Newsletters

Carrie McBride

Carrie is a former Apartment Therapy editor and the original editor of Apartment Therapy Media's first site for kids: Ohdeedoh. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids..
    Just Starting Out? 5 Strategies for Outfitting Your First Apartment
    Homes are made up of so many pieces from furniture basics to personal touches so how do you make a place feel like home when you’re starting from scratch and with little scratch to spend? Here are five strategies to help furnish your home when you’re just starting out… You’ll be surprised what people will offer you. It may not be just your style, but it can be a placeholder until you can afford something better.
    Carrie McBride
    about 4 hours ago
    15 Stunning Ways to Hack IKEA's DUKTIG Play Kitchen
    The tiniest, most adorable kitchens you ever did see.
    Carrie McBride
    Feb 28, 2023
    17 Clever Thanksgiving Games to Make the Holiday Fun for Everyone in the Family
    Both online and IRL.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 26, 2022
    The Great Toddler Bed Debate
    One of the enduring debates among our readers is whether to transition a child from their crib to a toddler-size bed or go straight to a twin bed (or bigger). It’s a decision most parents will make at one time or another, and there is a multitude of competing factors to consider. This debate has come up time and again on Apartment Therapy, with hundreds of comments on the topic.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 19, 2022
    10 on Trend: The Fine Art of Artfully Flinging a Sheepskin
    Sheepskins are everywhere these days and why not? They add warmth and texture and can be played off as either luxe or laid back. They can be used in any room of the home, for the best effect – fling it somewhere. Across hard shell chair backs in the kitchen/dining area as in Eva’s Sense of Clarity home.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 14, 2022
    Will the Real Jenny Lind Please Stand Up?
    Jenny Lind cribs and beds are a classic in children’s rooms (even modern ones) and we’ve seen a host of them on Apartment Therapy. Jenny Lind is often mistaken to be a company or a brand, but it’s neither. It’s simply a style of furniture distinguished by turned posts or what we call spindles. So, just who was Jenny Lind and why is our furniture still named after her?
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 14, 2022
    This Weekend: Prepare to Cool Off & Cool Down
    Summer will be here soon and temps are already rising all over the country. Judging by the number of people I saw in the fan and air conditioner aisle at Home Depot this past weekend, keeping your home (and yourself) cool is high on everyone’s priority list right now. If you don’t have an adequate number of cooling devices — get thee to the hardware store. If you do, it’s time to make sure they’re clean and ready to go.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 13, 2022
    Before & After: DIY Crib Turned Toddler Bed (Turned Crib Again!)
    Long time readers may remember father and small space problem solver Jason who built his daughter Annabelle a stylish crib (above) to fit into a nook that was a few inches too small for a traditional crib. He took charge of his home and made it work for his family. As they all do, Annabelle grew up and was ready for a big girl bed. Here’s how Jason converted the crib into a toddler bed…and then back again when brother William joined the family!
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 13, 2022
    “California Confused,” “Bougie Boho,” “Golden Girl on Acid” & Other Decor Styles You Didn’t Know Existed
    Kelly’s Cozy Chic Studio It can be hard to put a label on your home’s style – sometimes categories like “modern” “vintage” or even “eclectic” fall far short of conveying your home’s essence and personality. But that shouldn’t keep you from trying. Here’s how 20 house tour participants self-described, with humor and flair, their home’s style in unique and often very specific terms.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 13, 2022
    All the Cool Things You’re Not Doing with the Space Under Your Stairs
    Is the space under your stairs simply a dead space? Maybe it’s a closed up, unused footprint in your home. Or perhaps it’s open, but you’re just not sure what to do with this little niche. Well, here are examples of beautiful and functional ways that homeowners have put this space to use. Devoting an entire room to a home office is becoming less and less common as computers are smaller and fewer peripherals are required.
    Carrie McBride
    Oct 12, 2022
    20 Dorm Finds Under $20 That Are Stylish Enough for Regular Homes, Too
    Because style doesn't have to cost a fortune.
