How do I Save this Desk?

I got an e-mail from a reader asking how to rescue this inexpensive desk found on Craig's List. Over all, it looks very shabby and not at all chic. The finish is worn and it appears to have unattractive cylindrical feet which are centered under each end. Not a pretty picture, but not hopeless.

The lines of the desk are simple and modern and I think with a few small changes, and a weekend's worth of elbow-grease, it could be quite attractive.

First, I would ditch the legs. A great solution would be a set of inexpensive pine bun feet. I would use 8 total - 2 on each side, both front and back. This will give the piece a more balanced look. Right now, it is very top heavy on those narrow, centered legs. A great resource for inexpensive bun feet is Vandykes.

Secondly, I would paint the desk with a oil-based or milk paint. It looks like it will need a thorough sanding and a coat of a primer like Kilz to ensure that the old finish doesn't bleed through the paint. A simple dove gray would be very fetching, but the color would depend totally on the room. I know painting with oil is a smelly, hazardous pain, but latex really can't stand up to the wear-and-tear of daily use (goodness knows I've tried), especially if you live in a humid area like Dallas. I haven't tried milk paint yet, but I hear that it provides a less porous finish than latex.

Thirdly, I would get some fun drawer pulls. For a simple piece like this, the contrast of a little frill or whimsy wouldn't hurt. Something like this acanthus bin pull from Charleston Hardware Co. would be great, though, in this case, it would require filling existing drawer-pull holes and drilling new ones.

Happy re-doing!

Free Coffee Tomorrow!

Get a free 12 oz. cup of coffee at Starbucks tomorrow (Thursday) from 10 AM - noon.

This has little to anything to do with home and garden, but free coffee is a very good thing.

Via the Bargainist.

New Features on Modern-Roost

Just wanted to call out a few new features I’ve added to Modern-Roost. First, I am now pulling the RSS feed from Shak in Style into a module on this site. Since I will be writing about decorating there daily I wanted to make it easy to get to new posts. Post titles will appear in the upper right corner of M-R and link directly to the articles on Shak in Style. Hooray for new Blogger!

I have also added the RSS feed for my Bloglines Clip-Blog just under the Archive section on the right. I see so many things in the blogosphere that inspire me each day that I couldn’t possibly do them all justice. The Clip-Blog allows me to post direct links to the items that have inspired me, but I don’t have time to address directly.

Cast Your Own Concrete Sink

My brother is about to renovate the kitchen in his Austin home. The style of the homes there is a casual mix of modern and rustic. As a result, he is leaning towards materials like slate and concrete.

He just sent me a link to the Buddy Rhodes Web site, which features concrete mix and concrete molds for creating your own decorative counter tops and floors.

The company sells 4 different sink molds (this is the work of the oval mold) from $640 - $800. I love the results, but this is work I will have leave to the more adventurous among you.

In the Pink

The Women's Museum in Dallas is hosting an exhibit about the life and work of Dorothy Draper through March 31st. Not only did I miss this fact, I also had no idea that she designed the penthouse of our Stoneleigh Hotel.

In the Pink: The Legendary Life of Dorothy Draper
tickets $5
The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future
3800 Parry Ave. in Fair Park
214-915-0860
www.thewomensmuseum.org

Impromptu White-Bean Humus

Over the weekend, we hosted an impromptu BBQ - thanks in no small part to the beautiful weather that seems to have arrived to North Texas several weeks early. I need to put together an appetizer quickly with what we had on hand. I ended up making a white-bean humus inspired by a recipe I saw somewhere recently (forgive me, I have forgotten where).

I was pretty nervous about the results, but the dip was a huge success. Here is the recipe:

1 can Canelli beans, drained
1/4 cup low-fat yogurt
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Food process until smooth and chill for one hour. Serve with crackers, bread, or pita.

Big News: I'm Joining the Shak!

Last week I had a wonderful time guest-blogging for Shak in Style, the decor blog over at Shakadoo. Happily, they liked working with me too and Kristen has asked me to join Shak in Style as a full-fledged blogger. :) I will be posting my decor-related thoughts and ramblings there from now on.

I am so excited to be a part of the Shakadoo team!

But what about Modern Roost? I will still be posting here, though my focus will shift a little. I will be talking more about home-making, gardening and local sales and events for Dallas and Texas.

I very much appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop by Modern-Roost. You guys are the reason I keep writing. So please keep reading here and join me over at Shak in Style too.

Many Thanks,
Sarah

Minimalism + Goth: Can't Wait to See It

I scanned across an aside in AT Chicago that piqued my curiosity this afternoon. Designer Kara Mann (pictured left), has a penthouse which is, "a paean to minimalism with decidedly goth undertones." I'll admit I had to look up paean (song of praise), but once I cleared that up, I was even more interested. The quote goes on to say that most of the rooms in her penthouse are painted brown so dark they're almost black.

I love dark color on the walls. I've experimented for years with a mocha brown in my living room and a charcoal gray in the bedroom and bathroom. We also have an almost-black deep teal in our home-office. I like the colors we chose, but always considered going darker, maybe even to a matte black in our sunnier rooms.

I love the look of minimalism, but I never see minimalist rooms with dark paint. When I redecorate, minimalism was the direction I was planning to head. I'd even been toying with the idea of going white in the living room and I was feeling a little sad about the whole thing.

Luckily, Ms. Mann's home will be featured in the upcoming issue of Metropolitan Home, which I will plan to track-down like a bloodhound. I only hope the style is a interesting as it sounds.

