A couple weeks ago I got to attend the opening of the Zenergy House in Los Angeles. The Zenergy House is a net-zero energy project home, meaning it uses energy from the power grid at night, but captures energy from the sun during the day and replenishes as much as it burns. The family in the 3-bedroom 1950′s home decided to retrofit their house (with generous help from sponsors, of course!) as an example of how existing homes can be modified to be more environmentally friendly. On first glance alone, I loved the rain barrel they have to water plants in their front yard. That’s an idea I’m totally going to steal.

While some visitors took issue with things like water use of the expansive backyard pool, I thought the project offered simple and design-friendly solutions that I would definitely use in my own home.

I’m a huge fan of full-length windows and natural light, especially in bathrooms. Don’t ask me why…maybe my voyeurism is revealing itself through my home design preferences. I loved the glass wall used in the master bathroom. It’s clear enough to let in plenty of light, distorted enough to not freak the neighbors out.  The floors made of cork are also really clever and eco-friendly. There is actually a company that makes these cork flooring pieces on rolls ready to be laid out. Being a true do-it-yourselfer, however, I think it would be interesting to try and lay out the cork pieces by hand.

In another bathroom, tile pieces make up an entire wall. Having put up bathroom wallpaper before, I really appreciate the durability and easy-to-clean aspects of tile. Trust me: wallpaper paste + hot steamy showers = not pretty. I think my bathroom wallpaper experiment lasted a month or two before it slowly started peeling off from the corners in long, ugly strips. Maybe I did something wrong, but I now reserve wallpaper only for bedrooms or half baths.

Outside, cool stone look-alikes are actually made of reclaimed used tires. Bonus: they’re squishy! Great for running around barefoot after a swim.

I’m not exactly sure how an overhang is eco-friendly (perhaps it provides some shade in a room that would otherwise have sun glaring down into it), but it’s cool looking and I want one.

I loved the clean simplicity of the design throughout the house. A single accent wall or bold piece stood out in most rooms throughout the home.

One thing I really didn’t get at all was the “wall ruffles” in one of the kid’s bedrooms. The guide was quick to point out that this decorative accent is made from 100% pre-consumer recycled materials. Great. But just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. And I bet that’s a bitch to dust.

These pillows are apparently made of bamboo, as are most of the towels, sheets, and other linens throughout the house. I really like the simple use of colorful pillows to dress up the simple white couch.

Having a pretty small house and a rather big family, the masterminds behind this revamp used every space in clever ways. Here, angled shelves offer some storage space in an area where a traditional bookcase wouldn’t fit.

My favorite thing was this Barking Teak dog bench for visitors to take off their shoes in the front entrance. Too bad it’s like $400. I think they have smaller versions for around $100.

And of course, the home is in LA so celebrity appearances were a requirement. Ed Begley, Jr. showed up with his bike and helmet in hand.

A little while ago, the company I work for restructured some internal office space to make room for a couple new initiatives they were taking on. This meant I got to go from a “cube” to a “corner” – the main difference being that I moved from a wall to a window (wooh!) and went from having a drawer to having two whole filing cabinets! Ahh, the joys of office space. But (and this is a really big BUT) my new space had never really been put to use in the past and had me facing this random, ugly, unfinished wall.

No, I swear this isn’t some sort of punishment. I’m not being demoted (as far as I’m aware) and really, the move to a bigger space was totally welcome. But after a few jokes that I should drill a hole in the window and start taking admission tickets, someone suggested putting up some drywall. I decided to tackle the project, and ended up learning a lot in the process.

Tools needed:
Measuring tape
Straight-edge
Sharp utility blade

1. Measure 

“This line seems straight” is a declaration that prefaces many of the most well-intentioned construction disasters. Do yourself a favor and measure. And then use a straight-edge to stay within those measurements. Trust me, you cannot measure or cut a straight line without a straight-edge. Really.

2. Cut

Hold the straight-edge in place and drag the utility blade along the edge, applying pressure to cut the drywall in a straight line. Don’t worry if your blade doesn’t go all the way through. You will cut the other side of the drywall in the next step.

Be sure to keep your fingers – and toes! – out of the way while you cut the drywall.

3. Crack

Pick up the drywall and bend it at the line you just cut. The drywall will crack apart easily to create a corner at the cut line. Simply run your blade along the opposite side to cut the two drywall pieces apart entirely.

4. Drill

I simply drilled screws through the drywall to secure it to the incomplete wall. If you don’t know how to use a power drill, don’t worry – it’s not that hard. The most difficult part is making sure you have the proper tip (called a “drill bit”) on the drill so that it matches the size of your screw. Then, simply fit the top of the screw onto the drill and apply pressure to drill it into the wall. You may want to ask your brother/dad/husband/neighbor to show you how if it’s your first time. My drywall wasn’t big enough to cover the entire wall, so I drilled in a piece of micro-suede fabric in to cover the top part.

