diff --git a/.pryrc b/.pryrc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..22e16cde
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pryrc
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+if defined?(Rails) && Rails.env
+  extend Rails::ConsoleMethods
+end
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index de859132..6031d40c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -85,20 +85,19 @@ To set config options, add this to your initializer:
 
 ### Excluding models
 
-If you have some models that should always access the 'root' database, you can specify this by configuring
-Apartment using `Apartment.configure`.  This will yield a config object for you.  You can set excluded models like so:
+If you have some models that should always access the 'root' database, you can specify this by configuring Apartment using `Apartment.configure`.  This will yield a config object for you.  You can set excluded models like so:
 
     config.excluded_models = ["User", "Company"]        # these models will not be multi-tenanted, but remain in the global (public) namespace
 
 Note that a string representation of the model name is now the standard so that models are properly constantized when reloaded in development
 
-### Handling Environments
+### Providing a default schema
 
-By default, when not using postgresql schemas, Apartment will prepend the environment to the database name
-to ensure there is no conflict between your environments.  This is mainly for the benefit of your development
-and test environments.  If you wish to turn this option off in production, you could do something like:
+By default, ActiveRecord will use `"$user", public` as the default `schema_search_path`. This can be modified if you wish to use a different default schema be setting:
 
-    config.prepend_environment = !Rails.env.production?
+    config.default_schema = "some_other_schema"
+
+With that set, all excluded models will use this schema as the table name prefix instead of `public` and `reset` on `Apartment::Database` will return to this schema also
 
 ### Managing Migrations
 
@@ -119,7 +118,15 @@ You can then migration your databases using the rake task:
 This basically invokes `Apartment::Database.migrate(#{db_name})` for each database name supplied
 from `Apartment.database_names`
 
-### Delayed::Job
+### Handling Environments
+
+By default, when not using postgresql schemas, Apartment will prepend the environment to the database name
+to ensure there is no conflict between your environments.  This is mainly for the benefit of your development
+and test environments.  If you wish to turn this option off in production, you could do something like:
+
+    config.prepend_environment = !Rails.env.production?
+
+## Delayed::Job
 
 If using Rails ~> 3.2, you *must* use `delayed_job ~> 3.0`.  It has better Rails 3 support plus has some major changes that affect the serialization of models.
 I haven't been able to get `psych` working whatsoever as the YAML parser, so to get things to work properly, you must explicitly set the parser to `syck` *before* requiring `delayed_job`
diff --git a/lib/apartment.rb b/lib/apartment.rb
index c76ab27e..6a8d2103 100644
--- a/lib/apartment.rb
+++ b/lib/apartment.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ module Apartment
 
   class << self
     attr_accessor :use_postgres_schemas, :seed_after_create, :prepend_environment
-    attr_writer :database_names, :excluded_models
+    attr_writer :database_names, :excluded_models, :default_schema
 
     # configure apartment with available options
     def configure
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ def excluded_models
       @excluded_models || []
     end
 
+    def default_schema
+      @default_schema || "public"
+    end
   end
 
   autoload :Database, 'apartment/database'
diff --git a/lib/apartment/adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb b/lib/apartment/adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
index 178df229..a12a9e00 100644
--- a/lib/apartment/adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
+++ b/lib/apartment/adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ module Database
 
     def self.postgresql_adapter(config)
       Apartment.use_postgres_schemas ?
-        Adapters::PostgresqlSchemaAdapter.new(config, :schema_search_path => ActiveRecord::Base.connection.schema_search_path) :
+        Adapters::PostgresqlSchemaAdapter.new(config) :
         Adapters::PostgresqlAdapter.new(config)
     end
   end
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def drop(database)
       end
 
       #   Reset search path to default search_path
-      #   Set the table_name to always use the public namespace for excluded models
+      #   Set the table_name to always use the default namespace for excluded models
       #
       def process_excluded_models
         Apartment.excluded_models.each do |excluded_model|
@@ -66,14 +66,14 @@ def process_excluded_models
 
           excluded_model.constantize.tap do |klass|
             # some models (such as delayed_job) seem to load and cache their column names before this,
-            # so would never get the public prefix, so reset first
+            # so would never get the default prefix, so reset first
             klass.reset_column_information
 
