Room of the Week

Room of the Week.
What to do with that little extra space you find in a vintage apartment in an old building or house? Make it a nook for talking or reading. This tiny creatively challenging space seats four with comfort for tea and talks. Add a cute vintage chandelier and a stack of books in the corner and you’re set.
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Image via Style Maniac

Cozy Rooms with Books

A cozy bedroom with books…what could be better? Via Alpos.com.

We heart It.com

Deep and warm. Love this cozy space for reading touched with an antique style. Diamond Hill Retreat.com.

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Great Inspiration – Books on Interior Design

Looking for great inspiration for your apartment or home interior? Then look no further than an awesome book that features great design ideas by people who know the graceful elements of design. These are often large, coffee-table books, that can become almost as important as your coffee table. They offer inspiration, ideas, thinking that’s out of the box, and make great conversation pieces or great lovely gifts for a loved one interested in design.

American Fashion Designers At Home by Assouline Books. What can be better than fashionable interior design ideas? This book features Kate Spade, Max Azria, Oscar de la Renta, Tory Burch and more.

Rooms to Inspire by Annie Kelly is a beautiful collection of interiors with great advice on stylish decorating to make your place feel like home. Annie Kelly is a well known decorator and journalist whose work has been featured in Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Vogue Living. Tim Street-Porter, her husband, is an architectural photographer. This great book is sure to inspire.

A fresh and lovely book by interior designer Victoria Hagan features soft and subtle room decor. “I glean inspiration from all areas of my life…If something stirs an idea or emotion in me, chances are it might show up in my work in some form.”- From the Preface.

Frank Roop, The New Bespoke is a dive into color and the avant-guard. A sure winner when looking for original and eclectic style options for your apartment or home.

Great Gift Idea – Home Decor and Recipe Books

Great gift idea for the young traveler full of wondrous stories of the City of Light with charming recipes to boot.  Gift priced at $23.99 This book and all others featured can be found at this Anthropologie page.  All images:Anthropologie.

I must confess, I’ve always wanted to take the challenge and make these beauties for Christmas! This book is perfect for the baker in your life, uh, the baker with a lot of patience. Authors: Kathryn Gordon and Anne E. McBride.  Great gift price at $18.00 I’m ordering one!

You know I love my vintage style, and here’s the perfect book for the creative vintage spirited person in your life.  By Emily Chalmers. Great pictures. $29.95

This book has inspiring ideas for apartments and small spaces.  By Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick.  $35.00

You will find unlimited possibilities for arranging your wall art, photography, craft projects, collections, decorative plates and more.  The ideas are endless and inspiring.  By Geraldine James  $29.95

All books can be ordered here.

Happy gift giving from Apartments I Like!

 

 

Rich Interiors

The exquisite interior design team of Laura Sartori Rimini and Roberto Peregalli are showcasing a new book, out this month at Rizzoli. Their unconventional design style is elegant and magical. Check out a few other interiors.

 

Images via Elle Decor

What Gwyneth Paltrow can’t live without…

Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-winning actress, writer, chef, and creator of the lifestyle website called Goop, shares her interesting shortlist with Elle magazine this month. I found some of the things she loves creative and inspiring.

De Gournay Hand-Painted Wallpaper.
photo: de Gournay

Charles Edwards Star Lantern
photo: Charles Edwards

Religion bookshelf.
“Built in slots hold holy books…all at the same level (which is how I like to think about religion).” ~ Gwyneth Paltrow
photo: Mike and Maoike Inc.

Cloth-bound Penguin Classics.
Cloth-bound books always look good on shelves.
photo: Penguin Classics

Keep those microwaves away from your head with style.
YUBZ Retro Handset for cellular phones. Cool idea!
photo: YUBZ

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Book Lovers, Unique Shelf Ideas for Your Apartment

As an avid book lover I once had my apartment covered in shelves, walls of shelves to store all my literary finds. (I still visit the local library’s book sale each year!) After a few years I had quite a collection and my shelves filled up. Perhaps you face the same dilemma with your own collection in your Doylestown apartment. If so, I’ve found some great creative options that I wish I’d tried in my own space, like this very unique rotating Helical Shelf unit from City Joinery.  It’s an expensive buy, but what a creative way to divide a room, or situate a shelf in a corner if you have limited space. The unit rotates so you have access to all sides and levels. It can also be adjusted to any ceiling height. Great in an office too! Custom options. Starting at $4300.  Image from City Joinery website.

Another bright idea: enclosed bookshelves in white finish. Doors keep books from getting too dusty. Found at Apartment Therapy.

Bookshelves that attach directly to the wall seem to float in space. Be sure to check with your Doylestown apartment landlord for the okay to screw these shelves into the walls.  They make quite a design statement. Creative bookends will add a nice touch. These shelves, found at Design to Inspire, have built in ends to hold books in space. Placing a shelf above the doorway to store lesser used books is a wonderful way to display them as art.

Finally….one can dream…

This amazing spiral staircase with integrated bookshelves I just had to share. Of course I realize this is hardly a design option for your Doylestown apartment, but I simply had to share.  The staircase was built into the former home of Portuguese philosopher and poet Antero de Quental. The building is now used as a literary center, with this incredible architecture as its centerpiece. More info at Dezeen.

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Creative Bookshelves

If you’re anything like me, when you move into your new apartment one of the main things you have to content with are the numerous and bicep inducing heavy boxes of books that you have to move.  And then comes the most heart stopping question:  Where will I put them?

If your new apartment doesn’t have built-in books shelves, like this one in a Soho loft, then you may face some decisions on how to design a nice space to store your books, CDs, and DVDs.  I scouted around and found some lovely options that are both creative and expressive.  A lot of shelf design options can be built yourself, if you have some wood working skills, but otherwise going for a unique shelf in your living space can work as a storage area as well as an artistic feature.

This bookshelf unit, believe it or not, is made of cardboard, as well as the following one:

I couldn’t help but be inspired by this circular design, especially with the spiral working in it. And, they are environmentally friendly. Design by Giles Miller who makes unique cardboard products.

Don’t forget to look for the unusual.  This Quasi-hexagonal bookcase is a great example of design and modern thinking.  I love the way the books kind of fall into a mad-cap arrangement in these odd shaped spaces, giving the piece a neat yet artistic feel. This bookcase was designed by Sean Yoo and is made of polypropylene – uh, the stuff that the bumper of your car is made of, which makes this book shelf quite durable and ready for action.

Shelving with a modern vibe: These Tangram Bookshelves come in 7 pieces that you can arrange in your design preference.  Bring your imagination to the table, or in this case the wall! Here, I like what looks like a cat in the upper right, and the tie figure in the lower right (blue).  The top left looks like a waiter to me… check out Like Cool for info on these shelves.

If you are planning to move into a new apartment take a peek at our Renters Corner at the top right of this blog for helpful links to pages of information that can make your move easy and stress free.  Or check our affiliate site for more apartment living and listing info.  Apartments I Like .com

Romantic Apartments…and movie sets…

The romantic settings of the hit movie Eat, Pray, Love are inspiring alone, but some of the interiors we found simply breath-taking, especially the Rome apartment which the main character lived in. This actual space was used for filming the indoor scenes.

Liz’s apartment in the heart of Rome has 20-foot-high ceilings, a cream palette, and oversize windows that draw in the light of the city. The ornate chandelier was original to the space, as was the scaffolding, which had to be written into the script. It holds up the ceiling, Liz’s landlady quips.

More spaces we found beautiful from the movie:

Top photo: Francois Duhamel
Article via: Elle Decor
Center photo: online.wsj.com
Bottom: LA Times blogs