Decorating

The world of prints and patterns is wide. For instance, what you think is simply “plaid” is far more intricate. All tartans are plaids, but not all plaids are tartans, in fact. There are madras plaids, houndstooth plaids, windowpane plaids, and many, many more. So we beg the question: Do you know one from the other? With fall—the high season of plaid—just around the bend, it might be a good time to polish up on your terminology. As always, we’re here to help!

Are you the artful bohemian or a new traditionalist? Take this quiz to find out and don’t forget to share your results in the comments! Antsy for your results? Hang tight…they’re coming! Re-edited from a post that originally appeared 09.06.2017.

We’re all about small space living here at Apartment Therapy, but even we admit that it can be difficult to find privacy in a tiny home. But whether it’s from the other people in your household, occasional guests, your neighbors or even just your own work, separation can be achieved. Read on for some ideas on how to carve a bit of “me space” in your place.

Color doesn’t have to be permanent…or even on the walls. It also doesn’t have to be super saturated or loud, either. These five renters added soft, subtle color to their homes—in ways that won’t prevent them from getting their security deposit back! From Katie, of Katie’s Shabby Chic St. Paul Apartment: “I am quite proud of my dining room table and chairs.

Looking to up the drama in your interiors? A go-to for daring designers and decorators, black paint provides an instant jolt and dose of some serious sophistication. And even if you’re not ready to go full-volume with ebony walls, architectural accents like window sills and moldings (and don’t forget furnishings!) can benefit from the deep hue to add intrigue to just about any room.

Though it may not be your dream material, black and white tiles can be a very affordable choice when you need new flooring in your kitchen. Need proof? These eight rooms look fantastic with black and white floors. From simple spaces to bold, accessorized rooms, let these kitchens and their checkered floors inspire your own home. As you look through these examples, pay attention to the tile size and layout orientation; you’ll see a surprising variety of looks in these rooms.

If you’ve ever had a roommate, you know exactly what we mean by “dishues.” They’re those petty but persistent issues—think unwashed dishes, stolen Kind bars and late-night commotions—that can only come of an inconsiderate cohabiter. Though trivial, they can prove problematic nonetheless.

New does not always trump old. In fact, at Flea Style in Dallas, Texas, it never does. Come take a peek inside owner Brittany Cobb’s warm and inviting office full of well-loved treasures. Name: Brittany Cobb of Flea Style Location: Dallas, Texas Out with the new and in with the old! The transposed popular saying is the core of Brittany Cobb’s Flea Style. Brittany’s childhood was in many ways spent as a business tutorial and foreshadowing of what was to come.

Some artists make art not just of their canvases, but their entire homes. Today we’re taking a look at 3 incredibly creative homes of artists and designers, which will have you seeing your whole space in a completely different light.

The 2016 summer Olympics were held in Brazil, which for a select few meant traveling to see the games and experience the beauty of that gorgeous tropical country. If you didn’t get to go, through the magic of the internet you can still get a glimpse by taking a virtual tour of these beautiful (and luxurious) homes that blur the lines between indoors and out. Above: A Brutalist masterpiece in São Paulo, the work of Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

When decorating a small space, the conventional wisdom is to use light colors to make the space seem as large as possible. But when your small space has high ceilings and great lighting, sometimes you can get away with breaking a few rules — and create a studio apartment with all the style of a much larger home. This Swedish — of course it’s Swedish — studio has a separate kitchen, and a rather large, high-ceilinged space that serves as both the living room and bedroom.

I know you guys love books. In past posts about tiny houses, I’ve definitely heard some of you say that you could never imagine living in such a small space, because you could never, ever give up your books. Fortunately, you don’t have to. April Anson lived in a tiny house for three years while a student at the University of Oregon, and while living in 114 square feet definitely involved some sacrifices, parting with her books wasn’t one of them.

What do you think? Can the SUNNERSTA cart usurp the seemingly unstoppable and ever-popular RASKOG ? Will it capture the hearts of organizing decorators everywhere? It’s pretty darn cute and seems to tick many of the same boxes, including the price point. Designed by Henrik Preutz. IKEA says: Sometimes installing a large kitchen isn’t necessary, or too expensive and time-consuming. That’s why SUNNERSTA mini-kitchen was developed.

In the hunt for the perfect apartment—one that’s located where you want and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg—you sometimes have to make sacrifices. For Kimberly’s search in Philadelphia, she was willing to settle for a small “kitchen” since she doesn’t cook often. But she wasn’t going to settle on it being boring and beige.

