Apartment Therapy Archive: Jul 2017

With seven kids, several collections, a plethora of books and TV shows, and often, at least one renovation going on at any given time, the Novogratz are a design duo that’s hardly one to rest on their laurels—or even rest. And they have something new to announce today: a partnership with Amazon for an e-commerce storefront.

Name: Alannah and Alex Location: Vancouver, British Colombia The basics: Two years, rented — 700 square feet Alannah and Alex moved to Vancouver and set about making their apartment a home. With a limited budget, they scoured Craigslist and thrift stores, finding individual pieces they loved and blending them together into one cozy home.

Buying a home together can be complicated. Whether you’re in a relationship, family members, or good friends who are making an investment together, sometimes adding multiple opinions and emotions into a financial situation can get a little dicey. That’s why it’s really important plan out your homeownership logistics before you even get started. If you’re thinking of buying a house with someone else, this post is for you.

(Image credit: Minette Hand) From Kitchn → Use the Minimalists’ 90/90 Rule to Help Declutter Your Kitchen null

Story time: When we first started talking about this at Apartment Therapy, my immediate reaction was, “Machine washable rugs exist?!?” so if you’re reading this thinking, “wait, really?” you’re not alone. (If you did know this already, you can probably still learn a thing or two, and those of us who didn’t know appreciate your patience with us.

Good news: Pottery Barn just added new items to their small space collection, which debuted earlier this year. Check out some of the pieces below: Back in January, the retailer announced a collection of space conscious, multifunctional pieces that represented a new market for a brand that can often be associated with spacious suburban living. And it’s proving successful: What started out in just 15 stores is now expanding to 56 in “thoughtfully selected markets.

Name: Natasha Harden Location: Bella Vista — Oakland, California Size: 725 square feet Years lived in: 4 years, renting Natasha—a Virgo—credits her Zodiac sign for her heightened sense of detail. “I can spend hours thrifting, and trust me, I always find something cute,” she proudly says. “I usually just walk around in a thrift store and I let patterns and textures speak to me.

Meet Katherine Freeman Hocke, a Texas-based artist who specializes in mixed media, layering textures and colors to get her signature look. While she primarily practices her art on canvas and paper (check out her shop here), with her recent purchase of a 1930s home she has begun translating her painterly visions and passion for interiors into DIY-able projects in and around her home.

Christine’s pepto-pink guest room had a lot of potential but needed a ton of work. Wanting to create a space for out-of-towners that is as interesting as it is welcoming, she set off restoring as many original historic features of the room as she could, while making updates to the space to ensure comfort. From Christine: Even before moving into our Edwardian house in Manchester we knew that we had a lot of home improvement work ahead of us.

What do you do with a tiny apartment with a really tall ceiling? Go vertical, of course. The Swedes are experts on design, and experts on small spaces, and this tiny apartment in Gothenburg, which makes brilliant use of its 365 square feet, is just further proof. What this apartment lacks in floor space it makes up in vertical space, and the designers have taken full advantage of that.

HGTV will soon have a new home: Discovery Interactive announced Monday morning that they would acquire Scripps Networks Interactive in a cash and stock deal valued at $14.6 billion. The deal is expected to boost the companies’ leverage when negotiating with pay TV services, they said.

Whether you rent or own, just want a quick makeover or are in need of a full remodel, you’re closer to a classic, sophisticated bathroom than you might think. Don’t believe me? Consider the beautiful bathroom in Diana Marsh’s Michigan home. At first glance it looks like a super high-end dream bathroom, which it certainly is. But look a little closer and take stock of the actual design details in this small space.

You’re going on a two-week trip. You’ve made your lists, you’re running last-minute errands, and you’ve made arrangements for pets and mail. It’s easy to forget about your green household companions, your plants. But if if you do, you’ll come home to find them unhappy or worse. Here are some ways to care for the verdant members of your household when you’re out of town. Before you leave for your trip, remove all dead leaves from each plant.

Name: Jeanie and Tater Tot the Bulldog Location: East Village — New York, New York The basics: 23 years, rented — 850 square feet There’s a perception out there that New Yorkers live and die by the color block. Jeanie has taken that idea and turned it completely on its head, filling her apartment with colors on colors on colors!

