Get Cozy With Posie at Apartment Therapy

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Feb 15

What makes Apartment Therapy stand out, is their major community vibe and all those frequent home tours, don't you think? I absolutely love how they focus on real spaces and so many of their readers jump right in to be featured.

Sometimes though, I look at spaces people sing the praises over, and think of how cold they feel. It seems like so many of us are buying things we see on blogs or that our friends like, that we're forgetting to cherish what we already have and just mix stuff in. Some homes are starting to look like people had no real history in them, like they just gutted and did a fresh slate makeover.

What do you think about this approach? Dumping the past and starting from scratch?

I think it's almost like some dwellers survived a fire, their home burnt to the foundation and they were forced to start anew. You can look at their pad and pick out everything you see, crediting it to this or that store, or as something you've spotted a hundred times already in blogsville. Unless you are 18, you shouldn't feel like you have to start from scratch. Look at Domino magazine as a perfect example. What makes the homes featured in their pages so envied? They feature real homes that were built over time. It's a good lesson for us, decorating shouldn't be an overnight process.

Here Alicia, aka Posie, papered her closet door. Sweet.

Take a refreshing step back and look at the fabulous slideshow of Alicia's home over at Apartment Therapy SF. Even though it may not be the look some of you prefer, there is a lot to learn from Posie. Collect. Build. Blend in.

Alicia's serene dining space.

Make decorating fun, not some stressful gottagetitdonein6months kind of thing. There's no hurry, but if you make it into one, the result will not fully satisfy you. You'll constantly second-guess your choices, after spending loads of cash and tons o' time. Build your nest from many resources, tap into tag sales and antiques stores. The most beautiful homes sometimes took 5-10 years to get that way. Unless you plan to die soon, no hurry!