Nancy was recently faced with the challenge of completing a quick and affordable bedroom makeover for a couple who is adopting three siblings. She transformed a guest room into a bright and airy girl’s room in only five days, and while there are plenty of lovely touches in the space, it’s her simple and cheap solution for a wall treatment that really stopped me in my tracks.
With every season comes a different set of clothing, accessories, and gear that’s front and center in your home for a couple of months. For summer, it’s light weight clothing, open toe shoes, and umbrellas. And, while there’s probably lots of time left for the charcoal grill in late August, the clock is ticking on the bicycles, canoe, and pool noodles currently loitering around the house.
All the small space goodness from last month inspired me to make some tweaks and additions to make my small Brooklyn kitchen more serviceable and user-friendly (especially since I am its primary user). The changes are affordable, renter-friendly and, hopefully, helpful to some of you simmering and sautéing away in your own small kitchens. 1. Over-the-Stove Cutting Board: small kitchens are a challenge not just for storing things but for actually cooking.
Water-resistant, water-proof and life-proof cases can open up a world of freedom for phone addicts. But before the case ever makes the journey to the lake or the pool, it should be tested to ensure that the case and its seals are in working order. Inspect the case and seals for cracks, dust and dirt. Check that the seal or o-ring is clean an in place. Take a piece of paper, paper towel or anything else that will show when it gets wet, and close it inside the case.
My love affair with mudcloth is well documented. If you are unfamiliar with the stuff, mudcloth is a somewhat heavy fabric, sewn in strips, and dyed naturally with mud. It usually has a graphic pattern of geometric lines and dots, in high contrast black and white. Given the process of making it, it’s no surprise that the real deal is also somewhat expensive.
Leave it to the Kardashians to turn a baby shower into a star-studded fete with enough ritzy gifts to fill a truck. And that’s just what the family did over the weekend to honor the last currently pregnant Kardashian, Khloe, for the impending arrival of her baby girl with boyfriend Tristan Thompson.
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.
A couple weeks ago, I got to preview the beautiful Boston Magazine Design Home 2014 in Salisbury, Ma. While I was inspired by many of the rooms and green features of this net zero energy home, these were the seven décor ideas I wanted to steal for my own space: Note: While its eco-friendliness is a huge draw, I’m going to focus on purely decorating tips. To find out more about its energy efficient features, visit the Design Home website. Here are my seven decorating ideas to steal: 1.
Undermount sinks are often a no-brainer decision when remodeling a kitchen. There’s lots to love: they look nice, let you to wipe water and crumbs directly from the counter into the sink with a single swipe, and they eliminate that gunk-magnet seam around the lip of overmount sinks. With all these pros, what’s the catch?
The apron-front, or farmhouse, sink has been a popular fixture in all kinds of kitchens for some time now, and with the rise in popularity of kitchens that mix traditional and modern elements, it feels more appropriate than ever. If you’re considering adding one of these big beauties to your space, here’s everything you need to know. Searching for a farmhouse sink? See all of our best picks here.
If you’re looking for a relatively painless, low-cost way to update your kitchen, and have ever been on the internet, you know that painting your cabinets is the way to go. Honestly, I can’t think of better dollar-to-dramatic improvement ratio on any other project. And the news gets better: It’s way easier now than it was the olden days, before the miracle of chalk paint.
Everybody knows the rent is stupid high in San Francisco, New York City, and Boston — it’s one of those sad running jokes, an absurdity that’s nonetheless become an accepted fact of life at this point. But a new study by London real-estate startup Nested shows that America’s most notoriously expensive rental markets are now the priciest in the whole world.
One could argue that New York’s questionably legal housing stock has been around for hundreds of years, ever since immigrants started populating the island in droves. You could also argue that it’s reached a whole new level when one such place is featured in the real estate section of the New York Times. Related: Could You Live in Under 200 Square Feet? Jack Leahy is a 25-year-old musician that moved to Williamsburg from Austin last September.
