Clean simple with your own home-made solution pt.2: Baking soda to the rescue!

Sometimes I think I'm just way behind the times, but I figure I can't be the only one who doesn't know this or that, however basic it may seem.

My mother has grandchildren, not from me but my sister who has two little rascally boys made all the more rascally when staying over at grandma's, for as the saying goes "it's the grandmother's duty to spoil her grandchildren" - she does this quite well by the way, and then she wonders why they don't listen to her.

On such one over-night occasion, her two darling rascally grandchildren took a blue ink pen to the sofa as if it was their very own canvas!  This large arc sectional has been in the family since I was born, and has been reupholstered once with beautiful sea-green velvet-like textured fabric.  The drawing stayed on the sectional for quite some time and then one day I came over and realized the large pen marks were gone, as if they were never there.

And what did Mom tell me?  "Baking Soda, water and a small soft cleaning-brush".  I have yet to try this but my eyes do not deceive me.  I'm sure I'll have to use this home-solution some day and when that day comes, you'll hear about it.

Home of: Diana von Furstenberg

Name:  Diane Simone Michelle Halfin

AKA:  Dian von Furstenberg

From:  Brussels, Belgium

Date of birth:  December 13, 1946

Specialty:  Fashion designer, DVF

*Pictures from Architectural Digest

Furstenberg's Manhattan Penthouse
serves as Diane von Furstenberg's home & office

Outdoor roof-top patio from her master bedroom

Sitting area with a picture of the DVF designer herself

Dining table that also doubles as an office desk

Breakfast table

Lips sofa with a painting of artist, Anh Doung 

Cement staircase lined with Swarovski studded steel cables

Guest bedroom

Master bedroom is contained in a glass structure

The bed

A view outside from the master bedroom

Master bathroom

I Stand Behind: Rust Brushes

I'm not all too sure if Rust Brushes is actually what these bad babies are called but I can't seem to think of a more suitable name for them.

Just recently I moved into a 100 year old home in the middle of Los Angeles, and with it came some very old furniture in need of some serious love and care... and also hardware!  I love hardware especially old ones, which is exactly what this new old-home came with, old crystal finial door-knobs, brass hooks and towel bars, all of which I would love to reuse of course.  Needless to say, being that these hardwares were much older than I they were in need of some cleaning and scrubbing.

I picked up the kitchen towel bar and was enamored with it's simplicity and shape, only to be bought sometime way back when.  The poor thing was rusted over, dusty and grimy!  I filled my kitchen sink with 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar and soaked the bar for about 4-5 hours, to my pleasure the sparkle was coming back to the old kitchen towel bar.  I drained the sink and dried the towel bar and left it aside to be hung for later only to discover later that night the towel bar was beginning to rust anew!  Imagine my surprise!

However, lucky for me I have a very handy husband equipped with very handy tools and a very handy brain.  He handed me three Rust Brushes, the bristles all different, each coarser than the other.  The very next day I tried my luck with the Rust Brushes and... of course they worked!  Like a dream too.  The rust simply brushed off, I couldn't believe my eyes!  I always thought rust was rust and once it was there there was just no getting away from it.  I might have ended up hanging the beautiful vintage towel bar somewhere in the back of my shed I suppose had it not been for these rescue Rust Brushes... *sigh, my heros.

Barn Homes

"Were you raised by wolves?" Or shall I ask for the sake of this post, "Were you raised in a barn?" Takes on a new and literal meaning.  Barns have a space similar to that of a warehouse and so naturally it didn't take us long to realize that a barn converted home could be quite spectacular and could realize many possibilities relative to breaking down the space... or not breaking down the space- should you go for the urban warehouse style.  Below are a few pics of barn converted homes, I think by the end you'll realize being raised in a barn might not be so bad after all.

Exterior:

Interior of modernized barn homes:

Interior of contemporary barn homes:

Interior of urbanized barn homes:

Interior of rustic barn homes: