Prize: (1) $2,000 credit to Zappos Value: Up to $2,000 From: Zappos.com It’s the most wonderful – and anxious – time of the year! Wonderful because presents! Anxious because you have no idea what to get for everyone. And because what are you wearing to the office party? We’ve gone to Zappos and pulled together gift ideas for everyone on your list – including yourself.
A lot has changed since we first learned to do our laundry. It feels like our lives have gotten way more packed, and our personal time is at more of a premium. Plus, the machines themselves have changed. Washing machine drums have gotten bigger, which is a good thing: You can put off doing your laundry since the machines can handle larger loads. The problem is that our habits haven’t really changed with them.
If you’re like us, you may be a little mesmerized by the myriad colors in Le Creuset’s top-quality enamel cast iron cookware. The recent introduction of Artichaut, a brilliant, subtle bluish-green, might make it that much harder to choose your signature color. The good news is that you don’t have to pick just one. In fact, many of Le Creuset’s colorways might work even better when paired with others.
Can something as workaday as your cookware spark joy? We think it can. You may already be familiar with Le Creuset’s iconic pots and pans and their beautiful, brilliant colors. But they just added another color to the spectrum: Meet Nectar, a joyful, honeyed shade of yellow that will put a smile on your face every time you walk into your kitchen. The kitchen is a very practical space, but it doesn’t have to be boring.
We love special occasions. But we’re firm believers that you don’t need a special occasion to make life’s everyday moments feel special. A weeknight dinner can be just as festive as a holiday spread — even if it’s a quick pasta you throw together while old episodes of The Great British Baking Show play in the background. (Just us?) A couple of little touches are all it takes to make everyday moments more special: Keep cellphones off the table. Light a candle or two.
Significant others are great and all, but have you ever fallen in love with how clean your house is? This Valentine’s Day, make sure you’re showing a little affection to the space you call home — after all, it’s there for you 24/7. (Plus, it’s where your chocolate stash lives.)When we want to really care for our space, we turn to The Laundress. Their eco-friendly, super-effective products leave everything from our delicates to our countertops feeling extra special.
Any savvy shopper knows that your space doesn’t have to be filled with expensive items to look expensive. However, there are some home decor categories where the splurge is well worth it. A nice design piece can set the look, feel, and tone of a room, adding substance and detail that you can both see and feel and improving your overall mood. But how do you know when to spend vs when to save?
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.
If you’re anything like us, your winter social calendar is packed with dinners, happy hours, and late-night dance parties. (Just kidding. Obviously, we’ll be at home under blankets until April.) Lean into nesting season by pampering your space and your senses with scents luxurious enough to make you forget tonight’s 7-degree wind chill.
We design our homes to be peaceful havens where we can relax and unwind. And lately, we’ve been making a more conscious effort to unplug from our devices, step back from our screens, and spend time offline. But if we’re being honest, even when we’re offline, we’re still pretty connected. When we set down our phones, we turn on Netflix; when we cook dinner, we ask Alexa to recite the next recipe step.
Name: Alex Location: Noe Valley, San Francisco Size: 1,738 square feet Years lived in: 17 years; owned Years hosting on Airbnb: 2 1/2 years Alex’s two-story home is situated on a quiet, tree-lined street in Noe Valley. From his upper balcony you can see a stunning view of the city, and on a clear day you can spy both the Bay Bridge and Twin Peaks.
Prize: $2,000 to spend on stylish furniture From: American Signature Furniture Value: $2,000 You’ve made it! You’ve decided to live together, merging your two households into one. But figuring out how all your stuff can live together, from your grandmother’s nesting tables to his battered but beloved recliner, well, that can be a tiny bit more challenging.
Keeping your upholstery in tip-top shape should definitely be on your spring cleaning list. With some help from American Signature Furniture, we’ve put together a simple refresher on how to clean different upholstery types, from leather to microfiber. Caring for Upholstery: What to Use When Finer than silk, microfiber strands create a velvety yet durable fabric that’s ideal for upholstery that gets a lot of traffic and sees lots of stains.