While a coffee table is by nature low—the right height to set your drink (and perhaps your feet) without blocking the television—an attractive coffee table display will have subtly varying heights (as well as properly organized zones for decor and useful items like remotes and coasters). → Make It Beautiful: How To Style the Perfect Coffee Table The key to handling disparate, not-particularly-attractive elements is corral, corral, corral.
“Stuff”—we all have it. Some of us are just better at displaying ours than others. To level the playing field a bit we reached out to a bunch of decorating professionals for styling tips because you deserve to have a home that feels just right. Today, we’re talking shelfies, vignettes and coffee table tableaus; they can be tricky to nail down, but since these little decor “moments” really can set the mood in your home, the effort is worth it.
Yesterday we talked about 12 different ways to use a bookcase in your home. Did you miss it? Check it out for sure as they’re one of the most versatile furniture pieces you can own. Today we’re back with a few more suggestions, but this time for the entryway staple: the coat rack.1. In The Bedroom: The harder we work to keep our closet items paired down the easier it can be to put a coat rack to use as a closet (especially if you use a small bookcase for folded items).
Ask any cat owner with an ounce of decor-savvy what is amongst their top “pet peeves” and litter boxes will likely be high up there (right next to surprise phantom hairballs). Most litter boxes aren’t much too easy on the eyes, and some are just crazy contraptions that forgo any apparent forethought about decor-friendliness (we did roundup our favourite cat litter boxes not that long ago, so all hope is not lost).
If we could live in any Disney fairytale, it would be “Beauty and the Beast.” Gorgeous architecture, a library filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a kitchen staff well-versed in French cuisine sound like a dream to us. Mild hostage situation aside, Beast’s castle is pretty much our dream. If you’ve ever watched the movie and thought, yep, I’d like to drink a glass of wine and take a selfie in here, you’re in luck.
Picking out a pillow must be one of the most subjective and personal choices one can make for their personal well-being. It’s just a pillow, but it makes a huge difference between having a good night’s rest and one tossing and turning. Another consideration for many is allergies. Although goose down is considered the premium choice, there are many out there who’d suffer dearly sleeping on the soft filling.
I was warming up to make a bunch of wagon wheel coffee table jokes — most referencing When Harry Met Sally — when I realized this is actually a mill wheel. We’ll just have to appreciate this project for what it is: an approachable, unique upcycle of a neglected old piece of equipment. Here’s how this project came to be, according to Roxanne of The Honeycomb Home: While at a flea market, an old wooden wheel caught my eye. The seller said it may have been from a grist mill.
Whether you call it a stock tank, a galvanized metal container, or a cattle trough (being from Texas, I prefer the latter), one thing’s for sure: these metal bins make for perfect and visually interesting raised garden beds. They’re cheap and come in a variety of sizes, so surely you’ll find one for your space. Then, follow these steps to create your own raised bed.
When Frank Lloyd Wright began practicing architecture at the turn of the 20th century, American suburbs were a pastiche of borrowed European architectural styles. But Wright had a vision; he wanted to create a style that was uniquely American, inspired by the landscape and free of associations with the old world. He called this unique style “Usonian”, a play on “USA.
Ssh! We’re putting together a dress up box for my kids this year for Christmas! To aid in my quest for putting together the best dress up box ever, I have made this handy “Ultimate Dress Up Box Checklist”. How many of these do you have in yours? Or, even better, waiting to add to yours, currently lying around your house? Used adult clothes: short dresses (they will become full length on a child) bridesmaid dresses (possibly cut short?
Spoiler alert: The real-life version of Bernard/Arnold’s home in Westworld is for sale, and it happens to be one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most hallowed and historic works of Southern California architecture. The Mayan-style temple built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924 almost entirely out of interlocking concrete blocks—also known as The Ennis House—sits on a hillside in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, and just hit the market after a $17 million renovation.
