Consider using an interior designer

Design Professionals

Consider a consultation with an interior designer for your next home remodeling project.  Hire them for the whole job, or just to consult on certain aspects.  Their experiences will save you time, money, and stress.  We recently hired a designer to help with details for our newest home purchase in the Alberta Arts district of Portland Oregon.  Initially, I questioned the added expense as our remodel budget was already stretched thin.  However, after our first consultation it quickly became clear that our designer would help us avoid days of indecision on materials and paint colors, saving me a dozen or more trips to the local remodel and paint stores.  She provided us with three sketches, three paint  schemes, and three choices for material.  Within the hour my wife and I had chosen the colors and material for the renovation.

We will invite her back once the work is complete and our POD has been unloaded to do another consultation regarding furniture & art placement.  I’m confident she will save us even more time and money here, as we’ll be able to repurpose furniture we already own vs. most likely purchasing new furniture trying to get the look we could have had with proper placement.  I’m a fan of identifying pieces of furniture I really want to purchase, but waiting until I craigslist those I’m done with before buying.  Often times, the changeover can be done with little or no added expense.

We were very lucky to find someone on our first try who listened to what we really wanted, and delivered right on target.  If you don’t have a great referral then I would suggest visiting with a few interior designers, and finding one you really connect with.  Most of all, have fun with the process.

Best of luck,

Orly Halpern

Spruce-up your bathroom on a budget

Refresh your bathroom on a budget

Here are a few tips I wanted to pass along for refreshing an outdated, dark, or cramped bathroom.

Big Mirror:
Adding a big mirror, or replacing your existing mirror with a larger one, adds light, provides a larger view, and makes a dim, cramped bathroom feel spacious, spa-like, and inviting.
Look for a framed mirror, or non-framed depending on your budget, the space provided, and your other decorations.

Shower Dispenser:
Push or pump button dispensers add quite a convenience to your bath/shower experience. By getting rid of the clutter of bottles lining your tub you’re creating space, but also not allowing soap rings and hard water stains to form along the base of the bottles. This makes shower cleaning easier (which means you will be more inclined to clean, and more often).
Shower dispensers can be found at a number of home improvement stores, and at a wide range of prices to fit your budget. Be weary of the ultra cheap as you will likely find yourself shopping for a more quality version after yours breaks in the first month.

New Faucet & Hardware:
Very important, and may be easier to install than you thought. Adding a new faucet (prices range from around $25-$150) can be a substantial improvement to the appearance of the restroom. Installation requires some know-how and very basics of plumbing, but the faucets most-likely come with instructions, and a few quick answers from an associate at the home improvement store will have you wrapping plumbers tape and slinging drain puddy in no time.
Also, look to updating your shower/bath fixtures (often sold in combinations for less than $150). Lastly, make sure that your towel rack, toilet paper roll, and any other fixtures do not detract from your newly updated items. If they clash, replace those with the same (or at least very similar) finishes. The combination of these fixes can bring your pre 1990′s home into the new millennium.

McMenamins Kennedy School: from tripwiser.com

Just 10 minutes northeast of downtown, the McMenamin brothers have created yet another Portland treasure here. The 1915 Kennedy School was slated for demolition before the McMenamins intervened. Now a nostalgic retreat, each room features its own charming theme, complete with chalkboard. Have a drink at the Honors Bar, the Detention Bar, or the Cypress Room Bar. Check out the expansive menu at the Courtyard Restaurant. Catch a movie in the Theater Bar. Peruse the original artwork adorning the hallways and tour the Concordia Brewery.  www.mcmenamins.com

McMenamins Kennedy School Portland Oregon

From the NY Times: Alberta Arts Neighborhood “Saved by Design in Portland”

Surfacing
Saved by Design in Portland
By JANE HODGES Published: February 1, 2009

IN the days before grunge, Northeast Alberta Street was a blighted neighborhood of vacant buildings and aging auto shops, a place better known for crime than cool art. But as other neighborhoods in Portland, Ore., have succumbed to chain stores and cookie-cutter condos, this scrappy street in the city’s northeast section has become a new hub for the creative class.

Instead of a pedestrian-free street saddled by sagging repair shops and building-trades businesses, Northeast Alberta Street is now lined with colorful galleries and boutiques where visitors can browse for street art, shop for a handmade felt hat, overhaul a bicycle with used parts and even get acupuncture at a tea shop.

Much of the district’s commercial awakening can be traced to Roslyn Hill, a civic-minded landlord who began snapping up the street’s hodgepodge of cement-block and wood buildings in the early 1990s and renting them to gallery operators and designers. Ms. Hill laid down new rules: no metal bars on windows and no locked doors during business hours.

“I told my renters, ‘You have to interact with the community,’ ” she said. The formula seems to have worked. By 1997, galleries began sponsoring monthly art walks — now organized by the nonprofit Art on Alberta (www.artonalberta.org) — and the momentum hasn’t stopped.

One of the best times to stroll Northeast Alberta Street is on a lazy Sunday, when 20-somethings walk their dogs, cyclists converge on cafes, and a woman sells tamales from a cooler.

There is usually a long brunch line at the Tin Shed Garden Cafe (No. 1438 ; 503-288-6966; www.tinshedgardencafe.com), a spot that draws the flannel-and-fleece crowd to its rustic patio. Popular dishes include scrambled eggs with a vegetable pesto ($8.50). Another bustling brunch spot is Helser’s on Alberta (No. 1538; 503-281-1477; www.helsersonalberta.com), which serves all-day breakfasts of potato pancakes ($6.75) and brioche French toast ($6.95).

By early afternoon, traffic picks up at the street’s half-dozen galleries. Onda (No. 2215; 503-493-1909; www.ondagallery.com), one of the neighborhood’s oldest galleries, showcases Nicaraguan pottery, Cuban posters and other Latin American treasures. Nearby, the Guardino Gallery (No. 2939; 503-281-9048; www.guardinogallery.com) exhibits contemporary art and crafts from the Pacific Northwest.

Sunday is also a good day to hit the street’s indie fashion boutiques. Shop owners are usually around and happy to chat, giving Northeast Alberta Street the air of a working artists’ colony.

Over at Garnish (No. 1524; 503-282-3200; www.garnishapparel.com), you might catch the owner, Erica Lurie, a former Adidas apparel developer, arranging colorful knit skirts on the sidewalk or taking measurements inside her narrow white store.

The street lures graphic designers, too: A favorite hangout is OFFICE PDX (No. 2204; 888-355-7467; www.officepdx.com), a retail hybrid that combines a design store, art gallery and graphic design studio where one can buy a “Mad Men”-style desktop pen holder and then attend a lecture by a visiting designer from Herman Miller Inc.

“We moved to Portland with the specific idea of being part of this neighborhood,” said Kelly Coller, who owns OFFICE PDX with her husband, Tony Secolo, a designer (both are Seattle transplants). “It’s where the designers were already living.”

see the article here