Note: After I was all done, someone commented that technically, most drywallers would use a special tape and spackle to finish off the cut end of the drywall and cover up the screws. I, however, just don’t care enough to go to quite that much effort. And I think it’s a huge improvement as it is!

I was adventuring through Home Depot the other day when I came across these wall stickers called “Wall Pops.” I’ve seen wall stickers before but they’re usually somewhat corny or kid-focused/Disney-themed and – seeing as how I don’t have kids – not all that appealing to me. I mean, I love Ariel and all (who WOULDN’T give up their voice/family/appendages for that prince Eric guy, anyway? Priorities, people!) but I can only go so far with the Disney princess theme before Nate throws a fit and moves out. Anyway, these Wall Pops were surprisingly unlike wall stickers that I’ve seen before. They were actually classy and chic, and looked like they’d be an easy way to add some interest to an otherwise boring wall.

Usually I’m all about the quick paint job to spruce up a room, but these wall stickers could be a life-saver in dorm rooms, apartments, or other places where you can’t make any permanent modifications (unless you aren’t too attached to your security deposit!).

They even have nursery and kids-themed wall stickers so you can decorate like a pro without a drop cloth. How frickin cute is that? I want to have kids just so I have an excuse to stick chickens and horses all over the place.

Until I do have kids, I suppose I’ll have to settle for functionality over adorability (I know, that’s not a word). Shown above are dry erase wall stickers – stuck right onto the wall to create a dry erase board without pins, nails or the hassle of actually having to deal with a board at all! Clever. But where will I hang my pen and eraser? And no, I don’t know who Tom is or why he has a yard lounger as an office chair.

Wall Pops are available at Home Depot and Amazon. And for those of you who are curious – this post isn’t sponsored by Wall Pops. Sometimes I just like to share the blog love.

As I mentioned the other day in a post about my cat’s unfortunate bladder control issues (that’s a compelling synopsis if I’ve ever read one!), we’re currently living with Nate’s parents to save on rent while he finishes up the police academy. So we’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff but we’re trying to fit what’s left into as little space as possible because we don’t totally overwhelm his parent’s home with our junk. Which is why all our DVDs and electronics are on an ugly shelf in our room right now and are a terrible eyesore.

Ignore the copious amount of shoes and jewelry. It’s a problem; I’m working on it. Anyway, I don’t really believe in having ANY electronics in the bedroom, but that’s a whole other subject no one wants to hear me ramble about. Point is, I don’t want to stare at these ugly shelves any more. And buying new shelves with closing doors (or adding doors to the current ones to hide the shelves) just isn’t an option with our budget right now. So I made do with what I could scrounge up around the house: an adjustable curtain rod, a spare white sheet, and some pretty fabric for a valance.

I simply folded over the top of the sheets and sewed them to form a loop to go through the curtain rod (if they’d been longer I would’ve had to cut them, but they were fortunately the perfect size). I super-glued the curtain rod to the side of the shelves. A spring-loaded curtain rod probably would have been a better choice but this is just what I had on hand.  Obviously it’s not totally ideal. I mean, ideally I would live on the beach, sunbathe all day and have maids/personal assistants to deal with hiding shelves and all that kind of crap for me. For that matter, I would have shelves that magically slide back into the wall at the push of a button. But it’s a definite improvement for now!

I tweeted a couple days ago about how my beautiful gold duvet cover ended up in the wash with my whites, and quickly went from gold to peach-ish pink. Here’s what it looked like originally:

And after the bleach mistake:

As opposed to buying a whole new duvet cover (which would be kind of silly since we’re upgrading to a King soon), I attempted to salvage this one with Dylon dark brown permanent fabric dye packets. Dying fabric this big is really difficult, unless you use washing machine dye, which ensures complete and even saturation. We have a brand new washing machine and I’ve been told that some dyes cause lasting stains in the machine, so that wasn’t an option. Instead, I filled a kiddy pool with hot water + a few packets of the fabric dye + salt (not sure why salt is necessary, but that’s what it said on the packets). After mixing this all thoroughly, I stirred my duvet cover and pillow covers in there for about 15 minutes, then stirred intermittently for about 6 hours. The packets say to stir 15 minutes and then intermittently for 45 minutes, but I figured the extra time couldn’t hurt. Here’s the final result:

The color’s a little bit mottled in places, but everyone who’s seen it so far says it looks like an intentional pattern. I actually really like it – and it was about time for a change, anyway!