Rate My Favorite Spaces

Is this the most beautiful place on earth?

2009-11-11T06:06:00.003-05:00

How's this for design inspiration? Just got back from 2 weeks in the Mediterranean and Rome, and was blown away by the beauty of Santorini. Makes me want to redecorate the entire house in blue and white. But with the economy, decorating's on hold 'til I pay off a couple things from the home theater project.So for now I'll just bring out the red and green.I'll be posting more videos from the

How to save $9,000 the DIY way

2009-06-27T08:28:00.011-04:00

I'm still LOL after seeing this outrageously expensive outdoor TV in the July/August 2009 issue of Traditional Home.It's the Runco Climate Portfolio, and it will only set you back $8,995 to put this 42-inch LCD TV outside on your porch, patio or lanai. Oh, and probably another $150 to $300+ for installation.If Nine Grand to watch TV outside is not in your budget, here's what we did on our lanai

Are you ready for some football?

2009-06-14T10:09:00.010-04:00

Or maybe a Blu-ray movie on the 100-inch BIG screen? Click the little screen above for a 2 1/2 minute video tour of our new DIY media room/home theater. Photos, resource list and DIY details are in the next post. And here's the before/work-in-progress video.8 NFL games. On one big screen. Cool. Is it September yet?NFL GameMix image courtesy of DirecTV.

My Dream DIY Media Room

2009-06-11T18:44:00.025-04:00

Welcome, YouTube viewers! Scroll down to the end of this page for the shopping list for this space. Thanks for visiting!Then and now...The transformation of our little-used upstairs bonus room (before, above) into a media room with 100-inch Big Screen TV is complete! I surprised DH with an HGTV-style big "reveal," and from his reaction, I knew he hadn't peeked during the 3 month reno (short video

Under construction...still!

2009-03-29T22:54:00.014-04:00

I've been MIA on the blog for two months, working nonstop to transform our rarely-used bonus room into a media room complete with 100-inch big screen TV.Long story. But here's the first installment: the "befores" and a bit of the work-in-progress. It's almost done, and as soon as a few final elements are added, I'll post it here and on Rate My Space.UPDATE: It's done! Complete info in this post.

This is why I blog

2009-02-04T08:00:00.022-05:00

HGTV Rate My Space: Stylish, Colorful Dining RoomFrom the "Copy me, please" file. This gal nailed it. My own curtains are below left. My curtain how-to is here.Thanks, Desiree,Desid on RMS, for pointing me to this wonderful new space on Rate My Space by mediavisionds. Looks like my Old World Dining Room may have provided some DIY inspiration for this space. And that's why I started the blog. To

Before & After Video: Our Faux Fireplace

2009-01-29T08:26:00.013-05:00

First, the bad news: It looks like the geniuses in the U.S. Congress may postpone the digital TV transition. Now, the good news: This allows plenty of time for the man in your life to get his humongous new Big Screen HDTV, and for you to try one of my creative solutions for integrating (camouflaging?) it into your decor!My new 3-minute high definition video above shows you, before & after, how DH

Copy my Dramatic Silk Curtains: Sew easy!

2009-01-26T12:32:00.006-05:00

By popular demand from HGTV Rate My Space members, here's a short "how-to" video on how I made my dupioni silk dining room curtains, as featured in HGTV Ideas Magazine's Summer 2008 issue. (Click the little widescreen box for full screen HD)Sew you can do it!If you can sew a basic lined curtain with a plain, flat heading, you can do this! There are NO PLEATS and the hardware is easy to install -

Time to embrace the Big TV, Ladies!

2009-01-21T00:00:00.014-05:00

To celebrate the digital transition, I've given the blog a facelift - a photo of DH's ManSpace with his 42" Vizio 1080p LCD, perfectly hung on the wall (by him!) It's technoclutter for some women, or worse. But it's ART for geeks like me!When you have to count twice, you know you have a lot of TVs - we have 9 for 2 people. LOL! I've been eagerly awaiting the HD changeover for years, so I already

Updated Rate My Space website: I'm disappointed!

2009-01-16T22:50:00.018-05:00

The new, improved Rate My Space website is visually appealing and HGTV seems to have delivered on the promised bandwidth increase (speed, for you non-geeks). But much of the functionality has been lost, from my perspective as someone who liked to track the "horserace," the movement of spaces...Most viewed today, this week, this month are all gone. But hey, now I've got a nice new profile page to

Digital Redecorating

2009-01-13T16:21:00.026-05:00

Happy New Year! I've been away from the blog while working on 1,200 digital video clips and 1,000 digital photos from our late October Mediterranean cruise. So today I gave the blog and my YouTube channel digital makeovers to celebrate 2009 - the year us geeks have been waiting for: The Digital TV Transition!I've had fun creating short, high quality videos (Barcelona, French Riviera, Florence,

What Christmas is all about

2008-12-22T17:30:00.005-05:00

IMHO, no one has ever said it better than Linus did in the 1965 TV show. Merry Christmas to all!

