Over the past few months, we've had so much fun seeing your votes come in for the Small/Cool Contest. And our search for the smallest, coolest home in the world has taken us to Charleston, South Carolina. That’s right, the grand prize winner of the 2022 Small/Cool Contest is Emily Sermons for her 610-square-foot sophisticated, secondhand space. 🎉
For 2022, hundreds of people entered their homes into the contest. Our team of editors (painfully!) narrowed that group down to the top 50. Then our audience (that's you!) voted tens of thousands of times to bring that crop down to the top 20, and, finally, the top 3. At that point, we introduced each finalist (Elisabeth, Emily, and Cat) in a short video, and Apartment Therapy readers ultimately voted again to pick our winner, which we’re announcing today, along with eight contest superlative winners.
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“It’s always been a goal to design a home that I loved,” Sermons tells Apartment Therapy, “and the fact that other people loved it and were inspired by it too is icing on the cake.” Sermons, a product manager at a startup, says she and her partner, Jay, spent their first year or so in the home trying to understand what the space needed when it came to design, while also getting to know Charleston — learning how the city’s culture and style intersects with her own culture and style. “Charleston is a city of very old meets new,” she says. “You see a lot of that in my home.” The ultimate vision? A “very traditional, layered sophistication” mixed with funky accent pieces and bright colors. “It’s beautiful and elegant, but has this sense of playfulness,” she says. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously.” |