Apartment Therapy Archive: Oct 2018

Some spooky, some funny, all amazing.

After a hotel stay, we typically gather our belongings—instantly disconnecting from our temporary home—and never look back. London based photographer, Giulia Dini, embarked on a photo journey to tell the story of freshly abandoned hotel rooms and the guests that once occupied the space. Her series, “Left Behind,” explores popular Milan hotels Principe Di Savoia, LaGare, and STRAF after guests have departed, to explore the remnants of what they’ve left.

Well before announcing their engagement in August, Nick Jonas was already planning his future with Priyanka Chopra by locking down the property that they will call home. The singer invested a whopping $6.5 million into this Beverly Hills pad back in April for the couple to share once they’re married, according to Realtor.com.

In cities with a remarkably high cost of living, it’s likely that life requires you to work 45-plus hours a week and pull a side hustle. While some people love to practically live at work, most strive for that elusive perfect work-life balance. And then there are even some who strive for less work and more life.

Now I sleep so much better.

Know the thing that you’re constantly bumping into at your house? Come on, you know you have one. Well, if you live in a small space, you probably do. For me, it was the tiny stand that my bedroom television’s cable box was on. There’s not much of a walkway between my bed and the wall, but we wanted a TV in there and had to have the cable box because, well, local sports. So with the box came the need for a tiny table to hold it.

If you thought those cheap plastic dinosaur toys from your youth would only come in handy when you babysit, it’s time to think again. Turns out those colorful cuties can be repurposed into some surprisingly snazzy home decor items—it just takes a little imagination. Read ahead for a few fun ways to upcycle those old plastic dinosaurs you and your cousins used to play with. The only thing better than a charming succulent planter is one that you made on your own.

From Whippets dressed up in cardboard At-At Walker armor to Golden Retrievers in cone-of-shame martini glasses, there are few things cuter than dogs in Halloween costumes. And thanks to Canine Journal, we now know the states where you’re most likely to see them IRL—plus the dog costumes projected to be the most popular for 2018, and tips for making sure your pupper is having as much fun as you are.

Name: Chris McGovern Location: NoMad — Manhattan, New York Size: 925 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years, owned In a city full of high-rises often with floors of identical apartments, Chris was keen to find a space that was both architecturally unique and required some renovation to put his own touch on it. He gravitated towards loft spaces throughout his search. In 2017, he purchased a loft in Manhattan on the border between Chelsea and NoMad.

Kitchen renovations are basically one long series of compromises. Stumble upon a Ferrari red Bertazzoni range at half price? Obviously you have to slash the budget elsewhere (many elsewheres) to make that the star of the new kitchen. More often than not, these compromises are focused on the savings and not the splurging. Those splurges are oh-so-tempting, though, and wait for you around every corner—and on every Pinterest or Instagram refresh.

You may have heard of “mise en place” when it comes to cooking— it’s the French culinary concept that advocates having all your ingredients and tools in place before you start working—but have you ever heard of mise en place cleaning? Well, we’re here to tell you that despite it sounding quirky, it’s every bit as beneficial as the cooking style.

Oh Command strips, where would we be without you? The perfect combination of strong and sticky, these little tabs are a mainstay in most people’s junk drawers. Like many of you, I’ve been a hardcore Command strips fan for years. Back in college, I would use ’em to hang everything from frames, to long mirrors, to that ubiquitous poster of Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

When I was little, my sisters and I had a pop-up Barbie camper, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. This real-life camper is just like that, right down to the kitchen in a slide-out drawer—and unlike the Barbie version, it can be ready to go in just 30 seconds. This one, called the iCamp, is a design of Dutch company Udo Camp. Making Barbie’s camper move-in ready required painstakingly fitting together a series of teeny-tiny connectors and support poles.

This tiny kitchen was making its owner feel claustrophobic. All it took was $30 and a couple of hours to add breathing room—and beauty—without losing any storage space. Here’s what inspired this ultra-approachable upgrade: Unfortunately, I have a tiny kitchen… as in “two’s a crowd” kind of tiny. Cabinets on top, limited counter space and cabinets on the bottom. Pretty standard and does the job, usually.

They say good things come in small packages—and fans of the tiny house movement seem to agree. More and more people are giving up typical homes (and typical mortgages) and choosing the pared-down experience of living in small prefab homes—but that doesn’t mean sacrificing luxury or comfort. Here are five examples of prefab homes that pack a ton of upscale amenities into tiny spaces.

Having plenty of Halloween candy to pass out—and then some—is not optional. Which sparkly princess or toddling robot with an upturned, hopeful face and proffered bucket could you tell “Sorry, we ran out of treats”? Not happening. And then there’s the kids coming home with their hauls from which they’ll pick a designated ration of their favorites (plus your tithe) and all that leftover candy. Sometimes there’s way too much of a good thing.

