If you’re reading this, it’s probably a safe guess that you love a great Before and After. Obviously, we do too. And sometimes, it’s fun to turn the tables and ask you to decide what becomes of a space in need of a total makeover. That’s just what we did with Carrie’s totally empty dining room at her new home in The Catskills.
How would you feel about letting millions of Instagram followers completely redesign your space, from top to bottom? One of our readers—a very brave one—let us do just that. Earlier this year, Carrie moved from a small 1-bedroom apartment near NYC to a mountain home in The Catskills. We then asked our Instagram followers to choose furniture, decor, plants, and accessories from The Home Depot. The polls have closed, the furniture’s been delivered, and the afters are here!
When Carrie and Matthew moved from a 1-bedroom apartment in the NYC area to a bigger home nestled in the woods of The Catskills, one thing was clear: They’d need a lot more furniture and decor to style their space. To get the job done, we asked our Instagram followers (aka you!) to help decide how to design their living room by voting on which items from The Home Depot deserved a spot in their new place. And the results are in! Here’s how your selections shaped her new space.
If you follow our Insta Stories you might remember that, a little while back, we asked for your help in styling Carrie’s new home in The Catskills by voting on items to include from The Home Depot. After moving from a tiny apartment in the city to a new house in the mountains, Carrie’s new bedroom was a total blank slate. But now it’s totally finished—thanks to you!
There are many basic design tenets every pro follows, but great designers know that rules are sometimes meant to be broken. It’s what adds personality and keeps their spaces feeling fresh—not predictable. But you don’t have to be a pro to bend the rules. We worked with The Home Depot to design a space that shows off the easiest design rules to break, using pieces from their vast online-only furniture and decor collections.
You’ve been searching, and (not to sound creepy) we’ve been watching. Today, we’re revealing three new Color Search palettes based on your top color searches. Color Search is, of course, our cool tool that lets you look at any image in our House Tours and tells you what Sherwin-Williams paint color will get you that look. Or, if you’re going the other way, lets you tell us what colors you’re feeling and see how other real people have used them in their homes.
Address: 70 La Salle Street #4CNeighborhood: Morningside Heights, Manhattan Price: $780,000 Listed by: Jessica Waxman, CorcoranSize: 904 square feetBedrooms: 2Bathrooms: 1While it’s not that uncommon to come across a place as sleek and chic as this one in Manhattan, this apartment stands out for its bold blue cabinets, graphic tiled backsplash and floors, and an open layout with plenty of natural light that lets all those colors and patterns work together without feeling overwhelming.
Open floor plans: We love ‘em, but they come with some challenges. Namely, the difficult task of setting up distinct zones when, well, you really just have one big open space to work with. But it can be done. Linda, who earlier this year bought a new alcove studio, asked us to help divvy up her light-filled space into separate zones for living, sleeping, and dining.
Boring bedrooms are one of the biggest challenges of renting an apartment. Whether you’re dealing with a serious lack of storage or a strict landlord who won’t let you hang anything on the walls, creating a bedroom that feels personalized, peaceful, and secure is so important in unsure times. And the solutions to these problems might be right under your nose (or head!).Value City Furniture™ is one of our favorite sources for beds that are more than just a place to snooze.
Boring bedrooms are one of the biggest challenges of renting an apartment. Whether you’re dealing with a serious lack of storage or a strict landlord who won’t let you hang anything on the walls, creating a bedroom that feels personalized, peaceful, and secure is so important in unsure times. And the solutions to these problems might be right under your nose (or head!).
For my entire adult life, dining rooms have been a foreign concept. An entire room? Devoted to just dining? That’s nonsense! Having a dining room seems like a pipe dream while living in a one-bedroom Manhattan walk-up, but I’ve learned there are some easy ways to create a cozy dining space even if you don’t have an entirely separate room for it.