Right as the holiday season began, we hosted an event in NYC on fast and fancy holiday hosting. The purpose of the event was to show people that entertaining in your home over the holidays doesn’t have to be a big thing: All it takes is a little forethought and the smallest personal touches to make a party memorable and fun.While we had fun sipping cider and swapping tips with all of our guests in person, the good news is you didn’t have to be in NYC to benefit!
The best way to choose a great gift is to start with something you know your giftee loves — and who doesn’t love a good Disney movie? From exciting superhero adventures to heartfelt family features, we rounded up some of our faves and picked the perfect presents to go with them. Consider this your ultimate holiday shopping list.If they love: The Avengers…...give them: Are We There Yet?
Name: Vickie (and cats Luna and Lucy)Location: Austin, TXSize: 900 square feetYears Lived In: 2Vickie had owned her Austin home—a 1,700 square-foot space where she raised her children—for 10 years when she began to feel the itch to downsize. After her father’s passing, she sold the house and spent a year living with her mother in Florida. Upon returning to Austin, Vickie didn’t want to rush back into buying.
Californians and Floridians are blessed with fragrant citrus trees in their backyards that bloom all spring and seem to be in season all year. For the rest of the country, where climates aren’t conducive to growing citrus outdoors through all four seasons, you have to get a little crafty if you want homegrown Key limes for your cervezas. The trick is to grow citrus in a container that you can keep outside from spring to fall, but move inside before the first freeze arrives.
When you have a small garden, it can seem like your plants all compete for premium space come springtime. How do you decide what to plant and what to pass on? Do you grow staples you’ll use all year long in the kitchen, or unusual varieties you can’t find in the market? With intercropping, you can take advantage of the limited space you have — while growing all the vegetables you want — by analyzing the needs of your vegetables and timing your plantings strategically.
Have you ever planted squash in your vegetable garden and wondered why the flowers with what appear to be baby squash on the ends suddenly wilt? The short answer is: They were never pollinated by bees. The long answer is: Squash are monoecious plants (containing both male and female parts) and rely on bees and other pollinators to fertilize their flowers. Female flowers bear the ovaries (essentially immature squash) and need the pollen from male flowers to produce fruit.
Prize: $500 American Express Gift Card Value: $500 From: Miracle-Gro Have you been following Apartment Therapy’s Gardening School? It’s designed to help even the blackest thumbs build up the confidence to get out in the garden…and it’s working! It’s inspiring to see all your amazing pics in the #showusyourseedlings feed. So inspiring that we want to help your dream gardens get growing with a $500 AMEX Gift Card to spend on supplies!
When you’re a kid, one of the great joys of the holiday season is getting exactly the gift that you wanted. When you’re a grownup, one of the great joys of the holiday season is finding the perfect gift for someone you love. The nice thing about gift-giving at this stage of our lives is that the gifts become more meaningful.
Who: Laura Baross, interior designer and founder of Design With CareNominated by: Laura Schocker, Apartment Therapy Editor-in-ChiefWhere to follow her: InstagramApartment Therapy’s Class of 2020 Design Changemakers is a specially-selected group of the 20 people in the design world everyone should know about by next year. We asked experts (and you!) to tell us who they think should be included—see the rest of the nominees here.
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.
Who: Mili Suleman, founder of KUFRI Fabrics, and co-founder of SHIFTNominated by: Danielle Blundell, Apartment Therapy Home DirectorWhere to follow her: InstagramApartment Therapy’s Class of 2020 Design Changemakers is a specially-selected group of the 20 people in the design world everyone should know about by next year. We asked experts (and you!) to tell us who they think should be included—see the rest of the nominees here.
Who: Ian Yang, founder and CEO of GantriNominated by: Maxwell Ryan, founder and CEO of Apartment TherapyWhere to follow him: InstagramApartment Therapy’s Class of 2020 Design Changemakers is a specially-selected group of the 20 people in the design world everyone should know about by next year. We asked experts (and you!) to tell us who they think should be included—see the rest of the nominees here.