Name: Irene Kim Coppedge, husband and two kids Location: San Diego, California Size: 3,500 square feet Years lived in: 3 years, owned Two kids, two adults, two goldfish (Kiwi and Porkchop), and one hamster (Hammy) live in our happy home. We purchased it in 2014 and moved in after a medium-sized renovation. We live in a part of San Diego that is full of wonderful, unique, old homes and it’s hard to find something that is “move-in” ready.

For 10 days at the end of October, Apartment Therapy wants to help you get ahead on the holidays. Together, we’re checking off doable daily tasks to get one step closer to the effortless holiday season you deserve. Sign up now (it’s free!) so you don’t miss a thing. Culture has a way of evolving a vocabulary to embrace and explain humanity’s common eccentricities.

There is nothing more therapeutic than playing with a pup (or ten) when you’re stressing. The second you graze over their adorable little hairs on their adorable little head, all the worries of the world seem far, far away—right where they should remain. What if we told you playing with dogs and getting paid to do it could be in your future?

You want to redecorate your living room, but you don’t know where to start. Do you decide on a color palette first and then choose your furnishings, or wait to find a staple piece you can’t do without and stem inspiration from there? And if the later, with every furniture website having endless pages of products, how do you decide?

LEGOs aren’t just for the kiddos. If you miss those colorful building blocks of your childhood, you’ll love this DIY coffee table from California-based art director Yusong Zhang. It took him three weeks to make and over 10,000 brick pieces. But what’s perhaps most surprising is how modern and sophisticated it looks in his living room. The table, made of four concentric layers, is made up of exactly 10,480 pieces.

The old adage is to take off at least one accessory before leaving the house, but that doesn’t ring true when it comes to house decor. When it comes to art in your home, sometime more is really more. Floor-to-ceiling gallery walls not only bring a touch of color and busy-ness into a room, but it also lets you flex your creative muscles, allows you to bring character into the space, and lets you show your personality through the paintings and prints you choose. So why not layer up on it?

As you undoubtably already know, Amazon is a never-ending pit of kitchen gadgets, groceries, decorative items, and thousands (millions?) of other things. It can be overwhelming! To help you navigate the pages—and pages!—of products, we polled the kitchen experts from our sister site Kitchn to see what goodies they recently bought for their own spaces. Here’s what everyone’s been shopping for, why they love their purchases, and how they’re using them.

Spoilers ahead for season one of “Forever.” With the Fall 2018 season underway, we are returning to some our favorite TV abodes, and getting invited inside a few new ones. Join us this month as we explore the best homes on the small screen. Show: “Forever”—Season one streaming on Amazon Prime.

In your first year of owning your own home, every new day brings on a new challenge. And thanks to that fresh and dewy homeowner glow, you’re poised to tackle them all. Who cares if the wall is crooked and the kitchen is in disarray—they’re yours. Owning a home isn’t all good feelings, though. And people don’t seem to want to discuss all the bad vibes that can frequently come along with buying your own first place… What if the neighbors are horrible?

I’m a lazy holiday decorator. I’m completely fine with throwing a pumpkin or gourd on the table, and calling it a day. If said decorations work for multiple holidays, all the better. Which is why I love walking into Trader Joe’s. Groceries aside, there’s always some new, seasonal item found right inside their front door—pumpkins, eucalyptus, and alstroemerias to name a few— that I can buy and keep around for months.

The lower Manhattan studio she's inhabited for a decade with her partner Fred exudes freedom and fearlessness.

Some of the world’s most iconic homes, such as Philip Johnson’s Glass House, now function as “House Museums.” Every day, numerous visitors enter the homes to marvel at their style—and every day, the buildings’ house managers are tasked with creating an intimate, homey setting, and keeping up with maintenance so people can continue visiting for years.

Look, we know when you get home after a long day of work the last thing you want to think about is cleaning, but like it or not, it’s a great time to get a little light housekeeping done. If you commit yourself to cleaning a small handful of things before you change out of your work clothes, you’ve got yourself some instant motivation and the opportunity to set yourself up for a calm (and clean) evening of chilling at home.

With the cold weather comes the opportunity to snuggle up to the fireplace, cuddle under a fleece blanket, and cradle a hot cup of tea for the entire day (or entire season, whatever your availability allows.) And what better place to do that than in the comfort of a snug tiny cabin? In short, these micro wooden wonders that we speak of are tiny houses with a rustic twist. Think log cabin, but shrunken down a size (or two).

For its 40th birthday, this home received the ultimate gift: a completely new kitchen. With the renovation supervised by a toddler, this overhaul was completed in just a month and a half. Here’s a little backstory about the process: We bought this house six weeks before giving birth to our baby. We had really hoped to find a house before he was due and after searching for literally a year, we found this one.

Multipurpose seems to be in IKEA’s DNA—the Swedish brand is always churning out collapsible, mobile, and transformable products with handy features. Design chameleons, as I like to call them. You think something’s a table, then all of a sudden, pull the pieces apart and you’ve got a storage basket and a tray. IKEA also seems to understand that small space living is on the rise, and this trend calls for items with dual functionality.