Lemon Sesame Muffins from The Kitchen

These sounds delicious:

Lemon Sesame Muffins
makes 12 generously-sized muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted (1/2 tsp salt)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon rind (from about five small lemons; squeeze for juice as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 c oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

Lemon Syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Heat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or by greasing the cups. Mix the dry ingredients and the lemon rind. In a small bowl beat the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a whisk just until smooth. Pour into the muffin cups and bake about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick just comes out clean.

While baking, prepare the lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until reduced and shiny. Remove from heat and stir in the teaspoon of lemon rind.

When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin and carefully drizzle the hot syrup over them. Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pan to let the syrup absorb.

The Driftwood Mirror

Riffing on the Cabin Chic theme: The Atlantic Mirror from Devon Driftwood Designs. No price on the site, so you know it's going to hurt.

Cabin Chic

Part modernism, part summer camp: Cabin Chic is popping up everywhere. Inspired by the outdoorsy elegance of this room from Zara Home, I spent a few hours cruising the internet for Cabin Chic inspiration, which I collected for a post over at Shak in Style.

40% off Upholstery at West Elm

Upholstered barstools and chairs from West Elm are now 40% off!

Gardens Inspires in Austin

Over the weekend, I visited my brother in Austin. He's currently redoing his home, which is an amazing modern split-level. His favorite spot for landscaping inspiration is a local store called Gardens. What an amazing place!

The shop and nursery are beautiful in themselves, but the owners also do custom landscaping. Luckily, they have some photo galleries online so that we can admire their work from afar.

I've been pouring over their photos trying to get inspired myself. Around Dallas, our last average day of frost is March 15th. Time to get planting.

All Things Yellow at Anthropologie

I visited my brother in Austin this weekend (more to come on that) and we stopped off at their new Anthropologie downtown. The store is absolutely beautiful, of course. They had some amazing displays, including a huge array of hanging terrariums.

What most caught my eye, is the eruption of yellow in decorative accessories. The store looked like a bed of daffodils, with yellow peaking out from piles of pillows, upholstery motifs, and their new spring rugs.

I've got more on the new yellow trend over at Shak in Style.

All products shown to the right available at Anthropologie.com.

Guest Posting at Shakadoo

Kristen at Shakadoo has very kindly asked me to guest post on their new site for the week. I am very flattered and very excited. I will be posting to their decor blog, Shak in Style. I'll still be posting here, of course. I promise I've got enough to say this week to go around, so please come and visit me on both blogs.

Terrariums: Contain Your Excitement

Irresistibly bad puns aside, NOTCOT has a great round-up of bell jars, terrariums, and hanging vases. If you are getting Spring fever and aren't lucky enough to be on the cusp of good weather like we are here in Dallas, get a head-start on your garden with a a little indoor ecosystem. More information on how in an old post here.


Via Apartment Therapy.

Best of the Blogs this Morning

Mini-Trend: Chain. Great catch by Design*Sponge.

Made-to-order turned wood tables by Robert Austin Gonzalez. His studio in Dumbo open by appointment: 718-596-7960. Via Apartment Therapy.

eSommelier: a self-contained digital sommelier for your home cellar. Via Product Dose.

Collect sites, bookmarks, images, videos, emails, and documents with Plum. A great way to hoard with out creating a fire-hazard. Via JoshSpear.com.

A recycled teak table via Crib Candy. I love the casters. I'm starting to wish that all of my tables were more portable.

Finally an Attractive Reclining Sofa

I've been griping about my husband's recliner for the duration of our marriage. Not because I'm a total nag. Not even because it's ugly (which, compared to the average puffy brown ultra-suede number, it is not). I gripe about it because a recliner has always meant that we can't sit together.

My husband wants the recliner because he has back pain. I can understand that. I sit in it when he's out of town and it's quite comfortable. I have always pined for a reclining sofa, but the options I've seen tend to be, well, hideous. They have built-in cup holders. Enough said.

Now I finally have a viable option for reclining and togetherness. Crib Candy featured this amazingly beautiful leather reclining sofa available in 16 colors! It is available as a 1, 2, and 3 seater. I couldn't find a price on the iqmatics site that sells this piece (don't you hate that!), but my guess is I'd have to save up for quite a while to afford one of these.

ShopGoodwill.com

I really wanted to run out to my local Salvation Army at lunch. There is one in Dallas with a huge storefront full of furniture, paintings, pottery, books, old records, and vintage clothing. Sure, you can go 99 times and find nothing, but on the 100th visit, you'll find something extraordinary.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to leave, but I did have time to surf by my favorite online alternative: Shop Goodwill. Shop Goodwill is an auction site on which Goodwill locations around the country sell their coolest stuff.

My favorite thing to search for there is art. You can really find some amazing stuff. I have to admit, it's a little bit of a crap-shoot. Luckily, for me, that's what makes thrift shopping fun. The competition for the goods is every bit as fierce as on eBay, but all of the proceeds go to a very worthy cause.

A few years ago, I bought an amazing piece of outsider art called Sunday in Tahiti. The painting features an impressionist church in a jungle with a tiny Satan standing out front as passers-by scream in terror (not nearly as dark as it sounds). I mention this because Shop Goodwill is a great place to look for the kinds of vintage portraits and quirky landscapes we see on all of those fabulous walls of art in the magazines.

Stop by the site when you have 30 minutes or so to peruse their extensive listings.

Above, detail from a nude currently listed at $31.02.

Slow Cooking Double Time

Slow cooking is now twice as nice with the Hamilton Beach 6-Quart Double Dish Slow Cooker (say that three times fast). This would be great for keeping things warm at a party or for preparing a holiday feast.

$39.99 at Home Depot.

Via Product Dose.