After spending four muddy days under flood water this mirror was on top of a pile of trash, destined for the tip. Then I got sentimental and retrieved it. It was too wet and filthy to bring inside so it spent the next 6 months outside before I finally decided it was time to make it work or let it go. I toyed with the idea of painting it bright yellow but in the end I couldn’t do it, so I kept it simple and tried to return it to its former glory.
An amazing thing happened in June 2008 — an IKEA opened two miles from my home. Oh, and my son was born. Before this a trip to IKEA meant descending into the bowels of Port Authority in Manhattan, boarding a standing room only shuttle bus to a New Jersey IKEA and then deciding whether to spend more money than you spent on purchases to arrange home delivery of your items or to limit yourself to what you could wrangle home on the bus and subway. It was a dark time.
TOP ROW:1. Before & After: Molly’s IKEA Rast Turned Campaign Chest2. Before & After: IKEA Changing Table into Home Office Desk3. Before & After: The DIY IKEA Office Organizer4. Before & After: Bet You Can’t Guess What This IKEA Malm was Converted Into5. Before & After: IKEA Malm Gets an Upholstered Ombre Makeover BOTTOM ROW:6. Before & After: Anna’s Take on the IKEA Rast7. Lizzie’s Wallpapered IKEA Lack Table8. Before & After: IKEA Granas Table Gets a Rustic Makeover9.
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.
We’ve seen the topic of painting upholstery come up from time to time to time, but this Before & After made my jaw drop. While I may have been on the fence before — one look at the After photo and I’m a believer.the After!Given the option of spending hundreds of dollars to reupholster her Craigslist chair or experimenting with painting the fabric, Kristy Swain of Hyphen Interiors broke out the brushes.
Architectural salvage shops are increasingly popular destinations for designers, collectors, and remodelers, and for the home decorator looking for unique furnishings, there’s no better place to start a search. In part, salvage stores hold such wide appeal because the items there carry the forgotten tales of the past, and invite collectors to imagine creative reuse ideas.
Who wants to spend less time doing the dishes? We do! There’s no need to overthink it. Sometimes the answer is simply to create fewer dishes in the first place. Try this simple tip. One person = one drinking vessel. Period.
Isn’t a huge piece of art such a daring focal point for a space? Not only does it highlight a favorite piece of art you might have, but it really shows you’re not afraid of being bold in your home. But when not incorporated well, an oversized piece of art can overwhelm, snatch up all of the attention and ruin an otherwise perfectly lovely room. So how do you play around with the scale of a canvas or framed art piece without things getting visually out of control?
Your landlord just sent a lease renewal form, but you’re not sure you want to sign it again this year. The rent is going up, the parking situation sucks, and the upstairs neighbors always seem to drag furniture across the floor in those fleeting seconds between consciousness and sleep. The average rent nationwide has been rising, but market rate rents — those advertised to new renters — are climbing even faster, according to new research by Zillow.
I had no idea that my little kitchen overhaul would yield such a response, ranging from “awful” to “amazeballs.” Thanks for all the great comments, both good and bad. By the way, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr. Kevorkian, and stem cell research combined have nothing on the “brass knobs with stainless appliances” debate. I’m not sure which issue will take longer to resolve. And that brings us to the bathroom.
During the last year, we focused mainly on fixing up the inside of our house. But 2011 is all about the outside, and we got to work before the holidays so we could eat out of our first food-producing garden come early spring. So far, so good. Take a look!We’re grateful that we have a lot of real estate to work with. Our first raised bed (the one pictured here) is four feet wide, eight feet long, and a foot and a half deep. It needed a cubic yard of dirt to fill it up!
If you love to hate goop, then we’ve got a perfect summer read for you: Gabrielle Moss’ “Glop,” a hilarious, satirical take on Paltrow’s wellness dynasty.Moss, who’s also an editor at Bustle, said the idea for the book was born in 2015, after Paltrow posted on goop about vaginal steaming. “I decided I would also steam my vagina and report it to see how closely my experience mirrored Gwyneth’s,” she says.
