LOVELETTERS:

Dear Purdy Angled Paintbrush,

I love you. If I have you I need no other. I don’t need painter’s tape. I don’t need edging tools. With you, I can accomplish anything: baseboards, corners, ceilings, and the narrow area between doors and windows. Your angle makes the task of cutting in a breeze. You hold just the right amount of paint without dripping and you clean up easy with soap and water. Purdy, you and I are the Batman and Robin of the DIY world: a Dynamic Duo.

Yours forever,

C & P

Is Hilari Vanessa's Doppleganger? 

Who else thinks it's perfect that Hilari Younger from DesignStar Season 7 got the 80's room in episode 5? She did a great job, but I would expect nothing less as Vanessa Huxtable's doppleganger. 

If you don't remember Vanessa Huxtable (played by actress Tempestt Bledsoe), it is understandable. She was the middle-child. As a refresher, she is from the famous, hilarious, and endearing Huxtable family from The Cosby Show. Maybe that is why we love Hilari so much! 

Hilari Younger from DesignStar (left);
Vanessa Huxtable (actress Tempestt Bledsoe)
from The Cosby Show (right)

she said.she said. 

This week, open shelves in the kitchen

For several years now open shelving in the kitchen has been widely used in all the shelter magazines, tv shows and blogs. I have to say, I don’t get it. The kitchen is the most difficult room in the house to keep clean.

• food

• household dust

• grease

• condensation from hot water

You combine any two of those items and you have a substance that will survive a nuclear war. 

Be honest, when you have to change the light bulb in the kitchen and you grab the fixture isn’t your first response “UGH! Why is this so sticky?!” What do you think every item on the open shelf is going to feel like? 

If space is tight, edit your belongings. If you want to display a special collection, glass front cabinets are a better option. If you insist on following after an unworthy trend at least put the shelves as far away from the sink and stove as possible. 

I have a difficult time abiding by any decorating choice that just creates more work. The best design is suppose to make your life easier not your chore list longer.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

What did the kitchen cabinet say to the open shelf? "I said tapas, not topless!" 

A bad joke for a bad idea - open shelving in your kitchen. If you wouldn't go topless in your kitchen, neither should your dishes. 

For me, open shelving in a kitchen is like the five second rule for your floor. Okay, so maybe it's 15 seconds, but it still exists. If you think the five (or 15) second rule isn't true, watch recent MythBuster episode. 

Sure they are beautiful, open up the space, and make dishes an arm distance away. The last point is the bone of my contention. If your dishes are just an arm's length away from you, then they are also arms distance from the grease and grime of everyday use. 

However, there are three exceptions to when open shelving is acceptable:

1. You sell them for a living

2. Your spouse sells them for a living

3. Nope, now that I think about it there are only two

Take my advice, if you want an open feeling in your kitchen, use glass front cabinets, keep the a light color, and add under cabinet lighting. Fair warning, if you don't heed my advice, I'll keep telling jokes. 

Sure this is beautiful, but I'm not drinking
out of those glasses.

This is Drew Barrymore's kitchen.
Perhaps she has someone who cleans her
dishes everyday.

 

 

 

GenuineFauxInterviews:

Thom Filicia

Thom Filicia

1. Why the "h"?
2. You have an incredible ability to layer styles, textures, patterns, eras, price points. There's so much eye candy. Each visit to your spaces offer yet another discovery or detail. What is your process? Do you build your spaces in the moment or do you sort it out ahead of time? 
3. If a little bit of both, what percentage is completed ahead of time and what is in the moment?  
4. Toilet paper roll over or under?
5. If there could have been only 4 guys on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, who would you have eliminated? I think we're going to say the same person. Let's say it together on the count of three. 1, 2, 3...
6. You use a lot of birds in your work. How would you design a space for a famous bird like Big Bird?
7. You have a pretty impressive resume. Working with the likes of Parish-Hadley, Inc., Robert Metzger Interiors, and Bilhuber & Associates. What's the one most important thing you learned at each of the three firms? Answer both as a designer and then as a professional.  
8. What are your top 3 design eras? 
9. What's the one thing a client could do to make you quit the first day on the job?
10. The story goes that you and your dog were stranded inside your apartment elevator for a hour with another passenger. She was a talent manager, and called you the next day about auditioning for Queer Eye. Have you never taken a set of stairs since? 

Want the real thing? Check out this book by Thom Filicia: 

Thom Filicia Style

when greige is great

Greige – a beautiful, textural, unbleached, undyed interior state – has been in vogue for several years now. It's the type of design I love to Pin but don't know how it fits in my every day world. Thus, my appreciation from afar until a recent visit to Acre. Acre is amazing new restaurant by chef Wally Joe. The trip rewarded me with a memorable meal and some design twinspiration. 

Most interiors are about creating a focal point. Interest from nothing. But what happens when you start with something like a beach or mountain home? One of those homes with a view that unrelentingly commands for your attention? 

Well, Acre has one of those views. It just happens to be on the plate in front of you. The next time you have an amazing view or a piece of art that says sit up straight and notice me, think Greige. It's great. 

Entrance at Acre Restaurant

Entry to Acre Restaurant

Front Dining Room

Sunroom Dining Room

Back of Sunroom Dining Room