Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan

So many ideas! So many cool rooms! So many clever adaptations! I found myself looking around my house at all the cruff* I've accumulated over the years and thinking about how to organize and rearrange and, to use their term, edit my belongings. Why not just take pictures of some of the things I love but don't really use - make a beautiful album - and sell or give away or donate these belongings that are weighing me down. I'd be a better person and have a nicer home for it.
Oh, turn away, show more turn away, before it's too late and you find yourself living in 600 square feet and wondering how you can pare down from there. This is the stuff of dreams, on a newer and more responsible level. It's not house pron, but it's close - call it Architectural Digest for the rest of us.
Beautifully photographed, interesting explanations, a web site for updates, and an infectious enthusiasm for the subjects and their homes. What's not to like?
I'll be reading and thinking about this design book for years to come.
*cruff: crap and stuff show less

Ever since someone introduced me to the website, I've been a fan of the tips, photos, personal stories and solutions featured on the site. The first book, Apartment Therapy, was a neat compilation of selected apartments highlighting individual features in each residence . This book takes that format but has additional tips for decor and organization for small, some tiny, spaces. Even though some of the furniture/fixtures cannot be easily purchased (i.e. where I live in central BC), many of show more the apartment owners/renters found their goods uses at markets, Craigslist, recycling stores. This book has lots of ideas, lots of photos, and a room-by-room organization that makes sense. A plus is the compact size for a hardcover design book. I am a fan and believer of the lifestyle "therapy" that Gillingham-Ryan preaches and am working on de-cluttering and streamlining our small place likewise. show less

Great idea for a book, web site and seasonal phenomenon. I heard about Apartment Therapy from a friend who was doing the Fall Cure, and it was perfect timing since I had just moved into a new apartment and after the first rush of buying furniture, got kind of stuck. I'm not going to follow every step (flowers - ick) but I now have some useful ideas to move forward.

This book was full of a lot of wonderful inspiration and great ideas.

The only thing I was annoyed with was that they didn't have a single standard apartment or condo sized balcony in their outdoor spaces section (despite having both well represented in the other sections). I would have loved some outdoor inspiration at my scale.