea party. However, I just tried a homemade black tea window cleaner yesterday and I’m very excited with the results!Our windows were in desperate need of some cleaning after a month of street construction and daily run ins with two children whose hands are always sticky. What is that about? Why do children have perpetually sticky fingers? One of life’s great mysteries, I suppose.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Inspired by a pin or two of chalkboard walls in kitchens, I thought it fitting to have a chalkboard menu prominently on display in the dining room. So I DIY’ed a chalkboard-painted piece of plywood on the wall. Easy, not-permanent, moveable, perfect. • DIY Chalkboard Menu Board The Kitchn

Sometimes you have to downsize, for one reason or another, to a kitchen with less storage and space. Here are some of the most important elements needs to keep organized and functional. • Downsized Kitchens Apartment Therapy

Room dividers can be useful in a shared kids’ room, a studio apartment, or a large loft — but they’re often very pricey. If you’re on a budget and searching for ways to separate space, here are 10 options under the $100 mark. IKEA Their thin, sheer panel curtains can be hung from ceiling tracks to create room dividers that separate space but still let light through, and they carry nearly 30 styles and colors.

Angela recently made the decision to free herself from cable and was worried all she’d be watching was P90X infomercials. She agreed to share her experience transitioning over to the Roku 2 XS… •

Recently I helped a friend get her home ready for an AirBnB photo session, We had, literally, 5 minutes while the photographer unpacked so I pulled out my favorite trick and went to work. • Trick to Pull a Room Together Apartment Therapy

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) With so much produce at our fingertips this season, it’s time for a refresher on the proper way to store various fruits and vegetables. Here are the best ways to store apples, tomatoes, fresh basil, and many, many more varieties of fresh produce. • Fruit + Vegetable Storage The Kitchn

Name: Sarah Alba, Matt, & Ashlyn Alba Location: San Rafael, California Size: 1800 square feet Years lived in: 6 — owned Sarah’s impeccable taste and pro styling was first noted, here on Apartment Therapy, in Sarah’s House Call. Now we’re back with more! As a location scout, stylist, and field editor for many well-known publications, it’s Sarah’s job to enhance interiors, and she’s really good at it.

Name: Paige & Michael Blackburn, Asher, Micah and LilahLocation: Mapleton Hill, Boulder, ColoradoSize: 2,100 square feet, plus 320 square foot Carriage HouseYears lived in: 3 Months, Own About a year ago the Blackburn family decided to move to Mapleton Hill, one of Boulder’s oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods.

Couch shopping is inevitably a stressful situation for me I somehow always end up with the wrong couch. Follow me after the jump to see what I have learned from my past couch failures. • 4 Couches in 16 Years Apartment Therapy

Whether you’re ready or not, here we are in the last week of August, and if you have wee ones at home, it’s back to school time. While those little pre-packaged snacks are appealing in their simplicity, making your own can be just as easy. • No-Bake Energy Bars The Kitchn

You’ve made the decision to downsize. What do you do when your carefully-selected assortment of furniture doesn’t fit into your teeny-tiny new living room? Well, edit. • Downsized Living Room Apartment Therapy

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Alina takes the best of what a country’s cooking and design tradition has to offer and brings it into her home. All the materials are natural and all the colors are warm. It seems that, aside from the food, everything about this kitchen will last forever. • Alina’s Exotic Cooking Lair

I will never forget the wagon wheel coffee table scene from When Harry Met Sally, which captures so beautifully those early tensions about how to decorate a shared home… and gives a glimpse of the brutal division of property that comes with divorce…Harry and Sally are over at the new apartment of their newly in love friends (Jess and Marie), who have just moved in together and are negotiating whether to keep Jess’s ridiculous coffee table.

Name: Natalie and KevinLocation: Parkdale, Toronto, CanadaSize: Approx. 1500 square feetYears lived in: 9 months; Rented When searching for a new place to call home, Natalie and Kevin never dreamed they could find such a spacious, bright, and charming place within their budget in the city. Nine months after moving in, Natalie is still pinching herself.

