The Latest: Oct 2018

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.

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.

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.

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?

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).

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.

You don’t need to be an interiors expert to be familiar with mid-century modern design. Even if you can’t spot its signature clean lines and minimal details from a mile away, most stores have products that are blatantly labeled “mid-century inspired.” The mid-century modern movement first broke onto the design scene over 50 years ago and is showing no signs of slowing down.

You don’t need a huge house in order to have fun with bohemian themes. The style looks just as beatnik and free spirited in a studio apartment or small outdoor porch as it does in a sprawling home. One could even make the case that those bohemian accents help a small space feel even more cozy, what with boho’s reliance on layered rugs, fur throws, and intricately woven wall tapestries.

When I moved from a two-bedroom townhouse in Houston to a 250-square-foot studio apartment in New York, I was ready to do without. What I didn’t know, at the time, was what that would look like. I was all idealism, sure that I could blaze new trails, go bravely without things many Americans couldn’t imagine giving up. Three years in, this is what the reality of that transition looks like.