When a room is missing that certain something, turn to a design blogger to find the solution. By Jenna Schnuer

THERE WAS ALL this empty space. Floors. Walls. The whole shebang. After more than a decade in a (very) small Manhattan apartment, I had moved out to an outer borough and was now the proud renter of about 800 square feet of space. (I know, I know … those of you outside New York City are snickering over my idea of space.) ¶ Then the reading began. ¶ It started with Apartment Therapy, and then Design*sponge grabbed hold, and then Treehugger,­ and it just kept going from there. I had become obsessed with the ever-expanding world of design blogs. All day long — though I had to take the occasional break to get some work done — I cruised the blogs, eager to see what these design-savvy folks had found and how I could improve my new home. I fell for chairs. I found artists who could fill my wall space on the cheap. I was on the hunt for the perfect end table. Design magazines started to seem so … static. They didn’t deliver the goods from morning to night. I wanted a personal-design shopper — and now, thanks to the bloggers, I had an army of them. ¶ Some of the blogs are the work of a friendly little design fan who just likes to pass word of cool stuff along. Others are more comprehensive and make use of a slew of bloggers around the world, along with a business plan, design companies, and upcoming books or TV shows. ¶ Here are four favorites, along with their design missions.

Site: Apartment Therapy
Web address: apartmenttherapy.com
Who runs it: Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and his brother, Oliver Ryan
Potential for addiction:
There’s an entire community of addicts waiting to meet you (and offer friendly advice on ways to cover that hideous radiator in your living room).

A dinner party was what kicked it off. ­Interior-designer­-turned-schoolteacher Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan was seated next to a guest who needed some help figuring out what to do with his new — and very empty — apartment. Apartment Therapy as a design company was born. Soon enough, Gillingham-Ryan’s very tech-savvy brother, ­Oliver, pushed him to turn his weekly newsletter into a blog. The duo launched Apartmenttherapy.com in 2004, and the site now has fans as far away as Turkey. “The idea was to compile my resources and collect others, to create a Zagat guide for home furnishing,” he says, and to create an interactive community of design fans. AT isn’t just about products; it’s about offering readers solutions to home-design-related issues (and AT also runs a bunch of reader contests). “Apartment Therapy is about doing it yourself and not having to have a lot of money,” says Gillingham-Ryan. “Simplicity and luxury are not mutually exclusive.” So far, there are sites geared toward New York and Los Angeles, and San Francisco and Chicago will have their own editions soon. The brothers have also started launching sites, all under the AT umbrella, that focus on other home-related elements, including the kitchen (penned by Gillingham-Ryan’s wife, Sara Kate). In March, Gillingham-Ryan published his first book: Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure.

Site: Design*sponge
Web address:
designsponge.blogspot.com
Who runs it: Grace Bonney
Potential for addiction:
She’s a constant and very personable blogger.

Grace Bonney is quite possibly the blogger most responsible for my current credit card debt. The self-proclaimed “design junkie” launched her friendly, polka-dotted site after a stint in the music industry, as a way to warm up for a possible move back into the workaday side of the design world. “Design was always my passion,” she says, mentioning that Design*sponge focuses on “young, forward-thinking, modern design. I think it’s so important that the home is somewhere you feel comfortable or just express yourself.” The site features Bonney’s of-the-moment favorite items aplenty, along with fun bits from her own life — including missives on the recent renovation she and her boyfriend (known to site readers as “ac”) undertook on their Brooklyn apartment. Next up for Bonney? A TV show for design-savvy travelers is in the works.

Site: Treehugger
Web address: treehugger.com
Who runs it: Graham Hill
Potential for addiction:
It’s worth checking into once a day or so, but it’s missing a bit of the personal feel that makes other blogs oh-so-addictive.

It’s all things green around Treehugger — but worry not, this is no tie-dye-heavy ­hippie site. This is design driven by sustainability issues, “stuff that clearly somebody has really thought about … very modern, sleek, contemporary,” says Graham Hill, whose background includes architecture, industrial and product design, multimedia, and the launch of a snowboarder-friendly clothing company. He launched Treehugger seven years after designing the concept that “green could be cool” in a Photoshop class. Hill doesn’t do much of the blogging himself these days, though. He plays den father to a host of bloggers around the world who search out the new green must-haves. “It feels like there’s been an explosion [of green design],” says Hill. “It could be that now my fingers are very long, having 20 writers around the world and people sending us tips, but I think it’s a real trend. There’s not just a lot more green in general, there’s a lot more modern green.”

Site: Notcot
Web address: notcot.com
Who runs it: Jean Aw
Potential for addiction:
Over time, the addiction factor certainly will grow stronger.

No, Notcot isn’t some sort of secret code. It’s just a piece of an old e-mail address that’s sort of stuck with blogger Jean Aw. The site, which she says started as a “fun side project,” is a “personal filtration of art, aesthetics, and amusement” — and an extension of Aw’s hobby of searching out pieces­ that interest her and passing the information along to her friends. “Only things that I love make it on the site,” says Aw, who draws upon her eclectic professional background, which includes stints at a car-­design studio and at an advertising agency. Her blog is probably the most traditional of our favorites — it feels more like a personal diary — and its influence is growing. At the moment, about 2,000 people wander through the site each day, from all around the world. “It’s not about cost,” Aw says of the items she profiles. “I love clean, simple lines. And I’m a definite sucker for the art side of things, and for illustration.”