Apartment Therapy Archive: Jul 2013

1. Food Tip: 2. Transportationonline fuel calculator Tip:UberLyft 3. Phone Tip:Truphone 4. InternetTip: 5. Activities 6. Fees Tip:Global ATM Alliance 7. Exchange Rates 8. Misc Service ChargesCape Town Tip:9. Souvenirs Want to calculate everything listed above and more without creating your own spreadsheet?

Montreal, is a middle ground between European and North American cultures. A place where many traditions meet, arts and design evolve, and the city boils with people converging and creating.See:• Habitat 67: Built in 1967 for the World Expo, it is a revolutionary housing concept for urban families.• Canadian Center for Architecture: International research center and museum, the CCA has exhibitions, as well as an education center.

These days, all I want to put on my body is breezy, light linen, so when I went home last night to lounge on my wool sofa, it seemed a little counterproductive to my quest to be cooler. Since I’m not exactly keen to replace my furnishings every time the weather does a 15° swing, I stumbled upon an idea that was as easy as changing my clothes. Solution? A Slipcover! Don’t be afraid.

名称:阿什利地点:西部小镇;芝加哥,IllinoisSize: 1,800 square feetYears lived in: 2 years; RentedAshley had quite a project on her hands. She had just finished her residency, and moved out of a three-bedroom apartment that was shared by a total of four roommates. With only a handful of furniture pieces in tow, she went searching for more space, and found a former embroidery factory that had been recently renovated in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood.

We all know how hard it is to make something look more expensive than it really is, let alone transforming old furniture into decor worthy of high end, elegant spaces. But here are a series of projects that do just that, turning salvaged finds into fancy pieces, with the help of luxurious faux finishes. TOP ROWShagreenA Mere LifeAgateGorgeous Shiny Things 3. MarblePoppytalk 4. MalachiteLittle Green Notebook 5. SnakeskinRecently BOTTOM ROWFurStyle At HomeBoneThe Vintique Object 8.

There are Paris brocantes (roving flea markets selling second-hand goods) in every season except summer. The biannual Salon Antiquites Brocante at the Place de la Bastille, which opens today and runs through May 18, is one of the biggest, with furniture and objects from the 12th to the 20th centuries in 350 stands set up along the Seine. Once a budget alternative to overpriced Clingnancourt and Paris antique stores, the brocantes have gotten more expensive over the years.

Name: Andi Forker and Dean Enell Location: Alamo Square; San Francisco, California Size: 1,250 square feet Years lived in: 3 years; owned We followed their Renovation Diary as Andi and Dean fully gutted and remodeled their kitchen, but now the improvements have extended throughout their entire home. For this couple, the past three years have been spent fixing up their Victorian flat, room by room. With most of their major goals accomplished, they have an amazing space to show for it.

thatBuying a house on a busy street let my husband and I live in an area we otherwise couldn’t afford. We are only a few blocks from the heart of the neighborhood, which means loads of walkable options for food, shopping, etc. We enjoy beautiful views of the mountains when we walk our pup on clear days. And it’s easy to get to downtown by car or bus.But what about all that racket, you ask? You get used to it, I swear.

Getting Around and AccommodationsLeft: Portland Transit – Right: Portland Offline Travel GuidePortland Transit – AndroidIf we can make a recommendation while visiting Portland: ditch the car and get across from point A to B via Portland Transit. You’ll see so much more and experience the city in a more close-up and personal manner.

Variety may be the spice of life, but stocking a selection of tech cases for every need, mood, or outfit can be expensive. Instead of buying fashionable accessories for essential gear, why not make your own statement sleeves for a laptop, phone or tablet? The following 8 projects allow for endless possibilities of fashionable customization for anyone, all without the need for any sewing skills!

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)From The Kitchn→ 12 Creative S’mores for a Party

Name: Liz Location: Fairview neighborhood – Phoenix, Arizona Our 1926 Sears Craftsman home arrived in numbered pieces from a train, and was assembled on-site by its owner. It is the oldest home in our neighborhood with the next being built nearly two years later. The original wood floors, original doors and hardware all make for a very special place to call our home.

Name: Misha Blaise and Nick Blaise Koch Location: Austin, Texas Size: 1,600 square feet Years lived in: 3 years; Owned Keeping cool in Austin can be a work of art all in itself. And creating a work of art is precisely what Misha and Nick Blaise have done — applying inspiration gleaned from their travels to Israel to remodeling a 1955 fixer-upper.