             # Ensure that if a schema *was* set, we override
             table_name = klass.table_name.split('.', 2).last
 
             # Not sure why, but Delayed::Job somehow ignores table_name_prefix...  so we'll just manually set table name instead
-            klass.table_name = "public.#{table_name}"
+            klass.table_name = "#{Apartment.default_schema}.#{table_name}"
           end
         end
       end
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ def process_excluded_models
       #   @return {String} default schema search path
       #
       def reset
-        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.schema_search_path = @defaults[:schema_search_path]
+        ActiveRecord::Base.connection.schema_search_path = Apartment.default_schema
       end
 
     protected
diff --git a/lib/apartment/database.rb b/lib/apartment/database.rb
index da0aa5b5..e107c6af 100644
--- a/lib/apartment/database.rb
+++ b/lib/apartment/database.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 module Apartment
 
   #   The main entry point to Apartment functions
+  #
   module Database
 
     extend self
diff --git a/spec/config/database.yml b/spec/config/database.yml
index e61d4c36..f0a6bdc6 100644
--- a/spec/config/database.yml
+++ b/spec/config/database.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ connections:
     database: apartment_postgresql_test
     min_messages: WARNING
     username: postgres
+    schema_search_path: public
     password:
 
   mysql:
diff --git a/spec/database_spec.rb b/spec/database_spec.rb
index 09d73752..c3a6e083 100644
--- a/spec/database_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/database_spec.rb
@@ -26,42 +26,42 @@
   end
 
   context "using postgresql" do
-    
+
     # See apartment.yml file in dummy app config
-    
+
     let(:config){ Apartment::Test.config['connections']['postgresql'].symbolize_keys }
     let(:database){ Apartment::Test.next_db }
     let(:database2){ Apartment::Test.next_db }
-    
+
     before do
       Apartment.use_postgres_schemas = true
       ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection config
       Apartment::Test.load_schema   # load the Rails schema in the public db schema
       subject.stub(:config).and_return config   # Use postgresql database config for this test
     end
-    
+
     describe "#adapter" do
       before do
         subject.reload!
       end
-      
+
       it "should load postgresql adapter" do
         subject.adapter
         Apartment::Adapters::PostgresqlAdapter.should be_a(Class)
       end
-      
+
       it "should raise exception with invalid adapter specified" do
         subject.stub(:config).and_return config.merge(:adapter => 'unkown')
-        
+
         expect {
           Apartment::Database.adapter
         }.to raise_error
       end
-      
+
     end
-    
+
     context "with schemas" do
-      
+
       before do
         Apartment.configure do |config|
           config.excluded_models = []
@@ -70,25 +70,25 @@
         end
         subject.create database
       end
-      
+
       after{ subject.drop database }
-      
+
       describe "#create" do
         it "should seed data" do
           subject.switch database
           User.count.should be > 0
         end
       end
-    
+
       describe "#switch" do
-        
+
         let(:x){ rand(3) }
-        
+
         context "creating models" do
-          
+
           before{ subject.create database2 }
           after{ subject.drop database2 }
-          
+
           it "should create a model instance in the current schema" do
             subject.switch database2
             db2_count = User.count + x.times{ User.create }
@@ -103,20 +103,20 @@
             User.count.should == db_count
           end
         end
-        
+
         context "with excluded models" do
-          
+
           before do
             Apartment.configure do |config|
               config.excluded_models = ["Company"]
             end
             subject.init
           end
-          
+
           it "should create excluded models in public schema" do
             subject.reset # ensure we're on public schema
             count = Company.count + x.times{ Company.create }
-            
+
             subject.switch database
             x.times{ Company.create }
             Company.count.should == count + x
@@ -124,10 +124,10 @@
             Company.count.should == count + x
           end
         end
-        
+
       end
-            
+
     end
-    
+
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/examples/schema_adapter_examples.rb b/spec/examples/schema_adapter_examples.rb
index f7096abd..7022863c 100644
--- a/spec/examples/schema_adapter_examples.rb
+++ b/spec/examples/schema_adapter_examples.rb
@@ -9,15 +9,26 @@
 
   describe "#init" do
 
-    it "should process model exclusions" do
+    before do
       Apartment.configure do |config|
         config.excluded_models = ["Company"]
       end
+    end
 
