apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am so excited about our very first product line, David Stark for West Elm, and it’s is in the stores right now! During the holiday season, folks with the most refined taste often lose their heads and douse themselves in green and red glitz. That’s because there are few other modern options to deck their halls with — but my holiday collection offers a cool solution to that quandary, mixing naturals with metallics and using an array of recycled and repurposed materials to create special items that can be used in multiple ways.

Here at David Stark Design, we’re always thinking of ways to re-use discarded objects or to see everyday, humble items in a new light. One such flash of inspiration came this summer as we scouted for a wedding in Maine...

For times when you don't feel like dealing with all the goop, or just as an extra bit of spookiness...

• Donations: $3,514
• Goal: $10,000
• Donors: 40

We've teamed up with DonorsChoose.org and other blogs for the month of October and we're asking you to help us buy classroom supplies for public schools. Check out our Giving Page and help students learn about plants and plant functions: Going Green for Green Things ($444 needed)

• Donations: $1,991
• Goal: $10,000
• Donors: 130

We've teamed up with DonorsChoose.org and other blogs for the month of October and we're asking you to help us buy classroom supplies for public schools. Check out our Giving Page and help students learn about plants and plant functions: Going Green for Green Things ($489 needed)

Let's now tackle the issue of green upholstery. Without naming names, there are companies out there claiming they specialize in and sell “green” upholstered furniture using natural, non-toxic and biodegradable materials offered at the same price as mass-produced companies. This is totally untrue and misleading. The reality is that the products and materials currently available for doing green upholstery are minimal and exorbitantly expensive...

An example of 8-way hand-tied springs

True upholstery ateliers —or as they are more commonly known, upholstery studios— consist of a wide range of services. They normally offer everything from soft goods (i.e. draperies, shades, pillows, window cushions, bedding slip covers) to hard goods (i.e. reupholstery of all styles of furniture, sofas, chairs, ottomans, modern and antique, upholstered headboards, wall upholstery and custom built projects). In a nutshell, an upholstery atelier should be versed in anything to do with fabric and your home, excluding clothing...

Having something upholstered or custom-made is a complex endeavor — and for most people it is a world that is unknown. Taking your sofa in to be reupholstered is similar to taking your car to the mechanic: your car needs a tune up and the mechanic tells you “this needs tightening, that needs fixing and this needs overhauling” and you stare back at him or her and blankly say “OK” because you have no idea about the inner workings of the car that you drive every single day. You probably sit on your sofa every day and do not really know what is on the inside that makes it so comfy (or not so comfy)...

I’ve always said if you can only invest money in one room of the house — or, in this case, one section of the studio — pick the bedroom. It’s where we theoretically spend 1/3 of our life sleeping, so it makes sense to get the healthiest, greenest and most comfy components for a restful sleep. When you skimp on bedding, your body feels it. So for Part 3 of this $500 makeover, I decided to invest about $300 in the bedroom with some surprising results...

When you find a very reasonably priced studio apartment in Manhattan, two things come to mind: it’s either rent-controlled and you’ve struck gold or there’s something wrong with it. While this small studio had nothing glaringly wrong with it, the tiny bathroom did suffer from a lack of ventilation to let the morning steamy shower vent anywhere. Since this was not a gut renovation job, I had to think of Plan B in dealing with this ventilation issue...

Having remodeled about a dozen homes and produced/styled close to 100 home stories for magazines, I may have met my match recently with a tiny studio apartment in Hell's Kitchen. In the past, when I do a before-and-after makeover on someone’s home, it’s usually with a limitless budget and a team of stylists and assistants pinning, painting and primping a home from dull to magazine-worthy perfection. So, when I saw my friend’s Facebook photos of his new Hell’s Kitchen studio apartment, I thought, “how hard could it be do a total makeover in an afternoon with a few hundred dollars and just myself?”