    Carrie McBride
    Aug 11, 2021
    Before & After: Baby Takes Over the Home Office
    Stacy had a great home office. The question was, would it be a great nursery, especially if she wanted to re-use many of the same pieces? Let’s see what this room looks like reconfigured as a nursery and which items Stacy kept in the space: Sweet, right? As you can see, Stacy kept the gray paint along with the colorful turquoise shutters (re-repurposed from her wedding). The fetching tissue paper artwork is a DIY project.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    Arc Lamps from High to Low
    Arc lamps not only make a stylish statement in a room, but they can greatly enhance your lighting situation by acting as a stand-in for an overhead or pendant lamp. You don’t have to be limited to centering your furniture below existing light fixtures and, if you decide to rearrange, just relocate your lamp and you’re good to go. Arc lamps share a basic shape, but vary quite a bit in size, span, shade and, of course, price.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    Target’s Black Friday Sale: Our Picks for the Best Deals
    NOTE: We’re updating our gallery today, Cyber Monday, to reflect the latest deals. Welcome to the unofficial-official start to holiday shopping. Whether you decide to brave the stores in person or stick to deal hunting online, Black Friday through Cyber Monday are prime days for savings. Whether you’re looking to find a great gift or are just shopping for a gift for your home (or yourself!), Target has some serious deals going on.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    Wayfair’s Black Friday Sale: Our Picks for the Best Deals
    NOTE: We’re updating our gallery today, Cyber Monday, to reflect the latest deals. Welcome to the unofficial-official start to holiday shopping. Whether you brave the stores in person or online, Black Friday through Cyber Monday are prime days for savings. We’ve been hunting through Wayfair on the lookout for the best deals on the best stuff, so we’ll be updating this post with our picks for your gift list and your home, so you won’t have to look far to snag a steal.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    How’s That Working Out? 6 Months Without a Changing Table or Pad
    When you ask parents what not to buy for a nursery, a changing table rises to the top of the list. “Official” changing tables don’t repurpose well into non-baby furniture so many parents choose alternatives to traditional changing tables, primarily dressers or desks that are at a comfortable height and deep enough to accommodate a changing pad.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    Refreshing & Reinventing: Before & After Projects for Kids
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 17, 2020
    Before & After: Bookcase Lightens Up for a Kid’s Room
    Soffia bought two of these tall, imposing pieces at an Icelandic Goodwill—I’ve dubbed them “bookdenzas”—and wanted to lighten them up and give them some personality to use in her son’s bedroom. Here’s what she came up with: Soffia tells us: The tall book case is an old piece of living room furniture that was very popular in Iceland in the 70s and 80s. I bought it for around $40 at a local Goodwill.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    20 Ways to Customize the IKEA KURA Loft Bed & Make It Your Own
    The KURA loft bed has earned its cred and its staying power. It’s cheap, ideal for small homes and, as you’ll see in these twenty examples, offers endless opportunities for customization. Paint, wood, fabric: choose your medium and make your KURA your own with a simple color upgrade or a full-on hack. 1. Wood slats cover this KURA to totally transform the look and lend it a tree house feel. (IKEAHackers) 2.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    Creative Gallery Walls in Nurseries and Kids’ Rooms
    Creating a gallery wall is a great way to display a myriad collection of art, framed or otherwise, and more and more I’m seeing them popping up in nurseries and children’s rooms. Installing one can be a bit of an art as you balance different sizes and mediums, but they also allow a ton of creativity. The example above is a mega (awesome) gallery wall, but don’t be intimidated by it. Choose a smaller wall or partial wall to fill with the art you’ve been collecting.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    Words of Wisdom: 10 Posts About Keeping a Clean House with Kids
    You know you’re a parent when you look forward to free time…so you can clean your house. When my husband takes both kids to the playground, do I flop on the couch, queue up some Netflix and relax? No, I rush around vacuuming, sweeping and picking up toys —gladly— because it’s so much easier to do without little kids underfoot (especially my 15-month-old who seems to undo everything as I do it).
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    So Happy Together: Dogs on Sheepskins
    When I was looking through our house tours to see all the different places people use them, there was one type of photo that I, happily, kept turning up: dogs on sheepskins. They may just be the next peanut butter and chocolate of the decor world.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    Lens is More: Inspiring Photographic Artwork from our House Tours
    A home without art is a home without heart. So cheesy, but so true. Photography is my favorite medium and although it can be expensive to buy or make prints and have them framed, a good photograph can be the main event of a room, the star of the show, the point of visual convergence. Many of the homes we’ve been lucky enough to tour feature wonderful and memorable photographs. Here are twenty of my favorites, in a nice, big, full-bodied slideshow for you to peruse.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    What if the “Nesting Instinct” Never Kicks In?
    When you’re pregnant you hear a lot of old wives’ tales, maternity myths and “what to expect while expectings”. My first pregnancy was relatively easy and uneventful and the first trimester I spent, like most women, sleepy and tired. So I was really looking forward to the “nesting stage” which is supposed to kick in during the second trimester and peak in the third.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 16, 2020
    20 Ways to Hack, Tweak, Repurpose & Reimagine IKEA’s Trofast
    Think you’re clever using IKEA’s Trofast to round up all your kids’ toys, do ya? Well, okay, it is perfect for that, but that’s so Trofast 1.0. You’ve got to expaaaaand your miiiiind. Think outside the biiiiiin. Like these folks, who show that mere toy storage is just the tip of the Trofast iceberg. Check out these 20 ways to use the use the Trofast. Some are true hacks and reimaginings, others minor tweaks and adjustments. Not familiar with Trofast?