For my entire adult life, dining rooms have been a foreign concept. An entire room? Devoted to just dining? That’s nonsense! Having a dining room seems like a pipe dream while living in a one-bedroom Manhattan walk-up, but I’ve learned there are some easy ways to create a cozy dining space even if you don’t have an entirely separate room for it.
The living room is the darling of interior design. It’s the most central part of the home where we relax, unwind, and enjoy our downtime, both alone and with friends. But despite how much, well, living we do in the living room, it’s also the space that tends to have the most design problems. From lack of space to an uninspiring layout, it’s easy to fall into a living room rut. If you’re in one, we can help you get out of it.
The living room is the darling of interior design. It’s the most central part of the home where we relax, unwind, and enjoy our downtime, both alone and with friends. But despite how much, well, living we do in the living room, it’s also the space that tends to have the most design problems. From lack of space to an uninspiring layout, it’s easy to fall into a living room rut. If you’re in one, we can help you get out of it.
Whether it’s after buying your first home or settling into a new apartment, there comes a time when all of us start getting real about investing in “forever” furniture. You know the pieces — a bed that can survive more than one move, or a designer accent chair you’ve loved for years and know will be a keeper.If you’re ready to invest in a forever piece, consider starting with a sofa.
Sometime in the mid-18th century the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope, commissioned a new type of sofa. The resulting design, known for its trademark button tufting and rolled arms, has endured throughout the centuries, with variations making appearances in gentlemen’s’ clubs, fancy English homes, and maybe even your own living room.
If there’s one thing that instantly makes a holiday dinner feel like a fancier occasion, it’s an elegant tablescape. There’s a tendency to do something fussy or spend a lot of money on home decor, but it really takes little more than a few easily sourced materials to create a perfectly festive look. Here’s how we’ve created the striking, rustic tablescape you see above.Most Christmas tree vendors have lots of stray clippings…and nothing to do with them.
If it’s your first time hosting for the holidays, or even if you’re a seasoned expert, planning a dinner soirée or a simple cocktail party can feel like a lot. This time of year, we like to remind ourselves that it’s never as complicated as it seems, even if everyone is a lot busier and expectations are a bit higher. With a few years of holiday hosting under our belt, these are the things we’re trying to remember to keep it simple.
It’s just one room, but a kitchen redo comes with a ton of decisions, both big and small. It’s easy to get lost in the flurry of the big ones, like what layout works best or which countertops suit your style. But the devil is in the details. So, what’s the biggest rookie mistake we see time and time again? It may surprise you, but it’s choosing the wrong faucet!
Air purifier? Check. Natural cleaning products? Check. Wellness-inducing lighting? Hmm, that may be one area of your home you hadn’t considered giving the healthy treatment yet. The truth is, human beings need light to thrive, but the EPA now estimates we spend up to 90% of our time indoors — and most of it is under light that isn’t aligned with our biology.
If you haven’t already heard, it’s the most wonderful time of the year: Blu Dot’s big annual sale is on and going strong until October 27! With 20 percent off their entire site, it’s the ideal opportunity to hop on some of fall’s biggest trends. While all of Blu Dot’s designs are decidedly modern classics, some are so of-the-moment we couldn’t not call them out.
Mark your calendars for November 2, the best night of the year! Clocks turn back, meaning there’s an extra much-needed hour of rest and relaxation for us all. Fall is the perfect time of year to reset your sleep habits. In preparation for the longest night of the year, we partnered with the sleep experts at Nectar by Resident to round up easy tips for making the most of it, from mindful breathing to ensuring you have the right mattress for your sleep style.Do you stare at a screen all day?
Forget Pumpkin Spice Lattes. What really gets us excited every fall is Blu Dot’s Annual Sale. For just a few weeks each year, they offer all of their modern, cheeky designs at 20 percent off. It’s a big sale—and a big deal. So we sifted through their library of furniture, lighting, and more to find some of this year’s best buys. But hurry, because the sale ends October 27.No matter how small your space, a cozy reading/thinking/meditating nook is a must-have.
