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…
I’m enthralled with this 435-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village, N.Y. It has only one window, in the living room, yet the space feels light and open. What you see here is the living room from each end, with the kitchen on one side, and the bedroom on the other side through glass doors. (Click photo…
The New York Times had a pretty good concept for a series: Remake five rooms around the city for $300 each. In these times of job losses and declining prosperity, $300 is still a lot of money but not too much. In a living room on Long Island, $250 of the budget was eaten up…
I guess the apartment where Carrie Bradshaw researched and wrote her columns in the "Sex and the City" television show probably did need a makeover. Several years had passed from Carrie’s life on the small screen to her promotion to the big screen, and we all need to evolve. Carrie’s guests needed to stop sitting…
I got a bunch of questions about the original ceiling and archway of the $20,000 kitchen remodel in the latest Rate This Remodel feature. So I thought I’d show the old and new compared here: What’s neat about the story, for me, is that Dani had a lot of time to think about her kitchen.…
First, here are the facts: • The kitchen remodel in this 1971 Northridge tract house cost $20,000 and was done in three weeks. (Click on the photos to get a larger view)• Homeowner Dani Taylor did none of the work herself, but hired a contractor well known in the neighborhood.• Dani had many years to…
So what do you do if the front of your house has virtually no character? No charm? No distinction? What if your front porch is little more than a couple of concrete steps and a slight extension of the roofline? If you’re Arnie and Lily Richards, you take some action, as they did on their…
Prudential real estate agent David Kean had a heck of time figuring out how to decorate a 35-foot-long wall in his Downtown Los Angeles loft. He finally finished his DIY masterpiece and wants to know what we think about it. As you can see in the before photo, the wall before lacked pizzazz. And that’s…
The story you are about to hear is shocking, so don’t fall off your chair when I tell you: The remodel of this 1948 Hawthorne home was designed by a 16-year-old, David, and built by him and his father Norbert, a schoolteacher, during a summer break. Since then, David has been accepted into the respected…
With winter supposedly coming our way, thoughts may turn to fireplace upgrades. Here are three fireplace remodels readers have been kind enough to share with me. I’d like to know which is your favorite, based on all criteria, including cost. 1. Craftsman: The top left fireplace is in San Diego, and the owner tells me…