Name: Heather Morgan, husband, three kids (Saige 8, Ivy Mae 4 Judah 1), two cats Location: Davis, California Size: 1,222 square feet Years lived in: 3 years, owned We are a labor and delivery nurse and an engineer-turned-landscape designer making a simple life for our three kids. We live in a small space and both work part-time in an effort to focus on our family life and the needs of our little ones post the birth of our youngest child who is medically complex.

For 10 days at the end of October, Apartment Therapy wants to help you get ahead on the holidays. Together, we’re checking off doable daily tasks to get one step closer to the effortless holiday season you deserve. Sign up now (it’s free!) so you don’t miss a thing. Just because you need something doesn’t mean it needs to be purchased. There are a lot of reasons to try your hand at DIY: It can be cheaper, less wasteful, and it’s a heck of a lot more fun.

Fans of Rifle Paper Co. are already well-acquainted with Anna Bond’s gorgeous illustrations and for good reason. She has a way of creating images that are at once high-style and lighthearted, from her iconic florals to her travel-inspired prints. In short, they just make you smile. And while the brand is best known for things like greeting cards, stationery, calendars, and wall art, that’s all about to change. As of October 29, Rifle Paper Co.

While all sorts of design trends come and go, there’s a reason traditional style sticks around. Classic as vanilla ice cream, New Traditional rooms are always chic. And now you can get the look without spending a ton or waiting a million weeks for shipping: Amazon just launched Ravenna Home, its latest furniture brand that’s all about “classic style made simple.

If you’re on the hunt to buy a home, chances are you’ve been saving up for that down payment for quite some time—and while you may think you can get away with putting down 10 to 15 percent for your first home, in some states that might not be competitive enough. According to a new study performed by online loan marketplace LendingTree, prospective buyers in five American states can expect to plunk down more than the standard 20 percent.

When taking on a home improvement project as major, time-consuming, and expensive (!!!) as designing a new kitchen, the last thing that you want to do is make a few choices now that you end up regretting later—especially if that ends up meaning you wasted money. To help identify the biggest money-wasting no-nos to avoid, we consulted a few kitchen design experts. Having been around plenty of renovations, they had some good live-and-learn lessons and what-not-to-dos to share.

Move over, Roomba. There’s a new way to terrorize, I mean, follow your furry friend’s every move when you’re not home. It’s the world’s first mobile pet camera—complete with a built-in treat dispenser. The VAVA Mobile Pet Camera claims to give pet owners increased peace of mind while helping to “end pet boredom and separation anxiety.

A small space (for California) with so much charm, and every possible amenity. 3136 Serra Avenue Located in Carmel, California $995,000 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom If you were to look up the definition of “charming,” there’s a good chance you’d find a listing for this home. The one-bedroom, one-bath “small house” (as they call it) comprises just 800 square feet of space, but feels a whole lot bigger.

If you’re staying home this holiday season, you’re not alone. Personal finance website WalletHub reported that 33 million people won’t be traveling this winter because they can’t afford it. Experts found that although 37 percent of Americans agree that travel is worth getting into debt, four out of 10 are saying that they won’t be traveling this winter because of finances.

The owner of this space described it as “a very scary sunroom,” and the presence of asbestos alone earns it that designation. After six weeks of hardcore work, it’s now anything but scary. Here’s a bit more insight about what our intrepid DIYer was facing: The before of my sunroom was symbolic of the entire house—unloved, a little broken, but with a lot of potential.

Name: Zahra Clayborne, my cat, Tenny Location: Ottawa — Ontario, Canada Size: 350 square feet Years lived in: 2 years, renting I am a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa, studying psychiatric epidemiology (that’s a mouthful!). I moved here two years ago from Calgary, and this is my first apartment.

Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away. Grab some snacks and get cozy, here’s what we’re watching before it expires—and what we can’t wait to stream in November. If the one thing missing in your life was an animated series about crime fighting drag queen superheroes, A. that’s extremely specific, and B. your dream comes true November 9.

Every IKEA teems with last-minute movers the first and third weekends of the month—it’s just a fact. And if you are like me, you also probably accept as fact that if you’re moving, you are going to have to do an IKEA run the moment after the movers leave.

We all know there's nothing like a set of crisp, white sheets—and our guess is, you want to keep yours that way.

Full bathroom remodels can run you tens of thousands of dollars. If that amount of money isn’t in your budget right now (or it makes you cringe to spend that much at any stage of the game), take inspiration from these light remodels, all of which cost under $3,000. These reasonable and affordable redos show it’s possible to get a brand-new-to-you bathroom without taking out a huge loan.

It’s not even November yet, but over the weekend, our sister site Kitchn got word about some big news. Costco’s Black Friday circular was leaked, and there are eight pages of deals for the mega shopping weekend. We picked out our top four bargains, in case you want to get a head’s up on what you should be adding to your wish list.