Bird in the house! Bird in the house! Oh my God, there’s a bird in the house! OK, first things first: Relax, this happens to everybody. (It does, right? It’s not just me?) I personally ran through about a million scenarios before remembering that I know absolutely nothing about birds. So while the bird continued to fly around in a crazy tizzy as though it were my fault he was trapped in my house, I called a friend who owns like 10 birds.

During the first year of living in my first ‘real’ apartment, my now-husband’s family asked what they could get me for my birthday. I responded by asking for a power drill. While I think they thought it was a strange request, they obliged, and ten years later it’s still one of my most used tools. Just because you don’t own your home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have your own toolkit for repairs and improvement.

We’ve talked before about simplifying your life by paring down your email addresses to two, but today we’re going to encourage you to use at least four. Why? Read on for the details as to why we’ve had a change of heart.Three Reasons Why at Least Four Email Addresses are a Good Idea: 1. Personal & Work. recommended2. Spam. Ever enter a contest where you just know they’re going to send you unwanted email, but you still want to enter and not have to deal with unsubscribing?

Titia was out running errands when she decided to swing by one of her favorite junk stores. While wending her way through back streets, she came upon a treasure trove of furniture just being discarded, and hopped out to look. Her luck held when she found two pieces she knew she could work with — and when a passerby offered to help her load them into her car!Even before she began stripping off that terrible brown paint, Titia was certain she had found a very special piece.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Around here, a perfectly ripe avocado can induce mania and ecstasy. Forget drugs — let’s just do avocados. We have the best of avocados for you today, from one brilliant piece of advice on how to pick a good avocado, to smart tips on dicing and storing them. • Avocado Tips

I inherited this pull-out wooden cutting board with our condo but use it rarely due to its damage. Since I’ve started a new bread-baking habit, it was time to at least get to cleaning and caring for it. • Clean Your Cutting Board Apartment Therapy

Name: Mark, Charmaine, Alexandra (8), Mateo (5) and Sabrina (19 months)Location: New Berlin, WisconsinSize: 2,600 square feetYears lived in: 3 years; owned Three years ago, Charmaine and Mark wrote Apartment Therapy to ask readers’ advice about painting the oak trim in their recently purchased home.The home had beautiful bones, but with all that wood, it was looking a bit too dated for their tastes.

I can’t tell you how easy this project is. Seriously, my bloodhound could do it. This is also one of those things you can do to make yourself happy as a renter, but that won’t piss your landlord off. After removing it, just keep the old light and put it back up before you move out.

Whether you’re telecommuting or just being productive in your off time, when working from home it’s always good to have a dedicated space to get things done. A traditional office desk certainly works, but more frequently people are finding unique alternative solutions for working at home.Sitting for long periods of time generally means low physical activity and maintaining a less than favorable posture.

We've weighed out some pros and cons of inkjet vs. laser printers below to help you figure out which is best built for use in your home.

Name: Craig ShimalaLocation: River West, Chicago, IllinoisSize: 990 square feetYears lived in: 3 years; Owned Most people tend to shy away from labeling themselves as hoarders, but Craig has made the fact that he “doesn’t throw anything out” a central part of his aesthetic. Showcasing an impressive collection of vintage nautical-themed knick-knacks, Craig’s cozy Chicago apartment manages to embrace the collector within, while managing to remain uncluttered without.

Last weekend, the long-awaited mid-century modern credenza my husband and I had purchased arrived at our home. But it wasn’t carried in by two heavy lifters in white gloves. Rather, a 60-some year old woman stood at the door and pointed us to the 35-foot moving truck that contained the seven-foot-long, solid teak beauty. “I have a bad shoulder”, she explained as she led us toward the truck. Uh oh.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Whether it’s finding a clever way to make use of every last inch of space, or developing a way to keep appliances and utensils neat and organized, we love clever kitchen storage solutions. Here are 15 examples: • 15 Storage Solutions The Kitchn

Sicilian-born artist and actor Vincenzo Amato shows us how to make perfect Italian “caffe”. This is the first in a series of coffee rituals that connect people to their space. • How To Make Italian Caffe Apartment Therapy

