apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We're off on a travel adventure, visiting a loved one who's spending some time in France. We'll be staying with him and his host family and we've been racking our brain for gift ideas. We've already grabbed a few of our favorite soaps (local goods!) but it got us thinking...

Over the past year, we've shared some of our backyard projects with you. They've been large-scale projects and smaller weekend projects but we have one on the list that will be our true pièce de résistance. We've been slowly collecting inspiration swipes from books and magazines, wood from Craigslist and old windows from UrbanOre. Why? Well, to build a treehouse....of course! The above photo is our top inspiration of the moment (look at the rope bridges!). Jump below for a link to some videos about the architect, Peter Bahouth, and his treehouse for grownups....

Lookie, lookie what we found whilst stocking up on toilet paper and tissue browsing the aisles at Target. Like everyone else out there, we're doing our darndest to cut back on any unnecessary purchases, but these colorful wares were in the bargain-aisle at the front of the store (and yes, we know the bargain aisle is a complete and total trap)...

Mara's old dresser, jump below to see the replacement

It always tickles our matchmaker funny-bones when we hear about a reader scoring big-time with pieces featured in our AT classifieds. But you know what makes us just flat-out beam? When the intense reader-scavenger-love works out in magical ways. Ms. Mara searched for eons for the perfect dresser (as her former roommate, we can attest to the validity of this statement). Enter reader Daisy and her recently revamped closet...

We were excited to peek inside ReadyMade's annual "Small Spaces" issue and as usual, it didn't disappoint. In fact, when we happened upon the feature article showing off "three abodes where living small doesn’t mean living without", we jumped for joy and then tucked in to the first portion of the article featuring none other than one of our very own House Tour favorites (and written by Ms. Anh-Minh Le!): Monique and Richard from back in February!

The first time we donned a headlamp was during a camping trip. A kind co-worker gave us a Petzl for a gift and we thanked them and thought, "headlamp=total dork". And then we found out how important the two-hand rule is when carrying boiling hot water around your campsite in the total dark. Or when reaching in to dark corners in the basement. Or for fumbling for keys on the ground when you forgot to leave the porchlight on. Now our headlamp lives on our bedside table when it's not stashed in our purse or strapped to our forehead...

You all remember where we left off with our pie-window adventure? The above photo shows the old doorway on the left (with the green bathroom visible) and the ex-pie window/new doorway on the right (kitchen visible with paneling pre-makeover). Now let's take a jump below and see what became of our labors...

Yes, we promised to show off our "after" shots today, but for the sake of following our own suggestion to photograph your home in natural daylight (and seeing as how we've been night-owls as of late), we'll be back with part 2 later this week. In the meantime, a reader asked what we did with the kitchen paneling so we thought we'd refresh your memories...

Before we moved in to our home, there were a few kinks we had to iron out. We generally loved the layout of our house, very open and simple. The one exception to this being the doorway from the living room in to the kitchen. From where we imagined the living room couch, the immediate view would be the bathroom. And where there should have been a door from living room to kitchen, there was a... pie window. A what?

While we really love to tackle big projects around our home, these days it's the cheap projects that top our list. We have a small area on the side of the house, leading to our basement/laundry room that turns in to a mud-pit during the winter. We've been meaning to do something before the wet weather arrives this year and when we happened upon some free concrete "screen blocks" via Craigslist, we knew we had found our next project...

Here are a few of our favorite things: fallen leaves, knit blankets, brisk afternoons and hot tea... it makes us wrinkle our nose in excitement! There's almost nothing we like better than the start of a new season, and fall is one of our favorites. So play along and let us know: how do you get ready for fall?

Call us crazy, but we're digging the look of this rock wall we stumbled upon last week. It reminds us vaguely of the Lew French mantel we posted a while back. The entire building covered in rocks is a bit much for our tastes, but we're feeling the rustic look for a small accent wall in the garden. What say you?

As the fall weather rolls in and we sadly say goodbye to the hot days of summer, we decided a summer-send-off party was in order. And what better place to say adieu than the fantastic Fentons Creamery? Good ice cream, sure... but what we really love are the nifty ice-cream parlor bistro tables, the checker-board floors and those gorgeous pendant lamps...

Name: Lisa Solomon
Location: Oakland
Size: 1800 sq. ft. total
Years lived in: 9 years

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As most all y'all know 'round these parts, we here at AT:SF are enormous fans of local artist Lisa Solomon. And as fellow Oaklanders, we're especially proud that this crafty lady and her husband call the East Bay home. Their abode is a cozy collection of mix-and-match styles, unexpected art installations and good old-fashioned DIY projects.