You mean to say that you’ve been reading our blogs for months and haven’t yet figured out the real identity of Style Provocateur?
Oh, of course—you knew all along that it’s senior decorating editor Carole Nicksin. Me, too. But then, I work there and all.
And who else but Home’s VP/editor-in-chief (I mean, our really talented musical boss) Donna Sapolin could come up with the Room Whisperer’s darling list of tunes to redecorate by? Um, yeah, she has really good taste.
After a couple of coats of Eco paint, this workhorse looks like a glamour girl.
When I was preparing to repaint my piano, good information and advice were hard to find. As soon as I uttered the word piano at my local home-improvement store, the clerk generated what seemed to be an auto-reply: “You need an oil-based paint.”
“But it's a studio piano,” I explained. “It's a workhorse. I don't think it has ever had a high-gloss lacquer on it. In fact, it's so worn it doesn't have any finish on it at the moment, be it polyurethane or anything else.”
Mr. Clerk looked at me like I was an idiot. “Oil-based,” he said, handing me a can of primer.
I had a strong hunch that he was wrong. There had to be more options—more shades of gray if you will, when choosing paint for a piano or, in fact, any type of furniture, especially if you're willing to do some sanding. And as it turns out, I was right. Aside from an oil-based product, you can use a latex (water-based) formula on furniture; the only problem is that it doesn't harden like oil paint, so it won't wear as well.
I'm well aware that when I was a child, my feelings about Barbie were more intense than those of my friends. I thought about her all the time, wondering who her parents were, how she could afford all those great clothes she wore, and whether she was nice or mean. I can't say that I loved her, but I was definitely obsessed with her. If she had been a real person, I probably would have stalked her. But that was a long time ago. Still, old fixations tend to linger and express themselves in curious ways. My Barbie thing came out in a big way when I was decorating my last apartment.
This is the first Barbie Dream House. It was issued in 1963, and predates my introduction to the world of Barbie. Yet I was a kid with a strange streak of nostalgia, so I coerced my mother into calling a friend with a daughter older than myself. Mom successfully talked her friend into selling us her daughter's original Dream House. Made of cardboard, the "House" was really a studio apartment. Its compact floor plan captivated me—a sleeping area, sitting area, entertainment console, vanity, clothes closet, and bookshelf, all packed into one room. It had everything you need except for a kitchen, but that seemed unnecessary to the eight-year-old me.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Home blog—a multifaceted compendium of the latest and greatest tips, personalities, and products in the home design and retail arenas that goes far beyond what is covered in the pages of the magazine. In reading it, you’ll not only get a ton of fabulous solutions and info, but you’ll also get to know the Home editors a lot better. That’s because they’ll be the ones bringing you all this added insight—in their own unique voices. These folks are entertaining, totally in the know, and they love sharing their finds and ideas—in fact, they’re all but obsessed with the subject of home. I mean, why else would they walk around with pictures of their childhood homes in their wallets? (Well, okay, not all of ’em do, but they’re all willing to write about the same stuff they cover for the magazine, which is lots more work—and why on earth would they do that if they weren’t fixated?) I don’t carry a house photo on me, but I do have a shot of the place I moved into back in 1965 hanging on my bulletin board. I can trace my personal preoccupation with the topic of home to that period.
