In this Fast Food and Restaurant Era, we often neglect the importance of sitting down to a meal at home or doing a little entertaining around a prepared or take-out meal. Bottom line: you need nights at home where you go all out for yourself, for your significant other, for your family, or for your friends. Our dynamic design duo's advice and tips in this episode cover how to set a great table, bringing scale and drama into your arrangements, adding surprise and humor and fantasy to your meals, ways to mix and match the same elements to switch from formal to informal table settings, how Marie Antoinette's breasts inspired glassware, and Irwin's chocolate ice cream dessert project (yum!).In this Fast Food and Restaurant Era, we often neglect the importance of sitting down to a meal at home or doing a little entertaining around a prepared or take-out meal. Bottom line: you need nights at home where you go all out for yourself, for your significant other, for your family, or for your friends. Our dynamic design duo's advice and tips in this episode cover how to set a great table, bringing scale and drama into your arrangements, adding surprise and humor and fantasy to your meals, ways to mix and match the same elements to switch from formal to informal table settings, how Marie Antoinette's breasts inspired glassware, and Irwin's chocolate ice cream dessert project (yum!).
Rooms in today's homes are not necessarily "your mother's rooms." Remember how living rooms used to be only for formal occasions and you weren't allowed to eat, drink, watch TV, or "live" there? Bottom line: before decorating, nail down your living room's functional purpose for you, your family, and your friends. Irwin and Nicola offer advice and tips in this episode on how to get the room right architecturally, deciding on the room's function as a guide to decorating, how to mix expensive with inexpensive pieces to get a great look, getting the living room to relate to the rest of your home, and the specific design elements that combine to make one great living room.
Most of our viewers are in a quandary when it comes to "doing it yourself" or having someone better trained and with more experience helping them out with home remodeling, building, and design projects. Bottom line: if you want to do it yourself, knock yourself out! But you may want professional help to keep your sanity and get a better final result. This episode covers Irwin and Nicola's advice and tips on how to go about hiring a professional designer or contractor, the importance of doing advance research, how to get referrals, getting your project specs in writing, managing your expectations of the job, and the importance of BEING NICE to the hired help!