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 15, 2020
    Birdhouses Add Dimension & Color as Nursery Decor
    Some of us have a little birdhouse in our soul and others hang them in the nursery. They’re inexpensive, completely customizable and what could better symbolize the “nesting stage” than a birdhouse? If you really wanted to start from scratch you could build your own birdhouses, but they are also readily available (and inexpensive) at craft stores like Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, etc. Decorate with paint, washi tape, or decoupaged paper or fabric.
    Carrie McBride
    Jul 15, 2020
    Mary Blair Artwork in Kids Rooms
    image:7453911c8fd7148e7ea10528ba284809762818bf w:540 s:"fit" class_name:"mt-image-center" show_pin_button:"true" show_image_credits:"true" Are you a Mary Blair fan? Best known for her influence in early Disney animation (including concept paintings for some of Disney’s most beloved films like Peter Pan, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland), her work is marked by vibrant color and sweet, but not immature portrayals of children. She also illustrated five Golden Books which are true treasures.
    Carrie McBride
    Jun 17, 2020
    Yes, You Can Fit A Home Office Into Your Tiny Home
    A mom friend of mine who is preparing to rejoin the workforce told me that her New Year’s resolution was to set up an office for herself at home. Living in a small apartment already optimized to accommodate a family of four, she was starting to despair about how she could possibly fit a desk. Her needs are pretty simple: a dedicated place to sit and work at her laptop with room for a few paper files and notebooks.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 18, 2020
    On Trend: Neon in Nurseries & Kids Rooms
    Neon has been enjoying a design redemption in a big way. These hot colors are hot again, but unlike most design trends, neon hasn’t trickled down into nurseries and kids spaces as much as I’d expected. But for those parents who have chosen to use neon in big or small ways, I say hats off to you!
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 12, 2020
    Before & After: The Mural That Will Change Your Mind About Murals
    This ruddy red (marsala?) room color is quite nice, but perhaps not entirely suited to its 2-year-old occupant, Vera. Her mother, Petra Probstner, took a big risk and painted murals on all four walls mimicking the urban landscape of Chicago that lay outside the windows. The result is, frankly, breathtaking. Amazing, right?? As you can see in the progress photo below, she taped the mural off and then filled it in with grey, mint green and peachy-pink paint. Thanks for sharing, Petra Probstner!
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    Make it Modern: The Clean Crisp Streamlined Bed
    Are you an Extreme Tucker? This bed-making trend snuck up on me: I didn’t notice it…I didn’t notice it…bam! it’s everywhere! My anecdotal research into our archives revealed a penchant for it in modern and masculine interiors and also predominantly on platform beds, but there were plenty of exceptions. It has a debonaire, tailored quality that avoids being pretentious. It’s the Cary Grant of bed making.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    Before & After: Behemoth Dining Room Cabinet
    Gary and his wife inherited this piece and hated it. They wrote in to ask readers for advice on how two “unskilled and not creative” types could rehab this behemoth into something they’d be happy to have in their home. A contingent of readers liked it as it was, others said to sell it and many of you had suggestions for how to transform it with paint or stain. So, which readers did they listen to or did they forge their own path?
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    Shared Kids Rooms: Making a Multiple Bed Layout Work
    So, you’ve decided your kids are going to share a room which means you have two beds (or a bed + crib) to fit into the room. The size and shape of the room may guide or dictate where you place the beds, but it’s worth taking a look at some different bed layouts to see if they spark inspiration for you. Probably the most traditional layout, this formation has a nice visual symmetry and conveys a sense of each child’s claim to the space being equal.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    The Secret History of Home Goods: 10 Curious Things About Duvets
    When I was growing up our family used blankets and quilts on our beds in the winter so when I was introduced to the concept of a duvet in my twenties it seemed so civilized (and, fancy). You know the basics: a duvet is a fabric sack typically filled with down or feathers, often encased in a removable cover, but if you’re the inquisitive type, these ten tidbits may intrigue you: 1. ‘Duvet’ comes from the French word for ‘down’.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    Meet Your New Best DIY Friend: Copper Spray Paint
    Copper is like gold’s younger sister finally attending the débutante ball. It’s having a moment and even if you don’t buy actual copper, you can easily add some copper to your life with spray paint. I’ve gathered a dozen examples of DIY copper paint projects to give you a sense of how diversely it can be used to bring glamor and warmth to your home. Shine on… Above, this old flea market chair was refreshed into a copper eye-catcher with spray paint.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020
    A Little Goes a Long Way: A Bold Dose of Hot Pink Around the House
    Looking for a very modern way to incorporate a splash of pink in your home? Turn up the temperature and go hot hot pink. Hot bubblegum, hot fuschia, even hot neon pink will work. For doubters, here are twenty examples to prove you wrong: Craving more pink? Try our Color Search tool for more visual inspiration: ROW ONE: 1. Rohde’s “Opportunistic” Design Laboratory 2. Rohde’s “Opportunistic” Design Laboratory 3.
    Carrie McBride
    Mar 11, 2020