They Wrote the Book on How to Revamp Your Rental

Forget the forever house—Earl of East founders Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin share their tips on making a rented space feel like home.

With homeownership increasingly out of reach, renting has become a long-term reality for a many—yet the interiors world remains largely focused on those with the freedom to build new homes and undertake conventional renovations. So, where do you find inspiration if your lease won’t allow you to knock through walls or rip out a dated kitchen?

In their new book, Home for Now, Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin, founders of the London lifestyle brand Earl of East, explore the ways renters can "live meaningfully within borrowed walls." Best known for their candles and home fragrances, the pair are experts on the everyday rituals that make a space feel like home. Drawing on this understanding, their experience as long-term renters, and the homes of creatives from East London to Brooklyn, Dafkos and Firmin make a compelling case for investing in the spaces we inhabit right now—not the ones we might own someday.

A portrait of Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin, founders of London’s Earl of East and authors of Home for Now, with their dog, Piper.

Photo by Sarah Victoria Bates

Across 36 case studies and chapters on specific aspects of decorating rentals—including textiles, art, and lighting—the book shows how renters around the world have transformed their temporary spaces. Here, Dafkos and Firmin share their tips for creating a rental that feels like home.

A spread from Home for Now focused on the importance of small, meaningful objects in making a place feel like home. Firmin and Dafkos recommend plenty of open shelving and credenzas for the display of personal objects.

Photo by Sarah Victoria Bates, Home for Now, gestalten 2026

What made you want to write a book specifically for renters?

Paul Firmin: It felt like an obvious gap. So much of the interiors world is aimed at people who own homes and have the freedom to renovate. But that’s not the reality for most people. We kept having conversations with people who felt like they were in a holding pattern, like they couldn’t really invest in a space until they owned it. We wanted to make a book that spoke directly to them.

Emily Taylor and Drew Simel’s brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, New York, is one of Firmin and Dafkos’s favorite case studies in the book. 

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025: Artwork by Eduardo Chillida, © Zabalaga-Leku, Home for Now, gestalten 2026

See the full story on Dwell.com: They Wrote the Book on How to Revamp Your Rental
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This $2.7M Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream

Designed by A. Quincy Jones, the lightly updated 1950 residence has been owned for the same family for decades.

Location: 12450 Rochedale Lane, Los Angeles, California

Price: $2,700,000

Year Built: 1950

Architects: A. Quincy Jones & Whitney R. Smith

Renovation Date: 2014

Renovation Architect: Bruce Norelius

Footprint: 1,197 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.32 Acres

From the Agent: "Set within the utopian experiment of Crestwood Hills, the Gelb House is a rare, highly intact example of A. Quincy Jones’s Mutual Housing Association vision—where architecture was not a luxury, but a disciplined framework for living. Every decision is economical, but never compromised. A concrete block fireplace anchors the interior, while skylights along the ridge beam pull light deep into the plan. Systems have been updated and key spaces—kitchen and baths—reworked with a sympathetic material palette, while the original structure and envelope remain entirely intact. Where interventions occur, they are legible and deliberately quiet. Connected to the mature landscape and surrounded by tall trees, the flat pad offers potential for future expansion, with ample room for a swimming pool or additional living space."

The post-and-beam home’s material palette includes Douglas fir framing, concrete blocks, and redwood accents. 

Photo by Tim Street-Porter

Photo by Tim Street-Porter

A. Quincy Jones designed the home to be part of his Mutual Housing Association, a neighborhood experiment in communal living.

Photo by Tim Street-Porter

See the full story on Dwell.com: This $2.7M Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream
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Budget Breakdown: One Way to Get Your Dream Home? Build It in Your Backyard Like This Maine Family

They combined $206,000 and sweat equity to create a 950-square-foot ADU behind the duplex they already owned.