Once you make homemade nut milks at home, you’ll likely stop buying them at the store. They really are so simple, and it’s nice knowing exactly what’s in them and being able to completely control the amount of sweetness on your own. • DIY Nut Milks The Kitchn

Changing out a light fixture can be an easy, relatively quick way to update a room, and it can often make a dramatic difference. Here’s a quick guide on removing the old fixture, leaving just what you need to connect your new one. • safety glasses• circuit tester• screwdriver• step stool or ladderInstructions1. First, shut off the power at the breaker or fuse box.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) We’ve shared a few tips before on how to best separate eggs, but this trick made us stop in our tracks. We can’t understand a word of the video, but the visuals are so compelling that we don’t need to. Prepare to be amazed: • Egg Separating Trick The Kitchn

Do you have wood floors that have seen a bit of abuse or been hiding under carpet for years? You can refinish them yourself for just a couple hundred dollars. • Refinishing Wood Floors Apartment Therapy

Name: Michelle Konar Location: Upper West Side — Manhattan, New York Size: 330 square feet Years lived in: 2.5 years; Rent As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Michelle learned to hone her creativity. As a graduate she has taken those skills and applied them to her work in advertising, as well as in her home. Unafraid to take on a project, she is always looking for ways to improve her space.

They said it couldn’t be done—a table that’s minimalist at its core but still makes a major decorative statement. Thankfully, an idea for just a table came to the forefront of modern design in 1956 thanks to Eero Saarinen, a Finnish-American architect. He created what’s lovingly known as the “tulip” table in an effort to simplify what he saw as a jumble of table and dining chair legs that he felt many other designs had.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Inside a nondescript warehouse on a busy street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Keavy Landreth makes some of the most delicious mini cupcakes I’ve ever had. Join us as we tour her kitchen! • A Visit To Kumquat Cupcakery The Kitchn

Do you have some gorgeous wood floors that have seen a bit of abuse? Have they been hiding under carpet for years? Getting them professionally refinished is the easiest way to give them a facelift, but you will pay a pretty penny to do so. If you are handy and willing to take on a bit of a project, you can actually go about doing this yourself for just a couple hundred dollars.

We are taking our first big family vacation this fall (off-season prices rock!) and already I am hearing choruses of “how many more days until we go to the beach?” Whether it’s a vacation, school break, holiday, or some other special occasion, help your kids keep up with the countdown and visualize the time left with one of these creative calendars.1. Here’s an easy one that takes only minutes and requires no special supplies — a paper chain!

It is obvious that Karen must a dedicated DIYer with an artist’s eye if she could find the beauty in this dilapidated dresser. Her father-in-law rescued this dresser from the dumpster knowing that Karen would be able bring this piece back to life.After waiting for inspiration to strike, Karen got to work scraping and stripping and sanding to remove the layers of peeling paint. She then painted the dresser in a slate grey and created a pattern to help celebrate her 19th wedding anniversary.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) I have a beautiful wooden spoon, one of my favorite things in my kitchen. It was carved by hand and because of that, it was expensive. So when I stumbled on an old article from Mother Earth News on how to carve your own wooden spoon, I was intrigued. • DIY

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Cold from the fridge, a cup of watermelon is my favorite August treat. Here’s the best way I’ve found to quickly and easily cut a watermelon into neat, even cubes for snacks and salads. • Cutting a Watermelon The Kitchn

Before I took on this assignment, I really didn’t think that my fridge was that dirty. Well, let’s just say that I was wrong. In case you too have fallen victim to that somewhat subtle accumulation of of grit and grime, follow along for my step-to-step guide to getting rid of the mess.Here’s a before photo just so you can grasp the full extent of this transformation.

Name: Jennifer Chong – Designer & Photographer Location: Belmont Heights – Long Beach, California Size: Around 400 square feet Years lived in: 3 years Jennifer’s small space proves that you can be happy living with just what you need. She loves to travel, so she would much rather have experiences than expensive stuff. Still, with all the fun artwork, graphics, and small accessories, her live/work space is very lively and inviting.