Domino Giveaway Extended!

Hey, I've decided to extend the book giveaway deadline to Tuesday at Noon. So if you haven't left a comment on this post, go and do it now!

Would you like to win FREE design services?

Who wouldn't?



Dwellings by Mail, based in San Francisco, looks like a great way for renters and homeowners to utilize professional design services for their home without the expense of full-service design services. Their consultations are done via email, fax, telephone, and postal service; so you can live anywhere.

I love these types of services for the cost and the convenience. You receive a detailed idea board, a space plan, shopping guide, and fabric & finish swatches of their ideas. From there you can choose according to your personal tastes and budget what to take from it and what to leave, if anything. Also since all items suggested by the designer are just suggestions, if you find a similar piece at a lower or higher price, then it's up to you to choose. They basically open your eyes to the possibilities in your rooms that you may not have been able to see.

Well, if that didn't already sound great; for the month of April, the company is offering a free Dwellings By Mail room makeover package! Since their services normally start at around $300, this is a truly incredible deal.

They just need a little bit of information from you, so check their blog Domicile House for more contest information. Good luck!

Fourth Annual Fall Color Contest

I have been checking out Apartment Therapy's Fourth Annual Fall Colors Contest. The only concession this year is that I'm not reading the comments. It's amazing how rude people can be about someone else's home and I want to avoid that type of negativity this time.

Here are three entries that I just love; not neccessarily because I think they are the best in their use of color but because I could easily see myslef happily living in any of these homes. I wish these contestants; Rachel, Janice, and Noodle, the best of luck, and I also warn them to take any negative (and rude!) comments with a grain of salt.


Rachel's Bungalow of Bright Ideas in the Midwest



Janice's Color My World Beautiful in the East



Noodle's Mood Matching Colors in the Northwest

Images: Apartment Therapy (duh!)

No comments about the Small Cool Contest?

Wow. I'm surprised.

I spent quite some time putting together my thoughts on this year's Apartment Therapy Small Cool 2008 contest entries this year. My goal was to pick out some details from spaces that that I liked and I ended up surprised with how many I ended up listing. I originally was thinking just one post for all but the shear numbers made that impossible. There were so many cute spaces.

After my comments about AT's earlier contests, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of interior designer and architect showrooms this time. Last year's contest seemed more like free advertising for company design portfolios. This year, most homes seemed to be inhabited by real people, were lived in, and possessed actual points of view.

So, come on...what did you think?

Small Cool Contest 2008: Part III

More from the Midwest and finally, the East Coast where AT started it all.

Midwest #8 - Abbe's Lil' Abode Loving the kitchen cabinets and walls!

Midwest #10 - Stephanie's Simple Sanctuary People were actually giving her grief for not having more stuff (or at least having more stuff from places other than IKEA!) I would love to live in her place, just like it is now. Did you see her phone niche?! Excellent.

Midwest #14: Annie's Logan Square Home I like the red, yellow, blue, with a tiny bit of lavender color story she has here.

Midwest #21: Carla's Grand Ave. Home Way to go adding a sense of permanence to a rental!

Midwest #22: Blythe's Tiny Treehouse I was already a fan from seeing her photos on Flickr.

East #2: Chris and Elayne's Greenpoint Hideaway Loving the true Boho vibe AND the guts to enter this particular contest.

East #8: Trilby's New York Minute Retreat This one is notable because the voting was so close on all three levels: Super Cool! (142), Cool (156), and Not my bag, baby (120). Interesting.

East #11: Eddie's West Village Studio LOVE the colors; blue, white, red, and grey.

East #34: Gaastra's Mini Residence Not my style but lovely just the same.

East #16: Heather's Leafy Oasis Love this shot of the bed.

East #14: Kristin's Cozy Village Studio Incredibly feminine studio.

That is that for this year, until the Color contest that is.

Small Cool Contest 2008: Part II

Here are some choice entries from the South and the Midwest states.

Southwest:

Southwest #9: Gretchen's "The Place I Call Home" Digging this “headboard.” (Even though those curtains have shown up three times in the contest I still think I need to go and buy them again. There must be some way I can use them. With my color scheme, they are just made for my apartment. Hmmm....)

