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How to: Replace Buttons on a Tufted Chair

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I love the chair in Zoe’s room, but I was feeling like it needed a face lift for her new room

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I never had the balls to upholster it in some crazy fabric (mostly because it costs to much and I was afraid I would get sick of it in a year or two). I was (obviously) on Pinterest and found this great image

Love the chair...and did you notice the colored buttons n the chair...great way to re-design a nursery room or child's room with a pop of color. Find this at: http://natocadesign.com.br/ If you highlight and copy it takes you to a great site! Found by ButterflyOrbs.:

Perfection! I LOVED the buttons.

So Merritt and I went to a craft store one day after Zoe drop off and picked up 6 buttons

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I wanted them colorful and different. I liked the various shapes and styles. I thought it made it a lot of fun.

I have to admit I was a little scared to take this project on because I didn’t know how to replaced tufted buttons. I Googled a little bit but couldn’t find anything extremely helpful. I went over to the chair and examined the buttons and gathered my tools:

  1. the buttons
  2. pliers
  3. a needle
  4. thread
  5. scissors
  6. wire cutters

And that was all it took.

First step: I used a thin sewing needle (in hindsight I wish I had used a thicker needle – intended for leather) and threaded thread through it (also, in hindsight I wish I had used thicker thread like embroidery thread instead of standard thin sewing thread).

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With my needle threaded I used the pliers and pulled the button away from the chair and with the button still attached to the metal ring I threaded the needle through the metal ring in the chair

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After the needle was threaded I used the metal wire cutters to snip the original button off of the metal ring

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With the old button removed from the chair I threaded the new button onto the thread

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Once the new button was threaded, I cut the string so the needle wasn’t attached anymore. And then I just simply tied the string in a couple knots, and boom, the button was attached!

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Now, the reason I said in the beginning that I would have rather used a thicker needle is because the standard sewing needle is thinner, it was actually a little hard to poke through the metal ring in the chair and then direct it to a point that it wasn’t poking into the chair. A thicker needle doesn’t bend as easily, and therefor is easier to work with.

The other revision was thicker embroidery thread – which is easier to thread through a thicker needle also. The reason I would revise this is because Merritt became completely FASCINATED with the new buttons and ripped one off. Obviously standard sewing thread is thin, so Merritt was able to rip the button off easily. After I replaced the button with thicker embroidery thread even after I fucked with the button I couldn’t rip it off. WIN!

I repeated all the steps for all 6 buttons. And it looks marvelous

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One of the best things is that Zoe “helped” with this project. She had fun following simple directions and “helping” me tie the knots (she actually did help with this in fact). But the icing on the cake was that the next morning when she woke up, she was running out of her room, and right before she was out, she stopped, turned around and said to me, “Mommy, I really love my new buttons.” Heart melting :)

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I still need to touch up the white paint – something I haven’t done in the 2 1/2 years that we’ve had this chair. But I was actually thinking about painting over the white with a fun, bright color. I’m also thinking about removing the skirt on the bottom. Just to update it a bit more. I was at the park with a friend and our kids the other day and she gave me some great ideas about how to jazz it up a bit with a little trim. But hey, those buttons are replaced and they’re looking good. And it makes me happy. And Zoe loves them :)

How to Properly Paint a Room

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Disclaimer: I’ve been wanting Chris to write this post for so long. He’s an awesome painter (painted his way through college) and taught me the tricks of the trade as well. Most people think painting is “easy” and although it can be, a good paint job and a bad paint job can really make or break a room. I can’t stand going into a restaurant, or store, or home and just see horribly painted spaces. It’s really easy to mess up, be sloppy and not use good materials. A great paint job though sets a great base for a room and makes a difference. Without further ado…

Meryl wanted me to write a bit about painting efficiently and effectively. So, here it goes.

I’m pretty lazy sometimes, but I’ve learned over time it’s best to put dropcloths everywhere to start. You’ll spend more time cleaning up splatter than you will laying down the cloths. Just do it.

