How to Pitch Dwell

Who Are We?

Dwell promotes good design for everyone. We publish home tours, reported pieces, interviews, and essays, all focused on the power of smart design and new ideas about where and how we live. To give us the scoop on a new project, pitch an original idea, or simply say hello, get in touch at edit@dwell.com. We’re always looking for new voices and perspectives from writers, photographers, illustrators, and videographers. Browse our latest stories to see our full range of topics.  

Verticals

Design — Mike Chino, Senior Design Editor (mike.chino@dwell.com) and Duncan Nielsen, Design News Editor (duncan@dwell.com) 

We feature outstanding homes and other spaces from all over the world that have noteworthy stories about their creation. From the house that helped build the modern psychedelics movement; to an island prefab that carries on Jens Risom’s legacy; a whimsical tree house in the Santa Cruz mountains; or a revived century-old townhouse in Kyoto; a wildly colorful schoolteacher’s home; or a UK architect’s home that welcomes local wildlife, our home tours run a diverse gamut with strong narratives. And our regular news pieces cover the latest in what’s happening in the design community, from stories on noteworthy exhibitions and fairs to what’s newly on the market. 

To pitch a project, send a brief description and images to edit@dwell.com detailing its main, distinctive features, whether it be sustainability, prefab and modular design, or affordability, and what’s important about its creation narratively. Please let us know if it has appeared anywhere else in print or online; if it has won or been submitted for any awards; who the owners/renters are, and whether they are willing to be named and photographed/featured in the story. For images, please include the main areas of the structure, and try to take overall shots so we can get a sense of the entire room. (Casual and/or iPhone photos are fine.) Overall, tell us the story of how this place came to be; why is it worth featuring in Dwell?

To share your project with the community and instantly be considered for an Editor’s Pick, upload your photos through Post a Project.  

Some of our franchises include: 

• Before & After — This series places photos side-by-side to document the renovation process.
• Budget Breakdown — This series covers a wide range of projects, from new home builds, to renovations, to garage conversions, and should reveal the literal cost it takes to make design dreams happen—in your pitch, please include a detailed list of costs, including a grand total. (For more information on how we source and fact check Budget Breakdowns, go here.)
• My House — This Q&A series is focused on creatives with personality-driven homes that reflect their lifestyles, work, and distinct tastes. We talk to them about how they designed their spaces, and the elements that reflect their unique sensibilities.
• Focus — Narrows in on specific details or aspects that make the overall design of a home sing.
• Rental Revamp — Just because you’re renting your home doesn’t mean you can’t customize your space. Tell us how you went about your transformation, from cost-saving DIY hacks, to interior design tips, to landlord-friendly upgrades.
• Real Estate — Dwell features architecturally significant homes for sale; our most recent real estate stories are a mix of covetable midcentury homes, artist’s lofts, celebrity listings, and more. To have a property featured, email realestate@dwell.com.
• Design News — From fairs, to product launches, to new ideas in prefab, to Sami Reiss’s column Field Guide, our coverage features the latest goings-on in the world of home design and beyond.
  
• Prefab Profiles — An in-depth look at the companies producing prefabs around the world.

Culture — Sarah Buder, Culture Editor (sarah.buder@dwell.com)

This section explores the intersection of architecture and design as they relate to culture at large, through stories about art, books, film, television, travel, tech, work life, identity, the internet, and more. We’re looking for voice-y reported stories, personal essays, reactive analyses, historical deep-dives, and in-depth explainers that plug into what’s happening, what people are talking about, or what they should be talking about. We’re interested in investigative features that take us inside places we’ve never been with fascinating characters and scenes, as well as zeitgeist pieces that unpack cultural trends related to our homes and how we live. 

Some of our franchises include:

• You Lived Where? a series about compromise, creativity, and the places people have called home.
• Home Watching, a column by Megan Reynolds about the wild and wooly world of renovation television from a self-proclaimed expert in the genre.
• One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.
• The Trend Times, Alana Hope Levinson’s column that explores design fads in the age of doomscrolling.

• Different Strokes looks at unique home design choices that beg for further explanation.

Ideas — Executive Editor Kate Dries (kate.dries@dwell.com) and Jack Balderrama Morley (jack.morley@dwell.com)

This section focuses on the issues and ideas that affect our homes and how we live, and explores the intersection of design and social justice. Through reported pieces, analysis, and Q&As on affordable housing, planning, climate, ecological sustainability, policy, and gentrification, Ideas redefines what livability means. 