When I lived in a walk-up in Greenwich Village, the building staircase was so narrow that even a neighbor carrying groceries home could completely block traffic. Obviously, this made moving in a challenge. My roommate went so far as hiring someone to cut his bed in half, move it up the tiny staircase, and reassemble it upstairs. I elected to sleep on an air mattress. Needless to say, we both could have used The Bed, by Thuma. As its name implies, The Bed is not a regular bed.
We’re not finger waggers here, so we will not start off by telling you you should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep most nights. We will, however, tell you that you need to be getting quality sleep, especially if it’s a little harder to get the right quantity. A simple sleep-quality test is if you’re getting close to the famous seven to eight hours but you’re still tired during the day, then you’re likely not getting a good night’s sleep.
We’re not finger waggers here, so we will not start off by telling you you should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep most nights. We will, however, tell you that you need to be getting quality sleep, especially if it’s a little harder to get the right quantity. A simple sleep-quality test is if you’re getting close to the famous seven to eight hours but you’re still tired during the day, then you’re likely not getting a good night’s sleep.
Imagine a Tetris game where every single shape was exactly the one you needed in that moment. In the game of living room layouts, that scenario exists, and we call it a sectional. This versatile superhero sets up a space for big parties and cozy Netflix binges alike. Add in a choice of fabrics and colors and you’ve got thousands of configurations to set up whatever living room you want to live in. So, where to begin?
Imagine a Tetris game where every single shape was exactly the one you needed in that moment. In the game of living room layouts, that scenario exists, and we call it a sectional. This versatile superhero sets up a space for big parties and cozy Netflix binges alike. Add in a choice of fabrics and colors and you’ve got thousands of configurations to set up whatever living room you want to live in. So, where to begin?
Considering that most of us at Apartment Therapy consider spring cleaning our favorite national holiday, this may come as a surprise: Even we have some spots in our homes that we regularly miss, overlook, or just plain ignore. But this is the year we break the cycle! We’re keeping these seven little trouble spots on our mind as we set off on spring deep clean—which, fortunately, are all laughably easy tasks.
Summer’s over (boo!). But there’s so much to look forward to in the fall and winter. Namely, one of our favorite pastimes: doing nothing. Human “hibernation” is totally a thing, and it may actually help us recover and recuperate. This is the time to start building your den of coziness, where your main activity will be telling Netflix you’re still watching from time to time.
Spring cleaning: It’s a big annual ritual that we actually kind of love, but it doesn’t have to become an overwhelming task that eats up an entire weekend. With little more than an all-purpose cleaner, a good spray mop, and 10 minutes a day, you can keep a mostly clean house year-round so that when the big weekend does come around…it won’t be so big.Making the bed is one of the most powerful things you can do first thing in the morning.
The whole idea of Black Friday is so ingrained in us now that it almost feels like a tradition. If lining up for doorbusters is your thing, by all means, do it. But our idea of a better tradition for the day after Thanksgiving is to spend the day at home with our families, putting up our holiday decor. This year, Lowe’s is breaking with tradition this year by offering Black Friday deals throughout the entire month of November, which includes their holiday decorations.
When it comes to beautiful, one-of-a-kind modern design, the only way you can do better than Blu Dot is Blu Dot on sale. For a few ephemeral weeks each year, they offer all of their punchy, modern designs at 20 percent off. But just like any hope of pre-planning your Halloween costume, it’s all over by October 28th. So to save you a little time, I sifted through the sale for the best finds—take a look. Blu Dot excels at every kind of sofa, but especially sleepers.
The first sign you’re back in the fall grind is that weekends become a much more precious commodity than you remember them being. Despite the returned chaos, there are a few little tasks you can do during the week that will keep the weekend chore list shorter. Each takes less than five minutes; none requires any special tools. We all want to be the person who wipes off soup splatters right after they happen, but who among us is?