Don’t go crazy with the masking tape. It’s usually more trouble than it’s worth. For cut-ins you’re better off using a steady hand (more on that below) and for most other stuff there are ways of avoiding it. If you’re cutting in around ceiling lights or smoke alarms or outlet covers…you shouldn’t be. Take down lighting canopies, smoke alarms, and switch/receptacle plate covers before painting. Quicker and better job than it would be trying to paint around them. Masking around window muntins sometimes makes sense. Other times it’s better to just brush the muntin and clean the glass with a straight razor afterwards. Other than windows, it’s pretty rare that I find myself using masking tape while painting inside.

Prep is key. Most clean surfaces don’t need much prep, to be honest. If you want to do everything by the book then even a clean surface should be given a light sanding prior to painting to provide a good key for the new paint to grab onto. This is a good idea with semi-gloss paint, but I don’t bother with eggshell or flat. Using a quality paint can let you skip steps if you know what you’re doing. If the surface is dirty or has any kind of peeling or trouble areas then you’ll need to do more prep. I could write a whole post just on this topic, but the basics are that you want new paint to go on a clean, sound, dry surface. Prep is about getting that to happen. A basic job will include light patching, sanding, caulking, and priming. Caulk where trim meets the wall, patch with a decent spackling (lightweight spackle, drydex, mh patch, etc.) where there may be small holes, and prime (glidden gripper or zinsser 1-2-3) over any stains or patches. This is something a homeowner can do without trouble. If you have a lot of peeling paint, wallpaper, bad staining, etc. then it will require more specialized prep. There are a lot of specialized patching compounds, paints, and primers that can solve a variety of problems, but that gets pretty far into the weeds.

Box paint. This means if you need to buy two gallons of paint for a room, you need to mix them together before you start. Pour them both into a 5 gallon bucket. Even if paint is mixed with the same formula, it can vary can by can. The way to avoid mismatched paint on the wall when you’re finished with the first gallon and move to the second is to pour them each into a large bucket and mix them together before you start.

Sequencing. I’ll assume the room has crown, base, and casing. Paint all the trim first with your first coat. Carry the paint onto the adjacent surface – no need to be fussy at this point. Second coat the crown. Next, cut in the ceiling to crown with the ceiling color and then roll the ceiling; do this twice. Then cut-in the wall color to the crown and roll the walls; do this twice. Finally, do your second coat on the casing and base. I like this order because you don’t have to worry about splatter on the base or casing because you’re going to give it a second coat last anyway. I prefer to cut-in from the wall to the trim, instead of trying to cut-in the trim to the wall; I’ve just found it a lot easier.

Cut-in tips. If the corner that you’re cutting in is rough (like a textured wall or ceiling meeting each other) then it may make sense to run a good bead of caulking there beforehand to get a smooth transition that you can follow with your brush. Use a good quality angled sash brush (2-2.5″ Purdy or Corona are my favorites). When cutting in the ceiling to wall or ceiling to crown transition it’s better to have the ceiling paint come down slightly onto the crown/wall as opposed to the other way around. A steady hand is important. Make sure you don’t overload the brush. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, it’s better to keep the brush moving pretty fast. It’s harder to get a wavy line if the brush is moving briskly.

Rolling. Use a small extension pole. Run the roller as far up and down as you can. A lot of times you’ll see amateur painters roll up and down about 2-3′ at a time. It’s much better to load up the roller, spread out the paint a bit and then finish it off with long strokes from a few inches away from the ceiling to a few inches away from the baseboard. BTW, this is one reason I like to cut-in first. You want to see as little of the brush strokes as possible. If you do the brush work first and then roll over it, there will be very little in the way of brush strokes showing. Keep a wet edge and look for runs. Rolling the ceiling can be a pain, but try to keep the roller in front of you instead of right over your head. The extension pole should be at about a 60 degree angle, if a 90 degree angle is directly above you. Use a microfiber or lambswool roller cover for best results. Clean new roller covers well before using; the best roller covers have been broken in with at least 2-3 jobs. Get them slightly damp before loading with paint. Use an 18″ roller if you’re into production work and have big open spaces you need to roll.

