Remodelista

Annals of Bad Design: Giant Wardrobe in a Small Room, With a Fix

Many of the design suggestions in Remodelista’s “Expert Advice…for Creating the Illusion of Space” are indeed effective. Not this one. So we figured out some solutions…

Draped Linens and Drop Cloths Transform Furniture in a Chateau (and Your House as Well)

For need-of-a- refresh sofa or chairs, we take a cue from this chill 12th Century château in France transformed with the artful use of draped cloth.

Salvaged Marble and Stone For Tables, Shelves, Backsplashes…

A budget apartment overhaul by a Brooklyn design student reminded us of the great design possibilities inherent in salvaged cuts of marble and other stone.

A Relaxing Approach to Desiring Fine Things

Everywhere we look we are urged to desire things, with the implicit message that if we have them, we’ll be okay. We like psychotherapist Chris Eldredge’s unique approach to the acquisition of fine things.

Simplest Possible Curtain Tie (And Hotel Room Strategy)

We love this impromptu-looking curtain tie made of a strip of leather. Ribbon would be swell as well. It reminds us of our improvised hotel room strategy for calming down curtains with busy prints…

A Solution for Paint-Crusted Moldings and Doors

Recently I skyped with a colleague who just moved into a prewar rental in Brooklyn; she asked me to see if I could come up with solutions to the various challenges imposed by the wonderful but imperfect and not-hers-to-renovate space. So we did a video tour of her space. (I hope show some before and after’s…

Quick Home Fixes from a Cooled Out Chateau

When we are scrambling to pull their spaces together in preparation for big crowd of family and friends, we take a cue from the unexpectedly chill interiors of this 12th Century château in France…

DIY Beautifully Chalky Limewashed Walls

When friends renovated their NYC brownstone, they made wonderfully varied walls — high-gloss painted walls next to beautiful flat, chalky ones achieved by careful plastering — that made the rooms incredibly beautiful.

I copied their high-gloss walls in my Harlem space, but wondered how I could achieve the chalky effect of plaster myself. The answer recently presented itself in a great DIY by Justine Hand for Remodelista.

Display Art with Vintage Binder Clips

We’ve long been fans of binder clips for all sorts of uses, including hanging unframed artworks. But we NEVER considered how beautiful vintage binder clips might be put to this and other uses, until we saw Remodelista’s recent article. They are prominently featured in the home of art collector and mid-century furniture dealer Demetrio Zanetti.…

Painted Oriented Strand Board Floors

Remodelista recently featured the clever redesign of a 430-square foot-apartment in a century-old row house in Antwerp, the work of Belgian architecture firm Komaan! —translation, “Come on!” It’s full of good ideas, including clever layout that creates a fluid space with lots of storage, and interesting use of plywood, but our favorite is the floors: sheets of…

Jagged or Unfinished as a Design Element

We’ve long been fans of “broken geometries”, the purposeful leaving of design elements unfinished, uneven, or even broken, to create a visual surprise. Recently Remodelista did a roundup of some fine examples.

Material for Making: Healthy Plywood 101

Plywood is an endlessly useful, accessible, great-looking material for making, that has been inspired legions of artists, architects and designers. The glues used to make modern plywood often contains formaldehyde, so we’re passing on this great primer on healthy plywoods.

Annals of SMART Design: Angled Headboard to Buy or DIY

Angled headboards are much more comfortable than straight-up-and-down, right-angled headboards. Check out some examples of REALLY comfortable angles, bed frame possibilities AND a way to DIY an angled headboard yourself.

how to make low ceilings look higher (optical illusion)

We were thrilled when Remodelista contacted us about using images we’d posted some time ago of an essential design trick we’d used throughout the Laboratory’s renovation: replacing the squat 6’6″ doors with tall, eight-footers. Their strong vertical lines make our lowish 8’2″ ceilings look higher. Check out our images on Remodelista. In the meantime, here are…

cheap + chic: how to install and paint plywood floors

When Remodelista recently featured a picture of the Laboratory’s painted plywood floors in Remodeling 101: Painted Plywood—The Best Budget Wood Floor, I figured it was time to show HOW my plywood floors actually were made, and to lend a little reality to what it takes to install and paint 1000 square feet of them. I love ’em, and…