+    it "should process model exclusions" do
       Apartment::Database.init
 
       Company.table_name.should == "public.companies"
     end
+
+    context "with a default_schema", :default_schema => true do
+
+      it "should set the proper table_name on excluded_models" do
+        Apartment::Database.init
+
+        Company.table_name.should == "#{default_schema}.companies"
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   #
@@ -91,7 +102,7 @@
 
     it "should reset" do
       subject.process(schema1)
-      connection.schema_search_path.should == public_schema
+      connection.schema_search_path.should start_with public_schema
     end
   end
 
@@ -99,7 +110,15 @@
     it "should reset connection" do
       subject.switch(schema1)
       subject.reset
-      connection.schema_search_path.should == public_schema
+      connection.schema_search_path.should start_with public_schema
+    end
+
+    context "with default_schema", :default_schema => true do
+      it "should reset to the default schema" do
+        subject.switch(schema1)
+        subject.reset
+        connection.schema_search_path.should start_with default_schema
+      end
     end
   end
 
@@ -134,6 +153,20 @@
 
       after{ subject.drop(db) }
     end
+
+    describe "with default_schema specified", :default_schema => true do
+      before do
+        subject.switch(schema1)
+      end
+
+      it "should switch out the default schema rather than public" do
+        connection.schema_search_path.should_not include default_schema
+      end
+
+      it "should still switch to the switched schema" do
+        connection.schema_search_path.should start_with schema1
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe "#current_database" do
diff --git a/spec/support/apartment_helpers.rb b/spec/support/apartment_helpers.rb
index a6727d22..771cbaea 100644
--- a/spec/support/apartment_helpers.rb
+++ b/spec/support/apartment_helpers.rb
@@ -1,38 +1,41 @@
 module Apartment
   module Test
-    
+
     extend self
-    
+
     def reset
       Apartment.excluded_models = nil
       Apartment.use_postgres_schemas = nil
       Apartment.seed_after_create = nil
+      Apartment.default_schema = nil
     end
-    
+
     def next_db
       @x ||= 0
       "db_#{@x += 1}"
     end
-    
+
     def drop_schema(schema)
       ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("DROP SCHEMA IF EXISTS #{schema} CASCADE") rescue true
     end
-    
+
+    # Use this if you don't want to import schema.rb etc... but need the postgres schema to exist
+    # basically for speed purposes
     def create_schema(schema)
       ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("CREATE SCHEMA #{schema}")
     end
-    
+
     def load_schema
       silence_stream(STDOUT){ load(Rails.root.join('db', 'schema.rb')) }
     end
-    
+
     def migrate
       ActiveRecord::Migrator.migrate(Rails.root + ActiveRecord::Migrator.migrations_path)
     end
-    
+
     def rollback
       ActiveRecord::Migrator.rollback(Rails.root + ActiveRecord::Migrator.migrations_path)
     end
-    
+
   end
 end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/support/contexts.rb b/spec/support/contexts.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c52a32af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/contexts.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#   Some shared contexts for specs
+
+shared_context "with default schema", :default_schema => true do
+  let(:default_schema){ Apartment::Test.next_db }
+
+  before do
+    Apartment::Test.create_schema(default_schema)
+    Apartment.default_schema = default_schema
+  end
+
+  after do
+    # resetting default_schema so we can drop and any further resets won't try to access droppped schema
+    Apartment.default_schema = nil
+    Apartment::Test.drop_schema(default_schema)
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/support/requirements.rb b/spec/support/requirements.rb
index 1e17c763..5cae543c 100644
--- a/spec/support/requirements.rb
+++ b/spec/support/requirements.rb
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ module Spec
     #
     #
     module AdapterRequirements
-      
+
       extend ActiveSupport::Concern
-      
+
       included do
         let(:db1){ Apartment::Test.next_db }
         let(:db2){ Apartment::Test.next_db }
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ module AdapterRequirements
           # sometimes we manually drop these schemas in testing, don't care if we can't drop, hence rescue
           subject.drop(db1) rescue true
           subject.drop(db2) rescue true
-          
+
           ActiveRecord::Base.clear_all_connections!
           Apartment::Database.reload!
         end
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ module AdapterRequirements
           raise "You must define a `#{method}` method in your host group"
         end unless defined?(method)
       end
-      
+
     end
   end
 end
\ No newline at end of file