Design

If you like design, there’s a good chance you also like books—especially ones about interiors and art, which tend to be big. No matter the subject, books bring so much joy to a home—whether it’s by providing entertainment, education, or escape. And on a more superficial level, they add color and texture to a space to make it more visually rich and interesting too.

Kitchen design has kind of been the same for a few years now—subway tile backsplash, splashy pendant lights, as big of an island as possible, and maybe some open shelving for good measure. Cabinet color has started to shift a little bit from all white to a little more bold in some instances, but it hasn’t fully taken off yet.

Decorating can be hard, especially when you move into your first apartment. The cards are kind of stacked against you—it’s small, you likely don’t have much furniture of your own, you might have a roommate (or several!), and you’re probably not making bank yet, meaning the budget is tight. So you’re bound to make a mistake or two in setting up your space. We have all been there, and the good news is most of these decorating issues can be solved pretty easily.

Two is always better than one, and the same rule applies to coffee tables. Over the last year, there has been a spike in styled living rooms that have taken the usual formula of one big coffee table and broken it up into two separate pieces. Nesting coffee tables don’t just apply to big living rooms that have the extra square footage for additional tables.

If it feels like you’ve been seeing life through rose-colored glasses lately, it may be because life is great. But, it also may be because there are more shades of pink used in interiors than ever before. In the past 100 years, the connotation and representation of the color pink has changed.

I’ve heard designers say this, in one way or another, what feels like a million times: Shop your home to change up your decor for free. And you know what—it’s a good idea, in theory. You can’t beat free, right? But, it’s also a little soundbite-y. And by that, I mean, how does one actually go about doing this? I’ve never pressed a designer for actionable tips—that is, until now.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Having a tiny house doesn’t mean you have to abandon all signs of style and personality in your place. Nay—you can be what I’d like to call a mini-maximalist, and as long as you do this strategically, you can pull it off with flying colors. Don’t believe me? That’s okay. Because I’m ready to state my case with some house tour proof.

I remember what all of my childhood bedrooms looked like because, well, I had a hand in picking most of the big pieces out and looked forward to redecorating every couple of years: Bedding, art for the walls and even paint colors. Let’s put it this way—I used to collect and hoard paint chips from The Home Depot when I was a kid.

Do you love bread? Now you can—ahem—prove it, not just with a GIF of Oprah or by obsessively watching and rewatching every Bread Week episode of the Great British Bake Off, but with a lamp that’s actually made from baked goods. This glutinous carbo load of design decadence is the brainchild of Japanese artist Yukiko Morita, a former baker who has turned her love of yeasted dough into a design object.

Hat queen Diane Keaton recently released an interior decorating book, The House That Pinterest Built, after years of quietly flipping houses (and releasing her own wine). Keaton isn’t alone in her passion for design, and The Cut has rounded up quotes from 25 powerhouse women on their love for interior decorating. It wouldn’t be a female-centric story about design without an appearance from dream home enchantress Nancy Meyers.

When it comes to IKEA products and furniture, some items can feel a bit, well, over-exposed. Like if you see it one more time on Instagram or even in an Apartment Therapy house tour, your head might explode. Or is that just me? All kidding aside, there are more than a few IKEA pieces that have become cult-classics. And it’s not just because they’re cheap. They actually live up to the hype either in terms of form, function or both.

Check out tips from these loved-up design duos.

Rocking chairs are having a comeback, and the new fashion-conscious reimagined pieces will make you crave a rocker of your own. You can choose a wicker option to blend in with your Southwestern living room, or a blue velvet rocking chair to add a luxurious touch to a corner. There are tanned leather chairs that feel distinguished, and mid-century-inspired ones that will giving your room a vintage touch.

Wallpaper sometimes gets a bad rap, which makes homeowners and renters alike hesitant to try it. Blame it on grandma’s old petunia living room wallpaper, because the stuff doesn’t always inspire confidence. But wallpaper is now used in more contemporary ways—I promise!—and it’s worth taking the plunge. Especially when it comes to the dining room. Make your entertaining all the more special with a thoughtfully patterned area.

If you thought jewel tones were best reserved for cold weather decor, you are sorely mistaken. Inspired by the natural shades of gemstones, such as amethyst, sapphire, and ruby, jewel-toned homewares are a colorful way to jazz up your space anytime of year. Still not convinced? We rounded up some stylish, jewel-toned decor items at Amazon to prove our point. From an emerald-hued serving tray to a canary yellow accent chair, here’s what we found.