Name: Jamie, Brocke, Clara (and two cats) Location: Dallas, TXSize: 1,140 square feetYears Lived In: 6Fashion and prop stylist, Jamie, and her photographer husband, Brocke, don’t just have style; they have a whole design philosophy. The 1925 Tudor they share with daughter Clara, and two cats, is a neutrals-only zone—mostly black-and-white, plus touches of warm wood and the occasional gilded frame.
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!
Amidst all the gadgets, novelties, and blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em trends, that seem to be a part of every holiday gifting season, Kim Stoegbauer of TomKat Studio was looking for something more meaningful.
During the holidays, it’s easy to get caught up in gift-buying and party-throwing. But ultimately, the holidays are a time to make memorable moments with the people you love. That’s especially true this year for Apartment Therapy staffer Daniela and her longtime boyfriend, who recently got engaged.Daniela and her fiancé live together in New York, far away from their families in Colombia and Venezuela.
Name: Nicole, Jerome, Jaxon, and Jaden ReidLocation: Sicklerville, NJSize: 4,230 square feet Years lived in: 1The Reids had been living in Nashville for nine years when Nicole’s husband Jerome landed his dream job: head trainer with the Philadelphia Eagles. Suddenly, this family of four found itself in a whirlwind move north. The whole process was swift as an all-star running back.
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.
The holidays are about the inside jokes, traditions, and family celebrations that make this time of year so special. Think about seasonal decorating as setting the scene to make those memorable moments happen. That’s exactly what Leandra, an Apartment Therapy staffer, is thinking about during her daughter’s first holiday season.
Name: Lauren Price and BrandonLocation: Smyrna, GA Size: 2610 square feet Years lived in: 1Lauren Price jokes that a Dalmatian would match her aesthetic perfectly, and she’s not wrong: Her penchant for black, white, and grey makes for a minimalist home where a spotted pup would fit right in.
You have a vision board for every room, an eagle eye for telling Eames knock-offs from the real deal, and strong opinions about painting hardwood floors. But you might not know how to turn your design hobby into a career. If you’ve always dreamed of pursuing your creative passion, now is the time to make it happen.Changing careers might sound daunting, but New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) can help you take the first step and jumpstart your dream career.
When we think about designing our spaces, it’s easy to get hung up on the obvious elements like color and scale. But there’s another major design element we tend to take for granted even though it has the potential to create a room that feels “alive,” and that’s material. Good materials go a long way, and Industry West‘s creative — and sometimes daring — use of different materials is what makes their pieces feel so stylish, grown-up, and unique.
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?
Much like the right accessories can really make an outfit, the right fixtures—faucets, showerheads, and even things like toilet paper holders and towel bars—can really make your kitchen or bathroom. One design trend we’re loving right now is matte black fixtures. They add a stylish, modern look with a bit of contrast that will make your space truly memorable.
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.
It’s no coincidence that some of our favorite homes feature great carpeting—after all, a well-designed room starts from the bottom up. Yet carpet is often overlooked and under-appreciated, despite being one of the most versatile, hardest-working floorings out there. Time to correct that. Read on for our ode to the fuzz beneath our feet. Texture, color, pattern: Carpet’s myriad options mean myriad design possibilities, none of which need to stand alone.
Name: Matthew Manupella and Andrew Horan Location: Southwest Waterfront, Washington, DCSize: 1,100 square feetYears lived in: 2Matthew and Andrew weren’t huge fans of mid-century modern architecture before they found their townhouse in Capitol Park in DC’s Southwest Waterfront neighborhood. The development embodies its 1960s origins, with clean lines and floor-to-ceiling windows.
