Pocket doors slide inside a wall. When closed, they can look like other doors or provide a dramatic focal point. Either way, they’re hidden when open. Which means they don’t waste space or swing into toilets, cabinets and furniture. Since they slide on tracks (instead of swinging on hinges) pocket doors can service larger openings. For these reasons architects and designers rely on the pocket door as a versatile design tool.
Sadly, pocket doors aren’t a panacea. While they look good in pictures and usually work right after installation. Designers are long gone before the pocket door’s shortcomings become painfully apparent. Continue reading Review: Pocket Doors→
What Your Contractor Can’t Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating, could be called “What Your Contractor Should Tell You”. This paperback is full of valuable advice for everyone building or remodeling. Written by a construction manager, the focus isn’t about self-building or self-contracting. Instead, the reader will learn to reduce risk and increase success when hiring building pros. Thorough discussions about working well with others, budgets, contract types and avoiding common pitfalls are included. Also covered are tips for using budget as a management tool and understanding the pro’s perspective. Continue reading Review: What Your Contractor Can’t Tell You→
Home Improvement Projects for the Busy & Broke: How To Get Your $h!t Together and Live Like An Adult, is a book geared towards the young professional finally living in that first apartment or house. If you don’t mind the occasional swearing for emphasis, the text is entertaining and edgy. A writing style undoubtedly appealing to millennials who read sentences between texts and tweets. Chapters begin with the basics of how to live like an adult: Stop partying every night, get motivated, make your bed and clean your room. Advice my teenagers hear daily, usually at high volume. Apparently many kids don’t. Continue reading Review: Home Improvements for the Busy & Broke→
Carter’s Way: A No-Nonsense Method for Designing Your Own Super Stylish Home is an interior design book based on Carter Oosterhouse’s HGTV program. Sadly I’ve never seen his show. But I have read this book. Switching between images of well decorated rooms and Carter pretending to cut boards, at first worried me. Employing a ghost writer furthered suspicion. And suggesting his method leads to “super stylish” homes didn’t help either. Yet buried within these pages are loads of practical advice that may help homeowners take charge of their interior design projects. Continue reading Review: Carter’s Way→
With a name like, SoulSpace: Transform Your Home, Transform Your Life, written by a Los Angeles based interior designer. I naturally assumed this text was “new age” babble. I was wrong. Nor is it your typical photo filled portfolio showcasing the latest, soon to be forgotten, trends. Don’t expect a single image, not one. When opening this cover, you’ll find a refreshing alternative to the consumer oriented interior design industry. A book that’s as much self-help guide as design manual. Continue reading Review: SoulSpace→