Clean up can be a pain. Roller covers can be tossed if you’re lazy or the cover is inexpensive, but I don’t recommend that. Wring it clean first with a painters’ tool and then use a hose on the jet setting to spin the roller. You need to get the jet on the edge of the roller and it will spin fast and the paint and water will go flying everywhere. If you’ve done this a few times you can angle the roller just right so that you don’t get wet and the roller gets clean in less than a minute. If this method scares you then you’re in for some fun standing over the utility sink for 10 minutes.

Brushes are tougher to clean, but the battle is won and lost before you are even ready to clean. Keep them clean in the first place by brushing carefully and not loading them up with paint up to the ferrule. Don’t be sloppy with your brushing. If painting in warm weather, it’s a good idea to clean them a bit at lunch time so they don’t get too crusty. Brushes can be sprayed as well for the majority of the paint. Then you can bring them into the sink and rub the bristles in your hands pinching them, flexing the bristles on your hand, rubbing them between your hands like you were trying to warm your hands, etc. It takes a while, but you don’t want to rough up nice brushes. Check for paint by loading the brush up with water and flexing the bristles back towards the ferrule. If the water looks clear then you can stop. (here’s Chris’ tutorial on that too)

While everyone who paints has their methods for what works best, these are the tools, sequencing and tricks that I have found work the best for me. Hopefully you find them helpful as well and please leave comments if you have tricks that work for you too.

DIY Headband Holder

I have finished the painting for our bedroom, hooray! But I haven’t hung it on the wall yet – and that’s really the most exciting part – so hopefully I get that hung today so I have it to share tomorrow. I did however make my headband holder, which is another task that needs to be completed to call the bedroom done.

I had pinned some headband holders a little while back

Headbands holder
found here

Hair Accessory Organizing Board
found here

There are also other ones, like this

headband holder (oatmeal container + painted candle stick)
found here

But I really wanted to make one that hung on the wall. I really liked the one with the ribbons, so I set about making it (with a couple modifications).

I gathered my materials

A frame from Michael’s, fabric, batting and 2 kinds of ribbons.

I wanted to make loops with the white ribbon that the headbands would hang from. So I took out my headbands and figured out the right spacing

Once I was sure of the spacing I cut out a piece of fabric (leftover from our front room chairs)

I could have just sewn the looped ribbon onto the background fabric, but I wanted to use a second ribbon as a sort of “track” and then sew the loops onto that one. Just to jazz it up a bit.

After the loops were sewn on I used the glue gun to attach the ribbons to the background fabric

While I was waiting for that to dry I cut out a couple of rectangles of batting that I would wrap the fabric around

Then I wrapped and stapled

I was careful not to cut the batting so big that it needed to be wrapped around because I wanted it to still fit in the frame, but it still didn’t, booo :( It popped out too much

I haven’t figured out how I’m going to get it to sit in the frame and stay in place (it’s not too big, it’s just the puffiness makes it pop out), but I have to say it’s looking fabulous

And it’s very functional and easy to use

I made the loops big enough so it’s really easy to just slide the headbands right in. There’s two in each loop now, but there is definitely enough room to put one or two more in each loop if I felt like getting more. And if you had more headbands it’s simple enough to just make bigger loops.

I would like to say project complete on this one, but I can’t quite do that yet because a) I have to figure out how to get it in that damn frame and b) it needs to go up on the wall with my earring holder and my necklace holder. Project almost done!

Installing a New Door Knob

Over the course of working on the hallway, bedroom and laundry room Meryl located some glass door knobs that she liked which meant I had the task of installing them.

I read over the instructions and they were pretty straightforward; a bit unusual, but straightforward. Taking off the old knobs was easy enough. Pry off the esctucheon (aka rose) and knob with a flat head screwdriver and just start unscrewing screws.

Eventually everything came out.

The weird thing about the new knob is that it came with some pieces of wood that you’re supposed to install in the hole. Usually you don’t have to do this step. It’s easy enough, but it added a little time because I wanted the glue on the blocks to set up before moving onto the next step. I put a generous amount of glue on all the mating surfaces and wedged them in place so they were effectively clamped.

I wedged them in there by temporarily installing the door latch and using shims.

