JEN BERTRAND — BLOND, cheery, four-and-a-half-months' pregnant — is perched atop tall scaffolding in the big, beige front room of a house in Silver Spring. She's using stencils to paint vase-shaped patterns on the walls as part of her upcoming HGTV special, "Paint-Over" (airs Jan. 1 at 5 p.m.), in which she shows people how to use paint to update their homes. This pad belongs to a couple who didn't know what to do with their enormous front room — so they just stuck an enormous TV in it. In an effort to make the room feel cozier, Bertrand is showing them how to break up the space with painted patterns.
As Bertrand paints, she also explains why and how to use stencils — when suddenly she flicks a blob of paint where it isn't supposed to be.
"That's the best part about paint: Everything is fixable," Bertrand says to the camera, dabbing the mistake and showing how to paint over it.
Not too long ago, Bertrand, 33, and her husband, Chris, were running their own design business in Kansas City. Then Bertrand made it onto the third season of HGTV's "Design Star," a seven-week reality competition among nine designers to win the chance to host their own design show. Bertrand won the weekly reality show in August, which led to her hosting "Paint-Over." Ever since, she says, it's been a whirlwind of television and travel, with the occasional visit home.
We caught up with Bertrand during her lunch break from filming in mid-October.
» EXPRESS: How can people start to develop their own style in their first condo?
» BERTRAND: I have all my clients do this, even if they're working with a designer: Create your own style file. Basically, you just go through home magazines and rip them apart. You'll start to see your personal style, and you'll see what you're drawn to based on that alone. [You'll realize,] "My gosh, I like everything clean and light," or, "I really like bold color."
If you are really intimidated by choosing colors, you can find designers who will do color consultations for you and come help you choose your paint palette. But be sure to find a designer who you feel understands your style and what you're about.
And when you're ready to paint but still not sure [where], paint two coats of the color on huge poster boards and hang them around the room. Look at them in morning, day and evening light to see how the light in your space affects the color. A little quart of paint and some poster board — [those materials] can help save you a lot of time.
"IF YOU CAN'T FIND a candidate of your choice, find the ugliest of the ugly." No, Hugh Rovit isn't suggesting you cast a ballot for some homely, third-party pol in the presidential election. The CEO of Sure Fit Inc., which sells slipcovers, wants you to vote for one of the hideous creatures in its online Ugly Couch Contest.
After sifting through hundreds of photo entries, a panel of five celebrity judges (such as HGTV's Kim Myles) selected 20 semifinalist couches. And, man, are they sloppy. Floral prints in neon hues figure prominently, but, alarmingly, exposed foam is also a trend in the old, beat-up sofa universe. Come on, people — could you not throw a sheet over that icky sectional or kick Granny's grim love seat to the curb?
"These are a disgrace to common taste and home decor," says Rovit. See for yourself, and cast your vote, at Surefit.net/uglycouch2008/finalists.cfm until Nov. 15. Semifinalists received a slipcover; the winner scores a $5,000 living-room makeover, which, clearly, is the change he or she desperately needs.
Photo courtesy of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
A CLOSET JAMMED with Gap tees. A PDA packed with commitments. A desk drowning in papers. Everyone has areas of their pad (or life) where they slob out. Clean-up-your-act queen Julie Morgenstern will be at the National Book Festival on Sept. 27 discussing her book, "When Organizing Isn't Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life," ($24, Fireside). We chatted with her about purging everything from old shoes to too many after-work drink dates.
» EXPRESS: What is it about stuff? Why do we gather so much of it?
» MORGENSTERN: Each of us has stuff that anchors us, and that quantity varies from person to person. Some people need a ton of stuff to feel grounded and anchored; they feel better when they're surrounded. There are other people where much less anchors them, but there's an amount.
» EXPRESS: Define clutter.
» MORGENSTERN: Anything obsolete that's taking up space or time in your life that doesn't fuel you or energize you or move you forward.
» EXPRESS: Why is it so hard to let go of things?
» MORGENSTERN: We get attached to the very quantity of stuff we own, regardless of the value of individual items. We feel like we're disoriented if we have less.
» EXPRESS: Does everyone have some kind of clutter in their lives?
» MORGENSTERN: Absolutely. Our lives change. We're constantly evolving. What's relevant today could so easily be not relevant in a few months or weeks. When things change, we don't necessarily stop in that moment to dump things that aren't relevant anymore.
Continue Reading "Unscramble the Shambles: Julie Morgenstern" »
ELABORATE CANOPIES AND four-poster beds have their place — like, maybe in boudoirs at Versailles or Mount Vernon. The more mod way to make your bed is with a space-saving, wall-festooning headboard. Blame boutique hotels for the resurgence of the padded, carved or woven wonders. Any of them would add loads of style to a space without eating up an entire room. "If you use a headboard, it's a focal point, almost like a bookcase or fireplace," says Daren Miller, owner of Adams Morgan decor den And Beige. "The bed is the biggest piece of furniture in the room — you want it to have a nice backdrop."
» For bollywood nights (or just afternoon naps at your Logan pad), a painted wooden headboard ($850; Wisteria.com) inspired by railing carvings from an Indian palace looks stylish with all-white linens or a quilt sewn from antique sari patches. (To score the latter, try Novahaat.com.)
