Tag: Home Design

Doesn’t this bathroom towel bar just make you want to renovate your bathroom? I think so…somehow it just feels so clean and spa-like. Certainly my bathroom does NOT feel clean and spa like. Wouldn’t it be great if adding a simple towel rack would do the trick?

Anyway, if you’re a Design Within Reach nut, then you have to check out their bath sale right now. DWR is offering great stuff at 70% off or more.

I, personally, think Design Within Reach should be re-named Design Almost Within Reach (have you sen their prices?), but that’s just me. This sale makes their prices a tad more palatable.

How many times when you were growing up did you yearn for a stage – a real stage – on which to perform your daring interpretation of Grease, Spider Man, or insert favorite kid’s TV show here? My sister and I had this whole routine down: she was Olivia Newton-John (of course she was, she was the older sister with flowing blond hair) and I was John Travolta (I, the easily bossed around little sister who would play any role as long as big sis would pay attention to me…sad, isn’t it?!?).

But now, as a parent myself, I seldom think of the need for an actual stage. Why would I? I am old and decrepit, sleep-deprived and no fun! And yet, that was the first thing I was drawn to when I saw this brilliant re-design of a tired old room into a kid’s paradise at a decorator show house.

Real quick – what is a decorator show house? Well, it’s a house (usually a big mansion) that the owners “give over” to local interior designers for one month. The designers choose a room and then decorate their little hearts out, hoping to showcase their talents. “Lookie-loos” (aka the public) pay good money to then walk around this open house, gawking at how luscious everything is. My husband and I love to do this if for no other reason than to see how the other half lives.

This past weekend we saw the most recent show house in northern California and fell in love with the kid’s playroom. The design team created, out of a plain rectangular room with too many doors, a play space worthy of envy. They installed an undulating stage that was 3 steps high, complete with a back stage area and a chalkboard back wall for drawing the scenery. It wasn’t big so much as it was functional. I think the stage was close to 4′ x 10′ or with curves. Not hard to do – just hard to think of doing.

Then – and this was the best part – they turned a large closet into a secret room by making the door into a swinging bookcase. When the bookcase was closed it was a plain jane bookcase. But, when you swung it open it became the entrance to this hideaway that had a nook configured like a ramp to curl up and read on (or, if you’re a teenager, text and surf) next to a slightly less curvey and more slanted spot. Each ramp was covered in a thick shag rug, as were the walls – kinda like a padded cell. I wonder if these guys actually appreciated the visual pun of that? In any case, the designers created the ultimate kid’s hideaway out of a simple closet – a brilliantly simple idea executed to perfection.

The rest of the room was then completed with a large cork board on which to hang artwork (much better than the fridge) and a corner with an indestructible table. They used flying bird lamps above the table – very cute! What about storage, you ask? The toys all had homes on the floor (yes, the floor, but it looked perfect). Yet, you could tell that whoever used that room wouldn’t NEED toys – just their imagination.

The thing that resonated with me the most was that the room made one feel special, like anyone could be young in that space, that your imagination was the vehicle to great heights and all one need do is unleash it. I hope I can create a playroom like that for my girls!

I originally thought I’d review this new design book by Robert and Courtney Novogratz, Downtown Chic: Designing Your Dream Home: From Wreck to Ravishing, for the the kids room. But, I’ve got to say, I’ve gotten some fun ideas for other parts of the house (and backyard) as well.

Every mom needs a get-away bathroom, even if it’s shared by the entire family. The bathroom, well, more specifically the bath tub needs to feel like an oasis – a place to relax and rejuvenate. Nothing resets the mind (and attitude) like a good, hot bath. One tip I love from this book is about making the bathroom feel special.

You can always put personal touches around in the bath to make it your own. Courtney talks about putting mini statues of goddesses and cupids around in her bath along with perfume bottles. Not a bad touch to liven up any bath as long as you have the counter space (or shelf space) for such things.

My favorite tip, though, is hanging a chandelier above the tub. The girlier the better. Of course, you cannot have electricity that close to water so she puts candles in where the light bulbs go. Can’t you just imagine the flickering light as you soak in hot hot water. That would do wonders to take me away!

The other tip which is not so easy to do but seems incredibly fun is putting a trampoline in the back yard. I know what you’re thinking…dangerous! But the authors came up with a really ingenious solution – they sunk the trampoline in to the ground.

Yep – in the ground. They dug a 3 foot deep hole, put in drainage and plopped the trampoline on top of the hole Freaking brilliant! Think of how your kids would love it and you won’t have to worry about one of them jumping off and breaking their neck. Sure, they can still jump and land on the ground, but it won’t be from death defying heights.

And finally, for the pool in one of the houses they renovated, the authors installed a wooden platform instead of a diving board, modeled after a floating dock. Makes the whole pool seem like even more of a getaway, if that were possible!

The rest of the book is quite fun to look at, but for those of us who don’t have a fixer-upper to mold into our own creation the tips aren’t all that useful. I thought that it would be about design/decorating but that was just my misunderstanding. Boy, my sister will gasp in horror when she finds out that I equated “design” with “decorate” since she’s an interior designer NOT an interior decorator. There is a difference and it’s a difference that makes a difference to those in the know…

Anyway, thanks to the folks at Rizzoli who were sweet enough to send me the book to review!

From my new favorite design team, BUDesigns! I love these salt and pepper shakers – totally cool. In fact, they are so cool they don’t look like salt and pepper shakers at all, but more like minimalist sculptures.

Just think, you could have little sculptures on your table and no one would know that they were functional, too. Well, come to think of it, that might not be a good thing…then you’d have your guests always asking “where’s the salt?”