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.
The home Diana shares with her husband and daughter in Chattanooga, TN, is casual and welcoming, with modern touches and boho flair against a calming neutral palette. But when it came to the home’s entrance, the effect was too neutral: The dark wood door and stair rail and white walls were a bland greeting to an otherwise personality-filled space.
Darina had plans to create a farmhouse aesthetic in her family’s home in Murrieta, CA, but after moving in, she realized her space would be better suited by natural accents and earthy tones. Those improv skills made us think that she’d be open to an experimental makeover we envisioned in her master bedroom: a bold paint canopy. A paint canopy isn’t your ordinary accent wall. Sure, conventional wisdom advises painting an entire room, or at least an entire wall, but guess what?
With its soft accents and minimalist furniture, Cara’s home in Asbury Park, NJ, exudes a soft, airy style. But the sun-drenched bedroom she shares with her husband Mike needed a special touch to make it stand out. Never one to shy away from experimenting with style, Cara was game when we found inspiration in an unlikely place: the ceiling. They say that ceilings must be white—but we don’t know who “they” are anyway, and we say white is just the beginning!
It’s no secret that we’re really into cane furniture. Nothing else makes a space seem chic and unpretentious at the same time. A mid-century classic, the effortlessly relaxed material has the power to immediately warm up a room with its clean and textured look.Which makes us excited that Industry West is into cane, too.
When native Californians Erica and Mark moved back to the Golden State after a stint in New York City, they fell in love with Pasadena. We did too: It was recently named one of Apartment Therapy’s Coolest Suburbs in America. Though Erica and Mark work in Los Angeles, the nearby ‘burb won them over with its strong sense of community—not to mention its dreamy Craftsman bungalows.
Marichelle loves living in Maplewood, NJ, one of Apartment Therapy’s Coolest Suburbs in America. She runs a chic boutique, Meus, and is mom to an adorable trio of kiddos. While her home is as eclectically stylish as you’d imagine a boutique owner’s to be, the living room wasn’t quite working the way she wanted it to.“You know how sometimes you go into a house and there’s this cold living room and no one ever goes in there?
We’ve all put off fixing a broken doorknob or restitching a seam for longer than we’d care to admit, despite the deep satisfaction that arrives when we finally get around to it. Why does it take so long to make small repairs when we know how much they matter to our daily lives? Even the little things can feel overwhelming when we’re not organized, which is why a dedicated fix-it station makes all the difference.
It’s summer, and you want nothing more than to be outside. If there’s a beach within reachable distance, you are dying to be there. If you have a bit of outdoor space to call your own, you may be thinking about sprucing it up. So it feels like a good time to announce that Society6, one of our favorite retailers, has just introduced an outdoor collection.Why do we like Society6? (1.) The things they sell are beautiful and unique. And sometimes they’re even lovably weird!
Life can get hectic and, unfortunately, you can’t jaunt off to a luxury spa whenever the going gets tough. So how do you find your bliss at home? By turning your bathroom into a self-care spa retreat. And since no trip to the spa should cause more stress, consider financing your DIY with the Synchrony HOME™ credit card. It was designed with nesting in mind, offering 2% cash back everywhere plus promotional financing at more than a million home retailers nationwide.
If your garden to-do list is overgrown, you’re not alone — but you needn’t worry. There’s an easy way to get yourself ready to tackle all your yard projects without spending too much time or money. A gardening station will organize your outdoor storage, contain muddy messes, and save your back and knees from squatting and kneeling. And it’s affordable to stock up on all the supplies you’ll need for it when you know exactly which Walmart basics to buy.
Marichelle runs an eclectic lifestyle shop, Meus, in Maplewood, NJ—recently named one of Apartment Therapy’s Coolest Suburbs in America—so, yeah, her home is stylish. But Marichelle is also a mom of three, which means she’s concerned with much more than aesthetics: Everything in her home is chic and sturdy, as ready for neighborhood happy hours as after-school art projects. That goes double for the dining room.
