8 Easy Steps
Author offers 8-step plan to cure what ails ‘problem rooms.’
Design doc Gillingham-Ryan: on the eighth week, throw a party
A great way to get your body into shape is to start a multi-week program at the gym. While it may not produce immediate results, the long-term focus almost always pays off in the end. That same concept works for transforming your home into a beautiful, well-organized sanctuary.
In “Apartment Therapy” (Bantam, 2006) Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan presents an eight-step plan for curing common problems of a small living space. The “therapy” takes place over eight weeks, using ideas the author developed in his interior-design practice and at home, in a 250-square foot West Village apartment in New York.
Home dwellers tackle a few tasks per week, such as purging and organizing, en route to a complete makeover that ends with a dinner party in Week 8.
“I try to tell people to scale their ambitions appropriately so they’re successful,” he says. “It is important that you finish in eight weeks. If that’s not enough [time] you should scale back.”
Breaking up the work into chunks helps build habits he hopes readers will stick with after the program.
“If it was done [all at once] I don’t think you would learn as much,” Gillingham-Ryan says.
Gillingham-Ryan’s project isn’t limited to those who live in apartments; homeowners have similar issues with décor and space, he says.
“Everyone has their own problem room,” Gillingham-Ryan says.
His blog, www.apartmenttherapy.com, presents the eight-step program each fall and spring, and provides a support group for space-challenged readers.
“The book hits everyone,” he says. “If you have a problem, you’ll get to it.”
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