One of the things Chelsea Lipham cherished about her home in Portland, Maine, was how beautiful its tree-filled lot was. What she didn’t care for, however, was the cramped interior of her 100-year-old duplex. "I was feeling kind of claustrophobic," says Chelsea, who is a registered architect. She imagined an open, airy space with better views of the canopy around her—something that was more like the cabin in the woods she grew up in. 

In Portland, Maine, architect Chelsea Lipham designed and built a 950-square-foot ADU where she, her husband, and five-year-old son live. By keeping the ADU’s design simple and choosing budget-friendly materials, she was able to complete the project for less than $206,000.

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

After the city passed regulations that made it easier to build ADUs, Chelsea jumped at the chance to create her dream space. She envisioned a place that she, her husband, and son could move into and possibly rent out in the future. Thanks to smart product and material sourcing, plus the sweat equity she and her family put into constructing the project on nights and weekends, the 950-square-foot, two-story ADU came to just under $206,000. "It was all an experiment," Chelsea says of the design.

When Chelsea started conceiving of the ADU, she focused on ways to maximize living space within the footprint she was allowed to have under Portland’s ADU rules, which led to a two-story design. She didn’t expect to build the ADU herself, but the prices contractors quoted were too high for her budget. Nearly half of it did go to experts for the foundation and sitework, plumbing, and extending the sewer and water lines to the back of the property—work Chelsea wasn’t able to do on her own. But because she had experience helping her father, who is a woodworker, build homes over summers when she was growing up, Chelsea "wasn't scared of needing to do most of the work myself," she says. In a full circle moment, she began to teach her son how to chip in. "He had his little wrench out helping us do things," she says.

The facade is composed of solid pine boards coated in pine tar, a finish commonly used on houses and boats in Scandinavia. It is durable (it’s supposed to last 100 years, Chelsea says) and protects against rot and insects. Chelsea used Earth + Flax’s Authentic Black pine tar mixed 50/50 with Viking purified raw linseed oil. The sconce is the Breshawna model from Wade Logan.

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

Keeping the volume, layout, and detailing straightforward helped make the house easy to build. "I was trying to simplify everything as much as possible, but still keep things interesting," she says. The ground level features a short entry hall that passes a workshop and office nook before opening to a double-height living room and adjacent kitchen and dining area.

$4,280 Permit & Impact Fees	$7,923.08 Appliances	$2,356.98 Cabinets/Counters
$12,375 Drywall	$22,079.99 Electrical/Lighting	$8,230 Sprinklers
$4,646.12 Flooring/Stairs	$37,150 Foundation/Site Work	$9,252.59 HVAC
$7,726.31 Insulation	$17,818.60 Framing	$3,643.20 Roofing
$5,368 Interior Finishes	$9,157.45 Siding	$19,408.77 Plumbing
$18,222 Windows/Doors/Hardware	$15,775 Water Line (from street)
Grand Total: $205,413.09

An office nook is located just past the entrance. 

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: One Way to Get Your Dream Home? Build It in Your Backyard Like This Maine Family

One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices Designed This $380K Wisconsin Midcentury

Inspired by Usonian homes, the 1957 residence by Herbert Fritz Jr. has wooden built-ins, concrete blocks, and…purple carpet?

Location: 852 N. Cedar Street, Richland Center, Wisconsin

Price: $379,900

Year Built: 1957

Architect: Herbert Fritz Jr.

Footprint: 1,878 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 baths)

Lot Size: 0.44 Acres

From the Agent: "852 N. Cedar Street is a 1957 commission from Herbert Fritz Jr.—son of a Taliesin survivor, heir to a tradition that believed a house should belong to its land. The vaulted ceiling opens the living room far beyond its footprint. Band windows frame a panoramic hillside view that feels, from inside, like it was always part of the plan. The cantilever pushes the bedroom wing out over the slope. Carl Meadows had an appointment at Taliesin—Frank Lloyd Wright turned him away, and Fritz Jr. took the commission instead. Offered for the first time in a generation, for the buyer who knows what Taliesin means."