Poufs, floor pillows, low ottomans and small stools—these are all great decor elements to add to a living room whenever you need extra seating or more softness. But it’s not always crystal clear exactly where your newly purchased or DIYed pouf or floor pillow should go. In the place of side chairs? As a coffee table? Kind of floating off to the side?

The idea of 3D-printed products for the home is admittedly a little out there, even Jetsons-esque. The gadgets and gizmos a plenty on sale throughout the internet may run the gamut from completely bizarre to actually interesting (and normal), but no matter where they fall on the spectrum, something that came from a printer (that’s not a sheet of paper with words on it) is certainly a conversation starter. We rounded up a handful of things you might actually want to buy for your own home.

The vintage kitchen features that came with your house or rental—old appliances, dated fixtures, interesting floor materials—aren’t always the choices you would have made if you had designed from scratch. But if you don’t have the money to renovate (or you rent and can’t) or don’t want to renovate, choose to work with your vintage features, not fight against them! These sixteen kitchens get it right.

There are two ways to work dramatic color into your home: Go for the whole wall, or use little splashes of color for a big effect. The latter takes much less time to achieve and is considerably cheaper (many of the ideas ahead call for just a sample pot of paint), yet it can still create an eye-catching display. The best part of painting a smaller area? It’s much easier to paint over if you change your mind or when it’s time to move out.

A blank wall can be an inspiring canvas waiting to painted with your style—or it can be a stop-you-in-your-tracks source of indecision. Let’s push past the wondering and see how various ideas work. Inside this post: the same empty wall filled with a variety of design elements, from paint to pattern to art and more. See how different decor choices affect the look and feel of a room.

While I love minimal, white-walled interiors with occasional bursts of color just as much as the next person, every once in a while it’s nice to spot something different — like this Little Venice apartment by Sera of London. It’s a little bit Bohemian, a little bit Miss Havisham, a little bit crumbly European chic, wholly different, and wholly refreshing.

Rental bathrooms are notoriously plagued by ugly (or just plain dated) design decisions. The good news is, there are some simple, reversible ways to cover up what you hate most about this room and add your own style to the space. Introducing color and pattern where you can, and choosing attractive storage lets you put your own touch on a temporary home. It may sound obvious, but in a small rental bathroom, the shower curtain is the first thing you should switch out.

Even though I now have the tiny, perfect apartment of my dreams, I haven’t stopped being fascinated with other people’s tiny, perfect apartments. And I’m particularly drawn to this apartment in Stockholm, which despite measuring only 193 square feet manages to be everything you want an apartment to be: airy, stylish, cozy, comfortable.

One of my favorite things about home design is the wonderful variety of ways in which clever designers have re-invented the chair. When you picture a chair you probably think of one of the traditional forms of the chair, with a back and a seat and legs.

A. Two sofas facing each other OR B. A sofa and love seat arranged in the traditional L-shaped arrangement?

For those collecting maximalists among us—who can’t have just one globe, camera, or milk glass goblet, but seem to amass them by the dozen—here are some creative ways to organize and live with the things you love. All of these ideas keep your most cherished items in sight, incorporating them seamlessly into your decor. This is probably going to become your new favorite spot in your home.

Many of us understand that adding art to a room can drastically alter its appearance. But there are so many ways you can use art to make a visual impact; making the decision on where to hang can be overwhelming. These room gifs represent common art-hanging questions—I’ve removed the artwork from the walls to show you just how powerful art can be when its used in the right place and at the optimum scale. Seeing is believing!

400 square feet may not seem like a lot — but that’s reckoning without the ingenuity of Swedish design. Thanks to a simple but very smart floor plan, this diminutive Swedish apartment makes living small look positively luxurious. It’s located in Stockholm, and was once available for sale (but sadly is no longer) from brokerage firm Husman Hagberg.

In tiny homes where a single room often serves multiple functions, color can separate a space into zones with different functions. If your bedroom is also your office and your living room is also your dining room, try using paint as a visual divider to section off areas—without sacrificing an inch of livable space.

In Hong Kong, one of the most densely packed cities in the world, a young couple presented their architects with a seemingly impossible challenge: designing an apartment that would include a large kitchen, a home theater, a bathroom with a tub, and sleeping spaces for the couple and their overnight guests. The space also had to acommodate the couple’s three cats — and all this in 309 square feet.

Exposed pipes and radiators—the bane of apartment, loft, and refurbished factory dwellers everywhere. As if it wasn’t bad enough that they prevent you from nudging your bed directly against the wall, they interrupt the look of a space as they sweep across the wall or ceiling. Here’s some inspiration to help you make peace with your pipes by painting them, wrapping them, even hand-knitting them a colorful cozy.