Listen up color-phobes, neutrals don’t have to be boring. Instead of layering color and pattern, you can just as easily work with neutral shades and layer textures instead. Try it with one (or more) of these ten textures. Fur — The fluffy stuff is genius at adding interest to flat furniture. Animal lover? Go faux. Woodgrain — Trees are all texture! Wainscoting — White walls get dimensional with the addition of wainscoting. Also try: beadboard.

How many times have you returned home from a fantastic vacation, only to hear yourself telling someone that you’re so exhausted you need another one to recover? The pace of modern life is making it increasingly difficult for us to switch off, and time away from home can end up being just as stressful, albeit more fun, than our everyday lives. Read on for some tips on how to really unwind on your vacation.

A port city with a complex history and cultural heritage, New Orleans is coming back from catastrophe as a 21st century boomtown. With a vibrant art scene, stunning architecture, world class food, and amazing music, the city is its own ecosystem, or maybe even its own planet (that’s definitely what it felt like for me growing up there). Visitors fall hard for the Crescent City and keep coming back for more.

For some of us there’s no place like home, but for others wanderlust reigns supreme. Naturally the latter want to pass on their love of travel to their little ones, and what better place to start than where they’ll be spending much of their first few years of life – the nursery.

Name: Arthur Garcia-Clemente & Kristin Over Location: Printer’s Row, Chicago, Illinois Size: 1,200 square feet Years lived in: 3 years; Rented When two interior designers move in together for the first time, to a loft space with only a few walls and even fewer enclosed rooms, the chances for design conflict run high.

If you’re a design lover, I can’t imagine a better destination than Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is a hotbed of creative folk who open (and sadly, close) amazing businesses, left and right. If by any chance you’re in the neighborhood, looking for a memorable, and eye-catching spot to see, make sure to make a stop at some of my suggestions below. And make sure to add your suggestions in the comments!

The key to being a great host is anticipating your guests’ needs. I always make sure to have three things ready before the arrival of guests: clean sheets, plenty of snacks, and my wi-fi password written down on a notepad in the guest room. The latter is a modern day convenience any host should graciously offer to overnight guests and it turns out there’s an even easier (and more secure) way to make guests feel at-home and connected.

Florence has it all: history, culture, art and food. The medieval centro storico is crammed full of imposing Romanesque palazzos, ornate churches clad in green and white marble, historic piazzas, cobbled streets, and beautiful bridges. The city’s museums house some of the most extensive Renaissance art and sculpture collections in the world. Modern day Florence is also an important center for fashion.

Although my family and I long dropped the landline as soon as we each switched to a cell phone, we still have cable. And I would have cut the cable cord years ago, except it would mean losing access to live sports broadcasts. Almost everything you see on TV today is available online, except sports… I don’t know enough about the politics of cable networks, sports leagues and franchises to explain why sports continues to be the Achilles’ heel of online programming content.

If you’re planning a vacation to the Lone Star State, you will have about a billion hotels to choose from. Texas is a big place. But if you’re looking for something more than just a place to lay your head, something a little off the beaten path, look no further than this guide to some of Texas’ most unique hotels. 1.

It’s true, our winters are long, and yes, the Cubs are terrible, and ok, maybe our mayor dances like this to Robin Thicke, but Chicago is also one of the most fascinating cities you’ll ever meet. It’s a city rich in culture, with a vibrant art and design scene, stunning architecture, fabulous cuisine, and historic, walkable neighborhoods. Chicago has its quirks, but it’s also an easy place to love. See: The Art Institute of Chicago.

总有一天,总有一天,我想可以an extra day off after I return from a trip. Sadly, vacation days are usually hard-won and vacation pay is often non-existent, so any days I’m off work have been devoted to spending time with faraway friends and family.

Name: Irina (and Lummi) Location: South Loop; Chicago, Illinois Size: 975 square feet Years lived in: 1 year; owned Coleridge, influenced by an opium-induced dream, wrote of “a stately pleasure-dome” that Kubla Khan established in Xanadu. In this space, verdant gardens mingled with caves of ice, and the sweet scent of incense floated above the sun-dappled hills, inspiring “deep delight.