When Target introduced their Opalhouse line last year it was a surprise departure from the more classic, everyday pieces the store was known for. All of a sudden we were hit with an explosion of texture and color and an array of furnishings that were at once boho chic and maximalist-friendly, and AT’s edit team was immediately hooked. In the words of our Managing Editor, Sarah Yang: “Opalhouse is my personal brand.

Get the season off to a smooth start with these tips.

While it can be tempting to embrace ALL of the prints, less is more when it comes to decorating with these fun fabrics.

Sure, it may take a bit longer to make your bed each morning, but the added oomph is so worth it.

Today marks one hundred years since the German art school Bauhaus opened its doors. While it only remained functioning for 14 years, Bauhaus’s impact on unifying art, craft, and technology through design remains one of the most influential movements to this day—and now, it has its own Google Doodle. When you press play on the Doodle, the animated art show starts rolling to life, complete with objects created by Bauhaus moving in a simple, minimalist fashion.

A good over-the-door organizer can be a game-changer when you aren't working with a ton of storage space.

Is it just us or does minimalism feel so yesterday? Don’t get us wrong: We love a sleek and clean space as much as the next design enthusiast; however, we have to admit that the neutral color palette and lack of funky details feels, well, sterile.

Abandoning this style can help your space feel more modern, personal, and welcoming.

I’m a creature of habit in that I always have to leave my keys in the exact same spot by the front door every time I come home, or else I just know I will forget them when I leave (trust me, it’s happened too many times to count). If you’re looking to streamline—or simply create—an entry organization system, we’re here to help.

It’s fun buying skincare and new lipstick shades, but it’s not fun being avalanched by those bottles each time you open your bathroom cabinet. If you have been trying to keep your products tidy but see them back to their old cluttered mess within a few days, it might be time for some reinforcement. There are a ton of bathroom storage products that will organize your beauty products once and for all.

For the design on this off-the-grid Midwest residence, Midland Architecture’s Greg Dutton opted to stay close to his familial roots. The 650-square-foot home known as The Hut sits in the Ohio Valley on the family’s property, which they’ve owned and worked for the last four decades. To bring the project to fruition, Dutton enlisted the help of his brother Chris, other relatives and a group of friends.

It’s no secret that replacing standard dresser or nightstand knobs with more stylish options can do wonders to transform a piece. But finding the perfect drawer pull—or figuring out how to score a whole set of them without spending too much money—can be a bit of a challenge, especially if time is of the essence and you just want to finish decorating your bedroom, like, now. Luckily, all of these drawer pulls are eligible for two-day shipping (thanks, Prime!

Is it just us, or does buying a bathmat feel like a Catch-22? On the one hand, you need a mat in your bathroom. What’s the alternative? Getting your floor all wet or, even worse, slipping after a relaxing bath or shower? Um, no thank you. But while bathmats are integral to every home, you have to admit they’re not always the most stylish accessories.

It doesn’t matter if you were playing with your American Girl Dolls, doodling in a coloring book, or racing a stylish set of Hot Wheels, one thing’s for sure: A child’s playroom is so, so much more than a room. It’s a place where kids can foster their creativity and, well, be kids. Chances are, you probably have some pretty wonderful memories if you were lucky enough to have your very own childhood playroom.

A good bar setup at home ensures that you’re always ready for happy hour. Luckily, Amazon is brimming with cute and clever bar accessories—many of which are priced for 10n bucks or less. Read ahead for seven items that will transform your bar cart—for cheap. Looking for an easy way to squeeze some fresh lemon or lime into your cocktail? This savvy spritzer has serrated teeth, so you can stick it straight inside a piece of fruit and then spray away.

It’s no secret that streamlining is in right now. Many of us are carefully evaluating everything from our wardrobes to our kitchenware and enjoying feeling lighter as we let unneeded belongings go. And with that, it’s no surprise that we’re more and more drawn to a streamlined look when it comes to furniture and decor, too. Take bed frames and headboards, for example. Gone are the days of tufted, upholstered numbers and in are sleek, simple wooden options, like the ones below.

A sale is just a swipe away!

We pay special attention to lighting. The glitzy chandelier featured in that historic house tour. Those coastal-inspired pendants along the bar at that airport restaurant. The single Edison bulb that illuminates your favorite hotel’s bedroom. “Lighting is one of the most important parts of a design—both the physical fixtures, as well as the quality of lighting,” says Dan Mazzarini of BHDM Design.

Looking to well, switch, your plain plate and outlet covers for something a little more stylish? It’s one of the easiest ways to update your space in mere minutes with minimal effort. And we’ve got you covered with these eight products, with options to please each member of the family. Oh, and the best part? Everything in this roundup is under $20. Add a stylish dose of on-trend brass to your home with this sleek cover. It won’t even set you back a full five bucks.