The first step toward living your perfect summer is knowing who you are and what makes you happiest—and the first stop is Target, where fun is always easy to find.
Bravo if you’ve already started using paper straws in your cold brew. More kudos if you’re sure to slather on reef-safe sunscreen. But there’s another place in your life where it’s easy to go green: your bed! Back in the dark ages, eco-friendly bedding wasn’t much of a thing…and when you did find it, it wasn’t what we’d call “eye candy.” But now it’s really simple to make the switch to organic, sustainable bedding.
Name: Dana and Matthew, daughter Pia and pup MacLocation: Port Saint Lucie, FloridaSize: 2,000 square feetYears Lived In: 2 yearsBuying a house, getting a puppy, having a baby, and doing a major kitchen renovation is a lot to take on in one year. A whole lot. Dana and Matthew did it, though, and now they can say that they’ve created their dream home. But as happy as they are to have it—and as quickly as it happened—this wasn’t the original plan.
Name: Andi Eaton & Ben Alleman Location: Gallatin, TNSize: 1,336 square feetYears lived in: 2.5 yearsAndi Eaton and partner Ben Alleman love their lives on the road—she’s a travel writer and founder of Oui We; he’s a musician—but they craved a permanent home base where they could reconnect and recharge. They’d been splitting time between their native New Orleans and a Nashville rental, but time on the road—and time apart—got to be too much.
What do you call a plant that’s low-maintenance, affordable, and available in a stunning array of sculptural shapes and showstopping colors? The perfect gift. Our houseplant policy is simple—greenery on every available surface, please—and air plants oblige beautifully. These airborne beauties (Tillandsia, technically) thrive in hanging terrariums, atop windowsills, on slabs of driftwood, and most anywhere in between.
What if we said you could increase the size of your living space instantly? What would you do with your extra room? You can, but the trick isn’t to add more space to your home; it’s to subtract stuff.But not permanently! With MakeSpace, your stuff doesn’t disappear. It just relocates to a place where you won’t trip over it every time you walk into the living room…or bedroom, or garage.
Your home isn’t the same as everyone else’s, so why would you clean it as if it were? That’s the idea behind Miele’s HomeCare Collection. These aren’t just top-of-the-line vacuums; they’re top-of-the-line vacuums with features customized to fit your particular cleaning needs.
It’s true that not all of us are lucky enough to live in a place with beautiful hardwood floors and high ceilings and hundred-year-old moldings. The good news is that there are ways to add a little personality to your space, even if you’re renting — and even if you’re on a tight budget. When it comes to finding things that will make your apartment really shine, we’ve got a great source.Allow us to introduce you to Amazon Handmade.
Even those of us who live lightly have storage issues now and then. Moving, downsizing, and just getting organized can bring our closeted collections out into the open. But don’t stress! It’s only clutter if you let it stick around too long. The key is finding realistic storage solutions that you’ll find easy to sustain. For us, that means outsourcing the hardest parts of storage, like the wrapping and the hauling back and forth (ugh).
Prize: OXO Spring Cleaning Tool KitTotal Approximate Value: $1,000From: OXO It may sound odd to hear someone say they’re excited to do chores, but every year we truly look forward to our spring cleaning. We see it as a big welcome sign for the new season and a way to reenergize our homes — and we’re guessing you do, too.
Let’s talk about a secret cleaning weapon — one you’re probably already very familiar with and are probably underusing. If you’re only using your vacuum cleaner to clean your floors, you’re missing out on all the great things it can do for you. Here are seven hard-to-clean spots that the right vacuum (and the right attachments!) can make short work of. How do you clean a mattress, anyway? You can’t exactly pop it in the washing machine.
With a bustling lifestyle business—including a mega-popular Instagram account and a curated shop of vintage finds, Harper & Arrow—plus two little ones to chase after, Cynthia Harper knows that relaxation usually comes in small doses. Her trick is to create a home that’s immediately immersive so that when she does find a couple of minutes to herself she’s instantly at ease. Her trick for that? Think of more sense experiences than what you can see.
