Posted in General on Aug 29th, 2008
“Do what you can with what you have where you are.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
When we opened for business, lots of people were surprised to hear about our unusual concept of reusing, recycling and redecorating with existing furnishings. It was 1981 and our affordable approach, “one day decorating and redesign,” was a novel idea. Back then, without [...]
Posted in General on Aug 27th, 2008
I’m a list maker (isn’t everybody?) and the sort of person who usually must finish my tasks before I can take it easy. The good news is that I accomplish a lot on most days; the bad news is that I don’t relax enough. Fortunately, my husband, Joe, and I work together and he knows [...]
Posted in General on Aug 26th, 2008
The scene: An interior redesign consultation (accompanied by decorator trainees).
The clients: A couple at odds with the way their home was decorated. The wife, pregnant and not working, liked traditional furnishings and was very unhappy with the way the small temporary rental looked with their over-sized furniture brought from their last, much bigger home. The [...]
Posted in General on Aug 21st, 2008
This week I’ve been teaching a class of decorator trainees from all over the U.S., Canada and one lovely lady from Costa Rica. Great group. And, as always, it’s been fun to meet and train people who love interior decorating and who are as passionate about it as I am.
On Tuesday we worked with a [...]
Posted in General on Aug 18th, 2008
Years ago, my husband, Joe, sang the theme song for the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger weight-lifting movie, Pumping Iron, but now, when we hear “pump it up,” we are reminded of how expensive gas has become and how that reality is affecting our lives.
It was the first thing my client, Mrs.Dawson, pointed out last Wednesday when [...]
Posted in General on Aug 15th, 2008
Yesterday, as he was cutting my hair, my stylist Jay and I had one of our usual stimulating chats. Jay always seems to have an interesting anecdote or restaurant recommendation but he, instead, shared something that he’d just read: “The difference between having an ordinary life and an extraordinary life is effort.”
We nodded at each [...]
Posted in General on Aug 11th, 2008
It always surprises me when I see how a lot of people make their beds. In most homes, the bedding is pretty, especially in the master bedroom but, usually, the queen or king-sized linens are not elegantly arranged. A comforter is casually flung over the top of the sheets, the pillows are lined up and [...]
Posted in General on Aug 8th, 2008
You know who you are: You’re the one leaving Costco with the extra, extra, extra large pack of paper towels and the super-duper triple 2-ply toilet tissue balanced on your cart, not to mention the multi-pack boxes of tissues.
You love paper towels and use lots of them for everything - in the kitchen, around the [...]
Posted in General on Aug 6th, 2008
A couple of years after I opened Use What You Have Interiors, I had the pleasure of working with an amazingly talented singer named Kacey Cisyk. Hers was the original voice behind the song, You Light Up My Life as well as the one heard on hundreds of commercials such as, Have You Driven A [...]
Posted in General on Aug 4th, 2008
The couple I worked with today called me in to help with their living room, dining room and entrance foyer. When I finished they asked if I had time to stay and help them with one more room. They wanted to go over the plans for their kitchen renovation. Good call! As soon as they [...]