Heather's Sweet & Sunny Home in Victoria, B.C.

You'll have to forgive us for blogging so infrequently lately, but we have some awesome projects we have been working on that we'll hopefully be able to tell you about soon. In the midst of all of the chaos, I (Andie) was able to go to Victoria BC last weekend (remember our post about the Regional Assembly of Text?) and stayed in the most charming little house in town. Owned by a sweet couple with two kids, I originally found this home on Airbnb!

Full disclosure: I took these photos for Apartment Therapy, but before I post the house tour there, I wanted to share a sneak peek with you! Plus, amazingly: Heather runs an awesome Etsy shop where she sells a lot of her pretty, vintage finds. More photos to come in the full tour this winter. Enjoy! (PS. Here's a fun video of us making coffee with those vintage tools on our first morning in British Columbia).

Point + Shoot: 12 Tips to Shoot a Great House Tour

I'm no professional photographer, but I have learned quite a few tricks of the trade while working for Apartment Therapy and our ongoing work on Assemble. Here are a few of my favorite tips for shooting a great house tour!


Photo of me shooting via our Instagram
1. Turn off the lights. If you don't have lots of amazing lighting equipment, an odd lamp on here and there will sometimes inhibit your editing capabilities due to the contrast. If the room is pitch black, obviously a light is necessary, but try on and off and then see what you come up with.

2. Don't be afraid to get into weird positions. I always ask the home's occupants if I can sit on their furniture, lay down on their bed, or squish into a corner to get the best shot possible.

3. Take some candid shots. Not everyone is a professional model, so sometimes staged photos can prove to be dull or rigid--candids can save you! Capture them in their element, working or chatting. (Not eating--that's just not fair!)

4. Take wide shots of each room from several angles and lots and lots of detail shots. People want to see the "lay of the land" so to speak, but really enjoy seeing the tiny details that make a house a home.


A wide shot of a Chika Eustace's lovely kitchen in one of
my upcoming House Tours for Apartment Therapy
5. Watch for shadows and reflections! These can take the viewer out of the experience.

6. Don't be afraid to fix things. Cat walked on the bed? Straighten the bedspread. Make the space look as wonderful as it can.

7. Try to capture the homeowner's personality. Are the worker bees? Fun-lovers? Take photos that illustrate those traits. Collections can truly set the stage--what are they reading? What tools are in their offices?


A lovely handmade and unique pillow collection in Jean Lee's adorable living room in one of
my upcoming House Tours for Apartment Therapy
8. If a photo doesn't work (sometimes bathrooms are impossible with amateur equipment) throw it out. Don't publish photos that don't work.

9. Use Lightroom (my recommendation) or Photoshop to make sure the White Balance and shadows are under control. If one of these doesn't look right, the photo is immediately subpar.

10. If you aren't sure how to use the photo-editing programs you have, watch Youtube or Vimeos to learn tricks of the trade. There's always room for learning!

11. Slow down. The slower you are, the better the photos are, and you won't miss anything! It feels intrusive to take your time in someone's home, but they want it to look great as much as you do (if not even more!)

12. Check and recheck your photos and camera settings. I learned this lesson the hard way on poor Blair Stocker's home tour. I shot the whole tour on a bad setting and had to reshoot. Be careful!

Images by Andie Powers for Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy: Are you Overstyled?

A few of you may know, but I write freelance for Apartment Therapy twice a week. Usually my posts are a mix of styling or great products but today I decided to do something a bit different. If you are an Apartment Therapy reader, you know that the commenters tend to be a bit brutal. I wanted to discuss that along with the idea of "overstyling" or "propping" your home. I feel like my home is anything but propped, but I tend to get overzealous comments to the contrary. Below is the text to the post, and click over to the Apartment Therapy post to read the comments. I'd love to know what you think here, too!

Special Neatloaf Repost! Guest Post: How Some of my Favorite Creative People Live [with Blair Stocker]

This is a repost of a lovely entry from our former blog, Neatloaf, by the incredibly lovely and talented, Blair Stocker of wisecraft. We loved it so much that we wanted to repost it here! Enjoy!



Images from Molly Makes

The images above are of Lisa Stickley's apartment in a recent issue of Molly Makes. So sweet! Lisa's style has been referred to as "Tomboy Pretty" and I think its perfect. I have one of Lisa's porcelain teacup and saucers that I drink tea from when I'm working in my studio. It reminds me that other creative people are everywhere, working and creating beautiful things and it inspires me every time I use it.

I love seeing how my favorite creative people live. Not decorators, but people who are passionate about design and creativity and who want (probably need) their space to reflect their point of view. Nobody is really worried about scale, balance, and the hot prints or colors of the season, or the practicalities of decorating per se, but just thinking about how much they love this or that, and wanting to see it every day.

Another of my favorite homes is Denyse Schmidt's home in Connecticut, as seen in previous issue of ReadyMade. Just look at all the "quilty" goodness in that room.


Images from ReadyMade

When I was growing up, it was quite common to move into a home, decorate it once, and that was it. Done. You too? As an adult with my own space, things that don't change on occasion can make me feel creatively sad and stifled. And I don't mean just pulling out the yearly Christmas decorations, although now that I think of it that way, maybe changing up the decor during the holidays helped it feel so magical. My home is the one place I can express who I am, and I quite literally feel like a can't breathe in a space that never changes a bit. I cited these two creative women in the Apartment Therapy tour of my home that Andie shot, as influences on how I decorate. Andie did such a wonderful job capturing the real life that goes on in our home. Thank you, Andie!

-Blair

Thank YOU, Blair!