After at least an hour of setting time, I moved onto the assembly.
I installed the latch assembly first. I used the same shims I had used earlier to shave off a bit of wood which I used in the old latch assembly holes.

The old screws were a little bigger so having this sliver of wood in the hole made the new screws hold the assembly tight in the door.

Then I assembled the new rose and knob.

They attached to the door using wood screws instead of the long machine screws that draw the two sides together in some other door knob types.

One tip for any of these tiny wood screws is to use a self-centering bit to drill the holes.

This makes certain that you will have the screw perfectly centered in the hole instead of having it off to the side, skewed, and proud of the surface.

Now we’ve got glass knobs on the doors into our bedroom, office and laundry room.

They don’t match the original glass knobs throughout the rest of the house, but they’re better than the crappy “brass” ones that someone replaced at some point.

DIY Necklace Holder

I’m not a very big jewelry girl. I do wear earrings (though not at the moment because Zoe likes to yank on them) but I never wear rings. And though I have a few necklaces I don’t wear them much

I thought that maybe if I had them out in a an organized way instead of stuffed in a bin that I might actually wear them. I sifted around on Pinterest and found this inspirational image

Storage & Organization - Etsy Jewelry
found here
So I set about making it. 
I went to Michael’s and got a $5 frame
And I sprayed it white. While I was waiting for it to dry I cut down a piece of leftover cabinet grade plywood we had 
I could leave it, stain it, paint it or do whatever to it – but I definitely didn’t want to leave it plain. I decided to use some craft paint I already had an painted a really simple diagonal pattern

Then I painted on a coat of modge podge to make it shiny and pretty :)

I had bought some glass knobs at HD and once everything was dry I took the plywood and knobs out to the garage to put them in

I had initially purchased 5 knobs, but I liked the way just 4 looked, so I went with using 4 instead

Once I was pretty sure about the placement I marked where I wanted them to be and pre-drilled the holes

Then I popped the knobs in

 The next step was attaching the plywood to the frame. I did a dry run to make sure it fit. It was a little big, so I shaved off about a blade width off one of the sides and then it fit perfectly

Then I used a glue gun along all the edges. If the frame was thicker I would have had enough room to use wood glue on the face of the plywood and the set the frame on top. But there wasn’t enough room. I wasn’t too worried though because the glue would be used all around on all 4 sides and I don’t own a ton of necklaces so it won’t be too heavy

Then after it all dried I put on all my necklaces. All 8 of them :)

I think it looks pretty snazzy! I may actually wear one or two of them now :)
The middle two knobs are slightly lower than the outside two, but I was lazy and didn’t use a ruler to place them, so, eh. All I need to do now is put a picture hanger on the back and put it up, but because I want my earring holder, headband holder and this to hang in a line on this wall…
…I need to make the headband holder first before we can get them all up. One less thing to get done to finish the bedroom! :)

How to Clean a Paint Brush

This past weekend was jam packed with lots of stuff going on: big (overdue) house cleaning, finishing up of a drainage project (more on that tomorrow), work at the Raiders, handyman jobs, catching up on day job work and lots more. So when I was trying to motivate myself this morning to write about the drainage project Chris worked on I was too tired to type about it (lazy ass) and I realized I never published this post from ages ago when Chris gives instructions on how to properly clean a paintbrush.

Chris painted houses in college and is pretty meticulous about making sure his brushes are always cleaned properly to ensure lasting use. We always buy Purdy brushes which are a tad more expensive, but also made a lot better (they are made by hand with a sticker on it of the person who made it, pretty awesome.) Because of the quality of the brushes we always make sure to clean them really well.

Without further ado…

How to Change Out a Switch for a Dimmer

With baby on the way we wanted to have maximum adjustability of the light level, so we decided to install dimmers in a couple of the rooms where there used to be switches.

In the first case we were replacing a three way switch with a three way dimmer in our TV room.

There are four wires – one is the common (the incoming hot wire), two are travelers (aka jockeys), and the last one is the ground. Note: the neutral will either not be in the box or will be in the box, but not connected to the switch. Either way, you shouldn’t need to worry about the neutral when simply switching out switches.

