apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I vote for the obnoxious Italian design student who slammed several entrants (including mine) in the color contest to be one of the finalist judges. You still out there, ragazzo?

I vote for some kind of a combination. Would that be possible?

blend the two scores, but have them scored separately if possible. this will be difficult for the judges but it will keep the scores independent of each other.

i thought the color contest was a little too fan favorite...

Hmmm, popular vote or electoral college... Isn't this how we ended up with Bush in the first place?

Oh, noooo! I'm not ready yet!

There are small apartments, and then there are SMALL apartments. A proposal: Maybe this time, separate entrants into categories, such as: Small (under 600 sf), tiny (under 450 sf), and micro (under 300)? I remember there were lots of would-be entrants last time who were just a teeny bit above the 500 sf cutoff and bemoaned the fact. I'd love to see some of them -- and by national standards, 600 sf is still pretty darn small. (Witness the HGTV show "Small Spaces, Big Style" -- some of those apartments look positively gargantuan to me!) It would also mean that the truly nano-sized spaces wouldn't have the pressure of competing with apartments twice their size.

I agree with carson all the way. I'd also add that it would be nice to see what people can do within the confines of a lease. Not being able to tear down walls or replace appliances or even paint can be a real limitation when acheiving a design vision, and yet I'm sure many of us still manage to do some amazing things; just not things that can compete with those who own.

I second Carson's suggestion!

Holly, as a fellow renter, I enthusiastically second your notion. I wonder how many of the folks who visit AT own vs. rent -- Maxwell, do you have any idea?

I know of an annual garden contest which is similarly structured and works well with that combo of pre-judging followed by the real thing. It can be helpful to give specific guidelines or criteria to the judges, insuring that the original spirit of the contest is kept in mind.

How about a reader's choice award separate, and judges for the contest? And how about a Miss Congeniality - or other subcategories - that suggest themselves as we see the entrants?
I dislike how freaky people get with the voting, getting their offices or email lists to vote, or sicking Italian design students on Enrique
(eh? how did I miss that episode??)

Holly--
Many entrants in the first Smallest Coolest were renters.

I was really disenchanted with the color contest, and disappointed by its outcome, and I said why at the time, and blah blah blah. Nobody needs to hear it again.

The last time this question was asked, which I think was right after the contest, I said that I thought that judges should decide the finalists, and then We Kids should get to vote from there (a token system so that only ppl who actually read the site regularly would be cool, but probably too much of a pain in the butt to implement). I'm not so sure about that anymore.

What I now think would be cool would be to have a portion of the contest, and a prize, set up for "readers' choice" - that is, the best of both worlds. The judges would decide first, second, and third place, but the readers would get to give a special prize. The other idea would be the opposite - readers decide the top three winners, but there is a special "judges' choice" award.

Personally - to the people who would be judging - have you been disappointed with any of the outcomes of past contests? (May be better not to answer that, or if so, not to say which.) I was disappointed in the outcome of the color contest, but it was at least a nice room done by a talented person. If you haven't been disappointed, then maybe minimal judging is in order (either none at all, or selecting the top few entries and then allowing the public to vote on them). I think the implication of adding a judging panel is that someone on the admin level disliked the outcome of some past contest, even though it's probably more a bow to pressure from regulars who felt that the voting system was kind of gamed in the Color Contest.

Man I'm sleepy - I thought I deleted that first paragraph (cos I incorporated it later, see). Sorry.

Incidentally, I checked out an arty book on "Small Spaces" today. The apartment in the books (yes, I just typed "books in the apartment" - see, tired!) are genuinely mostly pretty small, but also pretty posh. Like, "that place must cost at least 25% more than the average 270-sq-ft apartment." More on that another time.

apartments. in. the. book.
just one book. multiple apartments therein.

*triple* post.

bed. now.

(*sheepish*)

miranda's right. Two awards. "Best" as judged by the judges, and "Reader's Choice" as judged by us.

Sounds good to me.

I think having judges decide the winners plus a readers' choice award sounds like a great idea. It is the best of both worlds.

Patrick where have you been lately?

love the reader's choice idea, with the first, second, and third place prizes decided by judges. i agree w/ miranda - the voting in the color contest left me completely disenchanted! on another note - wouldn't everybody just *love* to see the obnoxious italian design student's apartment?

I think the SMALL, TINY, MICRO breakdown of the contest is a great idea... and would allow for more entries and even more finalists and three winners- which would be more fun for all. The more the merrier.

-Kellen

I agree with having voters narrow entries down, have judges decide who wins and have a reader's choice award too.

My apartment is 539 sq.ft. by my count, and so I didn't enter the Smallest Coolest contest for the twin reasons that: 1) although it's a studio apartment, it's about twice the size of my previous one, and therefore didn't even feel small to ME and 2) I literally thought it was too big. Seems like 500 sq.ft. WAS the limit, so I think I was correct. So I entered the color contest.

OK... yeah, I think that something has to be different, but I really like the idea of different size divisions. However, if I recall correctly, LAST year the prizes were what? A cap? A T-shirt?

The I've Got Color Contest prizes were pretty serious and that's probably partly why there were so many contestants AND why the "campaigning" got so brutal. There is no question that it was exciting though, and I did enjoy getting my Petal soap runner-up prize.

If there really aren't that many contestants, the divisions will seem a little silly, though. And how can you know until you start it?

I'm not sure what the exact role of judges and readers should be, but I think there needs to be some kind of open vote at the end as it really creates a lot of excitement. Admit it, how many of you were refreshing your browser constantly as the deadline was looming?

If the prizes are small then reader's should vote all the way. But if the prizes are at all good, as shown by the Color contest, to avoid entrants getting their little sister's entire school and the like to vote for them, I think it would be better for judges to vote on the top three. A separate reader's vote with a smaller prize should limit "campaigning".

Related to Curtis' comment... The Petal NY gift basket was great! I've completely used up the bath salts, made it halfway through the bar of Green Tea soap, burned through 1/3 of the soy candle, and use the boar bristle brush almost everyday! So, yes, it's time for me to reorder products from them. Shout-out to Petal NY. The soap gods have been kind to them; and the quality of their product shows!

Aloha, How do I read all the info re the "smallest coolest" apartment? Too late to enter? I've got the winning digs.... Mahalo!