Decorating

It’s December, and the holiday season is officially here. But for color lovers, today is a holiday in and of itself: the day Pantone announces their Color of the Year for 2018. In 2017, they went for a bright, leafy hue called Greenery. For their tenth anniversary pick, will they go bold, or return to a softer hue? Let’s find out: The 2018 Pantone Color of the Year is Ultra Violet!

You never know when color inspiration will strike—and we can pretty much guarantee it won’t happen while you’re nervously sweating, staring down the paint chips in your local hardware store. Thankfully, there’s a new app, Swatches, that turns the gorgeous rainbow-filled world around you into your own personal color catalog.

Decking your halls with holiday decor can be tricky when you’re on a budget. That’s why it pays to be resourceful when it comes to spreading holiday cheer throughout your home. Luckily, some of our most humdrum home essentials actually offer ample decorating opportunity. With a little imagination, you can turn everyday items—like puzzle pieces, newspaper, and houseplants—into seriously stylish trimmings.

I did not grow up in a house that delicately opened gifts on Christmas morning. My mother did not collect all the intact gift wrap, fold it carefully and stash it away for another use. We were savages that ripped open presents with abandon. The more shreds I could get out of each box, the longer the unwrapping lasted, which made me a happier child. (My mother did, however, always save gift boxes—the kind you put shirts and pajama sets in—as well as gift bags because she was no fool.

Here’s a real estate reprieve for homeowners who’ve been to hell and back with foundation problems: an unfolding modular house. Italian architect Renato Vidal partnered with Area Legno to manufacture “M.A.DI,” a tiny home that makes putting down your roots infinitely easier. For starters, the small, eco-friendly modular homes can be temporarily erected without a foundation, but a screw pile anchoring system can be utilized if needed.

In a day and age when social media and inspiration-heavy sites like Pinterest make you feel like everything you create for your home or how you decorate for the holidays has to be (literally) picture perfect and super chic, there are rays of hope that sometimes the internet is up for something slightly ridiculous. Case in point: the recent obsession with not-the-least-bit-elegant-but-maybe-pretty-great giant balloon Christmas lights.

The “stranded island test” is a good way to think about the products you use that you really, truly love. I asked the Apartment Therapy editors what one small appliance they’d bring along if we were all whisked away to an island in the middle of nowhere (where electric outlets may or may not exist, but that part isn’t supposed to matter).

These get our vote for stylish space savers.

For anyone who’s ever excitedly bought a tree that turned out to be a serious needle dropper/too heavy to carry up the stairs/completely devoid of any festive scents — this buying guide is for you. Aesthetics are one thing, but there is so, so much more to consider. You know the deal: you walk onto a Christmas tree lot, find a tree that seems like it’ll fit in your home for the right price and boom, you’re done.

Los Angeles-based designer Sarah Sherman Samuel— famous for her airy, California-cool style—has announced two brand new exciting collaborations for the kitchen. Add these to Joy Cho’s recent collaborative creation of playful pastel cement tiles with clé and you’ll want to renovate your kitchen… well, basically yesterday. First up, Samuel has teamed with popular cabinet door maker Semihandmade.

If 2017 left you feeling like your life got flipped turned upside down, then you wouldn’t be the only one. And there’s a new (whimsical?) holiday trend to support the state of affairs, and we have Karl Lagerfeld to thank/blame. On Wednesday, Claridge’s unveiled their annual Christmas tree, a tradition which hospitality site The Caterer calls “one of the highlights of the London hotel festive season”, and this year, it’s… upside down.

Say goodbye to the tree skirt and hello to this unexpected accessory.

A lot of attention has been paid lately to the increasingly competitive mattress industry, and the growing lack of transparency for consumers, but it turns out that we should be just as concerned about what covers our mattresses. Two recent studies show that an overwhelming majority of fabric labels on our sheet sets have been faked.

One of the challenges of living in a small apartment is trying to figure out how to fit everything you need into a small bedroom. Fitting everything in, plus the bed (which is pretty essential) can feel nearly impossible, so we’ve rounded up five small bedrooms that make very efficient use of their small footprints—plus ideas you can steal from each one. The bedroom above, from Hemnet via Apartment Therapy, is a perfect example of small-space efficiency.

Is this the look that's destined to be all over design blogs in two to five years? Or just a flash in the pan?