There’s no denying that exposed brick walls always command attention. But what if you want to further enhance your beautiful brick? We’ve got wall decor ideas to help your enviable architectural detail command even more attention. Adding a subtle wash of white paint to a brick wall’s surface makes for a complex texture. The beautiful wall above seen in Rachel & Adam’s Cozy, Classic Clinton Hill Brownstone.

To modern eyes, the bathing suits of the past may seem excessively, even hilariously, modest. But more than 100 years ago, these getups were scandalous. So scandalous, in fact, that clever folks in the 18th century figured out a way for female bathers to get into the water without ever being seen in their bathing suit at all. It all involved an ingenious little device called the bathing machine.

We’re officially launched! For all of you who are in the market for a sofa and want something fabulously classic, comfortable and well priced, here’s The Maxwell (with special discount just for readers), the first in a whole collection designed in collaboration with Interior Define. Designing this perfect sofa was a process that took nearly a year, but it was worth it.

Most sofas are well-behaved. They have a back and a seat and legs and maybe arms, and they look, well, like a sofa. These are not those sofas. These sofas (if you can even call a giant cat a sofa) dare to reimagine the very idea of the sofa, pushing ordinary furniture to weird and wild and even wonderful extremes. Above: It’s always nice to have a cat sit on your lap, but what if the tables were turned and you could curl up in your cat’s lap?

It is a fact of life that buildings, as they age, inevitably fall apart. We Americans are not quite comfortable with this. We like everything to be shiny and new: we like all our buildings and our interior finishes to have the smooth sameness of youth. But the Japanese have developed a way of dealing with this. They have, in fact, embraced the idea that sometimes fixing broken things can make them even better and more beautiful than when they were new.

When it comes to kicking up your curb appeal, there’s one particular project that pays off: Painting the front door. It’s easy, it’s inexpensive, and it has a magical way of transforming the way your entire home looks. Red, white, black and navy are great choices if you’re after a classic look. But to really turn heads when people walk or drive by, try on one of these unusual shades.

Somewhere along the way, the trend of hanging, bare-bulb light fixtures went from being a new trend in the bedroom to a look that’s here to stay. Read the reasons why this look has gotten so popular, see inspiration from gorgeous bedsides and find ways you can buy or DIY this look. For one, the bare-bulb look is incredibly versatile; it’s a simple look that works with a lot of very different decor styles.

The home you grow up in influences not only your homekeeping habits, but your sense of style. It’s the “mother tongue” of home decor, the factor that surrounds you, gets into, and comes out of you. Here are four things I learned from my dear mother which influence my own surroundings to this day. Do the best you can with what you have. When my mother returned to the United States with two young children after seven years abroad, she was basically starting over.

Sunrooms capture the best of the outdoors—being close to nature and soaking in sunlight—without the downsides (like bugs and extreme temperatures). Just looking at photos of them can take your stress level down a notch. But, these gorgeous spaces aren’t simply fun to look at, they can also offer inspiration and ideas for your home, even if you don’t have a sunroom of your own.

Lots of people aspire to make their home decor modern, but if you’re not careful, modern can become cold, stale and uninteresting. The cure for a mod overdose? Something natural. Like a touch of authentic, organic, real wood. Here are eight rooms to show you how it’s done. This raw wood bar top is the perfect addition to Corianne Burton‘s kitchen, as seen on her Instagram.

Can you spot the amazingly adorable, easily doable, room divider situation in this Oakland loft? It’s a simple idea, but also incredibly smart storage-wise. And the result isn’t just a fresh room divider idea for an open-space loft, it’s an idea that could help divide space or add additional storage in a studio apartment or bedroom.

For some, the choice of what type of coffee table is easy; an intuitive design decision. Or, maybe it’s even been decided for you, if it’s been inherited from a roommate, partner or family member. For others, any number of variables—from unusual living room layouts to oversized furniture to kids or pets—can confuse the issue. Do you need a coffee table to set stuff down on while you watch TV or entertain friends? Or does the room feel too open or naked without it?

Upgrading to a bigger space? Good on you! You’ll love waking up every morning without the guarantee of smashing your shins on the foot of the bed as you walk around it. But you might find your old stuff looks a little, well, small in that new, more spacious apartment.

Mahogany, light pecan, natural, walnut—the list of wood finishes is vast. And the possibility is great that you might find yourself with several furniture pieces with different finishes that you’d like to use in the same room. So how do you design a room and make sure that your wood finishes don’t clash? Today’s Frequently Asked Home question: Can You Have Different Wood Finishes in the Same Room?