Upon closing on their first home, Maria and Eric found themselves in a situation that will probably seem quite familiar to anyone who’s ever looked at real estate in New York: they were the proud owners of a really great apartment with a not-so-great kitchen. The 850-square-foot two-bedroom in Queens was nice and roomy, but the kitchen was small, cramped, and dark, with discolored floor tiles and old, warped cabinets that required a little effort to shut completely.

From minimalist concrete designs to portable "tables," these features make a fun (and functional) focal point for your outdoor space.

Here’s a (slightly lesser known) phrase about people in glass houses: They get a Mediterranean climate. This unique house within a greenhouse on the west coast of Sweden promises just that. Despite winter temperatures that are regularly below freezing, this home near the city of Gothenberg is quite mild, thanks to the greenhouse surrounding it. The three bedroom home was built in 2015, and, thanks to the greenhouse insulation, solar panels, and technology, is quite energy efficient.

Name: Leah and Thom Adair Location: Powderhorn Park — Minneapolis, Minnesota Size: 1,200 square feet Years lived in: Own Leah and Thom inhabit the first floor of a duplex they own in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. Duplexes like theirs dot the streets in almost every neighborhood of Minneapolis, but from the moment you step into the entryway of Leah and Thom’s home, it quickly becomes apparent that this one is a little bit different.

Although you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you can definitely appreciate its presentation. Along with keeping all of your favorite texts organized (and at arm’s length), a well-styled home library can often become an artful centerpiece inside your home; so it pays to come up with thoughtful ideas for book storage. To prove the point, I gathered some cool, contemporary book displays to share for inspiration.

Ever wonder what modern buildings and structures would look like if nature overtook them? Australian photographer Shane Thoms explored Japan searching for such architecture, and it’s now all in this new book, Haikyo, released this month by Carpet Bombing Culture.

Melissa was looking to add some farmhouse style to her home but didn’t want to break the bank doing so. Enter shiplap! An intrepid DIYer, Melissa added a shiplap accent wall without professional help, keeping it well within budget (but not without a few headaches). From Melissa: Shiplap – It’s timeless and classic. It goes hand in hand with farmhouse style and I’ve been patiently (big fat lie – no patience here my friends!

You’d have to be living under a rock (pun very much intended!) to be unaware of how popular geodes, gems and crystals have become in interiors. If I had to say where it all started, I’d point the finger at agate, which started popping up on the reg about five years ago in slice and slab form as coasters, trivets and even tabletops.

Shopping vegan might be easier than you think. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) announced this week the first ever winners of their Vegan Homeware Awards, and some big names are among the mix. “As demand for compassionate and sustainable homeware grows – in line with soaring interest in vegan living – the PETA Vegan Homeware Awards celebrate the best designs and innovations for a cruelty-free home,” the activist organization said in a press release.

(Image credit: Kitchn Video) From Kitchn → How To Restore a Rusty Cast Iron Skillet null

They're entertaining offers over $427,000.

Fans of color, rejoice. The iconic maker of patterned quilted bags, Vera Bradley, has expanded into actual quilts. The company’s first line of bedding launched this week, and is already selling out. The floral meets pattern combo of a Vera Bradley bag gets a fresh twist for the bedroom, with playful paisleys, oversized poppies, and a pared down Swedish motif, to name a few. The line includes quilts, shams, duvet covers, and accent pillows ranging in price from $29.99 to $179.99.

Slate Vault has uncovered some drawings for an alternate vision of one of America’s greatest public spaces: New York City’s Central Park.

Are you a New Yorker who has found yourself chatting with someone from a smaller city, only to discover that their rent is about what you spent on Seamless last month? Okay, an exaggeration (we hope) but it’s safe to say that the contrast between living expenses in New York and those in smaller “secondary” cities can be significant. Recently, Mercer’s Cost of Living survey determined that New York continues to be the most costly US city to live in.

Looking through Etsy can be a dizzying whirlwind, because it offers a mix of garage sale quality bric-a-brac and diamond-in-the-rough vintage gold…you just need the patience to sniff out the latter. To help you pick through the terrain just a little faster to get to the good stuff, we dug through to unearth 10 awesome Etsy storefronts specializing in vintage furniture. They might just inspire you to update a room or two!