The ground is always either bare or green so there’s no need to mark it. The others will be black or red (sometimes a white is used as a traveler, but it should be marked black or red with tape or sharpie). This is a good time to note that a neutral is always white, but white isn’t always neutral.

Turn off the power to the circuit. This is important for safety, but it also helps save the internal circuitry of the more complex switches like a three way dimmer or vacancy sensors, etc. When undoing the old switch sires mark the two travelers and the common. The travelers will be on the same color screw (usually brass) and the common will be on a different color screw (usually black).

After all the wires are off the old switch put them on the new switch in the reverse order. A note about order:  when taking wires off, it’s best practice to start with the hot wires (common, then the travelers), then the neutral (if applicable), then the ground last. When putting them on the new switch, go in the reverse order – ground, neutral, travelers, common.

Turn the power back on and test both switches and the dimmer.

For the second dimmer we replaced a regular two way switch with a dimmer. In this case there are only three wires attached to the switch – incoming hot, switched hot, and the ground.

It’s actually not important to know which hot is the incoming power or the switched power. Detach them from the original switch and put them on the new switch. It’s really that simple. As always, the ground wire gets attached to the green ground screw.

If the box is crowded or is metal then I like to wrap the switch with electrical tape, just to make sure there is no short in the circuit.

Turn the power back on and test it out.

Layers of Waterproofing

A couple people asked me to upload a cross section view of the tile, backerboard, waterproofing membrane, etc. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel, I figured I’d post some useful references that I used throughout the process. First of all I’d like to say that I’d recommend going with a thinbed installation method. The old school way is to have a thick vinyl-like product (Chloraloy is one option) underneath a thick bed of “deck mud.” For a variety of reasons I chose to go with a thinbed installation instead and would suggest the same for anyone else. The thinbed route means either using a sheet membrane (NobleSeal, Kerdi, etc.) or a liquid membrane (RedGard, Hydroban, etc.). We went with Kerdi, but the prep is essentially the same regardless of what you choose.

Schluter’s installation handbook

A bit about thinbed vs. thickbed from Noble company:

The thinbed video on Noble’s website is simple and well done:

And of course no tile-related post would be complete without a reference to the John Bridge forum which has an abundance of great info, including these basic how-to posts:

Hopefully these links will help you in figuring out how to build and tile your shower.
If there is a demand for it I’ll go over the various options for waterproofing (Kerdi, Nobleseal, RedGard, Wedi, Hydroban, etc.).

How To Stiffen A Pocket Door

Meryl went over this portion of the project a little quickly in her bathroom update post, but I wanted to highlight some of the thinking that went into making the pocket door suitable for tiling.

The problem with thinset, grout, and tile is that they don’t flex at all. The problem with pocket doors is that they tend to be pretty flexible; flimsy and weak, even. So, I wanted to find a way to stiffen the pocket door enough that the tile wouldn’t break off or (more likely) have the grout crack. I’ll outline some of my thinking and go over what I actually ended up settling on for this situation.

My first idea was that I needed to incorporate some steel into the design.

I wasn’t able to locate 1/2″ angle steel at the desired length (6′ 8″) without special ordering it so I kinda scrapped that idea early, but I think it’s a good one. I would have epoxied the angle steel to the frame and door jamb and screwed through the steel and into the frame as often as feasible. It would have been hidden behind the trim without trouble.

My second idea was to add plywood to the entire skin of the frame.

I would have used PL Premium and screws to make the whole thing as solid as possible. Then add the drywall and extend the jamb to accommodate the added thickness of the wall because of the plywood. This would have been a lot more work and more materials than I was looking for and I wasn’t sure it was going to be as solid as my first plan anyway.

My last idea was the right mix of cheap, easy, and effective.

First I added an additional piece of jamb. The door wasn’t quite large enough, so this was needed anyway so that there wouldn’t be a gap between the jamb and the door. I glued and stapled the additional jamb to the original jamb for maximum stiffness. A couple finish nails would have done the job, but gluing and stapling it to death insured that the new jamb was essentially fused with the old. Next I installed the trim and glued the back of the poplar trim to insure that it, too, would become part of the jamb – thus increasing its stiffness a bit more. Lastly, I installed two sections of scrap 3/4″ plywood in between the gaps in the frame. I used pocket screws and PL Premium to attach these pieces of blocking to the framing.

