5 Tips for Getting Your Room Makeover or DIY Project Featured on Apartment Therapy

Summer is a prime time to check off all the projects you’ve been wanting to do: It’s warm, so it’s easy to work outside or with the windows open; the days are longer, granting you more natural light; and in many industries, it’s a little easier to take a vacation day or two in the summer months to finish up any lingering tasks.

If you’ve been taking full advantage of summer to give any areas of your home a makeover, Apartment Therapy wants to hear from you. You likely already knew that you can submit photos to be featured in our Before and After column (and if you didn’t, you do now!). And as of this week, you can also submit video footage to be featured on Apartment Therapy’s social media accounts.

Here’s the deal: Sometimes, the full scope of a project just doesn’t come through in photos. That’s why we want to show before and afters (and the “during” that comes between) over video. Interested in submitting your own room reno? Here are five tips to help you stand out and put your project in its best light.

Use your mobile phone’s camera app to record your project vertically, rather than horizontally (this should automatically give you our preferred 9:16 aspect ratio). To ensure the best quality, your video should have a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at minimum. Follow manufacturer instructions to adjust resolution on your phone — here are some useful guides for iPhone, Pixel, and Samsung phones.

To see your whole room, you’ll need to pan, or move your camera from one side to another. When panning, stand in one place, keep your hand as steady as possible, and slowly move either left to right or up and down to show us the entire space.

Moving slowly while shooting is key, since we want to be able to see every piece of the project. Move slower than you think, even if it feels a bit weird. Avoid jarring circular or zigzag-type pans, which can make your viewers feel like they’re on a carnival ride.

Watch your clips before you submit to make sure they look the way you want them to.

This last step will save you some time and work. Don’t worry about editing any of your clips together into a full video — AT’s video team will work their magic on your raw clips to create the final product.

Ready to show off your skills? You can find the video submission form here — and, as always, you can access the photo submission form here. Happy renovating!