Some stories we’ve published that we’ve particularly liked:

• The Real Homes of Real Architects
• We’re Off to See the Waltons
• Would-Be Congressman Greg Casar Is Worried About Where He’s Going to Live, Too
• The Pendleton Problem: When Does Cultural Appreciation Tip Into Appropriation?
• What Do Monuments Mean to Us?
• 21 Resources on Redlining’s Role in Cementing the American Wealth Gap
• Is There a Way Out of Hawaii’s Housing Crisis?
• Young Adults Who Moved Home During COVID-19 Are Making Over Their Childhood Rooms—and Their Mindsets
• An Oral History of the Parklet 

• New Initiatives and Leaders Are Bringing Power and Profits to America’s Crafting Communities

• A New Doc About Saudi Arabia’s 105 Mile–Long City Walks "The Line" Between Fact and Politics

• The Italian Huts Where Mountaineering Was Born

Guides — Megan Reynolds, Senior Home Guides Editor (megan.reynolds@dwell.com)

This section is devoted to bringing you everything from step-by-step instructions for DIY projects inside and outside, to all you need to know about hiring and managing the team of pros that will build your dream house—and your dream home. It’s all about demystifying the often complicated projects that go into a well-designed shelter, but also about the things we do to make a house a home, frequently through a first-person voice that is clear, informed and employs a sense of humor, and is never pandering or cloying. Recent stories have included a package on how to bring the outside in in smaller city spaces, what it took to build Samin Nostrat’s dream kitchen, lessons learned from Drag Race star Detox’s renovation nightmare, guides to dealing with pests, and how to think about economic ebbs and flows in your housing hunt. 

Shop — Julia Stevens, Style Editor (julia.stevens@dwell.com)

This section offers buyer’s guides, product reviews, gift guides, and shop-related how-to articles—service content that is accessible and well-researched, with a point of view and a sense of humor. We’re looking for pieces that don’t just tell you where to shop the best Amazon sales, but help cut through the online clutter to find the best-designed products out there.  

Some of our series include:

• Expert Recs, where those in the design community share what they can’t stop buying 
• Someone Buy This!, Veronica de Souza’s monthly shopping column featuring the fun, the frivolous, and the practical as a very discerning shopper.

The Magazine

Our print magazine comes out six times a year. If you have a story that you think would be particularly suited for an issue’s theme, note that print schedules require a long lead time, so please reach out at least three months in advance—issues go live the first few weeks of each month they’re pegged for. The themes for 2024 are:

January/February: Renovations/Before and After, with sustainability angle

March/April: The Money Issue

May/June: Wild Style: Design for Inside-Out Living

July/August: Travel, with a focus on vacation rentals

September/October: Designers’ homes, including Dwell 24, our annual celebration of the best up and coming designers working today

November/December: American Design: Regionality. The issue will be structured around sections; the Northeast, Southwest, West, Southeast, and Midwest—and specifically focus on places that don’t normally get the spotlight, such as Alaska and Puerto Rico

For print-specific questions, contact Managing Editor Jack Balderrama Morley (jack.morley@dwell.com).

Contracts and Rates

The details of our contracts vary depending on medium, but most include copyright for the creator following a period of exclusivity, mutual indemnification, and graduated, guaranteed kill fee rates consistent with the point in the process the story is cut. We pay within 30 days of receipt of your invoice.

For written pieces, our rates start at 50 cents per assigned word for web, and $1 for print, and increase with the complexity of the story and amount of reporting required. Some Design franchises have set rates, such as:

• Dwell+ Exclusive (Digital home tour published exclusively on Dwell+), Budget Breakdown, Out There, Tiny Homes/Small Spaces, Prefabs, Before and After, Rental Revamp: $400 for 600-800 word pieces

• Design News: $350 
  

Fact checking and copyediting rates are $35 an hour.

For photography and illustration, our rates start at $100 for web, but range widely depending on whether the assignment is existing material, or commissioned, and the project's scope. Most print assignments and exclusives fall within the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Video projects vary widely. Please contact Creative Director Suzanne LaGasa (suzanne.lagasa@dwell.com), Visuals Director Amy Silberman (amy.silberman@dwell.com) and Associate Visuals Editor Alex Casto (alex.casto@dwell.com) with pitches.