Rachel Wray Thompson

Rachel is an Chicago-based architect and LEED Accredited Professional. When she's not designing homes, she enjoys spending her free time traveling, gardening, and playing with her french bulldog.
The 10 Best Cleaning Tools Every Home Should Have
Whether you're just getting started in a new space or looking to complete (or maybe upgrade) your cleaning kit, here's what you need.
Dec 5, 2023
Here’s the Ideal Humidity Level for Your Home — And How to Control It
Life
Dry air season is coming.
Nov 3, 2023
Before & After: Anthropologie Inspired Dresser
Anthropologie’s Ordinal Dresser is one popular piece of furniture — so much that this is the second dresser makeover we’ve seen based off of it. The first one was a low, six-drawer version, but this one will have you thinking twice about which dresser is the original, and which is the knock-off. It’s hard to believe, but the above dresser was made to look nearly identical to the Ordinal, all for only $30!
Oct 15, 2022
The Best “Grown Up” Futons
Growing up, the only type of couches my family owned were futons. I thought they were the coolest — you could change the covers, they expanded for sleepovers, and they seemed much more modern than an overstuffed sofa. Nowadays futons are more often associated with dorm rooms than cool furniture. However, there’s no denying a futon’s small space convenience. Here are a few convertible options for your post-collegiate home.
Sep 2, 2020
How To Install a Dimmer Switch
Dimmer switches are great, not only do they provide opportunity for mood lighting and ambiance, but also save money due to reduced power usage. Almost all the lights in my home are on a dimmer switch, except for the bedrooms, where we’d actually like to have them the most.
Jul 18, 2020
Secret Spaces: Hidden Doors in Paneled Walls
As children, many of us are drawn into architecture by the idea of secret passageways and hidden spaces. In the real world, ‘secret’ passageways can easily be incorporated and actually help streamline a the design of a room. Hidden doors can be a big draw for grown ups too! Through the use of cleverly designed wall paneling, doors can be seamlessly integrated without anyone being the wiser.
Jul 17, 2020
How to Hire a Professional Housecleaner
Time is short, and cleaning isn’t fun. After a long week of work, and busy days with family, isn’t cleaning one of the last ways you want to spend your free time? If keeping a tidier home is one of your new year’s resolutions, consider hiring a professional cleaner. If you have the means to hire a professional, I definitely recommend it. My household started hiring out this service a few years ago.
Jul 15, 2020
Before & After: Under Stair Storage Redo
Like many other small space dwellers, we have almost no closet or storage space in my home. The tenants before us took the first step to maximize the dead space under the stairs by removing a partition wall to open up the area, and installed a drop down hatch under the stair. Unfortunately they didn’t install a railing and instead only those awkward, sharp rectangular boxes — after several falls down the stairs it was painfully obvious something needed to change!
Jul 15, 2020
Before & After Roundup: Refinished Wood Furniture Projects
While applying a new coat of paint can be a quick and easy way to make over a piece of furniture, refinishing a quality wooden piece is often worth the added time and patience. And it’s often not too hard — a little light sanding and a few simple restoring products is often all it takes to breathe new life into old pieces, and bring out the beautiful grain of wooden furniture.1. A Revamped Kitchen Table, from Door Sixteen2. An Old Dresser, Apartment Therapy3.
Jul 15, 2020
Idea Exchange: What’s Your Christmas Present Opening Tradition?
Growing up, I had a pretty well defined gift opening tradition: go see a movie Christmas Eve (to pass the time for my sister and I anxiously waiting for Christmas Day), then open one gift when we returned home that night. Then, Christmas morning, we’d wake up, sort our gifts, and then each take turns to open one gift at a time while the others watched.
Mar 11, 2020
The Ultimate Guide to Making Any Rental More Energy Efficient
Think that because you don’t own, you have no control over your home’s energy use? Not true! Here’s our ultimate guide; full of links to quick, easy and yes, even inexpensive, ways to reduce your carbon footprint and lower your bills (your landlord will thank you!). Most of these changes are likely to pay for themselves in energy savings over the duration of your rental.