Southwest #16: Courtney & Alex's Eccentric Pad Another creative headboard idea. These electric light-up branches are still available at World Market. I hope we can get a tutorial from them on how they worked that with all the plugs involved .

Southwest #17: Matthew's Cartoonist Corner I am in love with the floor plan for his apartment! Also check out the Kermit phone, his cool 1970s phonograph, and the infamous Italian “Fragile” lamp. Southwest Finalist

Southwest #30: Jordan's Ordo Ab Chao Another great drawn floor plan! This is similar to the ones I draw but I haven't mastered the second angled 3-D-like look yet. Southwest Finalist

Midwest:

Midwest #6 - Rachel's Grad School Getaway Midwest Finalist

Midwest #2 - Lizzie's Cozy Chicago Hideaway Love the toys and the rug.

Midwest #13: Kelly's Ghost Lounge This is probably my favorite entry this year. Just plain beautiful.

Small Cool Contest 2008: Part I

I really wanted to do a timely piece on Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool Contest, but they already have their finalists listed and I just finished looking at all the contestants. So, in the order of how I viewed them, here are my thoughts.

International:

International #12: Ise's London Pad

International #13: DHJ's Honey House This apartment really wasn't ready for this contest but they did have an incredible backsplash worth noting.

Northwest:

Northwest #3: Lana's Coffee Capital Digs Attractive, yes, warm, no.

Northwest #13: David's Designer Digs Nice, but sterile.

Northwest #12: Xing's Apartment for a Wanna Be Artist This guy used four of his five photos to show off: one room with two mid-century furniture pieces and his photography equipment. Besides the acquisition of the furniture, it doesn’t seem as if any design was imposed on this space. It looks more like a separate work studio than his home. According to the comments, I’m not the only one who thought that either.

Northwest #7: Shannon's Sumptuous Studio She has an adorable bed alcove.

Northwest #24: Emmy's Apartment S Nice use of color.


Northwest #1: Ana and Bob's Bay Area Nest I could totally see myself living here, love the very simple divider between the living room and the bedroom.

Northwest #10: Lydia's Leisure Suite Points for the DIY cork divider that I can SO see in a Wary Meyer-designed room, can’t you?

Northwest #14: Allison and Bo's Bantam Roost Cute, and she has a blog about living in a small house!

Northwest #25: Ginger's Spicy Downtown Loft This one is a bit too dark for me but I love how in a one-room space she used her color plan cohesively throughout the whole space.

Northwest #21: Courtney's "The Story of Me" (See top photo) Great objects in cute vignettes. This could have been my favorite; however, she only shows the living room!

I hope that next year they can feature a small photo with each entry on the submission page, making it easier to go back and view a particular favorite, instead of having to remember, first, which region, and then the name of the entry.

Slowly losing a friend...

My blogging life started at the same time as my discovery of Apartment Therapy. My first few posts were about either the first Small Cool Contest or the first AT Cure. So, it is very sad that AT and I are growing farther and farther apart. We are just going in different directions. It's not them...it's me.

1) I now dread reading the comments for House Tours or any of the contests. It is not that the negativity or snarkiness has gotten worse, it is just that as time goes by I can handle less and less of it. In the beginning, I would read every one of the comments only stopping when I reached the end. Now I read a few and if I hit a snarky or downright nasty comment that's it for me, off I go.

2) I check the site maybe once a week now, so even with the addition of AT: Boston and AT: DC, this probably will not change. I now use the main page to go through the four city sites.

3) Even though I signed up for this round, I haven't followed the Cure posts at all. I am still a fan of the idea and I will keep taking care of the Apartment Therapy Cure (Unofficial) Flickr group I started, however, I just can't keep up on a daily basis.

4) I have only seen five of this year Smallest Coolest contestants so I am not voting this time. In the past I used to keep refreshing the page all day long to keep up. Now, I'm only looking at the ones that catch my eye with their first picture. In the earlier years, regular readers mentioned the discrepancy in incomes and expertise among the contestants. This year, I noticed two more problems that need mentioning:

• They increased the size limit to 850 square feet. It's not naive to say that someone with a 850 square foot apartment does not have the same storage and clutter challenges as people in living spaces under 500 sq feet, let alone ones under 350 sq feet. There are family homes with yards that have the same square footage all over the country. That is not small. Here is one from the March issue of Cottage Living.

