Apartment Therapy: the eight-step home cure

Apartment Therapy: the eight-step home cure
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan
Bantam
ISBN: 0-553-38312-4
Non-Fiction, Home, Interior Design
Reviewed by Tanya Boudreau

Want to improve your life? Do you toss and turn all night; avoid cooking in your kitchen; cringe at the thought of inviting guests over? Is your apartment in need of repair; dusting; and organization? Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan has written a book that can help you transform, in 8 weeks, your unhealthy living space into a healthy one. A home that will reflect your taste and budget. A place that will work well for you! After following Apartment Therapy’s eight-step home cure, you will want to spend more time at home; and you’ll be inviting your friend over too!
I enjoyed taking the quiz to find out how unhealthy my home was. And I found it interesting to walk myself through the interview process to find out my style and aspirations for my home. With an awareness of why your apartment is causing you stress; and what your style; taste and budget are, you can follow the suggestions in the book to renew your home. Step by step, you learn how to let go of things; how to arrange furniture; clean; repair; and even paint.
To reinforce the good habits you’ve learned, the author provides a schedule of home maintenance in the back of the book. Along with an appendix with lighting ideas and music for a dinner party; you’ll find a few recipes; worksheets; and a bibliography.
What I appreciated most about this book was anyone, even those with a small budget, can find and apply information found in the book. For example, re-hang your pictures so they are 57 inches on centre; buy another lamp to spruce up a dark room; or cook a meal at home once a week. I also enjoyed reading about other people’s apartment problems and how they were resolved.
Have some ideas of your own to share about decorating? Do you need more ideas? Be sure to go to apartmenttherapy.com. This is a free, interactive blog the author and his brother have created to help and inspire people who are in need or curious about improving their living space.