Decor & Accessories

Though there are some downsides to living in a studio apartment — not having as much space for your stuff, feeling like you’re living in your bedroom — it can be a cozy and fun living experience, too. Stick to these design tricks when decorating a studio apartment and you’ll love studio living. Don’t have a bedroom but do have a closet you can fit a bed into? Or is there a way to drape curtains around your bed to create a private bed nook?

The LACK wall shelf is a much more versatile piece than you might think. By twisting and turning and stacking it, you can put this $49 shelf to work in your home in myriad ways.

It’s always fun flipping through an IKEA catalog, looking at all the new stuff, and imagining how it might look in our own home. Their winter holiday collection is an extra bonus this time of year, filled with festive decorations and — most importantly — fresh decorating and styling ideas. Above, garland hung from the ceiling above, and around doorways, is perfect when space is at a premium. Create a unique decorative element on the wall using leftover ornaments.

Jenn & Hunter’s Historic Landmark Apartment Traditional rugs are traditional for a reason. Even though they are densely patterned and filled with a multitude of colors, they somehow still manage to go with everything. I’ve rounded up a bunch of rooms from our House Tours that feature these gorgeous rugs—pale, bright, deep, rich, red, blue, yellow: you name it, they’re all here.

The moving process is only as difficult as you make it out to be. If you’re hangry and disorganized the whole time, you’ll come away from the move having lost some really important things like your mind, your time and your grandmother’s china. Thankfully, it turns out being one of those hyper-organized people who have it all together is really, really simple. An organized move comes down to having organized moving boxes.

Name: Thomas & Erin Galvin, with Olive the cat Location: Echo Park; Los Angeles, CA Size: 530 square feet Years lived in: 2 years; Rented As a new House Tour contributor, I thought the best way for us to get to know each other would be to take you on an extra special house tour of my own apartment. My husband Thomas and I moved in on the heels of a very stressful living situation, determined to make our new apartment into a space that energizes us and helps us recharge.

There are plenty of reasons to decorate your house key. Like if you need to tell it apart from other keys. Or maybe it’s just because you just love a little something extra. Either way, I wouldn’t say these DIY projects are for everyone, but if you’re so inclined, here are 10 easy ways you can jazz up a boring house key. Grab some nail polish and lets get started.

Name: Echo Kao Location: Toy District; Los Angeles, CA Size: 870 square feet Years lived in: 1 years; Owned I knew that Echo was a talented industrial designer, but I was still surprised to learn that every night when she went home she was carefully crafting her own furniture. Her life and her work go hand-in-hand, which is reflected perfectly in the fact that her home has three(!) work spaces for her to spread out in.

Name: Timothy Location: Bed-Stuy; Brooklyn, NY Size: 1,680 square feet Years lived in: 3 years; Owned A home with global flair doesn’t necessarily have to mean a visually noisy space or an overwhelming, over-the-top collection of knick-knacks. Nomad-inspired homes can be tidy and effortless, and I can tell you that after this house tour you’ll want to book an around-the-world ticket to source beautiful material and wander in some faraway markets.

Name: Ricky & McCary Location: Carroll Gardens/Gowanus; Brooklyn, New York Size: 800 square feet Years lived in: 6 years; Rented What do you get when two people with great taste move in together? A beautiful apartment like this one, where two design sensibilities (she loves prints and patterns, while he’s a bit more minimal) merge seamlessly to create a new, completely unique style. Ricky and McCary are also the stars of the sixth episode of Apartment Therapy’s A Line video series.

Name: Amanda Holstein and her dog, Auggie Location: Greenwich Village; New York, NY Size: 400-450 square feet Years lived in: 1 year; Rented Amanda lives on a great street in Manhattan, full of life and energy. When you walk into her apartment, you are immediately transported from the iconic Greenwich Village neighborhood to somewhere calm and relaxing. She has fit her colorful, laid-back style into a classic New York apartment beautifully.

Name: Max Shay and Emily Billings Location: Western Massachusetts Size: 3,200 square feet Years lived in: 9 months; Rented Max and I moved to Western Massachusetts on a whim after deciding to close the book on our city-dwelling life in Boston. We stumbled upon the 1930s stone farmhouse set up on a steep hill through Craigslist. After hearing about the history of the property through the homeowners, we were sold.

Big or small. Traditional or modern. All homes have different styles, but they all have similarities at the heart of them, too. And these four pieces of universal advice can be applied to just about any home you’ve lived in or will live in. So print them out and keep them around. This works for just about any decision you’ve got to make. From which home to choose when you’re on the search, to which sofa to buy, to what color to paint the walls and more. Decisions are tough.

Name: Kaelie, Andrew, and Zootie the cat Location: Top of the Tower, Heritage Hill; Grand Rapids, MI Size: 1,000 square feet Years lived in: 2 years; Rented Tyler from the Musical Chairs House Tour texts me on a random Saturday: “I have a referral for you!” His friend Kaelie and her husband live in a “sweet Heritage Hill apartment.” I email Kaelie and once we determine a day, she suggests I photograph their home in the early evening to capture the best light.

