If I'm being totally honest, taking down the living room gallery wall was part of a larger restart in 2025 for me. Approximately 10 to 20 frames of crowded, colorful artwork on the walls were beginning to feel overwhelming to me (in addition to some other overwhelming stuff going on). I was seeking something simpler, and I really liked AT contributor Jessie Quinn's idea of creating gallery clusters - groupings of just one to three frames.
After last summer's BRAT attack, it felt like minimalist album art was back with a bang (for better or for worse). While I'm all for the rise of anti-design, there's a stark difference between counter-cultural creations and plain underwhelming art, and sadly, pop star Justin Bieber's latest album fits into the latter category. Swag II, the successor of Bieber's recent album, Swag, features a painfully innocuous album cover that's undoubtedly functional but disappointingly flat.
"Finding an apartment in New York can feel like the Wild West. I had looked at so many places, and even lost a few. Walking into my apartment for the first time, I immediately felt its spirit," Breaker begins. Though he's not sure of the unit's exact square footage, the one-bedroom is clearly on the smaller side.
As a travel writer, I've spent more nights in hotel rooms living out of a carry-on suitcase than I can count. But nothing prepared me for what it would feel like to actually live in a hotel - not for a few weeks on assignment, but for months at a time, with my then-fiancé and our mini schnauzer in tow. Our stay didn't start as some glamorous, work-from-anywhere experiment.
Modern design is one of those terms in home decor that feels like a moving target. Modern, by its definition according to Webster's Dictionary, is "of, relating to, or characteristic of the present or the immediate past; contemporary."So what does that mean when "of the present or the immediate past" is constantly moving forward? "Modern design is open-concept, with clean lines, and a flow through a home without clutter," explains Sallie Lord, principal and founder of Virginia-based GreyHunt Interiors.
We have a New Yorker cartoon magnetized to our fridge that features a bedraggled but happy couple crawling through a desert with the caption, "It's nice that we want the same things." My husband's family frequently laments to me, "He never does things the easy way!" without truly understanding that this is my preferred way of doing things, too. Against the grain. Off script. Rarely the easy or obvious way.
Kelly's house embodies modern loft living at its finest, merging natural surroundings with contemporary design. The 40-foot wall of glass creates a seamless indoor-outdoor experience.
Kyle Hawley and Noah Hawley's house in Austin, Texas, has five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and no closets. The unusual setup forces the couple and their two children, 12 and 17, to be selective since they store their clothing in hallways. Mr. Hawley, who is the Emmy Award-winning showrunner and creator of the hit FX series Fargo, believes that the lack of closets encourages editing during the year, requiring them to make choices about what they keep as they acquire new items.
The Jil Sander flagship store's interior features a generous ceiling height of 4.5 meters and is treated as a pure, neutral shell. Inside, a series of sculptural volumes in Vicenza stone divide the space into three distinct zones: the entrance and canal-facing rear, a central core, and a more intimate lounge area lit by a skylight.
Organization is key when living in a small space. Everything item I own has a designated place. I've learned I must put everything back where it belongs; otherwise, things easily get lost.
The Bauhaus Sunset Lamp from Simig Lighting embodies a digitally familiar abstraction of the sun, merging minimalist design with practical illumination to create a perfect optical illusion.
"People are always at the core of my designs," Bak shares. "With this desk, I consciously made room for both work and leisure - side by side. When our surroundings adapt to us and our lives, it means we have more time and energy for both work and family."
The Mute Lamp embodies adesign philosophy that prioritizes linear minimalism, stemming from a single, uninterrupted vertical pole that redefines elegance and function.
Navigating the distribution of heirlooms requires sensitivity to each recipient's desires. It's important to acknowledge a family member's perspective while also respecting one’s own attachment to those items.
The ClearFrame CD Player transforms your music collection into a visual experience. Every CD you play becomes a little art gallery, displaying your favorite albums.
The Peralta S makes you wonder why every other exotic car needs so many creases, vents, and visual noise when you could just build a perfect geometric statement instead.