Last spring when my mother was in town, she offered to help me make an epic month-long supply of freezer meals. While preparing for the task, I came across a recommendation for a kitchen tool that I’d never seen or heard of before. Now they make me happy every time I have an occasion to use them. They’re so delightfully handy, I’ve even given them as gifts.

The very essence of a bohemian lifestyle tends to go pretty firmly against big-brand commercialism, but if you’re more about the style and less about the ideals—and also looking for some cheap(ish) ways to round out your aesthetic—IKEA is, quite surprisingly, a great place to hunt. The brand’s minimal Swedish vibes might make you think eclectic decor is not to be found in the blue-and-yellow corridors of the retailer, but that’s where you’d be wrong.

What do you think of that wallpaper pattern? It’s got a fun ’70s vibe going on, kicky color combo, oh, and it’s made of bacteria. A team of scientists from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, and Central Saint Martins have developed a way to print bacteria (the good kind) on to paper, and here’s how it could benefit your home.

For the longest time, I thought there was only one solution for rugs in the bathroom: the traditional bath mat. I always struggled to find something I liked enough. Everything was either too fuzzy and nubby, or too bland in terms of design, as I like to add a punch of color via rugs in my all-beige bathroom to liven things up. That is, until I refreshed my space this past summer and went in a completely different direction. The “area rug as bath mat” concept is not a new one.

If you like someone enough to let them stay inside your home, chances are you like them enough to want them to have a nice time during their visit. Help that happen by making sure your guest room is a cozy and functional place to stay before the holidays get here! Guest rooms can easily turn into “junk” rooms the longer they sit unoccupied.

Thanksgiving is arguably the star holiday of the cooking world. And, apart from the oven, there’s no other kitchen feature that gets more play during this time of year quite like the island—whether built-in or freestanding. Before you gather around yours this year, take a moment to appreciate how this modern day kitchen staple came to be the status symbol that it has become (because it hasn’t always been that way).

Part of adulting is encountering the urge to pack up a few belongings, abandon all of your responsibilities and set off toward No Man’s Land to live in a self-imposed state of hermithood. We’ve all had that thought at one point or another, but plotting an escape of that magnitude isn’t as simple as it sounds. Luckily, there’s now a “living vehicle” that can support several weeks’ worth of off-the-grid living.

As someone who used to work as an architect and now writes about small spaces, I love seeing how a clever design can completely transform a tiny space. At first glance, this little Italian apartment did not seem very promising. Its 317 square feet (29.5 square meters) were awkwardly chopped up into a tiny bedroom, barely large enough for a bed, an oddly placed bathroom, and a combination living room/dining room/kitchen that was strangely shaped and a bit cavernous.

Anthropologie is set up in a way that it’s not just a “store” but a “shopping experience.” It’s a place you stroll through, linger around, dream of living in. Part of that magical experience? The just-strong-enough aroma that fills the air, luring you across the impeccably styled threshold. I always thought the retailer’s sweet smell was a perfect marriage of all the candles they were burning throughout the store.

My family and I live in a remote area—the nearest town has 200 people—so when it came time to replace our falling-apart sofa, our IRL shopping options were very limited unless we wanted to devote our lives to driving to furniture stores. The closest shops were perfectly respectable but lacked a certain flair. It seemed like ordering a sofa online was our only good option, and I’m thrilled it was, because it ended up working out great.

Inspiring rooms your guests will feel like sinking into and staying awhile.

Have you ever felt like the exercise of replacing the fitted sheet on your bed should be an Olympic sport? One innovative new company in New York feels your pain and wants to arm you with better equipment: a sheet set that’s more like a layered ski shell than your standard bedding. Stretto is a new zip-on, zip-off fitted sheet design that envelopes your mattress more like a mattress cover — allowing you to just zip off the top part for cleaning and zip a fresh one back on.

To dig into the heads of our most loyal followers, we surveyed readers last month on a bevy of topics. They revealed their favorite cleaning shortcuts, their most hated chore, even the Apartment Therapy advice that has been a game-changer for their home life. We also asked them about trends. We learned that readers are still pretty much into the whole boho look and really love colored doors (and color, in general).

Looking away from the eye-catching checkerboard exterior of the latest design from Vo Trong Nghia Architects is virtually impossible. The Vietnamese firm didn’t construct FPT University’s newest administrative building simply to mesmerize the viewer. In addition to commanding attention and admiration, the structure features artistic placement of greenery to play up its exterior and is also a certified passive design to contribute to the campus’s ongoing sustainability efforts.

