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Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home by Maxwell Ryan & Janel Laban Review: A New York Times Bestselling Home Design Bible
by Maxwell Ryan, Janel Laban
Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is a New York Times bestseller and the most comprehensive home design guide from the Apartment Therapy brand, covering everything from floor plans and paint to room-by-room organizing — written for anyone who wants to set up and live well in a space they love.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Renters, first-time buyers, and established homeowners who want a single, well-organised volume that walks them through the full arc of home design — from assessing their space and personal style to decorating specific rooms and maintaining them year-round.
Worth it if
You want one comprehensive, visually rich reference that covers the entire scope of home design thinking — self-assessment, room inspiration, and practical upkeep — rather than going deep on any single discipline.
Skip if
Skip it if you're already deeply versed in Apartment Therapy's online content and are looking for advanced technical instruction — the book's deliberately broad, introductory scope will feel too general for specialist needs.
What readers & critics say
The book carries a New York Times bestseller designation, confirming its wide reach beyond core design audiences, as noted by multiple retail listings. Waterstones positions it as a twenty-first-century successor to Terence Conran's Essential House books, framing it as a complete home guide for setting up, decorating, and caring for a home across all life stages.
Sources: Waterstones, Barnes & Noble4.1from 182 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home by Maxwell Ryan and Janel Laban is a sweeping illustrated home design reference that walks readers through the full arc of making a home — from self-assessment and visual inspiration (75 well-styled rooms) to seasonal maintenance and room-by-room organizing. A New York Times bestseller with a three-part structure praised by both Detroit Home and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it earns its reputation as the most comprehensive single-volume expression of the Apartment Therapy philosophy. Its greatest caveat is that its deliberately broad scope means any individual topic is treated at an introductory level — readers seeking deep technical or specialist instruction will want to supplement it with a focused title.
- Is it worth reading?
- For readers who want one book that addresses the whole picture of making a home work — from floor plans and paint to seasonal maintenance — Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home delivers on that promise in structured, visually supported form. Emily Henderson called it 'useful, pretty and full of information... easy enough to pick up and read 5 minutes at a time,' which points to its rare dual-use appeal as both a practical reference and a coffee-table object. The key caveat is that its generalist scope means no single topic receives deep technical treatment, so specialists or advanced renovators may find it insufficient on its own.
- Similar books
- Readers who enjoy Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home will find natural companions across the home design shelf. Maxwell Ryan's earlier Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure offers the same brand's focused eight-step framework for those who want a more methodical approach. Joanna Gaines's Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave covers similar warm, livable design territory with a distinct personal voice. Emily Henderson — who endorsed Complete and Happy Home — authored Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, from Tabletops to Bookshelves, which goes deeper on the art of arrangement and vignette styling. For readers drawn to the organizing dimension, The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin is a natural follow-on, and Myquillyn Smith's The Nesting Place shares the book's accessible, imperfection-friendly ethos.
- Who should read this?
- Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is explicitly designed for a wide range — renters, first-time buyers, and longtime homeowners alike. Detroit Home described it as a resource for both seasoned homeowners looking to freshen up a space and first-time homeowners hoping to elevate their living environment, and the three-part architecture supports non-linear entry so readers can start wherever they are in the process. It is least suited to readers who need deep technical instruction in a single discipline — advanced renovators, architectural drafters, or professional-grade stagers will find its generalist scope limiting.
- Where should I start with Maxwell Ryan?
- For readers new to Maxwell Ryan's work, Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is the publisher's own recommendation as the 'newest and most comprehensive' volume from the brand — making it the natural starting point if a broad, all-in-one reference is the goal. Readers who prefer a more focused, step-by-step intervention for a specific home reset may want to begin with Ryan's earlier Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure, which applies the brand's philosophy through a structured eight-step framework.
- What are the main themes?
- The book's central theme is the idea that a home should work for the people who live in it — not as aspirational fantasy, but as a practical, maintained space that reflects real life. This grounds three recurring threads: self-knowledge (understanding your own style and needs before decorating), visual literacy (training the eye through well-styled real rooms), and sustainable upkeep (cleaning, repairing, and organizing to maintain a happy home year-round). Maxwell Ryan's background as a former teacher — described as 'one part interior designer, one part life coach' — shapes the book's approachable, instructional tone.
- Is this a good book club pick?
- Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is less a traditional book-club discussion book and more a shared reference that a group might work through together practically — comparing how the self-assessment exercises apply to their own spaces, or discussing favorites from the 75 well-styled rooms. Its visual richness and non-linear structure make it more browsable than argumentative, which suits informal design-focused groups better than literary discussion circles.
Summarize this book
Is it worth reading?
Who should read this?