Name: Gemma (4 months) Location: Atlanta, Georgia We wanted something that wasn’t too cutesy, and we wanted a wall color and furniture that were gender neutral so we can reuse the room and just change out accessories if we have a boy in the future. The concept for the room came from my obsession with the baby animal photos from Sharon Montrose’s Animal Print Shop. I wish I had an excuse to buy more of them!

1. Communicate. 2. Say yes. 3. Tiny goals.

On those unbearably hot days I really need to turn on our apartment’s window air conditioner I’m certainly thankful I installed it. But for the majority of the year the air conditioner is an unsightly presence, blocking a third of the view looking outside our windows and keeping desirable light from entering…A Brooklyn designer decided it was time to give eyesore window air conditioners a visual makeover.

From The Kitchn→ 15 Food Instagram Accounts You Should Follow

Materials: Any deep photo frame smaller than 8.

Name: Alysia Sebastiani Location: Duboce Triangle, San Francisco Size: 800 square feet Years lived in: 1.5 years; Rented I’m going to keep this intro short because I think the photos of Alysia’s home and her story behind it speak for themselves. But I will say this is probably my favorite tour yet.

The ‘before’ version of Marie Clare and Peter’s Park Slope townhouse was not without its charm. Marie Clare and Peter fell in love with the house, but had a few changes in mind to make the space lighter, more open, and the perfect home for their small family. To find the perfect contractor for their project, Marie Clare and Peter turned to The Sweeten, a NYC-area resource that connects homeowners to architects, designers and contractors.

如果你准备装修,你可能thinking about how you’ll budget for new purchases. My parents definitely are…My parents are transitioning into a new house, and mom adamantly wants it to have a different and more modern feel. She’s starting the redecorating in the living room and has saved up and set her budget at about $2,500. It is a lot of money — except when you think about how much quality new sofas and armchairs cost.

Name: Virginia Arrisueño of DeNada designs, Kelly Towles, and son AtticusLocation: Washington, DCSize: 1200 square feetYears lived in: 2 years; Rented Virginia Arrisueño and her husband Kelly Towles are excellent representatives of DC artistic cool and ingenuity.

After two years of being bored with the oak piano in the living room, Monica of East Coast Creative decided to take matters into her own hands and give the piano and bench a colorful overhaul that better matched her bright and eclectic taste — and the style of the adjoining dining room.It’s green! She used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, which goes onto wood and other surfaces without the need for sanding or priming, saving tons of time and headaches for DIY’ers.

Traveling with babies and toddlers can seem incredibly daunting, but luckily there are a lot of great products on the market today to make the journey go smoother. From safety to entertainment to sleep, there’s a gadget for just about every aspect of your trip. 1. Staying at a hotel, relative, or friend’s house and worried about childproofing for your little one? Enter the Travel Tot kit – everything you need to childproof a space, and it all comes off cleanly.2.

I did come across one product, the Versa Spray, but it seems to receive terrible reviews on every website that sells it (apparently its hard plastic faucet-adapter doesn’t fit or grip well enough to be useful). Certainly there must be something else out there that I’m not aware of! I am hoping that there are renters out there in a similar situation that might have a good product suggestion or creative McGyver-type solution that might help us out. Thanks very much!

When I moved to London, I happened to see an episode of Oprah that proclaimed Copenhagen to be the happiest city in the world. The next chance I got to go on vacation, I had to see the happiest city on Earth for myself. I discovered how the people of Copenhagen happily cycle around the city, rain or shine. With canals that run through the city and colorful building facades, there’s always a nice view to look at.

(Image credit: Emma Christensen)From The Kitchn→ How To Shuck Corn Quickly Cleanly

名称:凯瑟琳·布鲁克斯,格奥尔基IvanovLocation:Humboldt Park; Chicago, ILSize: 900 square feetYears lived in: 2 years; rented Catherine Brooks and Georgi Ivanov met in 2010 in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. They moved to Chicago in 2011 and married in their home in 2013. CASA VEDA, as they call their home, is also Catherine’s creative wellness project.

When I was a kid, I had an enormous chest of my mom’s old prom dresses that I used for dress up. With two boys of my own, I don’t really have a lot of hand-me-down clothes that I can give them for pretend play. Over the years I’ve been collecting various items: hats, capes, arm bands, and pieces of Halloween costumes. But I decided to fill up their dress up bin, so I need to get creative and pull together some things on my own.

The 1930’s apartment I live in could be best described as “drafty”, with a noticeable amount of warm and cool air (including the dust it brings in) fluctuating throughout the days and seasons.