Home of: Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler

A.K.A Jonathan Adler known for his "happy chic" home furnishing & interior design

Hailing from New Jersey

Born in the year 1966

His start as a potter gave way to home furniture & interior design

Pictures from Architectural Digest

The living room & kitchen and dining table at back

The dining terrace

Ocean-side pool

The Master bedroom

Read AD article: Jonathan Adler And Simon Donnan's Shelter Island Retreat

New Noteworthy Item @ West Elm

This traditional-wood turned modern bench literally made me go "Oooo~", something no doubt Jonathan Adler would eye as well.  The dual colored frame and leather handwoven seats of the Source Bench at West Elm is definitely a user-friendly decorative choice.  Whether you are placing this piece at the dinner table, family room, entry way or even mud-room you will sure to be jazzing up the area with a little bit of eye candy that can give a whole lot of character via color and design.

Available in red and white

Measures 49"w x 14.7"d x 35"h

Source Bench @ West Elm

The home office that says 'you'

Having just moved into my very first new home I've learned plenty of things, such as decorating a single bedroom apartment is much easier and faster than decorating a three-bedroom home.  First lesson learned?  It's going to take a lot longer to get it just the way I want it.  

And since I'm currently working on getting my home office together I figured why not do a lovely post on home offices with loads of personality.  Whether you're going for modern, contemporary, minimalist, charming, country or the extremely cluttered route the home office could be set to exemplify your personality.

I Stand Behind: the Hose Reel

When you buy a home you are buying land- this has never been so apparent until now, trust me, when you stand out in the yard for a hour watering the lawn that came with your property, it will never be clearer to you.  And it will be even more clear if you do not own a hose reel.

Dragging a 25 feet or 75 feet hose around the yard from corner to corner to water every inch of your dying yard is one thing, but after a hour of watering the time has come to reel in that 25 footer or 75 footer, whether you want to do it by hand (the hard way) is up to you.

I have to admit that just up until recently I have been letting my front yard whither away, currently it is an ugly yellowish brown plot with a few green spots here and there.  This unfortunate event came to be when I decided that watering the lawn was way too strenuous because, well let's face it, I was being just plain lazy.  In an ideal world I would have a sprinkler system set up, but I don't, so it has come down to either sucking it up and watering the damn lawn or not.  So what if I have to drag the hose around for a hour and then drag it back to where it belongs, right?!  Wrong, because simply dragging the hose back to where it belongs is not where it ends, afterwards, you have to attempt to wind it up as nicely as possible so the long hose isn't just strewn about hither and thither.  And you all know what this attempt leads to, pure AGGRAVATION because there is no possible way of coiling, not even semi-nicely or even semi-neatly, the long wet hose that has been slithering hither and thither all over the yard full of dirt and grass.  And ever since, I have been dreaming of a hose reel, I remember watering the lawn as a young teen, half my size and it was still easier with the hose reel.  All you had to do was turn the handle and guide the hose a bit, no dragging, no huffing and puffing, no profanities passed through those lips.  

I suppose I had been wishing for a hose reel hard enough, because the next day I awoke to find a hose reel in my front yard, just like that. Odd.  I watered the plants and reeling in the hose was a cinch, but best of all?  No ugly half winded hose strewn about the front yard.

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: