From the category archives:

Furniture & Arrangement

I Heart Use What You Have Clients

August 20, 2010 Accessories

Last week I worked with a lovely woman who’d first called for help with her New York City apartment in the early 1980s when she was a new mother and shortly after I opened Use What You Have. After that, she moved to a house in Westchester County where she and her husband raised their [...]

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An Abundantly Clear Client

July 29, 2010 Accessories

Question: What’s better than a client who loves to use what she has and even enjoys furnishing her rooms with recycled furniture found on Freecycle and Craig’s List? Answer: A client who is also eco-conscious and farms her own produce in her New York City apartment. Yes, in her apartment! The other day I met [...]

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Thinking About Selling Your Home? It’s Time To Get Moving

June 25, 2010 Art

At dinner the other night a friend told me that she and her husband would like to downsize to a smaller house. They want less responsibility, less maintenance, and less expense. Many of my baby boomer clients have been expressing the same sentiment for more than five years, which is why I wrote Downsizing Your [...]

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I Love My Job

June 12, 2010 Color

A few weeks ago, a class of decorator trainees and I worked on the living room, entrance hall and kitchen of a West Side Manhattan coop. The vivacious woman who owned the apartment called because she knew her rooms had potential but she was stumped about how to improve them. Use What You Have to [...]

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Tip Top

May 17, 2010 Accessories

When several different wood finishes are present in a single room, one of the simplest and least expensive ways to bring greater cohesion to the space is to add wood tops that are stained in the dominant veneer to the disparate pieces. For example, if a room has mostly espresso-stained furnishings and there are a [...]

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The Rodney Dangerfield Of Rooms

April 14, 2010 Accessories

Today, most homes have open floor plans with living rooms, family rooms, dining rooms and even kitchens that flow into each other. They also seem to have entrance areas that have never been decorated properly. Why, oh why, don’t these important spaces get any respect? Yes, this room is usually the runt of the home [...]

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Decorating On The Radio

February 10, 2010 Accessories

This morning I did a radio interview and was asked several questions that I thought might be of interest to you. Here are a few: Q: What are some of the ways a kitchen can be improved without spending money, since most people seem to hang out in that room a lot? A: Clear the [...]

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L-Shape Bad, U-Shape Good!

December 14, 2009 Downsizing

If you are downsizing to a smaller home and own a sectional sofa, consider removing one or two armless seats to create a better-fitting unit. A couple I consulted with last week had an L-shaped sectional that was not working in their new living room. While the sofa was attractive and fit the space, the [...]

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