Mar 11, 2020
Before &amp After: A Mid-C Modern Bathroom
Designer Gina De Pasquale renovated this Las Vegas residence that needed a little updating throughout. Her work is most impressive in the bathroom where she did a great a job of mixing high and low pieces, all while staying true to the mid-century aesthetic.
Mar 11, 2020
The 7 Elements of a Perfect Mudroom
Unlike a front entry, seen by all and used by guests, the mudroom is usually a home’s secondary entrance. It’s one of those rooms that many older homes don’t have, and many of us pine for. It’s a hardworking space — even the tiniest of mudrooms is helpful for keeping the house clean and organized and the family efficient. Here are some inspiring spaces that showcase the elements of an efficient mudroom. 1.
Mar 2, 2020
Cozy & Cool: 10 Summer Quilts
I’m one of those people who always needs to sleep with a blanket. While my husband and I cherish our down comforter for cold nights, he’s more than happy to throw it all off during warmer months. Our happy medium is the summer quilt: just enough weight to keep me comfortable, yet light enough to keep him from breaking out in a sweat.These summer quilts, also known as coverlets, are great on their own, or layered throughout the year.
Feb 27, 2020
How To Clean a Coir Doormat
Coir (coconut fiber), makes for a great eco-friendly doormat: it’s durable, made from natural materials, and can fit just about anyone’s home decor. They can also last for years if they’re taken care of properly, and it’s about this time of year that they need the most help. All it takes is a little water and a broom to keep the doormats cleans — check out This Old House’s maintenance tips, after the jump.
Feb 27, 2020
10 Green Housewarming Gifts
Furnishing and decorating a new home can be a lot of work. Whether you know newlyweds, new homeowners, or simply a new roomate, we’ve compiled a great list of unique green gifts to make a new house feel like home.TOP ROW1 Custom Return Address Stamp, $35-85 from Primele (Etsy): The perfect way to celebrate a new address. Choose from a variety of font styles and layouts.
Dec 4, 2019
Hot Tip: Rinse Aid Alternative
While we’ve discussed what dishwashing detergent is best, what about their counterpart – rinse aides? Instead of buying a commercial rinse aid, there’s something you probably already have in your cupboard that works even better to get your glasses from cloudy to clear……Vinegar! Vinegar continues to be one of the best cleaning solutions, and it just so happens to work great in the dishwasher.
May 9, 2019
Zip-A-Way: Removable Window Sealant
Just the other day we were starting to think about winterizing our home for the season, when we got a great tip from one of our favorite home improvement gurus, Lou Manfredini. Lou suggested that as an alternative to covering drafty windows with plastic, caulk them with a temporary and removable sealant such as Zip-A-Way.
May 8, 2019
The Best Interior Paints are Low-VOC and Inexpensive
A lot has changed with paints—even in the last year more paint companies have changed their formulas from high-VOC to low-VOC and even to no-VOC. And they’re probably not the big name eco-friendly paints you’ve heard about. Leave it Consumer Reports to put all the paints to the test, and find out their results after the jump.
May 8, 2019
8 Tips to Organizing a Drying Rack
A Totally Overloaded Drying RackAfter doing loads of laundry, sometimes the last thing we feel like doing is hanging up our wet clothes to dry. Yes, it’s mostly that we’re being lazy, but there’s also an art to doing it well so that the clothes dry quickly and with as few wrinkles as possible.
May 7, 2019
Before & After: An Amazing Victorian Remodel
A New York couple hit the jackpot when they found this gorgeous 1887 Queen Anne for sale — only $46,000! It had amazing bones, including a completely octagonal room on each of its three stories. But there was a catch — it was condemed — and the bank loan would only work if the couple agreed to complete any major structural fixes and get the plumbing and electrical up to code within six months!The couple’s story is truly inspirational.
May 6, 2019
Keep Your Pets Happy Without a Yard
Whether you’re a renter or city dweller, living with a yard can come at a premium. The absence of a yard can also seemingly make life for your pet unpleasant, but after six years I can attest that not only can living without a yard be fine, but even fun! For the past six years my husband and I have lived in Chicago — a city notorious for its lack of yard space. But for each of those years, we’ve lived with a cat, and most recently added a dog to our family.
