Somehow I missed this whole spectacle last year when Mohawk lined Ricko the rhino’s pen at the Birmingham Zoo with SmartStrand carpet and let him do his thing for a few weeks. Chip Wade, the hunky carpenter from HGTV’s Designed to Sell and Curb Appeal, hosted the event. Apparently there was a 24-hour webcam directed toward…
I’m enthralled with this small kitchen, which I saw in an article by kitchen designer Susan Serra, author of The Kitchen Designer. What’s so appealing here? The antique wood floors are most beautiful. Susan points out that the direction the boards run, along the length of the kitchen, rather than the width, draws your eye…
Mari Strain, owner of Flooring Alternatives, a green flooring retailer that offers consulting services and ships products across the country, says that the range of sustainable flooring options continues to grow. For example, there are now more Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)–certified wood flooring products available. “It’s also more recognized,” she says. “LEED helps bring awareness…
If you live long enough, most things of the past become hip again, or should we say groovy again? This carpeted conversation pit is a perfect example of a feature homeowners ripped out just a few years ago for being hopelessly outdated, but which now looks stylish. This trend will likely make the carpet industry…
My latest Pardon Our Dust feature in the L.A. Times, about a small bathroom in Venice, has the most gorgeous photos ever to accommodate one of my articles. Check out the story here. And check out the photos here.
You’re familiar with bullnose corners, right? Rounded, elegant, rich-looking. But what do you do about the baseboard moldings? You can’t very well finish them off with standard squared-off, 90-degree moldings. On his Build or Remodel Your Own House blog, Carl Heldmann offers some suggestions from Distinctive Woodcraft West. The corner molding shown here has a…
It might be soon to talk about recovery as the tragedy unfolds, but Southern Californians do rebuild after fires. I’m sure Claremont residents Vern and Deb Jahnke, who lost their house in the 2003 Grand Prix Fire, are thinking about and praying for (he’s a minister, after all) the victims of the current fires. After…
This kitchen, featured on the Dwell magazine website, was done for less than $2,000 (not counting DIY labor) with Ikea products. The total cost was about $1,400 partly because the guy who did it works for Ikea and got his employee discount, but he figures the rest of us could do it for less than…
The great thing about living in a metropolitan area is your access to so many shops, supply houses and enterprises. Daniel Gonzales and Janice Stango took full advantage of this when they set out to convert their old, dirt-floored garage in North Hollywood into a sitting area (they will build a carport to replace it…
Charles Chang struggled with opposing desires when he set out to become a first-time homeowner: to save money by buying a fixer-upper and maintain his tranquil lifestyle. “I’m in sales, so I’m always looking for a deal,” said Chang, 30, a district manager for a computer company. On the other hand, he said: “I’m a…