When home design blogger Cynthia Harper and her husband bought their home in 2012, they focused on the design features they already loved: the simple mantle and their new front door (which was an all-important element considering their first home’s entrance was through the back). They knew they wanted to renovate the kitchen, which was “clean and well-maintained” but stuck in the ’90s, but they’d have to save up first.
Aniko‘s tastes are always changing, so when she got the opportunity to update one of the rooms in her house, she was ready for something new. The builder’s grade guest bathroom had “old and messy” flooring and was painted an “awful” green she’d chosen when she moved in eight years before. She couldn’t wait to get started on her vision to turn the room into a spa-like haven.The first order of business was a complete bathroom demo.
Considering we spend a third of our lives sleeping, mattresses should be as comfy and cozy as possible—and somewhere you can feel good about going to sleep at night. But as inviting as most mattresses might seem on the outside, many have hidden health hazards on the inside.While mattresses are regulated to be flame-retardant and meet other safety standards, most are made with materials that aren’t exactly healthy or natural by any means.
“Hey, I’m in town. Any chance I could crash at your place tonight?” We’ve all gotten that bittersweet text. It’s the dreaded (but really beloved) last-minute guest! And as we’re gearing up for the busy holiday travel season, it’s more important than ever to prepare to host that friend who’s suddenly in town. When square footage is at a premium, you have to be smart about the details that make a guest room feel just like home.
Sometimes our never-ending quest to give our homes a personal style can be a little overwhelming. In those moments, the best thing we can do is to take a breath and remind ourselves that all of us already have a personal style; we may just need some help identifying it. A good place to start is one you’re probably overlooking: your closet.Our wardrobes are the results of years of making choices about colors, patterns, and textures. And guess what the basics of home design are?
The furniture brand EQ3 recently opened a second beautiful showroom in Chicago, and Apartment Therapy was there to celebrate the grand opening. With partners like Vitra and Marimekko and a focus on process as much as the finished product, this Canadian retailer knows quality design. For those who weren’t with us to fête the brand’s latest stateside opening, we missed you! But here, we have a few of our editors’ favorite products to share with you.
When DIY home blogger Sara Davis decided to renovate her daughter’s bathroom, it was about more than pleasing a 7-year-old. The space, which wasn’t in terrible shape—it was just “very ’90s and bland,” she says—is shared by overnight guests, so it had to be welcoming to all. Plus, Sara wanted it to be something her daughter could grow into.
Home lighting is getting exciting. Light bulbs have evolved more in the past five years than in the century-plus since the very first incandescents were introduced. LEDs are revolutionizing home lighting by offering even greater energy efficiency than CFLs combined with the warm glow of traditional incandescents. We’ve partnered with LED pioneer Cree® to bring you up to speed on new LED bulbs and the best ways to use them.
What if we told you there’s a new type of clothes dryer that uses half the energy of your current dryer and won’t eat every other sock? There is—it’s called a heat pump dryer. They’re relatively new, having first come onto the U.S. market in 2014, but are just…warming up…when it comes to savings.
At the end of a busy work week, there’s nothing as gratifying as a good night in. You’ve spent five days grinding, so you deserve the simple joy of enjoying your home and winding down for the weekend. Whether that’s a family movie night or some DIY spa time, the one promise you have to keep is to not worry about cleaning it up until tomorrow. Just submit to the R&R and know that a few swipes of a mop can handle it all the next morning.
College can be stressful (information overload is real), so it’s important to give yourself a space to unwind. Even though tiny rooms built with cinderblock walls and bunk beds aren’t exactly designed for calm, they can feel a lot more peaceful when everything is organized. Storing your stuff isn’t just about being neat. It’s a way to organize your life on your own terms so you can stay in control when the semester gets crazy.
Name: Holly ConradLocation: SeattleSize: 1,150 square feetYears Lived In: 1Here at Apartment Therapy, we know how important it is to have a place where you feel at home. But for Holly Conrad, buying a new house wasn’t just about an investment or a change of location; it also meant a fresh start. Holly is an artist who sells her pieces through her Etsy store, Trash Witch Coven.
