Viva Print Media: Living in a Nutshell

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled on a new book on small-space design, LIVING IN A NUTSHELL, by Janet Lee. This happens a lot in the course of web surfing. I'm sure you've been there. Anyway, the author was a new name to me. Apparently she runs this blog, Living in a Nutshell, which has been going for several years.The focus is killer DIY projects you can do to transform small rentals into awesome homes without endangering your security deposit. Looking over her website and Facebook gallery, I gotta admit her taste is fun and flamboyant and the projects are pretty interesting. The cover image is her actual home.

sleep loft: dig the blow up of joan crawford on the closet doors!

After looking at some of the preview material, I actually swung by a bookstore and bought it at full price. (Support booksellers!) Considering the author's 20 years experience in NYC apartments, this book envelopes a load of cheap, easy, high-impact projects to really transform a space into something dynamic. A showstopper of an apartment. Flipping through, I couldn't help but think of all the times you see an apartment on Craigslist where the latest tenant has utterly failed to do anything attractive with the place. So often people cram in all they own or need to own, hang a bike on the wall and just sort of tune out how ugly it is. Janet Lee is someone who has gone the dead opposite way, improving every single feature of space from floor to ceiling.

a livingroom that keeps the eye moving in all directions

To say the spaces featured in this book are refreshing would be a serious understatement. If an apartment was a showgirl, Janet Lee would be it's costume designer. She embraces vibrant colors, bold patterns, lots of sparkle, mixes styles and textures and has all sorts of practical tips for adding faux architectural details.  


I definitely dog-eared a few pages.