art that matters

2008-12-02T21:42:00.021-05:00

Carefully selected art work can make all the difference to the feel and character of your home. Here are two photographers’ views on the little things that can set your collection apart…about the authorsGuest bloggers gordon+christina are two Australian-based photographers passionate about sharing what they see in the everyday. Their photography projects to date have led them to travel around

Christmas decorating made easy...sort of

2008-12-01T17:19:00.011-05:00

Christmas Decorating Marathon, Day 1...I'm taking a break before finishing up the kitchen. I finished the dining room this morning after a thorough cleaning. My grandmother's 90+ year old Nativity is on my kitchen hutch, always my first decoration to go up.The 8 tiny pre-lit Christmas trees are everyone's favorite and they make me smile. I added them last year in heights from 24-36" on top of my

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

2008-11-26T11:06:00.007-05:00

While most of you are cooking today, I'm cleaning!Since we're spending Thanksgiving with friends, I only have to make mashed potatoes and a pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow. So I'm free to continue my cleaning marathon with hopes of getting the house decorated for Christmas this weekend.Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and may God bless you and your families!-MKPS.... if you haven't tried

One year ago today...

2008-11-24T06:00:00.005-05:00

Just looked at the date on my computer and realized that exactly a year ago today, Thanksgiving weekend, I was surfing the web, minding my own business, and discovered HGTV's Rate My Space website.I wrote about that day in one of my first posts, "Rate My Space - How I got hooked." That day, I uploaded photos of my kitchen and dining room. Little did I know where THAT would lead...to a TV

No, i'm not this good with Photoshop

2008-11-09T09:13:00.007-05:00

As anyone who's been to Pisa knows, you have to do this. DH took the photo and it's not retouched. Great fun to do it and then, of course, to watch the endless line-up of others doing it too.After several days of major jet lag, naps, doing laundry and running errands, I'm feeling normal again and I've begun wading through a thousand photos and maybe as many video clips. It was a 14-day whirlwind

on vacation!

2008-10-19T09:42:00.001-04:00

See you soon!

13 days & counting...

2008-10-07T07:14:00.010-04:00

I'm so excited and busy getting ready for our big cruise. On our first night we celebrate our 24th anniversary. Along for the ride will be our good friends, Jim's best man (and BFF) and his wife.I was thrilled to find a travel & photography buff's blog that featured photos of our ship, including the atrium above. Blogger Dom was so kind to let me use his photo here. (Thanks, Dom!)Here's our

the next designstar?

2008-09-29T07:16:00.009-04:00

I haven't been blogging or browsing Rate My Space lately due to a lot of commitments, meetings and vacation prep, but I'm so glad I checked out the main page this morning.Tom (aka "naddhee"), a late 20-something grad student, has posted his first apartment in L.A. and it is amazing. And it's the top ranked and most viewed space.I'll just show a couple photos here because it's well worth your time

don't be afraid to try faux!

2008-09-22T10:35:00.013-04:00

I love to get photos like this one from reader "Latchia," who faux painted her dining room tray ceiling using my instructions posted here. Judging from her email, she's a busy professional who found time to do this intricate ceiling, and she's asking for my curtain-making instructions too. Says her dining room is a work-in-progress. Bravo, Latchia!And of course reader "gumby" did beautiful work

welcome changes coming to rate my space

2008-09-19T11:12:00.009-04:00

Great news! Thanks to reader "mdenton" for sending me the link to this post on HGTV's RMS feedback forum. I rarely visit RMS these days, unless I'm up real late or real early when the servers are running faster.Here's the post, "Upcoming Changes," from "HGTV Matt":Hello Everyone,Rate My Space (RMS) has become a fantastic online community for HGTV, and we are working to make it even better. We are

thank you!

2008-09-19T07:41:00.006-04:00

Thanks to everyone who voted for our entry in the True Value DIY All-Stars Contest. Though we didn't make it to the finals, it was fun to participate and it was a real honor to be in the semi-finals. Jim and I really appreciate your support. Thanks again!

contest voting ends today

2008-09-18T08:18:00.006-04:00

Today's the last day for online voting in True Value's D.I.Y. All-Star Contest to select 4 Finalists from a field of 20 semi-finalists. If you've already voted for our Den & Wine Bar entry, thank you soooooo much!Our project details are in my blog post here; see more photos and rate it on HGTV's Rate My Space website here).If you'd like to vote today (Thursday 9/18, until 11:59 PM), it's easy:

angelo renovates his own kitchen!

2008-09-17T08:18:00.005-04:00

The Los Angeles Times has a great feature on Angelo Surmelis' new kitchen renovation. Angelo (above with his adorable pup, Baxter) is the popular host of HGTV's Rate My Space TV show.Click here to enjoy the whole article with photos! More info on Kathy's Remodeling Blog courtesy of author Kathy Price-Robinson, the award winning writer who interviewed Angelo.Photo: L.A. Times