Whenever we talk about creating a sense of space, it seems like we’re always talking about its look. Yet, your home’s scent is such an important part of its DNA. (Perhaps the most important part! Smells go straight to the same part of the brain that processes memory, which is why certain scents can immediately conjure up specific places.
Buying new furniture is a big part of the fun of moving into a new place or redecorating the place you already have. But furniture (particularly living room furniture) is a significant purchase, and you want to get it right. The first step, before you get down to styles and fabrics and colors, is deciding what furniture you need. How do you get the right combination to make the most of your space?
Amazon has evolved a lot since its inception. Once they sold only books, but their inventory has since expanded to include anything from potting soil to a pillowcase with Nicholas Cage’s face. And now, with the introduction of Amazon Handmade, you can buy things on Amazon that you can’t buy anywhere else.
You don’t have to describe yourself as an artist in your Instagram bio to feel stifled and suffocated by “the rules” for decorating your own place. It’s past time to stop listening to designers and catalogs and retail chains that tell us what we should do, and start doing what we want to do.
Despite any residual chill, it is finally spring! Which means that now is the time to prep your garden. In warmer climates, you can start planting right away. In colder zones, start your plants indoors and transplant them outside when the weather warms up. And regardless of where you live, this is a great weekend to get started on some easy DIYs to pot your plants.
If you feel like you’ve been slogging through cold, rain, and slush for too long, we’ve got good news. Spring (officially) starts March 20, and the shift is in the air. Every week for the lead-up, we’re working with Lowe’s to share quick updates you can do in a weekend, including step-by-step instructions and a list of supplies. This week we’re at the gateway to your home, the front door.
Good sleep is hard to come by. Most of us don’t get enough of it, and even when we do it’s not always high-quality, be it because of environmental factors (sound, light, temperature) or our temperamental body clocks. The first step to better sleep is understanding what kind of sleeper you are—and if you’re reading this at 3 a.m., you’re a Night Owl.
Most of us spend about a third of our lives in bed. But that doesn’t mean we’re really getting good sleep for those 8ish hours a day. That’s especially true for Slumber Partiers: those of us who have bedmates who stir, kids who seek refuge from scary monsters in the middle of the night, or pets who weirdly migrate from the foot of the bed to the top of our heads overnight. But no one wants to bust up a good party!
Some of us have to battle an army of external forces just to fall asleep: street noise, roommates, external light. We call these people Sleep Warriors, and sometimes it seems like the world is conspiring against them on their simple quest for eight hours of decent sleep. While these warriors have no control over environmental elements, they can arm themselves with several items within their own bedrooms to help keep out the distractions.
Spring may seem like it’s far away (especially if you live in the groundhog-hibernation zone) but its official start date is March 20. If you’re anxious to get outside after a long winter, we can’t promise good weather, but we can give you easy projects to prep your home so that when warm weather rolls around, you’ll be ready to enjoy it.
No one knows interior design better than interior designers, and no one knows small spaces better than students living in New York (#studioliving), so it makes sense that interior design students really know how to make small spaces sing.
What’s the secret to making a room feel just right? Furniture that works with the size and shape of your space—which, after all, is what determines the right piece. Start thinking about proportion, Goldilocks, and you’ll begin to notice how pieces feel too big, too small, or just right. These three shoppable infographics can help you find furniture to fit any measurement.
What’s the secret to making a room feel just right? Furniture that works with the size and shape of your space—which, after all, is what determines the right piece. Start thinking about proportion, Goldilocks, and you’ll begin to notice how pieces feel too big, too small, or just right. These three shoppable infographics can help you find furniture to fit any measurement.
Make 2019 the year you get the best sleep of your life. Lofty goal, we know, but it starts with one simple choice: the right mattress. If yours has seen better days (and nights), this is the perfect time to upgrade—Walmart is rolling back their already low prices on a huge selection of mattresses over Presidents’ Day weekend.