Lastly, I pocket screwed the bottom frame pieces to the subfloor below.

The top of the frame was already secured to the header above and didn’t need any stiffening.

Retrofitting a Light Fixture

The Ikea wall sconces we got for the bedroom weren’t quite meant to be mounted to electrical boxes. Instead they were designed to be attached to the wall and then have the wiring run in wire mold, or just hang on the wall and get plugged into a receptacle. So, a retrofit was in order.

First I identified the hot and the neutral wires on the plug. There are two ways of doing this. 1) If the plug is polarized (one prong is larger than the other) then you just find the larger prong and that’s the neutral. The wire on the corresponding side will carry the neutral. 2) If your plug isn’t polarized then find the ribbed wire. This wire is the neutral. Usually the other wire will have print  on it identifying the type of wire (e.g., 18 AWG) and other info. The wire with print is the hot wire.
Next I cut off the excess wire and stripped the ends. In the case of our sconces the hot wire goes to a switch and then to the bulb socket. The neutral wire went directly to the socket.
The most difficult part of the retrofit was getting the wall plate to work with a round ceiling electrical box. Since it’s meant to be mounted to the wall, it doesn’t have a hole in it allowing for the wires from the light to connect to the wires in the electrical box. I used a grinder to cut out a little square access hole in the mounting plate, but you could drill it out with a hole saw or use a Dremel multi-tool if that’s all you have. I then used a file to file down any burrs or sharp edges.

Lastly, I covered the edges with some 3M super 88 electrical tape. It’s a high quality tape that is thicker than the cheap stuff.

The final step for our light was to cover the retrofit box with a homemade escutcheon we made out of some scrap poplar.

I mounted the mounting plate to the wooden escutcheon and then mounted the homemade wood escutcheon to the retrofit box (to cover the electrical box you could see a bit of around the edges).

We still need to patch around the far light

But that will come later when we get to working on the bedroom.

Our Sources – Chris

Here are my sources (here were Meryl’s):

Experience. I’m a handyman, I used to work for a tile setter, on a paint crew, and even for an electrician for a short period of time, so I’ve gotten to help enough people over the years to do a decent number of these things before. I’ve learned from my mistakes and the mistakes of those I’ve worked with.

Community College. I’ve taken a few carpentry classes at the local community college. I’ve also taken a plumbing course, two courses on residential electricity and a class on solar panel installation. Trade schools and community colleges are a great resource. They’re cheap and put you in direct contact with professionals in the field – pros who are taking courses to further their career, as well as semi-retired contractors who now teach the next generation of tradespeople.

Magazines and books. Anything that the Taunton Press puts out is reliable and worthwhile. I have a ridiculous number of books from them and other publishers on everything from trim and roofing to furniture building and built-ins. I also subscribe to Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding which are both published by Taunton Press. Other magazines I subscribe to which provide good information: JLC, Wood, Family Handyman, This Old House and (to a lesser extent) Popular Mechanics. For code information I go with the great Code Check series of books and manuals.

TV. This Old House is where it all started for me. They’ve been there forever. I can’t say enough about Norm and Tom and the rest of the crew. They’re an inspiration and the whole TOH franchise is a fountain of information. Other shows can also give occasionally good information, but none are as good as TOH. Holmes on Homes and Hometime are two of the better also-rans, but aren’t as reliable or informative as TOH in my opinion.

Internet. I also frequent a contractor-only forum online which has a lot of info from people who are out in the field more often than I am. These are real pros who work every day, often doing the same stuff day in and day out. That kind of experience is invaluable.

Just as important as sources that you can trust are sources you can’t trust. Youtube and ehow are examples of websites that occasionally provide useful information, but can’t (in my opinion) be trusted on a consistent basis. The internet is full of people who are figuring stuff out as they go. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not nearly as reliable as following the lead of professionals who do this day in and day out.

