The Latest

If you're hard up for storage solutions, you may be looking below your sofa or your bed, or above your cabinets — but what about behind?

Working at Apartment Therapy and being on the internet all day, well, let’s just say I’ve seen my share of out there design. Much of it, though, pales in comparison to the work of Porky Hefer, a South African artist and the mastermind behind some seriously unorthodox seating. Today, Brittney came across this hanging chair—reminiscent of a gas mask—while trying to source a photo from Pinterest (a task that accounts for roughly 95 percent of our time).

It's like instantly adding more square footage without even trying.

I recently stayed in a traditional shotgun apartment in New Orleans with my partner and one of my best friends. If you aren’t familiar with the shotgun home layout, it’s typically long and narrow, and made up of rooms that are directly connected to each other, directing you through each room to get to the next. The layouts were very popular in the South (especially New Orleans), but are also common in New York and Chicago.

Last year while shopping with a friend for kitchen countertops, I saw and fell for a small piece of blue-and-white polished stone that reminded me of photos of Earth taken from space. Blue bahia granite, as I learned, is quarried in Brazil and is “legendary for its beauty” (although its “stunning blue colors can be a little hard to incorporate into a kitchen,” at least according to one site).

Color (via paint) can be a very powerful design tool, especially when used in unexpected places. While most people don’t necessarily think to paint the inside of their window frames, it can be the difference between a run-of-the-mill room and a spectacular, and memorable interior. A few “pros” to painting your window frames: It’s not as big a time/money commitment as painting your walls.

If you haven't heard of her, you've definitely seen her work.

I’ll be honest, when I got the brief for this article, I took one look at the title and thought: no way. I’ve gone on record around here as a rug-size militant, and one who believes that bigger is nearly always better. But before dismissing the idea completely, I decided to have a hunt for rooms breaking traditional rug rules and still managing to look good. Lo and behold, what I found was eye-opening to say the least.

Beyond satiating curiosity, getting to see how different people tackle the layout of homes with the same floor plan is also illuminating. Do the same people have the same design challenges? Do they use space in the same way? Does architecture have a strong affect on the furniture and accessories selected? Tirsh and Minky share a lovely North Oakland loft with their dog Arnie. As the owners of Hunter & Lew, a design studio, having a home that fosters creativity is clearly important to them.