Every home has something to teach and each small home in the Small Cool contest holds lessons and tricks for living well while living small. Here’s some wisdom from today’s entries → (above) A lofted bed with tons of storage makes Helene Louise’s small apartment work. And, it was a DIY project so she could customize it to her exact needs. A bench makes so much sense in a small home because you can move it around to suit your needs. Extra dinner guests?

Whether you lived through it (and loved it) the first time around or fell in love with it when Mad Men brought it back, the truth is that mid-century modern design elements have transcended trend and become a classic look that many people use in their decor, in doses big and small. This post isn’t about mixing in MCM details with your existing decor to achieve an eclectic look.

It’s almost unbelievable that this studio apartment is only 300 square feet; it looks so much bigger. You can tell this is a home that feels airy—not cluttered in the slightest. Even more impressive? Two people live here. Here’s the scoop on why this small space does such a good job of looking spacious… First of all, Joe and Keith’s Oakland apartment has tall ceilings and massive windows that let lots of natural light in.

Are you staring at the blank wall above your sofa with hammer in hand, afraid to punch the first hole to hang your art? Or maybe you’ve already hung art above your sofa, but every time you look at your handiwork, something feels “off.” Hanging art isn’t rocket science, but with so many different variables, it can sometimes be difficult to get just right.

If you are always on the hunt for bold decor ideas or elements that aren’t yet a trend, then you’ll appreciate this list of eye-popping and heart-stopping design details for any room in your home. Matte black in the kitchen is always sexy. Adding metallic finishes like silver can add sophistication to any space.

Kristina & Jason’s Gorgeous, Graphic Australian Home We often think about the elements of a room that remain at eye level: furniture, artwork, accessories, and so forth. But it can be just as important to think about everything that’s going on above your head. Here are some ways that you can bring the eye higher in a room, as well as some examples to show just how open spaces can feel when they aren’t afraid to soar overhead.

Whether you think of this as good news or terrible news, in the world of design, the ’80s are back in a big way. So we thought this would be a good time to do a brief dip into the history of the Memphis Design Group, an Italian design and architecture collective whose wild, colorful, postmodern style defined the look of the 80s.

Sometimes you fall in love with a piece of art, envision it in a certain perfect spot in your home…and are totally disappointed when it turns out to be too small. Don’t find another place for it just yet! There are four easy ways you can make a too-small piece of art seems bigger and bolder. Like the example above, using items like thick, textured rope or ribbon to “hang” the art can make it feel a lot more substantial than the actual pieces are.

Recently I wrote about a big, beautiful new trend for the home: blooms and branches displayed in big, oversized vases. Many of you loved the look, but wanted to know: where does one find a vase this big? So I’ve rounded up a few options. A few things I was looking for: vases made of clear glass (minimal, works with any decor, shows off flowers well), and that measured 12 inches or more in at least one dimension.

We often talk about tiny houses and small space living as if they’re a new thing, but the truth is that little houses have been around for years (and were, in fact, once the norm for a majority of Americans). Case in point: this 85-year-old home, built by one of his disciples in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose compact 552 square foot floorplan provides plenty of inspiration for the small houses of today.

When you’re decorating, you might feel pressure to add variety to your space by layering in as many different ideas or influences as you can. But, just like a wardrobe template, having a home decor “uniform” actually makes creating a beautiful space even easier. That’s a big lesson that I took away from Kristina & Jason’s Gorgeous, Graphic Australian Home.

Michael Reeves via Dering Hall We all know that mirrors are fantastic for making a space appear larger than it is. It goes like this: available light + reflective surface(s) = much more light = greater sense of space. The problem is that a mirrored wall can sometimes feel vaguely commercial, or even cliche, if the application is off. Here are seven mirrored walls that are anything but, and that pack a big (spatial) punch as well. The lead image is of a Michael Reeves-designed home in London.

Coat hooks. I mean… there’s not really much you can do there, right? (Wrong.) With one or two or 20 standard coat hooks and a little bit of ingenuity, you can create some pretty stellar little hallway hacks worthy of bearing an artsy label like “entryway installment” (rather than dull old coat rack).

BLOCK722 architects via Sigreki Anna Interiors “Need” is, of course, a relative term. But take a quick look at these over-the-top-glam details and tell me you don’t at least want one of these in your life. 1. (above) This sunken soaking tub in a summer house by BLOCK722 is to die for. View not included. Roundhouse Design via This is Glamorous 2. This completely necessary built-in ice bucket for Champagne. 3.

We’re all kids at heart. So why can’t we decorate like children? Not to say we should start pinning up posters of teen idols or buying superhero sheets, but we should be able to channel the kind of reckless abandon of a child with a crayon and a coloring book. There are no rules, only color. This bold Chicago apartment seems to have it down, with three rule-breaking color details that are just rebellious enough to work for anyone, in any space.