Last year, I decided it was time to get new bedroom furniture. Up until then, all of my furniture had been inherited from people I subletted from or friends leaving New York. While all the pieces were fine and functional, together they were creating a disheveled vibe. I craved cohesion. One of the things I was most eager to replace was a IKEA LEKSVIK Semainier dresser. It had five medium-sized drawers and a small hutch on top.

Growing up, we had a few trunks in my house from my mom’s and grandma’s childhood days. They were worn-looking and covered in stickers from summer camp and travels, but they didn’t exactly catch my eye. As I grew older and started decorating my own apartment, I began to spot brass trunks all over Pinterest and fell for them, hard. Unlike the black, weathered trunks we’d had in our basement, these were shiny, glam-looking, and much more my style.

Accent tables can do a lot to make a room feel finished, but for such a small piece of your room, they can end up being surprisingly expensive. Fortunately, one of our favorite online retailers, Amazon, offers an impressive assortment of accent tables that are both super stylish and inexpensive. From a pair of nesting end tables to a two-tiered coffee table, here are some of the best accent tables under $50 on Amazon. The only thing better than a sleek and space-savvy end table is two of them.

It's taking over home design, one line at a time.

Think poufs are overrated? Not so fast. There’s a reason these guys keep popping up in room after room. After all, they’re portable, comfortable, colorful, and stylish… certainly not every piece of decor fits this description. Need a little more convincing? Check out the ways in which 14 different homeowners and renters styled poufs in their spaces. Ah, the classic moroccan pouf.

Am I the only one who wants a complete makeover every time another birthday rolls around? There’s just something about starting a new year that feels like the perfect time to try out a fresh look. My own is coming up next week and I’m already planning to dye my hair a new color and maybe get another ear piercing. And it turns out, IKEA furniture is a fan of the new year, new me mantra too.

Colorful front doors are all the rage right now—just take a quick scroll through Instagram and you’re bound to see dozens. The best part is that you can’t really go wrong shade-wise, so now is the time to be creative. Feeling shy? Try transforming an interior door with a pop of paint and you’ll be amazed at how much brighter your space will look. Feeling a little more bold? Slap a fresh coat of paint on your exterior door to really make a statement.

What is it about minimalism that always makes us a little weak in the knees? It doesn’t matter if it’s one of Philip Johnson’s iconic glass houses or a set from our favorite movie, there’s something about those clean lines, pared-down details and neutral color palette that makes us feel like we’re in a stylish sanctuary.

For as clean and unobtrusive as all-white bedding can be, it’s also a bit, well, boring. So we searched our home tours high and low for eye-catching bedding–that isn’t plain white—to show just what a little color and pattern can do in a bedroom. Here are eight bedrooms that might make you rethink your all-white bedding. A little color goes a long way in an all-white room.

Is it just us, or do all living rooms kind of look the same? It doesn’t matter if they’re large or small, minimalist or maximalist. most living rooms follow the same cookie cutter format. There’s always a cozy couch, maybe an accent chair or two, a few coffee and side tables, and a nice, big television. It’s a bit of a snooze, but what’s the alternative? Turns out, there are plenty of ways to shake up your living room layout.

Just because shelves are utilitarian in nature doesn't mean they have to look it.

Do us a favor and look up at your ceiling. What do you see? Nothing? Yeah, we kind of figured. For years, the ceiling has been the most overlooked, and under-appreciated, part of every room. Sure, you might’ve used some adhesive, glow-in-the-dark stars when you were a kid or added a statement light fixture to the mix, but that’s probably the extent of your ceiling design chops. Or so you thought. Recently, it seems like the design tides are changing.

If the kitchen is the stomach of your home, the living room is definitely its heart. It’s where you can curl up with a book on a lazy Sunday, catch up with some friends over a glass of wine, or spend the entire weekend binge-watching whatever’s on Netflix (hey, we’re not judging). Your living room is such an important part of your home, it’s important to keep it looking its best at all times.

Who doesn’t love a good record player? They’re functional, stylish, and keep popping up in home tour after home tour. If you’re worried about adding one to your own place without making your houseguests wonder if they’ve been transported back to 1962, fear not. The rooms below prove that these babies can look just as cool now as they did way back when. Placing an antique-inspired record player on a trendy storage cart helps combine past and present.