Whether you’re moving in with your boyfriend, girlfriend, or best friend, chances are your personal styles aren’t a perfect match…yet. But there’s good news! Mixing and matching styles is actually pretty easy if you follow a few cardinal rules. We went on a shopping and styling spree with Overstock.com to show how two distinct living room styles can become one. Turns out, Overstock.
charset="utf-8" src="https://d30bopbxapq94k.cloudfront.net/js/curalate-widget-client-all-v3.min.js" type="text/javascript"> Just because you have pets or kids, or are, frankly, a total klutz, doesn’t mean you can’t have nice things. The first secret of styling high-traffic areas is durable, easy-to-clean items. The second is that those items can be just as chic as their more delicate counterparts. We refreshed a living room using items completely sourced from Overstock.
Almost every homeowner has a renovation project in mind, but the big question is: When should I do it? Sometimes, it makes sense to save up and put it off. But in certain cases, it would behoove you to do it sooner. These are the medium and big-ticket projects that, yes, will add value when it’s time to resell, but are also improvements you want to enjoy for yourself.
Who says neutral has to mean white or beige? We say it’s 100% possible for a color to work quietly in the background and still be, you know, a color. That’s the whole point of our New Neutrals Project, where we gave some lucky readers a neutral paint makeover. The results are anything but boring and we all learned how much a little bit of color would help. Today we visit Leah, who took on the challenge to transform her condo’s living room into a soothing space.
Neutrals will never go out of style, but lately we’ve been seeing them take on a new sophistication. More and more, we’re seeing classic neutrals show up with deeper tints—shades a little more exciting than ecru or bone—and people are really leaning into those colors that fall somewhere in the middle of two other colors.
Think neutrals can only be white, grey or beige? Not so! It turns out that lots of you are using unexpected shades—like muted pinks, oranges, yellows, and even greens—as stage-setting neutrals in your spaces. Which inspired us to investigate further. In today’s edition of our New Neutrals Project , we visit Melina, a reader who was a little incredulous that adding pigment to a neutral would work out in her favor. Melina, founder of 5th Floor Walkup, lives in a small studio.
I first started using Trello a couple years ago. It’s a project management app (for desktop and mobile), but it’s way more visual and fun to use than any others I’ve seen. Once it got all my work projects together, I quickly realized it could be useful for way more: all my home project planning, to-do lists…really anything I find myself writing down or pinning or bookmarking or emailing to myself or group-texting about. Which is to say, everything. And it’s free!
The award-winning Aladdin on Broadway brings the adventure of Disney’s classic film to a whole new world. (Sorry, too easy!) Which got us thinking…What would Jasmine, Aladdin and all the other characters’ digs look like in real life? With a little help from our library of House Tours we came up with a few ideas… Design Personality: Modern Desert Rustic We start in the desert. Not the Seven Deserts outside Agrabah, but the Mojave Desert in CA.
You’d think holiday travel would be somewhat enjoyable since it’s the last step before the celebrating begins. As we all know, it isn’t. You may have no control over an overpacked flight grid, but putting a little thought into your own self-care will minimize as much of the frazzle as you can. We’ve thought through a few unexpected carry-on items that will ensure you arrive healthy, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the season.
Let’s say you had Cher’s closet from Clueless, but not just for clothes: for all your stuff. Think how much that would change your whole year. Your holiday motif, for example, could become the fully realized dreamscape you imagined if you had an endless amount of storage space, right? This is exactly what Closetbox offers: all the extra storage space you need, plus all the heavy lifting.
Warning/workspace/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/atmedia-cloudinary-image-block/atmedia-cloudinary-image-block.php82 Even the littlest gifts can be thoughtful and memorable. Take Tile, the tiny Bluetooth tracker that makes it easy to find everything that matters. It’s a great gift for anyone who ever loses anything (i.e., all of us).
