5 Tips for Getting Your Home Project Featured on Apartment Therapy in 2021
If you’re anything like me, your year is quickly getting filled up with a long list of goals: paint the bathroom, build shelves for your bedroom, finally hang curtains in your living room… the to-dos can pile up! And while I can’t hop over to your place to help you with those curtains (sorry!), there is one goal I can help you achieve this year: getting featured on Apartment Therapy.
If you’re working on a home project — or you’ve already completed a project — that you’re hoping to get on the site, read on for some of my best tips for standing out and getting featured.
Take “before” photos.
This is really hard to remember to do! I know first-hand from all the times I’ve completed a project only to facepalm afterwards when I realized I never documented what it used to look like. But in order to be featured on the site, you’ll need to have a “before” photo that we can publish.
The “before” photos above, from reader Alyssa Murphy’s kitchen redo, are a great example. Alyssa took a before photo that included the whole kitchen, and shots of each side.
Your “before” photo should be taken by you so that we know we have permission to run it. It should include as much of the space (or item) that you’re making over as possible. While a horizontal is preferred, sometimes spaces are too tiny to make that possible. That’s OK! Submit anyway.
Include as much information as possible.
Sometimes, I receive submissions that have little to no accompanying text, and that makes it hard to figure out what the story of the project is. The more details you can include about what the space was like before the renovation, what the process of the renovation involved, and what you love about the end results, the better.
Make sure your “after” photos include the whole room.
If you’re submitting a room redo, make sure that your “after” shots include as much of the full room as possible. You can include detail shots as well, but it’s really helpful to see a full room to get a sense for where things are.
This bathroom redo from Catherine Vickers is a great example. Even though the space is small, Catherine positioned herself far enough back to include most of the bathroom in this after photo.
Take your “after” photos from the same angle as the “befores.”
Whenever possible, take your “after” photo from the same angle as the “before.” It is gratifying to see exactly how a space changed, and readers love to compare before and after shots of the same area.
These shots, from Amilia James’s bedroom makeover, show what it looks like to take both pictures from the same angle.
Note that if your after photos were taken by someone other than you, please include their proper credit information.
Include product credits and paint colors whenever you can.
These are some of the most-asked questions from readers, so I include as much of that information in the text of the story as I can. Whatever you can provide is helpful — even if you note that you already had something, or you had a paint color custom-mixed.
Feeling inspired and ready to share your project with Apartment Therapy readers? Here’s where you can submit. Happy renovating!