Our Sources – Meryl

A reader recently asked us where we get our information. How do we know the information we’re getting is actionable and reliable? Meryl does more of the design stuff and I do more of the building stuff, so we each have our own sources.

Here are Meryl’s sources (and Thursday we’ll post mine):

Truthfully, I don’t have a ton of sources, which makes sense because I’m not some crazy designer. I don’t read too many blogs (you can see our blog roll is fairly small), I don’t read very many magazines and I don’t spend too much time on Pinterest. But I’m also not someone who likes overly designed spaces. I’m not an accessorizer and I find putting things in places to make them look staged or “lived in” is a little ridiculous.

That being said, there are 3 magazines I do read: House Beautiful, Better Homes and Garden and Elle Decor

Now, I subscribe to these, but I don’t actually read them very much (hello stack I still have to get to)

Mostly I don’t read them because they piss me off. Yes, that’s right, magazines make me mad. I know they’re meant to inspire us and not actually work as functional spaces, but I get so annoyed at how “perfect” they make them look that it just makes me feel bad. I’ve talked many times before about how I know I’ll never have a home like that, and it’s okay, but still, there’s a part of me that hurts a bit when I see pristine homes. I don’t really know what it is. I don’t think I’ll resubscribe to Elle Decor when that one runs out (it makes me the most mad), but if anyone has any magazine suggestions that don’t make you mad, suggest away!

I use Pinterest from time to time, but it mostly comes in rabid spasms. As in, I won’t go on for 3 weeks and then all of a sudden I think, “What should I do in the hallway for art” and I’ll type something in, pin 9 items, and then not look at them for another 6 months.

I was an art student in college (I majored in studio art with a concentration in sculptural installation) and from a very young age I loved to draw and make things. It’s always been something that has interested me. I think where my art comes from is the way things take up space. I’m not into color theory, I’m into how spaces and shapes function together

Which makes sense because my idea of fun is space planning. My favorite part of renovating is always planning out a room. Figuring out how furniture will be arranged, how art will go on the walls, rearranging how you use the space and making sure that it’s functional. In a way I think that might be why I’m not as interested in conventional studies in decorating because I’m more interested in actually living in a space instead of being concerned with making it beautiful. Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want my bedroom to look nice or my kitchen to be pretty and bright, but I want to make sure that it’s comfortable for the way Chris and I live. I’ve had the chance to design spaces for people and work as a professional organizer and my foremost concern is always understanding how people want their kitchens, bathrooms, offices, living rooms, etc. used.

I will say that one design rule that I try to stick to is to not choose trendy things as permanent or expensive items. I have broken that rule from time to time (glass tile in the bathroom), but generally I’m pretty good at following it. For example, I know Chevron and Ikat will phase out soon, so if I want to use them I’d go with something that’s easier and cheaper to switch out like curtains rather than a huge wool rug. I don’t think trends are bad, and I certainly love a lot of them, but following trends to a T is how spaces end up looking dated, and I prefer a more timeless look.

Generally, my brain ruminates on design ideas like it ruminated on art projects: I come up with an idea and I think about it constantly for a long time as I revise, revise, revise in my head. My teachers in college used to get so frustrated that I didn’t sketch out ideas, but that’s just not how my brain is creative. Sometimes I would seriously sit in my chair in class for 2 hours just constantly revising an idea in my head. At first my teachers thought I was dicking around and not being productive, but they learned that’s how my creative process works. When it was time to do my senior thesis I spent 3 out of the 4 months of the class revising the idea in my head. I would meet with my adviser to talk about it, and I might have only had 3 sketches the whole time (mostly to appease her), but I was constantly thinking about it. The nice thing about the way my creative process works is that once I’ve finally come to my final conclusion I am so sure of every decision, every color and every angle that I find it’s easier to execute because I’ve already made all the decisions in my head and obsessed about them forever.

I guess the point of my long discussion of sources, or really lack there of, is that it’s okay if you don’t have a inspiration board, a binder of ripped out images you like, or a Pinterest board that is overflowing with potential ideas. I think what’s most important is understanding how your creative process works and not to force it in any way. The worst ideas come out of forced ideas.