Good light can make or break a space, and unfortunately natural lighting is probably the one thing about a room that’s hardest to change. So when you’re faced with a space that has very few windows (or none at all), how do you cope? We’ve got some ideas. Multiply the light you do have. If you have a window, use translucent shades or sheer curtains for privacy, instead of blocking it with heavy window treatments.

Doors. We just take them for granted, don’t we? They’re the things we walk through to get to another room or the things that hide the mess in the cabinet or closet. But the humble door actually offers a major design opportunity, and the right color, material, or detail can more than make a space. Read on for nine examples of doors that are anything but ordinary. In the lead image, grey-painted wardrobe doors from UK joinery company Lawrence Walsh get a stylish, geometric twist.

Think about it: when you go to a new friend’s house for the first time, what’s the first thing you look at? The numbers, of course. House numbers may seem like a small thing, but they’re so crucial to first impressions. These days there are a myriad of interesting, modern numbers that will identify your house to the world — and show off your style, too. Above: Neutra house numbers, $27 each from DWR. Modern Avalon collection brushed nickel house numbers, $15.

We’ve featured quite a few places by A+B Kasha before: this Paris-based real estate and design firm excels at creating meticulously detailed apartments where just the walls and floors themselves are a work of art. My current favorite project of theirs is a little jewel of a one-bedroom, 270 square feet of perfection tucked away on the top floor of a 19th-century building in Paris’ 6th arrondissement.

Project by: Julia Mack Design Location: Brooklyn Heights, New York Studio apartments are tough for lots of reasons. Like, you know, having to fit everything you own in one room and having to eat in the same room you sleep in. Though the photo above of a 640 square foot studio apartment in New York City is far from unlivable, it does feel a bit busy, and the big, heavy, full bookcase as a divider is a little imposing.

Clean lines keep it chic, and deep seats and comfy cushions make it a really livable sofa for real people’s real homes. Oh, and the affordable price tag is a pretty great feature, too. The IKEA SÖDERHAMN sofa line has been on the market for a couple years now, and that means designers and dwellers have had ample time to take the piece home and show us myriad ways to style it.

Bathrooms have this bizarre disposition to be judged. Besides the whole peeking-in-the-medicine-cabinet trope, I guess we’re likely to evaluate people’s bathrooms because it’s the one place where we, as guests, get a chance to linger alone and really contemplate the personal style of the person who’s invited us over. For that reason, if you’re out to impress, the bathroom is one of the first rooms you need to work on.

Many a beautiful kitchen have been built on a foundation of pretty normal, neutral cabinetry. But if you ever have the opportunity to renovate a kitchen from scratch and add in something really spectacular in the realm of cabinetry, it’s like a shortcut to great style. Above: I’m sorry, but how cool is this oversized-pegboard-style upper cabinet area in this tall Amsterdam schoolhouse-turned apartment, from Dwell? We can see this evolving over time to be used exactly as you need.

We have strong associations with the color pink: most people think of it as a ‘girly’ color. But have you ever stopped to think about why that is? It might surprise you to learn that this strange association of color with gender can be traced to just one person: 1950s First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. The post – World War II era, in America, was a period of unprecedented prosperity.

Gisbert Pöppler via Dustjacket Attic Kitchen cabinets: they’re necessary, but let’s face it—they aren’t always the most interesting pieces of furniture. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case! Here are imaginative kitchens that make use of large, antique pieces of furniture in addition to regular kitchen cabinets. They’re drama-filled, glamorous, and practical. Read on to find out why you may want to give this trend a try.

It’s a unique problem, but no less worthy of attention than how to dress a gallery wall or what to do when your kitchen’s too small. The presence of a piano in the room can be seriously demanding on decor. Here are more than a dozen rooms who’ve mastered it. Do you have a piano at home?

We’ve always said that art is one of the most important elements in a room, one of the things that helps it feel complete. But this, like a lot of other decorating mantras, is more of a suggestion than a commandment, and as with a lot of other rules there are plenty of exceptions. Case in point: these eight rooms with no art (or very minimal art) and almost completely bare walls. Instead of seeming boring or incomplete these rooms read as balanced and delightfully minimal.

You guys. It’s February, the days are dark, and I really need some color in my life right now. I saw the photo above pop up on my Pinterest feed, and it was an immediate panacea to my mood: rich mustard yellow and pale mauve-pink is an unexpected, invigorating, and straight-up cheerful combination. Read on for more examples and ideas for this surprising duo.