The fireplace might have been an ignored home feature during the warm days of summer, but fall gives us a very good excuse to turn our attention to the mantel, and beyond. Though some heartily embrace fun Halloween decor here, there are other ways to say “fall” besides black-and-orange accents. The easiest? Adding a few small pumpkins and a festive wreath to your current mantel accessories, like the fireplace of Chris from Just a Girl.

As a person who writes content for the internet, I am uncomfortably familiar with the lengths people will go to to entice people to click on their content. “X is the new Y” is a well-trod and reliable formula. Because who wouldn’t want to know what’s new? So when I saw the first flurry of articles crowning something called “Gen Z Yellow” the new Millennial Pink, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a little bit. Another day, another trend piece.

From the magical realism of Audrey Tatou’s bedroom in Amelie to the rustic cottage minimalism of Meryl Streep’s loft in Mama Mia, we all love to take Pinspiration from our favorite movie bedrooms — and HomeAdvisor just took it a step past paint swatches and accessories with these seven fantasy bedroom visualizations.

Around this time of year, people are practically itching to hightail it out of town and hole up in a cozy holiday vacation rental, so it’s only natural that the serene sight of this tiny pine cone-shaped treehouse in the Italian Alps has us ready to say arrivederci to home and board a flight ASAP. Called “Pigna” (“pinecone” in Italian), the treehouse of our childhood dreams is a three-story structure suspended 30 feet above ground.

Right? “Hustle” pillows and “I Can’t Adult Today” blankets, “Live, Love, Gymnastics” tea towels and “The Snuggle is Real”…At this point, it’s like, okay okay, I get it. The world is filled with cute sayings, always has been. There were some real zippy zingers back in the mid 19th-century. I mean “bully for you!” or “acknowledge the corn!” That is some first-class slang.

Are you ready to just run away from it all? Willing to trade your office job for some rugged, outdoor labor? The US Forest Service may have an opportunity for you, but you have to act fast the deadline is quickly approaching. The San Juan National Forest in Colorado is looking for someone to take over two of their remote properties. It reads something like a hermit, meets in-keeper, meets homesteader.

Let's focus on another time-honored living room pastime: conversation.

Some trends come and go, while others come, stay, and leaving us saying, “wait, why wasn’t this always a thing?”. With a simplicity and softness that feels timeless in its appeal, we think trendy round mirrors are here to stay. If you’ve been on the fence about “rounding out” your mirror collection, here are two nearly identical round brass-framed mirrors in two not-so-identical price points ($50 vs.

I always thought good sheets were an investment. Until I found the last set of sheets I'll ever buy...and for cheap.

When I started my hunt for the perfect tiny New York apartment, I knew that it would probably come with a tiny kitchen, too. I got lucky: my kitchen actually has a full-sized fridge, and it even has an oven. (Yes, there are people in New York who are paying lots and lots of money to rent apartments with no oven.) And while my kitchen is small—it only has two and a half feet of counter space—I saw others that were even smaller.

Or as the actual (but too long) title to this post should read: How to Pull Off Painting Your Living Room Black and It Not Look Like an Angsty Goth ’80s Teen Is Gearing up for a Halloween Party While Their Parents Are Out of Town. I’m here today to let you know it is possible to rock super dark paint on the walls, ceilings, shelving, mantel, fireplace, etc. and not look like you went on Trading Spaces with The Addams Family.

In this space planning series, Layout Lessons, we’ll be exploring layout options for different bed sizes within various shaped bedrooms because things can get tricky sometimes. We tapped Eleanor Büsing, a contributing writer for Apartment Therapy and an interior designer in her own right, for her expert opinion on the matter. Here, how to deal when only a King bed will do.

Normally, we prefer to feature examples of design we love, but on occasion, something comes along that is such a head scratch (or a belly laugh) that we just can’t help ourselves. Thankfully, an Instagram account called Ugly Design exists to provide a whole host of examples of the latter. Ugly Design, created by Swiss founders Jonas Nyffenegger and Sebastien Mathys, has over 87,000 followers on Instagram as of this writing (there is also a Tumblr). “I consider ugly as beautiful.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story with a simple yet shocking premise: “To make their home interiors look better on Instagram and amass more followers, millennials and social-media mavens are painting their walls white.” What do you think of that? What do we think of that?