Herbert Fritz Jr. was Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice from 1938 to 1941.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

A the interior finishes are a mixture of concrete block and wood paneling.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

Richland Center is in southern Wisconsin, about halfway between Chicago and Minneapolis.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

See the full story on Dwell.com: One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices Designed This $380K Wisconsin Midcentury
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You’d Never Guess This Concrete ADU Is Part of a Phoenix Golf Community

Constructed with masonry units, the modernist-style addition is anything but par for the course.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Designer: Benjamin Hall Design / @benjaminhalldesign

Footprint: 544 square feet

Builder: Venue Projects

Structural Engineer: NWM Structural Engineering

Mechanical & Pluming Engineer: Otterbein Engineering

Electrical Engineer: Don Witt Engineering Associates

Photographer: Logan Havens / @loganhavens

From the Designer: "Tucked behind a suburban home with an unusually deep lot sits a little white block apartment community. This small, four-unit community of one-bedroom micro-apartments has zero street presence, creating the feeling for tenants feeling that they’ve found a hidden gem. The isolation of the project naturally lent itself to the development of a private, tranquil experience away from the city’s hustle and bustle. To achieve this, each unit is flanked with two private outdoors spaces: a courtyard at each entry, and a generous backyard and patio. These components act as an east and west buffer, providing a quiet atmosphere with natural light that filters through native mesquite trees in each outdoor space. Natural materials carry through the interior and create a simple palette honest to its construction. The T-shaped floor plan is enhanced by natural light and provides clear organization of space and function."

Photo: Logan Havens

Photo: Logan Havens

Photo: Logan Havens

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The Federal Government Is Looking for Its Joe Gebbia of Architecture

President Trump brought on the Airbnb cofounder to overhaul outdated federal websites. Now, the administration is seeking a new design hire to tackle more trivial matters of taste.

Earlier this year, U.S. Chief Design Officer (and Airbnb cofounder) Joe Gebbia spoke at a press conference alongside President Trump to announce a new federal website for discounted prescription drugs. The site itself is pretty basic: serifed gold fonts, a scroll-to-learn homepage, sparse links. It’s not a miracle by any means, most high schoolers could build it. Still, it’s exactly what Gebbia was hired to do: Overhaul U.S. government websites to make them more navigable as mandated by President Trump’s executive order, "Improving Our Nation Through Better Design." Let’s be real: This is genuinely not a bad idea, as anyone who has had to deal with social security or the IRS websites has experienced what the order calls "digital potholes." Now, it seems, the U.S. is looking for its Gebbia of architecture.

It’s nice when things get fixed, though it seems this figure would be tasked with fixing some things that may not be broken: specifically our public buildings. Much criticism (from authors and architecture institutions alike) has been lobbed at his "Make Federal Architecture Beautiful Again" executive order—requiring new and renovated federal properties be designed in the "classical" or "traditional" architectural styles of Western Europe. This month, the administration took a big step in fulfilling the architectural order’s mandates by posting a job listing for a senior architectural advisor for the General Services Administration (GSA), the entity responsible for maintaining nearly 9,000 federal properties. Think of this person as the technical and aesthetics czar, someone tasked with procurement procedures, project management, and, of course, advising on "architectural standards." But here, we’re looking not just at standards of health, safety, and welfare, as are the purview of most architects; the term "classical" appears eight times in the job listing and there are seven mentions of "traditional architecture." In the senior architectural advisor’s purview, standards are defined by a building’s style. It’s worth asking: Is "style" even a problem worth fixing? 

The John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts—designed by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative with Samuel Glaser—is on the long list of buildings the GSA was ordered by President Trump to sell off.  

