The Latest

Step. Up. Your. Step. Stool. Game.

It’s not a problem that many people have in New York, but this Tribeca apartment was almost too big. Sans furniture, the side-by-side living rooms seemed intimidating and cavernous. Plus, the unusual proportions of the space, with windows sitting almost on the floor, made furnishing it tricky. So the homeowners called in Homepolish designer Alec Holland, who transformed the space into a cozy family home, using tricks that anybody can utilitze in a room that feels just a little too large.

Humans have competitions for all kinds of strange things: holding beer steins, racing lawn mowers, chasing a wheel of cheese down a hill. But these all seem positively mainstream compared to a competition that is held annually at the L.A. County Fair, where participants attempt to outdo each other in setting the table. But these aren’t just any tables. These are the most elaborate (and occasionally absurd) tablescapes you have ever seen.

Earlier this year, Form Us With Love designed kitchen cabinets made from recycled plastic bottles. Now, the studio is back with another simple-yet-stunning take on sustainable furniture in the form of this chic IKEA chair made from recycled plastic and wood chips. The sustainable materials used to create the chair – dubbed Odger — were originally intended for pallets, but the designers discovered that the materials were more suitable for its affordable seating option.

Can this outdated, off-white relic of a stove be transformed into a sleek stainless steel beauty? When I learned about a product designed to replicate the look of stainless steel appliances, I was itching to see if it worked — it just seemed a little too good to be true. Could this paint make appliances blend in a little bit more, or maybe look a little less decrepit? Less almond at least? For this test, I bought Rust-Oleum’s Stainless Steel from Amazon which retails for about $30.

There’s nothing worse than those builder grade vanity strips in bathrooms, the ones that absolutely scream “HI, I’M CHROME AND WAS SENT FROM THE ’80s TO DATE YOU!!” As a renter your options are limited, but I came up with a smart way to deal with these common eyesores. Instead of swapping it out with a new light fixture, I decided to instead embrace the challenge and work with what I had. I couldn’t paint it, because that was permanent.