Name: Lindsey Grissom Location: Andersonville; Chicago, IL Size: 1,400 square feet Years lived in: 5 years; Rented Lindsey has lived in her 3rd floor apartment for 5 years, but she’s lived in this same building, in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood for a good chunk of her life. She grew up in the 1st floor apartment where her parents still live, and now shares the 3rd floor with her two tortoises, Yurtle and Olive.

Location: Los Angeles, CA Size: 2,000 square feet Years lived in: 7 months; Owned Nestled in the winding hills of Hollywood, this mid-century modern post and beam home was recently snatched up by two art-lovers and transformed into a striking minimalist masterpiece. Natural sunlight flooding in through large, unobstructed windows and skylights reflects brilliantly off the white walls, white cement flooring, and blonde wood furniture inside. Needless to say, this place is seriously dreamy.

Name: Sanja Kerr Location: East Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois Years lived in: 2 years; Rented Size: 550 square feet Clean lines and a feast for the eyes are what you get when you combine cool mid-century simplicity and an eclectic art collection. Sanja Kerr’s charming one bedroom Chicago apartment in the Lakeview neighborhood is full of striking, well-executed design decisions that took careful planning and multiple attempts to get perfect- you can’t use black paint on just any wall!

In most of the glamorous homes you see on decorating websites, the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedroom are all separate spaces. So what are you to do when you’ve living in an apartment that is really just a single room with a stove and a sink on one end? Take inspiration from this collection of super stylish studio apartments. As these spaces prove, living in one room doesn’t have to mean sacrificing style.

Remember Paula and Paul’s fantastic house tour from a few weeks ago which showed off their enviable art and collectables in various areas of the house? We’re focusing on the crowning glory of that amazing gallery wall to give the rest of us some pointers on how to keep a staid feature alive with new possibilities. 1.

Name: Jason & John of Madcap Cottage Location: Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn Size: 2,800 square feet, Tudor-style single family home Years lived in: 4 years “Green is our neutral,” explains Jason, as my jaw drops. Everything in Jason and John’s house that can have color does. And every color is saturated. I can’t stop smiling and sometimes I have to laugh out loud for the sheer joy of it. John and Jason have a long history and familiarity with design.

It’s that time of year when a lot of people are graduating, and striking out on their own, and moving into their first real ‘adult’ home or apartment. It’s an exciting, and maybe also a little intimidating, time, full of possibilities and pitfalls. Here are a few of the things that I wish I had known when I was a fledgling decorator, all those years ago. 1. Don’t buy everything all at once.

Name: Kerry Maloney Location: French Quarter — New Orleans, Louisiana Size: 800 square feet Years lived in: 6 years; Rented Six rows of neatly displayed wigs decorate a brick wall in Kerry Maloney’s French Quarter apartment. They’ve been collected from Mardi Gras costumes throughout the years. They’re decked out with stars and plumes, birds and elaborate handmade crowns. There’s the French aristocrat, the drum major, the conehead, and the wizard.

Now we know you all hate it when we say you SHOULD follow this or that rule, so call this post the Guideline of Threes in your mind if you must. Because there’s a good reason that sitcom wasn’t called Four’s Company, or there weren’t six blind mice. And that same reason can help you create an interesting home that’s not just functional, but also has visual depth and satisfaction.

Name: Mark, Levi, + Theo Location: Upper East Side; New York City Size: 400 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years; Rented Mark and Levi both share a love for beautiful things. With Mark working for Artsy, an online destination for the art world, and Levi for the luxury American jewelry brand David Webb, they both spend their days surrounded by beauty. Stepping into their Upper East Side home, their creative perspective is evident as is the harmony with which they decorate their space.

Name: Candace Soriano and Jason Rein Location: Hancock Park, Los Angeles, California Size: 800 square feet Years lived in: 7 months; Rented Candace is an interior designer by trade and when you walk into her home in the heart of Los Angeles, it exudes a beautiful, relaxed, grown up feel. She lives here with her boyfriend, Jason, and they chose this part of town because of its historical charm.

Name: Lisa Price Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan Size: 936 square feet Years lived in: 10 years; owned Imagine a house where the best of the best vintage and thrift store finds are arranged by color. Imagine really cool vintage furniture in really good condition. Imagine that almost every accessory and piece of furniture comes with a story (from a family member, a stranger at a flea market or a previous owner at a yard sale).

There are a few things that are transformative—things that go beyond decorating and get to the very core of what makes you happy at home.

Name: Chris Tuttle Location: Boystown; Chicago, Illinois Size: Studio Years lived in: 1 year; rented From the moment I walked into Chris Tuttle’s space, I felt like I had escaped city life. Dark walls and rich décor set the warm mood. The snug studio is peppered with charming and colorful vintage finds. And when I say snug I mean snug – you can practically see the entire thing from the front door.

It’s always interesting when homeowners make an unexpected choice in their spaces. In these nine rooms, one might expect to see a rug, yet these decorators have chosen to forgo one. It’s a slightly more subtle, sparse look that really lets the rest of the room shine. Take a look. So, tell us. What do you think about this look? Would you (do you) sport a bare floor?