apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Pricey? Yes. Unnecessary, yup. Likely to bring a smile amongst your neighbors as you take out the trash on collection day? Almost guaranteed. Happy Sacks offers two Wieden + Kennedy designed bags: a dessert themed Christmas pudding and our favourite, goldfish in a bag...

Growing up in Southern California, there's a good probability you'd grow up either surfing and/or skating. Living miles away from the beach, but in a suburban hood with plenty of flood control embankments and smooth sidewalks meant my younger Aquanet coiffed hair and baggy Vision Street Wear fashioned self was one of those !%#$ skaters. I've always retained a admiration for the lifestyle, especially the aesthetics. Thus, I quite like these skate, surf and Southern California coast-themed rooms...

We realized it had been awhile since we last checked our Apartment Therapy Los Angeles Flickr pool, a way for active Flickr users to easily share their images with both us and our readers. What we've always loved about spaces shared in our pool is the abundance of colour, from subtle pastels to strong primary hues. We thought we'd share ten of our favourite images this evening from the most recent uploads...

Q: My husband and I recently bought and moved into a house. I have to choose the curtains for the living room, but I am not sure which is the best option…it has high ceilings. Please does anyone who lives with high ceilings have recommendations/sources for curtains for windows like mine?

Sent by Andrea

Name: Lezlee & Kirk
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Size: 2,100 square feet
Years lived in: 11 years

Many of you should recognize the image above, as Lezlee's art filled home was amongst the most memorable and vibrant of our Room for Color entries hailing from the Southwest. We're following up with a detailed look inside a home whose eclectic and bold character is evident inside and out...a home whose owners renovated and revived a worn 1950's home into an eyecatching ode to the "Southwest, its sunsets, sunrises, and native cultures"...

Our bedding had seen better days. A few years back our younger and rowdier felines tore up our duvet, thanks to their razor sharp claws, and we never got around to replacing it. But recently we decided to update our bedding by adding a duvet, since the two troublemakers have simmered down (mostly). We turned to our penchant for doing everything online using a service that gives customers the ability to customize their patterns to match their decor...

Q: We recently bought the sofa and chair as we began to settle into our new place slowly upgrading things from several college-based households as we were able, and then lo, I found out I was pregnant before I could find the perfect coffee table. Behold, my first purchased furniture ever! A maple mission-style coffee table…

THIS WEEK
• Blueprint Parking Lot Sale
• Silver Lake Art Crawl
• MAK Day
• CHAIRS for CHAIRity
• Happy's Anniversary Party
• Woven Accents Rug Sale
• The Contemporary Crafts Market
• Artemide & Rezek Lighting Sale
• Michael, Kevin and Geoff Exhibit
• Blog Out Loud + DWR
• The Container Store Free Gift Wrap & Bow Demonstrations

Jump below for more information...

As a child of middle class suburbia, the tract home defined our perception of home and a house. But even in our youth we noted that although the Smiths may have occupied a similarly designed tract design as the Chungs a few houses down, the residences would undoubtedly be decorated/landscaped in a very different manner. This is especially so in more established tract neighborhoods like our very own childhood hood of the Valley, where homes varied wildly despite sharing the same floorplan...

I recently bought this cart, which I love. My plan is to use it as a bar. But midway through setting up, I thought to test the paint for lead, and got a faint positive. Since I'm expecting a baby, lead and lead dust are a concern. I could just stick the cart away until he's grown, but I'm hoping that instead someone in the Apartment Therapy LA community will have a solution. Can I varnish the cart? Any ideas would be really appreciated.

Name: Streamhouse
Size: 2,100 square feet
Location: Nichols Canyon, Hollywood Hills

There's a plenty to admire and be inspired by within the walls of this Hollywood Hills home's tasteful interior: the neutral/natural colour palette, the Parsons-style end tables, the antique Florence Knoll desk, a Blackman Cruz Mantis chair, and a cozy corner library situated by a 3-sided fireplace that seems to beckon us. But it was sight of an architectural feature of an all glass floor view of the stream that runs below that blew our mind…

Q: Our long-time tenant is moving out of our rental house and a fresh coat of paint is in order. The current color scheme is pale gray walls, dark gray trim, and white ceiling and cabinetry. Personally, though I love gray, I find this particular combination to be a bit drab.  However, I can't make up my mind about new colors! These are my criteria…

This year we're playing the part of nonbelievers of the Great Pumpkin (sorry Linus) and escaping the hubbub of Halloween festivities for the peace and quiet of the desert for an architectural destination. It's not that we dislike Halloween at all; we grew up in the suburbs where Halloween was greeted with a passionate revelry and a community spirit that always made the night a good, if not a cavity inducing one. We still love seeing front door decorations all around Los Angeles...