Using data from Google Maps, Google News Lab has figured out where we’re going, what we’re looking for and when we’re getting there around Thanksgiving. So, if you’re trying to eat Chinese food on the way to the plant nursery on Black Friday, you’re not alone—but you should probably avoid driving at 9am. So how’d they figure out that folks in Texas are particularly interested in bicycle sharing locations?
During the warm days of summer that always seem to creep into September, no material is more refreshing than naturally crisp linen. To cool you down as this glorious season lingers on, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite sources for high-quality linen everything—duvet covers, towels, and notebooks included. Save this list of go-to shops in your design file—these are 8 sources you’re going to want to keep shopping all year long. Why linen, you ask?
Every kid with a piggybank knows that careful saving can add up. If you could find a way to save just $4 a week at the laundromat or in your own laundry room, you’d have over $200 at the end of the year to use however you like! Here are 8 simple steps I feel confident will put those extra dollars in the bank. 1. Wait until you can wash full loads.
There are many reasons to let your neat freak flag fly. For one, your home is probably the most spotless of your friends. And you can likely clean house in record time, too. But your knowledge and enthusiasm for cleaning might also pay off for you in bragging rights, today. (And, even if you aren’t in the sweeping and scrubbing fan club, read on, because we have a really fun quiz for you…) On a scale from Danny Tanner to Homer Simpson, how much do you know about cleaning products?
My kitchen Before.. just two-three months ago. Name:Type of Project:Location:Type of building:Whenever I am asked how you learn to make good interior design decisions, how to trust yourself or how to just plain have style, I say the same thing. Start by copying. I don’t mean the type of copying where you cheated in high school by looking at someone else’s answers.
Name: Ursula (7 years) Location: Soho, NY Making a room for Ursula in our new home together took awhile but it was a joy. For her first room to herself in our new life (we were sharing a one bedroom for a year), I was able to take a white sheetrock box with a high ceiling and make it airy but cozy and have plenty of storage for her growing lifestyle of clothes, dolls, costumes and toys. Before! During!
Move over, shelfies; there’s a new trend in town. At Apartment Therapy, we spend a lot of our time talking about how to make your kitchen a more beautiful place. How to make a statement with your backsplash. How to spruce up your kitchen floors with a runner. But how to beautify your pantry? Not so much. When it comes to design, the pantry is really a forgotten spot. Sure, there are plenty of pantries organized to perfection, but a beautiful design has never been a huge priority.
Healthy houseplants are generally described as full and bushy. They’ll have lots of dense, sturdy growth and the leaves will be crisp and green rather than limp and yellowing. If your houseplant is “leggy,” it simply means it has gotten a bit unkempt and scraggly, like a formerly stylish haircut that’s grown out unevenly and is riddled with split ends. Leggy houseplants are marked by flopping stems, uneven and sparse growth, and a general look of untidiness.
Indoor plants are a vibrant source of beauty in your home’s otherwise inanimate landscape. And keeping them healthy and happy is a quiet source of joy for many people. But the opposite is also true: Struggling houseplants not only drag down your space’s appearance, but they also bring us down too.
Your kitchen is only so big, so if you’ve run out of storage room, it’s time to make the space work harder and be more efficient. It’s easy to miss potential, but look closely and you’ll find lots more opportunities to store essentials and clutter. Here are five ways we often get it wrong, and how you can quickly remedy your kitchen mistakes.
Tight corners, the space under your stairs, the tops of cabinets—these awkward spaces are the great equalizers of design. We all deal with some or all of these things in our homes no matter what our budgets look like. Money may certainly give you more decorating options, but sometimes ingenuity is really all it takes to conquer these tricky areas. Here are some ideas to help you tackle your “dead zones”.
If you can’t add more actual storage cabinets to your living space, you can always increase the capacity of what’s already there. This includes kitchen cupboards, free-standing wardrobes, media centers, and medicine cabinets — all of which are silently pleading “make me better, make me better!” Fulfill their organizational destinies, with these nine tips… 1. Go for store-bought inserts that increase the amount of stuff that cabinets hold.