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

Throughout last year, it seemed as if the Trump administration was hellbent on solving one specific issue surrounding federal property—there was simply too much of it. Having campaigned on reducing government expenses, in his first 100 days in office the president ordered the GSA to shed 7,500 federal offices either by terminating leases or by selling off any of 500 "non-core" buildings. With that endeavor came the opportunity to consolidate a federal style. Two of the most architecturally significant properties on this culling list were designed in the modernist style: the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed Kluczynski federal building in downtown Chicago and Boston’s John F. Kennedy federal buildings by Walter Gropius. Later, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that their brutalist Washington, D.C., FBI headquarters would close permanently, citing the Charles Murphy–designed building’s ongoing problem with deferred maintenance. Employees were moved to the 1998 neoclassical Reagan Building nearby, and the fate of the brutalist property is unknown. And, just this week, the GSA announced it would be selling the 1960s modernist Theodore Roosevelt Building, which has housed the Office of Personnel Management.

Unloading modernist federal buildings, however, generated new challenges: Ditching 7,500 offices while the President mandated employees to return to the office en masse doesn’t exactly support federal workers. The GSA itself is struggling to house its own; Government Workforce reported last year that the agency’s office only had workstations for 1,000 employees when 1,200 were expected to be back at a desk even after the Department of Government Efficiency blitzed through the ranks and effectively sliced off about 16 percent of the agency’s employees. At the same time, the GSA plans to quadruple its work, absorbing procurement services from other agencies. Per the job listing, the new senior architectural advisor would be responsible for projects with budgets in excess of $300 million, hinting toward the massive scale and scope of potential additional GSA work (with fewer personnel to support them). 

The Chicago Federal Center designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is another building that was deemed "non-core."

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

2026 is bringing more than a few contentious plans for federal properties. Trump’s handpicked board of directors voted to close the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts citing a two-year renovation to building systems and aesthetics (including, per NPR, new black-and-gold seats with marble seating armrests); he has proposed painting the granite Eisenhower Building white to create some type of visual congruence with the White House; his plan to build a towering, arguably inappropriately-sized arch across from the Lincoln Memorial was approved this week. We won’t go into the White House’s $300 million East Wing ballroom drama.

Of those, only the Eisenhower Building is overseen by the GSA, though it seems suspect that this senior architectural adviser would be working with budgets that precisely match that of the ballroom. Currently there are 35 ongoing GSA construction projects; of those, 27 are ports of entry which are exempted from the order’s neoclassical mandates. The broad parameters of this role might hint that there will be other, much grander taxpayer-funded, traditionally designed government projects on the way. 

The U.S. General Services Administration Building is reportedly set to become the headquarters for the GSA and the Office of Personnel Management, allowing for the sale of the modernist Theodore Roosevelt Building from which OPM currently operates. 

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Federal Government Is Looking for Its Joe Gebbia of Architecture
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There’s a Canyon Oasis Behind This $2.5M San Diego Home

Designed by Robert Bowlus for painter Malcolm Nichols, the post-and-beam residence comes with a third of an acre, a courtyard, and verdant vistas—all in the heart of the city.

Location: 720 W Montecito Way, San Diego, California

Price: $2,500,000

Year Built: 1979

Architect: Robert Bowlus

Footprint: 2,730 square feet (2 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.34 Acres

From the Agent: "When architect Robert Bowlus designed a home for painter Malcolm Nichols in 1979, the site they selected engaged the canyon setting just a few blocks north of the center of Mission Hills. Straddling six small urban lots, the 2,730-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence engages its urban setting with a private court at the entry as well as its canyon setting with walls of north-facing glass (ideal for painting year round). With significant side and rear yards shaded by a grove of trees, the property opens to the natural landscape, sun, and cool breezes that flow effortlessly throughout. The enclosed porch and painting studio offer significant square footage opportunities for the next owner. Recognized easily for its cedar shingle siding, the Nichols Residence exemplifies late-century modern architecture."

The home’s exposed post-and-beam-ceiling is dotted with skylights.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

Photo by Ollie Paterson

Photo by Ollie Paterson

See the full story on Dwell.com: There’s a Canyon Oasis Behind This $2.5M San Diego Home