apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Microsoft Office is one of those application suites that's hard to avoid. The ubiquitous nature of Word itself requires anyone who plans to send out a document to another party to download the whole package. Job cover letters and resumes are made via Word, invoices are tallied together in Excel, complicated spreadsheets for everything from home improvement tasks to fantasy football or America's Next Top Model games are mocked up in Excel as well, even David Byrne has figured out how to make art with PowerPoint. So, how many of you are going to download the free beta of Microsoft Office 2010?

More info on Office 2010 after the jump.

Gihun Chang works for Samsung in Suwon, Korea so he's got an added advantage of an employee discount and deep knowledge of consumer electronics. It's no surprise then that he built a pretty sweet home theater for his family.

Now this is brilliant. How many of you are living in rentals where your landlord decided to ruin a perfectly good wall with a thermostat smack dab in the middle of it? Our thermostat and door buzzer, for example, totally interrupts the art gallery we have going on on our wall. One creative Ikea shopper figured out a genius way to hide both, but still have access to them.

When we were little ones growing up in drought prone California there was a hippy saying when hitting the loo, "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." We still adhere to that motto, because really all of planet earth is drought prone -- water is one of our most valuable resources that we take for granted. Many toilet, sink, and shower head companies have worked hard to create modern plumbing that cleans but doesn't waste. During a recent trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium we were inspired by the water conservation efforts in their public restrooms and wondered if this idea would eventually make it into homes.

File this under incredulous. The Magic Laser Hair Vitalizer Massager supposedly massages the scalp while, "9 lasers invigorate each hair follicle for stronger, thicker hair." Sounds a little hokey, but the FDA is said to have approved this as a viable option to fight hair loss.

The original VW bus record player came out in the 70s, dubbed Soundwagon. Now the camper graduates to the digital age, as a speaker plug-in for the iPod. Urban Outfitters is selling the revamp for $150...

While we like to concentrate on the home, here at Unplggd, we often find inspiration in the offsite offices of large companies like Facebook and Suicide Girls.

Now we give you a tour of another inspirational office away from home, that of Minneapolis-based company mono. The firm, which does design consultation for Apple, Herman Miller, and Blu Dot, recently moved into their new digs, designed by founder and creative director, Chris Lange, along with architect Charlie Lazor. The 10,000 square-foot office in Uptown Minneapolis -- ironically, south of downtown Minneapolis, is a complete embodiment of their simple and clean design aesthetic. The folks at mono were kind enough to give Unplggd a tour, while answering a few of our pesky questions...

We love to bring things home off the street. Cats, tossed out books, and furniture. We've been holding back from books and furniture for a while now, due to the increasing presence of bed bugs in NYC, but that doesn't mean we've stopped admiring some of the old junk people dump. After seeing the following project on the blog Lipstick on Your Teeth, we may risk bringing an infestation home just to copy it.

Alison, of Lipstick on Your Teeth, bought the front of an old stereo cabinet at a street sale, but wasn't sure what to do with until she realized it would make a wicked headboard...

Product: Rowenta Precision Valet Steamer
Price: $180
Rating: Strong Recommend*

I've never felt the need for a steamer until I started buying more and more clothes online and at thrift stores (hello, recession!). While extremely convenient, e-commerce leaves a lot of fabrics creased from tight folds and packaging, and thrift store scores can be easy on the wallet, but may need some TLC when you get home. Taking new duds to the dry cleaners to be steamed can turn thrifty finds into regularly priced items, but how to house a steamer at your pad without making your home look like it belongs in the fashion district?

After doing a little online research on what's available in the steamer category, I found one company who has been pretty consistent in designing home appliances that don't quite look like they belong in an old Wal-Mart catalog -- no, not Dyson. Rowenta...

We take a lot of digital photos. While some are for pleasure, the majority of our pics are for business -- the business of blogging, selling, and cat rescuing.

Being bloggers, we end up using a lot of our own photos in posts. Some of us have set up macros and Automator scripts to resize photos automatically, saving us a lot of time, but we wish things were even more automated. More precisely when it comes to uploading photos onto Craigslist and eBay. For a while now, I've had an idea on how to improve iPhoto and last week, during a meeting with Apple where they showed us their new iMac, MacBook, and Magic Mouse (review coming soon!) I pitched them my idea and, surprisingly, the PR folk loved it and promised to bring it up the Apple flagpole. Here's the scoop…

Name: Christie Chase
Location: Houston, Texas
Size of Loft: Loft space with garage below built in 2005 about 800 sq.ft.
Blog: christiechase.blogspot

We've posted about some of Christie Chase's DIY ideas, including her stained Elfa shelving, a few times now, so we thought we'd ask to get the full tour of where Christie comes up with all her fabulous ideas....

Oh mang! When we were little we never had a TV in our room, let alone a whole kids loft media room! Featured on Design*Sponge, this kid’s loft is found in the home of Rosy Levy. She designed the room so that the TV, on a swivel arm, can swing out for easy viewing from the kid's desk (you can check out their homework space after the jump)or can be watched from the king size futon. "We set up a king upholstered mattress to lounge, play Xbox and have kids sleep over," Levy tells Design*Sponge.

Klaas Jan Guchelaar loves music. So much so that he's found a career as a concert photographer in the Netherlands. When he's not snapping priceless moments at Living Colour concerts he's sitting back in his living room and soaking up the sounds from a very impressive DIY theater...