In our largely cashless society, it’s easy to go days without touching an actual dollar bill. While there’s tons of convenience that comes with credit and debit cards, the downside is that money seems less real and it’s easier to overspend when payments appear in the distant future. The cash envelope system is one way to counter that. 1. Create Your Household Budget: Sit down and figure out your income and expenses each month.
Butcher countertops are still having their moment. They can add warmth and character to an otherwise sterile kitchen, and the natural and classic look of wood can simultaneously upgrade a kitchen and give it a timeless feel. But as with any trend, you should be wary of adopting it unless it’s a style that truly and personally brings you joy. When it comes to butcher block countertops, which require extra maintenance and can pose unique challenges, this is especially true.
Your home is your haven, and you deserve to be happy in it, no matter how much money you make, how big your space is, or how much you know or don’t know about decorating. The good news is there are tiny tweaks you can make to boost your mood in your house, and none of them cost a fortune. Some of them are scientific, so you might not even understand how or why the happy hits you. Just go with it—and the rest of these strategies for feeling your best in your nest.
If you’ve ever lusted over Italy’s gorgeous architecture (who hasn’t?), we’ve got some news for you. The government is accepting proposals for 103 historic sites, and in exchange, they’re yours, rent free. Most of the historic buildings are old homes, inns, and monasteries, but some of the properties up for grabs are literal castles.
Of all the problems associated with urban living, noise is the one that drives people the most nuts (For an example, watch this Italian clip). From the knocking pipe in the bedroom, to the upstairs neighbor’s rock’n’roll medley, to the bridge and tunnel traffic outside the window, noise can disrupt sleep, distract you when concentrating and stress you out after work when you need to unwind.
Name: Anissa Location: Meridian Hills — Indianapolis, Indiana Anissa’s home is a lovely mix of warm woods, bright whites and pops of greenery. Renovating a home is never easy, especially a unique and older one, where striking a balance between maintaining the character of the home and keeping it fresh is key. After dreaming of living in this neighborhood for about a decade, Anissa and her family made their dream come true.
Your apartment. It’s not quite a dream home. The floors are terrible and the kitchen is in need of an overhaul. Your rental might not be Mr. Right, but it is Mr. Right Now. If the place you call home feels a little dated, here are some easy ways to modernize your apartment.
From Apartment Therapy → 5 Things You DON’T Really Need Stores want to sell you lots and lots of stuff, that’s their job. Your job is to figure out which things you can’t live without and which ones you should leave on the shelf. That’s where we come in.
Ellen DeGeneres has been busy. The comedian, TV host, and most recently designer has been working on several new home collections under her ED by Ellen brand, including a line of rugs, pillows, and throws for Loloi. The collection was first announced in October 2016, and debuted at the Las Vegas and Atlanta markets in January. The rugs come in seven styles and multiple colorways each.
Meryl is on the move. The 20-time Academy Award nominee (and three-time winner) just dropped $3.6 million on a mid-century pad in Pasadena, California. Streep and her husband, sculptor Don Gummer, are the first people to buy the home in nearly fifty years, according to the exclusive on Variety. Built in 1959, the 3,087 square foot property sits on nearly two acres in the hills of Pasadena and has panoramic views of the surrounding San Gabriel Mountains and the Colorado Street Bridge.
Lemons are kind of a miracle to me. Their wizardly talents range from saving sailors from untimely scurvy deaths, to working equally as well in savory and sweet dishes. And on top of that, lemons are an ace all-natural cleaning agent to use around the house. Lemon is a cleanser and deodorizer that can work wonders for your skin, wardrobe or dresser drawers. Make a serum to calm your puffy, swollen eyes. Mix lemon juice with sugar or salt to create a deliciously smelling body scrub.
We like to reserve for our very last Before & After roundup the projects that really wow you. As in, these ‘after’ photos will leave you shocked. Amazed. Inspired. Take a look at some of this year’s most dramatic transformations. Click on the slideshow to see the projects. To learn more about each project (and see more pictures), click the links in the captions.