On a corner in Williamsburg, you’ll spot a unique house: A townhome built from the ground up using 21 shipping containers that were sliced to give the dwelling its unique shape. The project has been in the works for three years, but now we get our first look inside the quirky space. Dezeen shared images of the place last week and chatted with the design studio, LOT-EK, about the opportunities and challenges of the project.

Ask anyone who’s ever lived in a studio apartment what their least favorite thing about it is, and chances are that (after the size) they’ll complain about their bed being out in the open, in sight of the living room/dining room/kitchen. It can make it feel like you’re living in a dorm room versus an actual adult home. But, with smart decor elements and design tricks, you can make your bed feel like its own area, improving the way your studio looks from any angle.

You’ve probably noticed that Halloween decorations have seen a definite uptick in recent years. When I was a kid, the decorations in our neighborhood were limited to jack-o-lanterns on front porches, and maybe the occasional skeleton or creepy spider web. Now, it’s not unusual to see entire neighborhoods decked out in black, with witches, faux graveyards, and even Halloween lights. How did we get here?

If you’ve ever lived in a particularly small space, especially a studio apartment, you may have noticed that your bed takes up a significant portion of your square footage. Some people choose to loft their bed to open up floor space, but this strategy is not without its own problems.

Let me start this by just saying: this is about to get a little uncomfortable, because there’s really no way to write a toilet paper review without it feeling a little strange —for both of us. But hey, you clicked on this, which means you’re either morbidly curious or you’re really interested in a more sustainable toilet paper option—either way, totally valid. So, let’s get started, shall we?

Before getting down to business, I would like to say no disrespect to any of the prints featured in this article. They are all wonderful motifs in their own right, but for reasons ranging from over saturation to too many knock-off versions, 2017 may be the year to put down the palms. What do you think? I reached out to a couple of well-known designers to get their take on prints they think are too trendy or tired.

When I moved to a small town and first encountered an Aldi, I did not understand it. There was, like, one employee working? And you had to pay a quarter for a cart (you get back the quarter, but still, good to know beforehand in case you don’t normally have change on you)? After a couple more visits, however, I was in love, and Aldi is now my favorite grocery store. It’s chock-full of incredibly low-priced food, wine and beyond, and the selection changes constantly.

Entryway in need of some TLC? We have a dozen ideas to try on for size.

In case you haven’t heard, Will & Grace returns to NBC on Thursday, September 28, a full eleven years after its finale. We’re ducking back into the familiar lives of Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen over a decade later, and it’s no surprise that their spaces have changed. We talked with the show’s set decorator, Peter Gurski, and he answered some of our most burning questions.

With over 20 styles in dozens of configurations, we set out to review 13 of the retailer's most popular models. Read on to see which were the most comfortable.

Hygge was one of Oxford Dictionary’s Words of the Year in 2016, when the concept of conscious coziness was everywhere. Apartment Therapy featured What Does Hygge Mean?, How To Add More Hygge, Hygge Can Be A Recipe For A Happy Life, Hooked On A (Hygge) Feeling…and a handful of other hygge-theme posts. (We also ran Hygge and Hot Chocolate way back in 2007.) But as we head into fall 2017, does the Danish philosophy still have a hold on us?

IKEA is known for being a pioneering company. The retailer effectively invented flat pack furniture and made it mainstream. There have been tons of design forward products over the years, with several becoming long-lived staples like BILLY bookcases and the POANG chair. However, even IKEA gets it wrong on occasion, and sometimes, they mess up twice. In an excerpt from IKEA’s forthcoming book, Democratic Design (coming in 2018), copywriter Stina Holmberg describes the tale of IKEA a.i.r.

Lunch monotony is real and we know it all too well. You were excited to have prepped a lunch the night before, but those leftovers look kind of sad and boring now that noon is rolling around and your stomach is grumbling. Today I’ve got two bento boxes that are total lunch gamechangers: Prepd Pack and Monbento. They’re super functional (compact, wash easily, no leaks) and super cute.

There’s something that makes us extremely uneasy about architect Katerina Kamprani’s collection of household objects, but that’s precisely the point. These odd items that comprise The Uncomfortable Series are intentionally designed to entertain and bug the heck of out anyone who values practicality and convenience. The “deliberately inconvenient” series of everyday objects includes dishware, cutlery and watering cans that would encourage us to skip chores.

