Jonathan Adler, I Love You!

There. I've done it. I've professed my love to the world. While most of you are crushing on some hunky movie star, I'm crushing over a potter. Of course Jonathan Adler is not just any potter -- he's an amazingly gifted potter who branched out into furniture design and now has a chain of boutiques that bear his name.

Oh, Jonathan, I know you are in a relationship -- and I have been married for nearly thirty years, and raised three children with my husband, but he just doesn't understand me like you do! The color, the glitz, the glam, the retro-but-not-kitchy, the handcrafts, the art, the warmth -- you get me. Oh, how I love you.

So You Want to Be an Interior Designer!

Do you love beauty? Do you love being creative? Do you love helping others put together beautiful and functional spaces? Maybe you should be an interior designer!

(This post is participating in Blogging A to Z.  I is for Interior Designer.)

If designing spaces is something think you want to do, here are a few facts you need to know:

How to Fix a Leaky Faucet

The faucet was leaking... drip, drip, drip... it wouldn't stop. One day we just couldn't stand it anymore. We ordered a package of assorted washers from Amazon, and eagerly awaited its arrival.

(This post is participating in Blogging from A to Z. F is for Faucet. Or Fix. Or Fail.)

We have fixed many leaky faucets over the years, so we expected this one to be a piece of cake. It was not. The old, ugly faucet, with the broken ceramic handle could not be repaired. We needed a special tool we did not have, and frankly, we hated the faucet. So, off I went to Lowes to grab another faucet, but while I was there, I thought "Why not replace that awful sink while we're at it?"

Barn Door Hardware Guide

We are gearing up for a barn door hardware project at the beach house this spring, and have been collecting ideas, looking at barn door tutorials, and researching where to buy barn door hardware.

There is lots of great information on barn doors out there, so we have compiled a guide with some of the best tutorials and barn door hardware sources we've found.

Awesome Ways to Re-Purpose Vintage Crates!

Do you have vintage crates in your home?  How do you use them? I have an old fruit crate I inherited from my mother-in-law -- she used it in her garden, but I'm thinking I'd like to use it to store extra blankets in the living room.

Here is a round-up of ideas for re-purposing vintage crates, as well as some craigslist crates I found this week.

How to Paint Perfect Stripes

Renovations at our little pied-a-terre in the city are moving along -- albeit, at a snail's pace.  That's the problem with living in a space while you renovate.  We still don't have one. completely. finished. space. Sigh....

Well, I decided to do what any sane person would do when they are surrounded by renovation projects.  I painted stripes on my wall.  Because stripes are important.

We have this wall in our living room that was just screaming for "something".  There is a fireplace in the corner of the room, and the wall next to the fireplace just felt "blah".  I LOVE how our stripes turned out.  Here is how you can paint perfect stripes, without any paint bleeding underneath your painter's tape.

Start by marking where you want your stripes to go.  In my case, I wanted wide horizontal stripes -- each stripe is about 12 inches wide.

Next, using a long level, lightly mark the edge of each stripe.

Apply painter's tape, masking off the edge where you *don't* want paint.  As a reminder,  tape several "X"es on the stripes you will not be painting.

Now, using the background color (the color that the wall is already painted), paint over the edges of the paint to "seal" the edges.  Any paint that may bleed under the tape will match the existing paint.

Paint your stripes, using a couple of light coats of paint.

Before your paint completely dries, gently remove the painter's tape. Pull the tape down at right angles from the newly painted area.

We still have a long way to go in this space -- honestly, I've forgotten what it's like *not* to have hammers and tile samples and buckets of paint everywhere, but for now my new stripes make me happy.

Do you ever stop right in the middle of a big project, just to do a smaller project?  Sometimes, when we're doing larger renovations, it's these happy little projects that keep me sane!