It’s easy to fall into that pernicious trap in which you find yourself thinking that DIY is not for you because crafting and design are talents you have to be born with and besides, you’re all thumbs and no good with a sewing machine. Yes, it helps to have a talent for putting things together to make a harmonious whole, but the truth is that anyone who can follow directions can DIY, whether that means refinishing furniture or building a coffee table using old windows.

What’s even better is that directions (or tutorials or whatever else you want to call them) abound in bookstores and online. There is absolutely no shortage of instructive material designed to help those new to DIY. I myself have benefited from many of these while learning to sew and to build furniture, as neither of these skills was practiced in my family, which is where, I’m convinced, people who appear to be “born to craft” learn these things.

If you’re keen to learn the secrets of DIY, check out some of my favorite how-to books:

• DIY: Design It Yourself
• REadyMade: How to Make Almost Everything
• Fresh Coat: Simple Painting Makeovers
• My DIY: The Stylin’ Girl’s Guide To Diy Projects
• Craftivity: 40 Projects for the DIY Lifestyle
• The Big-Ass Book of Crafts

Cheers!

Speaking of custom home design — er, like we did the other day — I have a real thing for builders and/or designers who go all out. And by “all out,” I mean they have this vision in their heads that is nothing like the usual house or apartment building, but they go right ahead and construct it anyway, oftentimes to the scorn of their nearby neighbors. Junker House, Lemgo, Germany is one such structure.

Karl Junker was as severely schizophrenic as he was talented when it came to architecture, and this fact is evident in the home that became his legacy. The world inside his head provided the blueprint for Junker House, a home like something out of a nightmare, complete with human faces that stare down from ceilings, twisting caged staircases, skeletal furniture, and “ghosts.”

Not content to build it and let the fantasy go, Junker spent his life (and a sum of money left to him by his grandfather) building onto and perfecting Junker House. He lived therein alone, though elements of the design such as a nursery and a formal salon suggests that he intended to have a family and perhaps even an active social life.

Junker did to some extent achieve the latter goal, and then only at the end of his life when strangers began to arrive daily to request tours of his life’s work. He gave these visitors what they wanted, sure that one day in the future his fascinating style of building and interior design would be appreciated by mankind. In a way, Junker is now appreciated, though only as an example of a man whose madness drove him to new heights of architectural creativity.

(Don’t forget to enter to win a FREE hand-woven jute rug!)

Tired of walking on your bare floors? Me, too, but rugs tend to cost a bit more than I’m willing to pay for them now that I have a kid to think about. I’m fortunate enough now to live in a house with nice hardwood floors, but I’ve also been unlucky enough to live in apartments with splintering wood flooring and vinyl peeling at the edges so I know how vital something like good rugs can be to a person’s foot health and sanity.

I’m happy to announce that I can help at least one of you out, thanks to CSN Rugs. They’ve graciously offered to give away a classic 3’x5′ hand woven jute rug with a soft blue border to one lucky reader of this very blog.

All you have to do to enter to win is leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of stuff you’d like to see on Manolo for the Home in the future, e.g. product reviews, photos of designers’ homes, home care tips, etc. On this coming Friday morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winner.

Good luck!

Exterior trompe l’oeil… not so easy to do on a small scale (unfortunately for most DIYers), but breathtaking when done as it should be.

This beautiful example of exterior trompe l’oeil comes from France.

A plain building is transformed into something much more interesting when paint is applied.

Here we have a small section of a trompe l’oeil mural featuring famous Lyonnais people such as Saint Exupéry of The Little Prince fame.

And finally, John Pugh paints what are intensely eye-catching trompe l’oeil murals on buildings. Cool, no?

Jimmie and Martin of Jimmie Martin Ltd. prove that more really is more with a baby grand piano done up in sliver leaf with a Zebra pattern. Is it chic or tacky? My answer: “Depends.”

1. Paloma’s nursery:

All right, so by the time Paloma actually has a proper nursery (hey, she was early) she’ll probably be extremely embarrassed to hear me even saying the word. For now, she spends most of her time in my black-and-red themed home office — the space that will eventually become her room. And we’ll probably keep that theme. But until that dream becomes a reality, I can fantasize all I want about building the perfect nursery from the ground up… or letting ducduc do it for me.

2. The color gray:

Cool, somber, elegant. What’s not to like? Don’t think gray is too dark for small spaces. It’s not. A lighter gray can actually make a small space look bigger!

3. Houzz

The Washington Post calls it “the Flickr of design idea sites,” which isn’t too bad of a description. You can search through thousands of photos of interiors by professional designers and save the ones that inspire you in your online idea book… Which means yours truly can finally toss out some of the magazine clippings she’s been sitting on for ages.

4. Hanging things up:

With the baby underfoot or attached to me at all times, I don’t get much done around the house anymore. Projects like tiling the mudroom or tackling the bare upstairs room have been put on the back burner for the time being. Just about the only thing I can do is affix things to the walls. Hanging things up makes me feel like I’m actually doing something to add a little zest to my living spaces, and I heartily recommend it to those with a desire for change but not a lot of free time.

A house nearby to my own up until recently had the most atrociously painted electric purple door. I’ve nothing against electric purple doors, mind you. Rather, I am anti-DIY when DIY is done badly. If you’re going to attempt to fix or refresh your home, why not do it right the first time? And really now, painting a front door is not all that difficult, and it can add a lot of personality to an exterior for very little money.

So how does one paint a front door? First things first! Take off the door — as tempting as it is to glop on paint without taking off the door, you’ll end up with shite results. Corral any pets as necessary. Once the door is off, and keep in mind that it may be heavy so be careful, you’ll need to remove all the hardware, e.g. the hinges, the doorknob, a door knocker, or peepholes. Oh, and any screws that were holding those things on will need to come off, too.

Next step, prime! And when I say prime, I mean the whole thing, including the inside edges and surfaces that will be under hardware. Once that’s done and dry, check for things like cracks. If you see any, fill ’em up with caulk and then prime over the caulk once it’s dry. Unfortunately, painting doesn’t come next — sanding does. But as much as sanding can suck, sanding with a fine grit sandpaper will make the finished door look polished and professional.

Finally, it is time to paint. Um, once you’ve rubbed off all the dust from all that sanding. I recommend using a roller on the flat bits of the door. Part of the reason that the electric purple door looked so awful was that there were brush strokes over brush strokes, and the door’s original color was showing underneath. Not very polished looking at all. As you paint, try not to let the paint pool or drip because, yes, it will dry that way. Finally, apply as many coats as you need (when the previous coat is dry) to get good coverage and a uniform hue.

Now that’s not so hard, right? As for the electric purple door, the owners of said door eventually did take it down and paint it correctly, and now it looks absolutely stunning.

(Image via)

…you may find that your love of contemporary decor has only increased and you end up redoing your entire house just to accommodate a few elegant pieces. Or so I’ve heard.

My only first hand experiences with black furniture have involved paint and lacquer, and that was in high school when I was going through a decidedly Gothic phase. However, I’m not closed off to the notion of one day retooling my living room, bedroom, etc. to be ultramod with a traditional bent.

From Sheer Home, I like the black Louis chair upholstered in a rich fabric and the three-drawer “Angela” chest in a French black painted polished solid wood. What do you think?