washingtonpost.com - 15 Min.15 Min.Build an Electronics Hutch- April 24, 2005 Looking back, I think it was the iPod that did it. The slim gizmo seemed innocent enough at first, but it soon sent me over the edge. I live (with husband and dog) in a diminutive studio apartment. Juicing up my digital-music player would require one more electrical outlet than I had, and portables like laptops, Palms, cell phones and all their ancillary accoutrements already littered every horizontal surface. Clearly, I needed to exert some dominance over these microchipped babies.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10772-2004Feb26.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... Jazz Up Your Curtain Rods With Disco Balls- April 24, 2005 Back in the day, I had a thing about disco. I slavishly idealized the heady, star-studded nights of Studio 54 -- where stunning creatures like Liza, Halston, Bianca and Andy were constantly photographed looking au courant and sexy. Of course, I was 8 years old then, so the closest I personally got to that glittering world was about a decade later, learning the steps to the hustle from a musty old record -- footprint-map foldout included -- I bought in college.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43505-2004Apr1.html?nav=rss_style/columns/1... Turn a Wine Crate Into a Potting Table- April 24, 2005 To me, wine aficionados have little to recommend them. There's the swirling, the slurping, the spitting -- and the inability to allow anyone else at the table to peruse the wine list without butting in. Then there's all the empty evidence -- the clanking soldiers lined up for recycling, an echo of the throbbing in one's morning-after brain. One positive bit of wine-snob detritus, though, is the old-fashioned wooden wine crate. As liquor stores generally reserve these for people who buy full...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14200-2004Jun3.html?nav=rss_style/columns/1... Make Your Own 'Batterie de Cuisine' Tiles- April 24, 2005 If you'd like to re-tile your kitchen but are short of cash, this is the cheapest imaginable way of achieving the effect: simple photocopies, pasted to the wall and varnished.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6486-2004Mar18.html?nav=rss_style/columns/1... Make a Revolutionary Doormat- April 24, 2005 There is a dearth of sassy, charming doormats out there. I ought to know -- I live in a building without the luxury of an elevator. Multiple times a day, I have the opportunity to review my neighbors' mats. To a one, they are dirty, ratty and wholly uninteresting (To be fair, Apartment No. 18 has made an attempt at wit: Theirs is printed with a cartoon frog in a hammock under the phrase "Welcome to Our Pad").http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61929-2004May27.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... Make a Clutter-Keeper Collage- April 24, 2005 I have an abiding affinity for old-school, functional objects, and I find classic office furniture and desk accoutrements especially appealing. There's nothing like an unpretentious, workaday steel desk, a rugged wooden chair, and a battered pencil cup labeled, well, "Pencils," to put me in a down-to-business mood. (Indeed, I harbor a fantasy in which my Post editors -- cigar-chomping, in rolled-up shirtsleeves and fedoras -- are still sitting at just such desks hollering "Rewrite!")http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38078-2004Feb12.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... Make a Magnetic Spice Rack- April 24, 2005 Back in college, I had a winsome poet-boyfriend who once wrote me a multicolored, stream-of-consciousness letter that included the pronouncement, "Spice is the spice of life." In his faux-naif, hippie way, he was right, of course. Our existence would, without a doubt, be quite gray without the ground nuts, bark, flowers and seeds that add nuance to our cuisine.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43894-2004May20.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... Force a Batch of Flowering Bulbs- April 24, 2005 There is nothing in the deep, dark doldrums of winter like a vivid flash of green or a colorful burst of petals. The hope of warmer days evinced by a vibrant, just-bloomed plant is so heartening that, these days, a mere glimpse is enough to stop me in my snow-weary tracks.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61918-2004Jan29.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... Make an Eye-Catching Room Divider- April 24, 2005 Self-delusion through real estate is the story of my life. Think a 500-square-foot studio is roomy because it boasts south-facing windows that expand my "psychic horizons" Check. Truly believe I can have an office, bedroom and living room all in one space Check! Through the wonders of interior decorating, I've learned that space can be nipped and tucked to within an inch of its life. One helpful tool: This room divider, which effortlessly separates spreadsheets from bedsheets. It does...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6977-2004May6.html?nav=rss_style/columns/15... Turn a Board Game Into a Serving Tray- April 24, 2005 When I was growing up, board games were always a source of angst. My dad bought into the Milton Bradley fantasy that a nuclear clan that played together -- gathered around a brightly hued board -- stayed together. So as one of his family-building traditions, he often brought my brother and me dull "family" games from our local toy emporium. These rarely, if ever, got played -- and when they did, temper tantrums and Monopoly money flew. The fun would end with my dad pronouncing us a sorry...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33078-2004Jun10.html?nav=rss_style/columns/... |