Laura Fenton

At some point in the journey of becoming an “I love New York” parent, most of us find that our apartment feels too small and slowly come to terms with a harrowing real-estate truth: If we can’t find a bigger place within our budget, we’ll have to decamp to a suburb. But some parents with a knack for moving their furniture around find a third option:

When Elizabeth and Adrien Fraise bought their Manhattan, NYC, apartment, it had been professionally decorated and came mostly furnished. Ten years and two kids later, neither the layout nor the somewhat fusty inherited interiors worked for their young family. But it took a leak from the apartment upstairs to jump-start their renovation with interior designer Emily C. Butler.

Creating a home that’s classically rooted, yet supports the contemporary lives of those who dwell within, comes down to more than stock ideas. Often, it’s about eccentricities, unexpected touches and, at times, a grace note that doesn’t seem like it would go, yet makes the whole composition. For an energetic family constructing a tailored abode in a historic Atlanta neighborhood, it was important that their new home not only harmonize with its surroundings but enhance them.

After nearly a decade in their Brooklyn home, Anne Keenan and Alexis Seeley decided it was time to hire a decorator. Keenan, a strategist for nonprofit organizations, and Seeley, an administrator at New York University’s engineering school, wanted to maximize the space for family life with their 5-year-old son, Leon.

Designers produce drawings all the time, but today that more often equates to computer models versus the classic combination of pen and paper. It’s an art form that designer Connie Vernich continues to celebrate. And in the case of her personal Nashville home, hand drawings were critical to bringing her vision to life.

Midcentury modern style reimagined architecture, interiors, furniture and product design in the 20th century, and though its heyday was over in roughly 1970, the unmistakable, well-loved aesthetic endures. However, when a Seattle couple assembled a design team to build a new abode in this vernacular, they asked for something utilizing more specific and nuanced elements than the familiar, clean-lined hallmarks of the period.

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Six years ago, architects David Long and Stephen Hitchcock faced a familiar dilemma. Friends since university, they had recently doubled down on city life, founding their firm, Stretch Architects, in the Salt River section of Cape Town, South Africa.
Both men and their wives wanted to start families and stay put, but real estate had become so expensive that the dream seemed unattainable. Howeve...

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Like the adorable cardboard gingerbread houses, Ferris wheels, and camper vans that pop up on her Instagram feed, paper artist and stylist Chloe Fleury’s Los Angeles home is as bright as a sunny SoCal day. When she and her husband, Mehdi, who are both French, bought the Mar Vista mid-century house, which had been renovated and added onto by previous owners, the interiors were, in her words, “a ...

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Renting a home is much easier and more affordable than buying one, but it can mean making aesthetic compromises (hello, peeling laminate and orange-tinged oak cabinets!). With some strategic thinking and carefully calculated investments of time and money, however, you can make a renal apartment your own. Don't settle for the landlord's taste in decor or lackadais...

The constraints of a tiny island location informed every choice in the 850-square-foot home.

This piece was created for Cubby, Apartment Therapy's weekly newsletter for families, which I helped launch in fall 2020.

Originally appeared in the August 2021 issue of Better Homes & Gardens

Originally ran in the September 2020 issue of Better Homes & Gardens

I spearheaded the Design Changemakers for 2022, securing talent, including A-list celebrities, and assigning and editing all the content for the package.