ICYMI: Living in a small space isn’t all Instagrammable tiny houses or fun D.I.Y. projects from Pinterest. Sure, small spaces offer the unique challenge of maximizing your design chops in a teeny, tiny space, but the truth is it can be really frustrating. Not only do you have to find sneaky ways to make your small space look bigger, but you also have to figure out clever ways to store your stuff without turning it into a cluttered mess. But hitting the refresh button on your small home?

Think you just don’t have room for an area rug? We’re not so sure. These tiny houses prove that even the smallest of homes can benefit from a bold rug, whether you prefer something plush or are drawn to colorful kilim. Take a peek at these beautiful setups; we guarantee you won’t look at your bare floors the same way again. No room for a coffee table? Try placing a rug in front of the sofa instead. It’ll add extra warmth and encourage guests to plop down as they please.

A highly utilitarian space, bathrooms don’t always receive the same level of decoration as the rest of the home. But I think that’s why the bathrooms in this list all stand out so much; these are functional rooms where you can get your business done, but they’re also stunning spaces where you can unwind, relax, and get away from it all. Let this list of our favorite bathrooms from house tours inspire you to create your own spa-like space at home.

These white kitchens are packed with personality.

Once upon a time, hearing the word “cabin” instantly prompted images of a primitive dwelling that required its occupants to rough it in the absence of modern home staples including electricity, running water and decor. Thanks to the abundance of luxe glamping sites, that outdated notion has been turned completely on its head. The latest eye-catching small space to pop up on our radar is this tiny cabin in a Brazilian forest, which appears just as alluring as it sounds.

This Valentine’s Day I’m celebrating the special kind of love many of us feel for gorgeously decorated homes. I asked my co-editors here at Apartment Therapy to divulge their favorite rooms from house tours have been… of all time. It was a hard task for us all (there have been so many gorgeous tours throughout the years), but we’ve managed to narrow it down to those rooms that make us swoon the most. Today enjoy the picks of some of our favorite living rooms ever.

According to the experts.

There are any number of color “rules” you can follow when you’re picking out your home’s palette. The classic 60-30-10 Rule is a place to start. You can lean on the smart suggestions of a color expert. Those looking to add dark colors in a small space might even want to consult some online guidance. But the six stunning homes in this post prove that you can play around with what some might consider “clashing” color combos and pull it off beautifully.

Psst…you can order ‘em all from the comfort of your couch.

I have a confession to make. I used to be fully committed to and head-over-heels in love with Craigslist, and only Craigslist, when it came to buying secondhand furniture. The deals on there were just too good. That time I scored a Lucite console table for only $25? Gold. The scorched bamboo side table I snagged for free? Yes, please! Ok, I’d used LetGo a couple of times and was always curious about the other resale apps out there, but 99 percent of the time, Craigslist had the goods.

Like all the best trends—velvet furnishings, pastel kitchen appliances, even low-carb diets—animal prints have cycled in and out of style over the years (and centuries). At times they’ve been perceived as luxurious and expensive, at other times tacky, outdated, and even a little scandalous, but they never truly leave the cultural lexicon (most recently, Tom Ford’s 2018 Fall Ready to Wear Collection relied heavily on those wild patterns).

Few things are more exhilarating than moving into your first real home. But as fun as decorating it can be, it’s also easy to make a lot of rookie mistakes. So to help make the process of decorating your first home go a little smoother, we called on a few of our favorite designers to share the mistakes they (and their clients) seem to always make. From awkward furniture arrangements to picking the wrong paint color, these are the decorating mistakes we all make in our first homes.

If we’re being totally honest, a walk down memory lane can be a very cringe-worthy experience. How many pictures have you looked at in total disbelief that you actually left the house with crimped hair, layers of eyeliner, and a hot pink velour sweatsuit? Yeah, not our finest moments. Looking at pictures of your previous living spaces can elicit the same embarrassment.

Here's how to overcome the daunting task of forging distinct areas inside a lofty, wall-less space.

Even the most novice designer understands how easily vibrant colors can make a rather huge impact on their surroundings, and there’s no clearer example of this concept than Magenta, a bright pink tiny home on wheels. Joshua Woodsman of Pin-Up Houses designed the eye-catching residence, which measures a mere 66 square feet and is built atop a flat trailer for those who are perpetually consumed by wanderlust.

If your living room could use a jolt of color, these images are sure to inspire.

Happy New Year to all of my fellow Trader Joe’s fans suffering from super-scaly appendages, thanks to this lovely cold front we are experiencing! It might be frigid and dry outside, but GUESS WHAT? You still have to wash copious amounts of dishes. Perhaps even more than usual. And go outside to brave the cold regularly. Yay! I have four words for all of you: Ultra Moisturizing Hand Cream.