May 6, 2019
Before & After: A White Washed Kitchen
Here’s a great example of how paint and new cabinet hardware can easily and inexpensively upgrade a kitchen. The family over at Keeping It Cozy made over their kitchen with these upgrades, and a few other finishing touches to make the space look bright and brand new — with a budget of only $1000!
May 5, 2019
Before & After: Dresser Makeunder
Most of the time when we feature a furniture makeover, it’s been transformed by applying something new to the surface — paint, fabric, paneling, etc. But designer William Dohman shows us that a really impressive project is when a vintage piece has been restored to its former glory.Architect William Dohman, the designer behind Oh Dier, restored this classic mid-century Lane dresser by removing the multiple layers of paint and weird tape that mysteriously stuck to most of the edges.
May 5, 2019
Before & After: A Moroccan Pattern Stenciled Bathroom
This relatively plain bathroom got a major face lift with something that looks as good as wallpaper, but is actually impeccably painted, DIYed stencil handiwork. While that has a huge impact on the space, there are a few other east improvements that A Pumpkin and a Princess implemented that helped transform the room — can you spot them?Crystal from A Pumpkin and a Priness set out to makeover her guest bathroom, all on her own.
May 5, 2019
Before & After: Coffee Table Turned Tufted Ottoman
Brooke, from the home décor blog Inside-Out Design, started with this run-of-the-mill old coffee table, and with some ingenuity and a lot of handiwork, she and her husband transformed it into a one-of-a-kind hand-tufted ottoman.Brooke used West Elm’s Ikat Print by the Yard fabric as inspiration for completely transforming the coffee table.
May 5, 2019
Rethink the Stink: 5 Odor Removing Products No Home Should Be Without
As nice as it would be to always keep a perfectly clean, perfectly smelling house — the truth is, bad odors happen. Whether it’s smelly upholstery from a great thrift store find, a pet’s potty training accident, or a party that needs a massive cleanup, funky smell are an unavoidable part of everyday life. With that in mind, here are the 5 products we’d recommend always having in the house to combat and remove odors. 1.
May 4, 2019
Green Tour: A Future Forward Four-Square
Location: Chicago, ILSize: 3600 sq/ft >> window is located in the dining room to show off super efficient foam insulation used throughout house.
Apr 17, 2019
Before & After: 15 Creative Kitchen Renovations
There’s a big misconception in the renovating and real estate world that kitchen remodeling needs to be flashy and expensive to be good. That’s simply not true! We’ve found that with a little creativity, some reuse, a new coat of paint — and sometimes not even that much work, kitchen renovations can be not only eco-friendly, but also inexpensive. Here are our 15 best before and after kitchen posts of the year!
Apr 7, 2019
DIY the $50 IKEA VITTSJÖ: 5 Colorful Hacks
For years IKEA’s EXPEDIT has been a ubiquitous storage solution for homes everywhere. But recently the Swedish furnishing giant’s VITTSJÖ has been showing up more and more on my design radar. It doesn’t scream IKEA, and you’d never guess the system starts as low as under $50. The black metal and glass shelving system has a nice industrial quality on its own, but it seems to really shine when it’s given a bright coat of paint.
Feb 13, 2013
Before & After: Urban Outfitters Inspired Nightstands
Meagan, of the blog Craft Habit, recently acquired a pair of hand-me-down Ikea nightstands, but really had her heart set on the GiGi nightstand from Urban Outfitters that, at $150 a piece, was out of her price range. So, set on having more minty fresh goods in her house, she transformed the IKEA pieces into such a good match, we’d be hard-pressed to decide which version we like better.
Jul 9, 2012
Before & After: From IKEA Basic to a Vintage-Look Card Catalog
Vintage card catalogs can be found for a pretty penny, but Kristen from The Painted Hive devised an amazing, inexpensive DIY using — you guessed it — an IKEA product.Kristine wanted an old card catalog, but didn’t want to fork over the large amount of cash that they often sell for. So she got creative, and used IKEA’s MOPPE mini chest of drawers (which replaced the ‘FIRA‘ and for some reason can only currently be found at the UK site).
May 4, 2012