Apartment Therapy’s Founder Talks Shop
Photo: Jim Franco: www.jimfranco.com
Talking to Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, co-founder and New York editor of Apartment Therapy, is fascinating. You start to understand why this online community, with its 4 million monthly visitors, is so popular. During the course of the interview Maxwell manages to move seamlessly from a discussion about blogs versus newspapers and his time as a Waldorf teacher to European home offices and what color works best in a living room. Every topic, big or small, is given serious consideration. There is an underlying kindness to Maxwell that permeates the site. As he says “Apartment Therapy isn’t snarky, or edgy or even fast, it’s not the newest latest thing we are covering. The whole goal was to help people with their homes, to get them over the finishing line, most would love help from an interior designer or architect but don’t know where to start.” Apartment Therapy has become a very good place to start.
But, enough from me, here is Maxwell:
On blogs: “My wife is a real magazine reader and there’s so much discussion around the demise of magazines and whether blogs are undermining them. Blogs don’t compete with magazines – we compete with newspapers. You post on a blog and then move onto the next thing, it’s very forward looking, fast. And much closer then to a newspaper model than a magazine model.”
On his years as a Waldorf teacher: “[Those years] very much inform my work – now it’s just a much bigger classroom! After teaching for 5 years at a Waldorf school I could have gone on and taken a new class. But I wanted something else. I wanted to live on a larger plane, schools can be small parochial places. I wanted to be rid of the politics.”
“And I had studied design, my first job out of college was as a designer. And I was still very much interested in design. Waldorf is connected to design right down to the chairs and desk and furniture and the color of the walls through all the grades. Design is central and there is a strong belief that the right design can have a very positive effect.”
“I did home visits and the children who had ‘good’ homes – neat, clean and well organized, did better in my classroom. Not necessarily the smartest – it was the ones with a good home foundation. And I thought a lot about that. I was fascinated with that. Being a teacher you need to live the model life. You have to start where you are.”
On starting Apartment Therapy: “At this time I found myself reading the business section of the newspaper more than any other section. It was that time in America before Bush where there was a real optimism in this country around business – business was creative and practical and honest. I craved that opportunity.”
“So in 2001 I started what turned out to be an early version of Apartment Therapy in the summer and gave myself a year to try it out. If it didn’t work I would go back to teaching.”
“Three weeks later the Twin Towers fell and we lived in downtown NY below 14th street. We were in the thick of it. The city really transformed itself. Business as usual stopped and for 2-3 months and you felt the extraordinary power of change. People opened their doors to their neighbors.”
“[That new feeling in the city] fit with what I was doing. It was a helping service business. I got to be the connecting tissue and to bring knowledge to people and help them. Very simple. Nobody else was doing it. I’d send an email out once a week to subscribers with things for sale and places for rent. I was also working as an interior designer and it was that work that paid the bills.”
“I couldn’t be everywhere at once. My brother had worked in Silicon Valley for 5 years and told me about these things called blogs – he said it was a great application for what I wanted to do and he was right. He started ‘AT’ with me and then returned to do other work.”
“In 2004 ‘AT’ the blog began. I’d blog in the morning and then work for clients in the afternoon. I liked it. I like blogging a lot – it was easier than dealing with contractors and traveling all over the city to be with clients. Eventually I hired a team of 4 full time staff and with no strong financial plan we started. There were cash flow problems and I had to borrow money but the traffic started to really take off when we went full time. We’ve got 5 sites now and that’s how I wanted it to work – we cover all the home, all of the home.”
On being called “one part interior designer, one part life coach”: “That came from Daily Candy in 2002 – they succinctly named what I was trying to do. I have no problem with it because I’ve felt like I am trying to be a teacher. I am trying to get you to do it better but I don’t give you a fish, I want to teach you to fish.”
“I have a strong conviction that American culture is not helping - it’s hard to find a path to a healthy life within it. I am very conscious about preaching – I used to do it, but you know, some people are just looking for advice on what color to paint a living room. I don’t do direct sermons to an audience anymore. I want to show it rather than say it. Now we model it – my wife and I – we do it ourselves and blog about it.” [Below is a drawing by Maxwell. He made a new year's resolution to draw one image a day and then posted the images on the site.]
“But when I see an opening, someone really looking for something, for an answer, I will go further. Like getting rid of your TV and see how that feels. How does the house feel without a television?”
“[The immediacy of] blogging allows you to try a couple of those approaches during a day – I can get flamed for one story and then move onto something else. I always feel with blogging that you keep moving – fresh donuts, you know.”
On the power of color: “Warm are great for social rooms like a living room. They are expansive and stimulating. Cool is focusing and contracting – good for private rooms. Colors should support those activities – it’s hard in say a rental where the rooms are all white and there’s no change from space to space – that feels deadening. A home office for example should be a cool color.”
On the home office: “Home offices that stand out for me are homey – comfortable and not office-like. Most of the ones I find come from European publications. I like a balance between vintage and organic materials. I like natural textures – wood rather than laminate.” [Below is the blogger's office Maxwell designed for Bloomingdale's Big Window Challenge]
“In America home offices seems to be moving in an ‘Apple’ direction – cleaner machines, less wires – much more minimal. Computers serve as art in the workspace, they are a part of your home – like the clock screen saver you posted about. We’ve got so many devices and Apple really puts them together so smoothly. At home that is really important.”
On working from home: “We do work from home, unfortunately. I don’t have any of the office trappings there. There’s no a dedicated space at home. I work all over the home with my laptop. I’ve got the same bookmarks and drop boxes as the office computer so they work together.”