• People are not submitting pictures of their whole spaces but shots of fireplace mantels and candlesticks or lamps on end tables. The contest is about where they live, not just what looks cute through the camera lens. We want to see their storage solutions, which I think was the main reason for this contest on small spaces in the first place, right? If we're lucky, we might see a picture of the main couch or bed wall in the living room or bedroom. There are barely any kitchen pictures seen, unless the kitchen has just been remodeled and almost no bathroom photos. I first started not voting for an entry if it was mostly art photos, which then turned into me not voting for any.

AT, I will always support you; however, you have to become a much smaller part of my life now.
Take care.

What time is it? COLOR TIME

Today is the first day of the Apartment Therapy I've Got Color contest!

This is the third running of this contest and as in the beginning AT is "looking for the boldest, most beautiful, most colorful home in the world". There was much controversy about last years' almost ice cream parlor-colored winner and I'm curious to see just exactly what boldest and most colorful will mean this year.

Here are the former winners and my choices for 1st place side by side for each contest:

November 2006
Marilyn and Peter's Home Studio Harmony - Winner
Brooke's Brave Blast of Brightness



November 2005
Kate's Oasis of Color and Light - Winner
Jon's 60s Retro Bedroom

Let see if this years winner is more bold than subtle, more colorful than monochromatic. This year AT is adding more to their plate by awarding winners in all four AT locations; San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

Let the battles (in the comments) begin!

2007 Smallest Coolest Apartment Winners

To see the winners, check out Apartment Therapy.

A Small Cool Update

Laure's Sparkling Space Semi-Finalist!

Four of the nine Small Cool Apartment entries I posted here (ones I loved) have made it to the Semi-finals. Even some favorites (see above) that I didn't get around to posting made it! I am so happy. The winners of the contest should be posted on Thursday, May 17.

However, not all of the honorable mentions were posted last week as scheduled and now, on May 15, only half of the 16 semi-finalists have been posted.

I really do think that they should cut down the number of initial entries again or that each region should hold their own contest. As it was, only New York reached the 40 entries per region limit. The other regions were lucky to have 25 entries in the contest.

A long-time AT reader, Dr. Wende, just started a blog that I LOVE. She analyzes this whole contest and I hope AT pays attention to her tallies.

Last day of the Small Cool Contest!

More pictures from places that I loved. All but the last one are from the East Coast.


Meg's Everything In One 508 sq. ft


Ellen Overcomes Murphy's Law 365 sq. ft


Daniel's Idiosyncratic Little Pad 450 sq. ft. Honorable Mention!


Paullchik's Light Long Views 560 sq. ft, family of three


Delight's Cozy Nest for Three 382 sq. ft., family of three Semi-Finalist!

Good luck everyone!

That Other Smallest Coolest contest

I have been keeping up with the highest scores (the finalists), and the occupations of the entrants are interior designers or architects. Their apartments are not the average person's apartment.

I hope when the judges look at the viewer-selected finalists and read the comments that they will finally accept that there should be two contests. One for the professionals and one for the rest of us non-designers. How unfair having the typical American compete with New York interior designers on who has the coolest apartment?

This year, at least three of entries have already been featured on television, in the New York Times, or in another shelter magazine. I'm just saying.

Now onto my favorites and the finalists I would pick for the non-professional contest.

My renter does not work in the interior design industry


Laura’s Fresh Start Santa Monica Studio Semi-Finalist! 2nd Place Winner!!
Lee’s Small Smart Space


Eric and Lauren's Reborn Bungalow Semi-Finalist!
Anderson's Love Eat Party (seen at top) Semi-Finalist!


Becky and Chris's Nice To Come Home To Semi-Finalist!
Randi's Post Loft Sophistication


Delight's Cozy Nest for Three Semi-Finalist!

Smallest, Coolest Apartment!

I almost forgot!

When I started this blog last year some of my first posts were about the Smallest Coolest Apartment contest at Apartment Therapy. Though I've been checking in everyday and voting I forgot to mention it here. Right now they are still in the first part of the contest. Each AT location; New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angelos (why no cities in the Midwest or the South?) show forty entries.

This year the contest is a bit of a mess because it looks like two completely different contests. First there is this contest:

My owner works in the interior design/architecture industry.