Name: Jen Nolan Location: Rittenhouse Square — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Size: Roughly 500 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years, renting When Jen moved to Philadelphia from Washington, D.C., she didn’t have any connections in the real estate world. Like many young professionals, she turned to Craigslist. Thankfully, she stumbled across an ad for a beautiful studio apartment in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of Philadelphia.

The most magical place on Earth is about to go intergalactic: Word on the design streets is that a Star Wars hotel is coming to Disney World in Orlando, and this collision of fantasy worlds undoubtedly has space geeks and theme park enthusiasts pumped. The new luxury resort at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park will be the first of its kind, and true to form, Disney has plans to go all out (of this world) with the hotel design.

Don't let them harsh your design mellow.

Consider this the gallery wall 2.0.

As with so many romances these days, this one began online. Julie spotted this handsome dresser on Craigslist and knew she could truly make something of it. A mix of the original veneer, a new coat of paint and some gorgeous stenciling turned this tired looking piece into a true showstopper. From Julie: I saw this piece on Craigslist and felt like he was winking at me! I knew I had to go and visit him.

Some rugs are so beautiful, banishing them to the floor seems like a tragedy. Filling your vertical space with texture, color and warmth, rugs are the perfect three-in-one design solution for any blank wall in need of a boost. Go big and bold or small and understated, just make sure you hang them properly so gravity doesn’t take its toll on your woven works of art (tips ahead). Jungalow maven Justina Blakeney is no stranger to using rugs in unconventional ways.

Just under six months after announcing its Solar Roof, Tesla has finally put a price tag on those eco-friendly solar tiles that look like the real thing — and they’re actually really affordable. Orders are now being taken for the Tesla Solar Roof at a price of $21.85 per square foot, which is nearly 20 percent less than the cost of a normal roof — even without factoring in the energy savings.

The most interesting and most attractive modern clocks on the market right now. They're sleek, streamlined and ultra-stylish.

Two very popular categories of dreamy real estate include 1) homes in Sweden, and 2) converted churches—and this house just happens to be both. Peek inside this stunning property, which is accepting bids above 2,625,000 Swedish Krona, or $323,559 USD. Built in 1889, this former Baptist church is now an open and airy residence in Högsbo, a town 45 minutes outside of the city of Uppsala.

Just across the river from Portland, Rebekah and Larry found a warm and woodsy mid-century modern gem they now call home.

Name: Jane, Peter and their 3-year-old daughter Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia The basics: One year, owned — 147 square meters (1,582 square feet) Jane and her family live in a Brutalist-style building that they have been renovating and updating to fit their tastes. Fans of clean lines and funky art, the home is calm, curated, and toddler friendly.

Ever feel like somebody’s always watching you? That could be because new reports show that our technology is, actually, spying on us — including our fancy new vacuums. It’s not just our pets who have reason to be skeptical of our Roombas anymore — new announcements by the company’s parent company, iRobot, show that their current business strategy is to collect spatial data (home floor plans and more) from their customers… “with consent.

Before you hop onto the roof of your car on the 405 and bust out some dance moves, we have some devastating news: Life in Los Angeles isn’t like a scene out of La-La Land. But that certainly doesn’t mean that the City of Angels is without merits. With almost four million residents, Los Angeles is a diverse metropolis that attracts people from every corner of the world in search of success, be it professional or personal.

Structurally, there was nothing wrong with the bathroom in Nikki and Chris’ Astoria condo. Aesthetically, it looked a bit like an upscale gas station bathroom from the early 90s. The ‘after’, I think you’ll agree, is a huge improvement. The couple’s vision for their new bathroom was a modern twist on a classic NYC bath.

Time to cash in those vintage casseroles, Pyrex lovers: it turns out that the hoard of collectibles hiding in your hutch could actually be worth beaucoup bucks. As NPR reports this week, some pieces of vintage Pyrex glassware are now selling for as much as $3,000 per piece.

Saving money can be a challenge, which is why many people rely on apps to help them be more money-conscious. It makes sense—your phone is almost always on you, and you’re much more likely to think about the state of your financials when all the info and tools you need are just a click away in your pocket.