Apartment Therapy Submissions

"The stylist in me wants everything to be beautiful, but the mom in me wants everything to be functional and practical, too."

After spending years in rental homes that had to be neutral, Maggie Overby isn't holding back in this her forever home. She's adding lots of layers of pattern, color, and DIYs.

A few words to describe this one-bedroom apartment? Maximalist, Eclectic, Graphic, and Neon. And the best part is that all of the added details are renter-friendly. (You've probably never seen such creative uses for washi tape or such colorful cabinet upcycles!)

Interior designer Catherine Armstrong lives in Byron Bay and recently completed an inspiring full renovation of the home she shares with her family.

Designer Jackie Streusand has created a vintage, earthy, warm, and eclectic home in this rental house.

Now I want all my rooms this color.

Project by: Meena Location: Ashbury Heights — San Francisco, California This converted bedroom project comes from first-time parents who recently bought a house in San Francisco. After spending nearly 10 years on the East Coast, they returned back home to the Bay Area to raise their daughter. The family moved in the home when the baby was just two weeks old, so needless to say it was an exhausting and whirlwind experience.

Meera knew she was going to have to get extremely crafty with her son’s new room. The previous owners had made some questionable (and potentially dangerous) choices that needed to be fixed immediately, and Meera was able to do so with some very cool DIYs and brilliant money-saving fixes. From Meera: The walls and ceilings were covered in poorly-hung textured wallpaper and the room was a DIY mess.

When Jessica and her husband moved into their home they knew that they would need to do some serious updating. They took off the Beetlejuice wallpaper in their guest room and when it came time to turn it into a nursery they decided to go full fun. A little bit of Memphis, a sprinkling of Facts of Life, a dash of FAO Schwartz and you have a super cute, very unique nursery.

Name: The Three Amigos (3 year old, and twin 5 year olds) Location: Vancouver, Canada After Melissa snatched up a pretty cute playhouse from Costco, she started dreaming up an adorable upgrade. Life got in the way, as it so often does, so it took awhile for the playhouse to get an upgrade. Combine one weekend, a super creative mom, white paint and elbow grease and you get the kind of playhouse that childhood dreams are made of.

Sarah and Tom Godfrey rented their small two-bedroom Victorian terrace house in a village in Nottinghamshire, England, for two years when their landlord decided to sell the house. Sarah was expecting her second child at the time, and although they thought the house was too small for a family of four, the couple knew it had potential. “Having lived in the historical village for two years we knew it was a special place to be,” says Sarah.

Name: Jean Ross, husband, Craig, two boys, Bowie and Rhys, and a Frenchie, Hawkins (aka Toots)Location: Cobourg, OntarioType of home: Coach houseSize: 3,000 square feetYears lived in: 1 month, ownedTell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: We just moved to a small town in Southern Ontario from Toronto a month ago! We had been looking for houses outside the city for years and couldn’t find the right one. We wanted something different and unique.

Name: Melanie and David Raver, three young girls ages 10, 6, and 5. And one furry black German Shepherd! Location: We live everywhere! Size: 200 square feetType of Home: 1973 Airstream ArgosyYears lived in: 3.5 months, ownedCurrently traveling from the California coast to the East Coast, Melanie and David and their three daughters have been a lot of places in their 200-square-foot 1973 Airstream Argosy. Exclaims Melanie, “We are having a BLAST making each new place we stop at our home!

Names: Angela Wator, owner/designer of BASH Party Goods, and owner of Festive Collective, and Jeramy Webb, and their daughters Penelope, age 5, and Ramona, age 2. And Bogie, the family’s 10-year-old bulldogLocation: Oak Park, Illinois Angela Wator and Jeramy Webb weren’t planning to buy a home when they stumbled across an 1896 Victorian outside of Chicago where they live. (Amazingly they each found independently while daydreaming on Zillow and emailed the listing to one another!