Mid-Century Modern Furniture: Robert Kjer Jakobsen, Designer for Virtue Brothers of California

Origami Tote: Easy to Sew Furoshiki Inspired Bag

Epiphyllums: Jungle Flowers in a Drought Tolerant Garden

Designing a low water landscape and using drought tolerant plants can be overwhelming if the yard is currently planted with water loving greenery and flowers. There is also the added question about climate and sunlight. What about a garden in dry shade? Is it possible to have color and plants in a shady yard when water is scarce? One colorful and exotic plant to consider are epiphyllums, whose colorful cactus flowers will fill a shaded yard or patio every spring.

It's Cactus Time: California Cactus Center

This is the perfect season for a landscaping project with succulents, aloes and cactus, and the California Cactus Center is a good place to start. Whether a single planter like the one above is in your plan, or a larger grouping in the ground, finding inspiration within a garden setting can help to give any project focus, style and content.

How to Install a Simple Gray Water System

Trying to capture gray water and transporting it out to the yard or garden can be a huge task, let alone a slow process. Although I'm no engineering expert, it seemed to me that there had to be a easier way, so I am sharing with you what I 'set up' at my house to divert water out to my garden.

Spring Cleaning: How To Wash a Rug

Washing rugs used to be part of an old time Spring Cleaning ritual. How to wash a rug? Today this seems like an ancient concept, but after a long winter it can be pretty essential. A freshly washed rug will give your room a new start for spring.

Taking a Look: Art Deco Bathroom Tile

When designing a new Art Deco bathroom or remodeling an old one in a vintage style, looking at original tile work is always a plus. This vintage bathroom is in a bungalow home located in the hillside community of Tujunga, CA. The tiles here have an Art Deco color scheme, which brings this home's age into the 1920's era.

Bathroom Remodel: Fixtures & Design Concepts

Remodeling a bathroom in a vintage or older home requires a bit of sensitivity towards the existing structural design.

1920s: Vintage Bathroom Styles

In researching a bathroom remodel, I found some vintage home magazines from the mid-1920's that show in great detail how well planned and decorative bathrooms had become by that time.

Linen Fabric & Sewing Supplies: Shopping in Paris

The vintage look we associate as "French" can be difficult to locate in a big city like Paris, but tucked away on a neighborhood street is La Croix et la Manière, where linen fabric, embroidery suppies and other sewing related items are sold in a shop that seems to have come from another era.