Question: I have hated my brick fireplace since day one of living in my otherwise-fabulous home. I have considered removing the brick altogether and creating a brand-new one by placing stucco over it with a mantle, or painting the brick white and adding a rich, dark wooden mantle on top. Actually, a Williams-Sonoma home store…
Progress is being made on Joni’s condo kitchen remodel. See Joni and her nurse-friend Patti in their scrubs working on the kitchen. See the kitchen before any work was done. So far, the overhead cabinet that blocked the natural light has come down, and a fun s-curve track light has gone up. The boring wood…
I’d like to think I played some small part in the fabulous success being enjoyed by Dan Gallagher, a young, hardworking and extremely courteous decorative painter from Sierra Madre. One day he’s featured in the Pardon Our Dust Blog (here, here and here), and the next thing you know, he and his work are featured…
Hi, Patti here, with an update. My friend Joni and I have decided to paint all of her cabinets green but leave some chocolate brown (base color) for relief on the kick plates and in a couple of mid-sections on the top cabinets. Painting the bottom cabinets first gave us a feel for how the…
Joni and her friend Patti, nurses in the same surgical clinic, are making good progress on Joni’s condo kitchen makeover. They have sanded the sheen off the lower cabinets and painted on a brown primer. Here, Joni brushes on a brown paint/glaze combination, and Patti is coming behind her and wiping it with a sport…
So I asked the guys at my local paint store about no-VOC and low-VOC paints. As you may know, VOC stands for volatile organic compounds, but you could also call them volatile chemical compounds. They are emitted as gases from paints and glues and sealants and other products and make people sick. Or, as the…
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…
The new kitchen? It’s ’100% us’ A Glassell Park couple get personal in their latest redo — down to the cat-feeding station. As Kristina Johnson and David Franke discovered while remodeling their Glassell Park kitchen, taking charge of the job — drawing the plans, buying materials, supervising contractors for some work and doing a portion…
Thanks for all the advice on my exterior paint. I feel much better about the weird green trim. And by that I mean: I know I can change it and it's not the end of the world. I appreciate your kindness! Here's what I did right: • Contractor: I hired a painting contractor who was…
Bill and Becka Doering did a whole-house green remodel on their Santa Barbara home, and I wrote a Pardon Our Dust feature about it, which you can read here. Bill is both an engineer and a green-building enthusiast. With his firm, Doering Design & Engineering, he helps others make their homes more energy-efficient. Also, the…