Where should I start with Maxwell Ryan?
What are the main themes?
Is this a good book club pick?
Summarize this book
Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is a 320-page illustrated home design and decorating reference published by Potter Style in September 2015, written by Maxwell Ryan and Janel Laban with photography by Melanie Acevedo. It is organized in three parts: the first helps readers evaluate their space and personal style; the second trains the eye through 75 of the most well-styled rooms in the country; and the third provides a guide to cleaning, repairing, and room-by-room organizing for year-round upkeep. Its stated ambition is to address every major dimension of design and decorating — floor plans, paint, specific room treatments, and style approaches — in a single, structured volume.
Follow up
How does the three-part structure work in practice?
How important is the photography to the book?
Do I need to know the Apartment Therapy brand first?
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Skip if you're looking for deep technical instruction on a single area of home design — advanced renovation, architectural drafting, or professional-grade staging.
Our Review
A New York Times bestseller, this illustrated home design reference from Maxwell Ryan and Janel Laban is the most comprehensive volume yet from the Apartment Therapy brand, and it earns that distinction by covering the full arc of making a home — from first assessment to long-term upkeep.
What the Book Actually Is and What It Covers
Apartment Therapy Complete and Happy Home is a home design and decorating guide published by Potter Style in September 2015, written by Maxwell Ryan and Janel Laban, with photography by Melanie Acevedo. Its stated ambition is to address every aspect of design and decorating — floor plans, paint, specific room treatments, style approaches — with the overarching goal of helping readers set up and live well in a place they love. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described its structure clearly: the book is organized in three parts. The first helps readers understand and evaluate their space and personal style. The second trains the eye through 75 of the most well-styled rooms in the country. The third delivers a guide to cleaning, repairing, and room-by-room organizing to help maintain a happy home year-round. Photography by Melanie Acevedo supports this structure throughout the illustrated hardcover edition.
The Authors and the Brand Behind It
Maxwell Ryan is the founder of Apartment Therapy, the interior design practice and media brand he launched in April 2004 alongside his brother Oliver. Apartmenttherapy.com grew into one of the most popular and influential design websites in the country. Ryan's background is notably unconventional for an interior design authority: a former elementary school teacher with a B.A. From Oberlin College, an M.A. From Columbia University, and an M.Ed. From Antioch, he has been described as "one part interior designer, one part life coach." Janel Laban is his longtime collaborator at Apartment Therapy. Together, Complete and Happy Home represents what the publisher calls their newest and most comprehensive book — the fullest expression of the Apartment Therapy philosophy in a single volume.
Its Strengths: Scope, Accessibility, and Visual Appeal
The book's most praised qualities are its range and its usability as both a reference and a browsable object. Designer and television personality Emily Henderson offered a pointed endorsement, calling it "useful, pretty and full of information... Easy enough to pick up and read 5 minutes at a time, and pretty enough to pick up and not even read a word." That dual quality — substantive enough to serve as a genuine reference, visually rich enough to work as a coffee-table book — gives it unusual flexibility. Detroit Home noted that the book is designed to serve readers at multiple experience levels, describing it as a resource for both seasoned homeowners looking to freshen up a space and first-time homeowners hoping to elevate their living environment. The three-part architecture reinforces this accessibility: readers can enter at whatever stage they find themselves in, rather than working through the book in strict linear order.
Reception and Significance in the Genre
The New York Times bestseller designation confirms the book found a broad audience well beyond design enthusiasts. The Apartment Therapy brand's existing reach — built through one of the country's most-read design websites — gave the volume a substantial platform, but the critical response from outlets including Detroit Home and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests the book holds up independently of brand recognition. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's summary of the three-part structure treats it as a coherent, well-organized whole rather than a compilation of blog content, which speaks to the deliberateness of its editorial architecture. For a home-design guide published in 2015, its emphasis on practical organizing and real-room inspiration rather than aspirational fantasy keeps it grounded in what readers can actually do with the spaces they have.
Who It's For and Where It Has Limits
Complete and Happy Home is designed for a wide range of readers — renters, first-time buyers, and longtime homeowners alike — which is precisely what gives it such broad appeal and also where some readers may find friction. A guide this comprehensive, spanning 320 pages and covering everything from floor plans to seasonal maintenance, necessarily treats some topics at an introductory level. Readers seeking deep technical instruction on a single area — advanced renovation, architectural drafting, or professional-grade staging — will find the book's generalist scope less satisfying than a specialized title. Its greatest value is as a single, well-organized entry point into the full scope of home design thinking, rather than an expert-level manual in any one discipline. For readers who want one book that addresses the whole picture of making a home work, it delivers on that promise in structured, visually supported form.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
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- Further reading
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