Question: Your coverage in the L.A. Times and your blog have inspired my husband and I to move forward with purchasing a new house that has everything but one key feature: A Great Kitchen. In fact, the existing kitchen is barely bigger than the one I had in my college apartment. We have a fantastic…
For a cool contemporary home, these DIY paintings might be fun and flexible. These look so sophisticated. But actually, they’re simply canvases stretched on wood frames covered liberally with gesso-thickened paint. And where in the world would artists be without the miracle of gesso? Just moving one colored canvas in or out of a scene…
Men, could this be true? You’re abandoning your man-caves for man-kitchens and man-patios? This emerging (get it?) trend was announced in a press release for ReVision, a remodeling company that won an award for the outdoor man-kitchen you see here. Todd Senft, from the Canadian remodeling company, said the project was created for “a young…
"Cliff May and the Modern Ranch House" by Daniel P. Gregory, with photographs by Joe Fletcher and a foreword by Joel Silver. (Rizzoli; 256 pages; $60) Reviewed by Robert Nebolon (Robert Nebolon, a Berkeley architect, designed a contemporary Hermosa Beach home featured previously on this blog.) Cliff May, the father of the California ranch house,…
As I’m perusing tile stores to get ideas for my own backsplash, I come across a photo of this gorgeous green glass tile. It’s in a house featured by the L.A. Times Home Section in an article title, appropriately, Exploding with color. What struck me was the use of the same color in all the…
Back in the 1980s, Michelle Griffoul chose her home for one reason. “It had forklift access to the backyard,” said Michelle, who bought the home, in the Santa Barbara County community of Los Olivos, when she was a fledgling ceramic-tile artist with a very large kiln. “The house itself was irrelevant.” But the sage-green house…
I see a couple of ideas here that are useful for my own remodeling. But the thing that really jumped out at me in this story is that the homeowner and I have nearly the same name: she is Kathryn Price, I am Kathy Price. However, she has three kids and a law degree. And…
For Kim Myles fans who were put off by what one commenter here called a “bizarre” color scheme during HGTV’s “Myles of Style” show on Sunday, tonight’s presentation may have been her vindication. The boutique hotel décor of the reveal was stunning with a richly hued wall of puddling drapes and a three-toned upholstered headboard.…
I’ve been lucky enough to meet two amazing TV decorators: Amanda Pays from Fine Living’s "Breathing Room," and Kitty Bartholomew from HGTV’s "You’re Home: Kitty Bartholomew." (Kitty and I later wrote a book together, now out of print). Amanda and Kitty shared with me two golden nuggets of decorating wisdom. But really, those nuggets never…
Michael Abel, an architect and contractor from California, and his Israeli-born wife Nava, built and decorated this 1,800-square-foot, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in the town of Zichron Yaacov, Israel, which overlooks the Mediterranean. This is from an article in the New York Times. The article says that many of the building materials, including interior doors, were…