1) There are the entries that look like the pages of Dwell, but only the homes that are all angles, up lights, with minimal furniture that looks like it would hurt. They are clean, sterile in design, white in color, and show few personal items.

Victor & Soeun's Romantic Loft Semi-Finalist * Kelly & Gregory's - Lil' Italy * Jawrite's Light Box

2) These entries look too "done". They are full of trendy furniture and the IN electrical gadgets. They may even have important furniture with names like Eames, Bertoia, Eileen Gray, etc. Now before you say anything, I love these pieces and they are classics for a good reason. However, in these cases, they jump out at you from the room giving the impression that they are there only because they have "names" or because the Jones' already have them. Even though they may showcase artwork, use luxurious fabrics, and have vibrant color, these do not feel like real homes.

Lex & Lynn's Modern Haven * Michael and Mindy's Urban Modern Semi-Finalist * Giuseppe's Fantastic Illusion * Sarah's Modern Glam Palace

3) Then, there are the small few that were able to take those ideas above and combine them with personality, wit, and comfort. These are sophisticated and beautiful places where you can still have fun.

#12 Manuel's Houston Cottage (seen above) * Marlene & Todd's Love Nest * Aad's Homage to His Old Dwelling


Next post: That other contest.

More AT Fall Color entries

Yes, the Apartment Therapy contest is still going on. Here are some more entries that I can't stop looking at. I like how this first example uses color in their furniture and accessories but not on the walls. #16 - Anna and Victor's Bright and Cozy Delight These two rooms below were given grief in the comments because there was "no color". There seemed to be a lot of people who did not consider neutrals as color. If not, then what are tan, khaki, cream, gray, and brown doing in a crayon box? When I hear those names, I think colors. Don't you? #25 - Marco and Clinton's Eclectic, 40's Inspiration

#26 - Elizabeth and Toby's "Enough Bright, Enough Calm" Space

Well, they can't deny that these three have color. #50 - Spon & Andy's Lagoon Blue Loft  

#14 - Alicia's "Finished" Sewing Studio #14 - Adam's Kaleidoscope And last but not least, my early pick for the first prize. The rules say they are looking for the boldest, coolest, most colorful room? Well, this is it! #19 - Brooke's Brave Blast of Brightness Good luck to everyone, there are only a few days left!

Fall Color Contest at Apartment Therapy

My favorites so far...


# 20 - Al & Aja's Ocean, Sky, Trees & Grass


#13 Lizz's "Warm & Handsome" Apartment


#1 - Tyler's Color Fueling Station


#14 - Sarah's Signature Secret Weapon


#8- Tricia's Dressed-up Palette

#7 - Mod Diva's Pug-A-Licious Pad


Honorable Mention:


#4 - Irena's Happy Vibe

*If you read the comments on the site, beware. There have been some very negative and rude commentators that have invaded the normally helpful community.

WOW That is Color!

Latin living room
Originally uploaded by lsaspacey.

What a great use of color, right?

The 2nd Annual Fall Colors contest at Apartment Therapy has just begun. Check it out.

How could I forget?

I forgot to update on who won the Smallest, Coolest Apartment contest, but if you are an avid reader of their site, you already know and if you are not, you only know about the ones that I wrote about and linked to here. So, from my list, James & Margaret's Iconic Studio, Jane and Darko's Cozy Thicket, Jenny and Clove's LAish Pad, Greg and Em's Silverlake Sanctuary, and Shauna's More Dash than Cash And from those, Jane and Darko won third place, and Jenny and Clove actually tied for first place with David & Im's Onespace. Now I like the Onespace, but when I wrote my earlier list I was writing about my personal favs and I did not get a feeling of home from this place. But in terms of the contest rules, it fulfilled what the judges were looking for. Can someone explain to me, why if there is a tie for made it to the finals. (If you check the links you can see a slideshow with additional photos from each.) FIRST place, why does it then skip to THIRD place. Why must the person placing after them have to take home a third place ribbon, or the bronze medal. "Oh, yes I won third place. Oh no, that's it, they both get the gold, I get the bronze, and they save the silver one for next year." How unfair is that? It makes no sense. So Jane & Darko, in my opinion, congratulations on your SECOND PLACE win!!!