Should you have one of the following four room shapes, consider these your cheat sheets for how to best arrange your queen-sized bed.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that one of the keys to a well-functioning, uncluttered home is having an entryway that works well. It’s a spot to gather up all the things that you’ll need when you go out into the world, and also a sort of buffer zone to keep unwanted clutter from entering your home. Maxwell has really explored this with his idea of the landing strip, which is worth checking out.

Did you catch this rad house tour from Buenos Aires? Each room was bursting with bold design elements balanced and mixed to perfection. But something about the living room really stuck out to me: it’s an excellent example of the versatility of a black and white color palette. In other words, if you’re someone who gets tired of the same look after awhile and you like to mix it up, take some notes from this home.

We’ve heard it time and again: the bedroom is often the last place you tackle decorating because it’s behind closed doors (and it seems more practical to devote your energy and dollars to the more public areas of your home). However, just because you’re not ready to take a deep dive into reimagining your sleeping quarters doesn’t mean there isn’t something you can do to spruce up the place in the meantime…sort of like a pre-makeover.

If you’ve had it when it comes to dreary home office spaces, listen up. Those who are short on space or privacy (i.e. roommates) needn’t look further than the room you sleep in for home workspace, and while writing emails may not be high on your list of favorite bedroom activities, these nine bedroom office nooks are so good they’ll have you reducing your commute time in big way.

We don’t all have the luxury of a dedicated entryway, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all try carve one out using ingenuity and design elements. Start with the where — the obvious location is the wall right beside the door you use daily — and then add these things in. Below: your easy entryway checklist. This stylish yet simple entryway is from Michael’s ’80s-inspired boho glam rental apartment.

Earlier this year, we predicted what would be trendy in the kitchen for 2017, from rich, muted hues, warmer finishes, New Bohemian style and more. We’re now more than halfway through this year, and I find myself looking back at 2017’s designs. I’ve seen many of the trends predicted above come true, but I’ve also noticed a color trend emerge for the kitchen that I didn’t expect: mint green!

The debate between open shelving and closed cabinets in the kitchen divides many people. Some find the look charming, but hate the practicality of it. Others think it looks messy, but wonder if they’d use their stuff more if they could see. And many other opinions in between abound. So I asked some folks who live with open shelving in their kitchen every day to share the real truth. Kristina Browngardt is the co-founder of Wilder Design Co.

Not all bathrooms are created equal, and that’s fine by us. Some may see a small bathroom as a storage nightmare, but we see it as a challenge. Here are nine genius DIY bathrooms that prove no storage situation, or lack there of, can’t be tackled. Here, Rebecca Williams shows us how her boho maximalist home in Western Australia maximizes storage. Rebecca uses unoccupied wall space to store her toiletries on hanging shelves and a hanging planter repurposed as a storage basket (genius!

Project by: Karen Knox of Making Spaces Location: Harrogate, Yorkshire We’ve seen Karen work her magic on this Edwardian home before and this go-round is just as stunning as the last. Continuing with the rich colors of the living room, this guest bed refresh is dark and dramatic with an unexpected wallpaper choice thrown into the mix. A few carefully selected furniture pieces play up the “grand design” of the space, filling it with romantic drama.

Just steps from department store stalwart Dillard’s, thredUP’s second brick-and-mortar store wants to “disrupt” everything we think we know about not just secondhand shopping, but retail in general — and a first look at its Austin store, opening tomorrow, did not disappoint. Actually, it was downright dreamy.

White walls seem to be a designer secret weapon: they open up rooms of all sizes (make small rooms seem larger, large rooms appear…even airier) and look incredibly crisp and cool; plus, it’s easy to match your room’s decor to the snowy hue (because, well, white goes with everything). You know what other color is just as easy to work with (even if you might not think so at first glance)? Hint: It’s the complete opposite of white.

Color lovers who area also renters (and can’t paint your walls), rejoice! You CAN have a colorful home even if wall paint is against the rules. Interior designer Rachelle Padgett didn’t let the no-wall-color constraints of her small rental apartment get her down. Instead, she got creative. And the tricks she used to add more hues to her home could easily be translated to any home.

Project by: Tina Rich Location: SoHo — New York, New York We here at the Apartment Therapy Media offices fancy ourselves cool, calm and collected New Yorkers, but that all flew out the window when we heard none other than Karlie Kloss would be setting up shop in our building. Once we got a peek at her incredible new office (and let’s be real, also that outfit) we became full blown fans.

We picked the brains of five purveyors of vintage goods to see what people can't stop buying.