HAVING OVERNIGHT guests of the non-romantic sort can make your home feel as crowded as the nursery chez Brad and Angelina. And when you don't live in a swanky French chateau or mod Hollywood mansion, finding a place to accommodate Cousin Jed or your college roommate can be as difficult as remembering the names of all the Jolie-Pitt kids.
So, when company's coming — and they want to stay over — what can you do, short of steering them toward the couch with a blanket and teddy bear? Even if outfitting a posh guest room isn't feasible, you have options besides packing your friends and family off to the Motel 6.
"There are three things you should think about when looking to convert or to utilize space in a small apartment for guest quarters," says James Grayson Trulove, author of "25 Apartments & Lofts Under 1,000 Square Feet." ($40, Collins Design) "The first is to create an illusion of privacy. The second is to let furniture do double duty. And the third is to find hidden bedrooms where you didn't know they existed."
Folding screens, dividers or even bookcases can help give guests privacy, especially if they're sleeping on a futon in the living room.
Leslie Power installed sliding Japanese-style shoji screens in the guest nook she created on the upper floor of her Takoma Park bungalow to separate it from the nearby family room. "We call it our 'guest room-enough,'" says the 37-year-old computer programmer. "Our guests have a comfortable place to stay and some privacy, but they probably wouldn't stay too long."
SINCE 1997, CITY NESTERS seeking a used bookcase, a vintage chair or even a taxidermied water buffalo head have dropped by Miss Pixie's Furniture and Whatnot (1626 14th St. NW; 202-232-8171). Owner/design wiz Pixie Windsor just moved her emporium of funky furniture and artifacts from Adams Morgan to Logan Circle.
» EXPRESS: How'd you get the antiques bug?
» WINDSOR: I grew up on a farm on the Eastern Shore. My father used to take me to cattle and livestock auctions. And my great aunt collected antiques. I grew up in a house with Marlo furniture and my aunt's antiques.
» EXPRESS: How did that turn into a business?
» WINDSOR: I lived in Adams Morgan, and I was working in the restaurant business. There was a shop around the corner. Every time I went in, I was like "I could do that." The owner was closing the shop, and I offered to take it over. He tried to talk me out of it, but that's the quickest way to make me do anything.
Continue Reading "Q&A: Furniture Designer Kenneth Cobonpue" »
BARACK OBAMA and Hillary Clinton keep reminding us that the United States is shedding manufacturing jobs faster than a speeding steam engine.
But what factories and farms have left behind — weathered wooden carts, steely drafting lamps, battered sign letters that might've once spelled out "Allentown Smoldering" — isn't going anywhere. Industrial detritus, with its colorful past and patina-ed present, now does time in lofts, interior design magazines and shops.
This might mean an old metal glove-making mold used as sculpture or an iron window grate morphed into a fire screen. At Penn Quarter's Rocket Bar, a wooden factory machine-mold even frames a mirror behind the beer taps. "It weighs 300 pounds. It's not for the faint of heart," says Jeff Dawson, co-owner of Bedrock Management, which runs the bar. Other Machine Age reminders there: rocket ship art made of vintage vacuum cleaners.
"Part of the appeal is that these are things that weren't originally intended to be used in the home," says Anna Kahoe, co-owner of U Street's Goodwood, which traffics in glass jars from long-shuttered apothecaries and wooden cabinets that held crop seeds decades ago. "They're infused with human energy, since someone once touched them on a daily basis."
THE REFRESH'N DRYER TOWEL ($13, Refreshn.net) sounds absurd at first. You dampen it and toss it in the dryer with garments that are wrinkled and linty and maybe a bit smelly but don't need a full wash, and they come out fresh and clean via the power of steam and magical towel fibers.
What's astonishing is that it works exactly as described. Clothes pulled from the laundry basket and subjected to the Refresh'n process came out soft, unwrinkled and clean-smelling, good for at least two more wearings.
THE WRANGLING WITH THE broker is over, the contracts are signed and the bank loan has finally gone through. Hurrah! You have your own rad pad. Now how to make it purdy? Lure some good buddies over for a painting party with the promise of food and camaraderie — and perhaps a promise of future household favors. But how does one throw a successful bash without making too much of a splash?
First off, Logan Hardware co-owner Gina Schaefer recommends assigning one guest per wall. "You don't want them running into each other," she says. "Also, people tend to get bored fairly quickly." Even if pals brag about their no-mess painting prowess, take the time to cover furniture with drop cloths, remove outlet covers and tape around windowsills and baseboards before they arrive. It's also worth springing for one roller and tray per person, says Schaefer — that way, there's less of a chance of stray paint drops hitting the floor.
Spring is ideal, as windows and doors can be left open for cross-ventilation, getting rid of fumes and speeding up drying. Start early enough in the day (noonish, perhaps) to let each coat dry before sunlight runs scarce. Since that can take one to two hours, take a lunch break and order pizza. "By the time everyone is done goofing off and cleaning up, it would be OK to start again." Save blasting Bon Jovi tunes and brew for later, though — if people aren't seasoned painters, loud music "might throw off their concentration." And while a cooler of Coors might be tempting, Schaefer learned the hard way when a friend had a few too many: "Our white blinds ended up with blue polka dots."
Photo by iStockphoto
Addison Road