Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Sometimes the best parts of a home are in the details you cant see. While perfectly placed furniture and decor add to the comfort of a house, the atmosphere really elevates it into a home.

Embodhi: Space and Energy Clearing seeks to go deeper than traditional professional organizers. Taking a spiritual approach, owner Nicole Jones helps clients create inviting spaces for their homes and businesses using elements of mindfulness to help them restructure and repurpose the use and feel of their spaces. These methods can range from assessing a rooms feng shui to burning herbs to cleanse the air and spirit or letting go of old emotional attachments.

RHOME: What is energy and space clearing?

Nicole Jones: An act of making your space more livable and removing unwanted energy that is within that space. When you are clearing your home, youre actually ... making space to improve upon your life.

RH: How does Embodhis process work?

Jones: The first thing I do is take an assessment of your home or business and talk a little bit about all the unwanted negative energy that you want to remove. This also entails setting intentions around what it is that you want to do for this space. We can close with some sort of agreement of how you and the folks who live in your home plan to continue operating in and occupying that space. Because we are constantly creating energy around us with our intentions or emotions, were less aware of the energy accumulation and more aware of the physical.

RH: Whats the difference between clearing and decluttering?

Jones: With a home clearing process, were not going to throw away all of your furniture, but there might be something in there that no longer serves you. You might say, I had this in a previous lifetime or previous relationship, and I no longer want it. You are becoming aware of the things in your space that are maybe hindering you or holding you back. Whereas with decluttering, the concept behind that is you have too much stuff, you have to get rid of something.

RH: Why is it important to have a home connection, especially during a time when many people are quarantining?

Jones: It's like a relationship; you have to nurture it if you want it to evolve. People hide in their homes because it's where we feel safe. In the case of quarantine, most people are home all day. So the question should be, What am I doing to stay connected? Prior to quarantine, people didn't have time. They were always on the go, with very little time to think about clearing space. Clearing space allows positive energy to continue to flourish. Since energy is always changing, it should most certainly be reflected within our spaces.

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Positive Vibrations - Richmond magazine

Style your home with ideas borrowed from these homes

The Indo-French fashion partnership between designers Hemant Sagar and Didier Lecoanet, which started at couture school in Paris in 1979, has wended a long route. From their first store on Pariss rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor, to a large factory in Gurgaon, and a wide network of online and offline storesthey also handle production for brands such as Balmain and Chlo in France. The duo has often taken the road less travelled, and among their newer directions is the creation of two neighbouring abodesas much a family story as an odyssey of rediscovering India. It was Sagars father, a prominent lawyer and forward thinker, who bet on Gurgaon as a city of the future. In 1999, he bought a 2,700-square-foot plot to build a two-storeyed, four-bedroom family home with a terrace and encircling garden. When Sagar and Lecoanet relocated their business to India, they wanted a place of their own. As luck would have it, Gurgaon property prices slumped, and some years later, taking the stray cow they spotted on the empty plot next door as a good omen, they bought it (the plot, not the cow). Eventually, over five-and-a-half years, they built a beautiful villa, designed by a French architect friend, and decorated on principles of feng shui. It is a tranquil haven of soaring heights, rippling water bodies and soothing woodwork.

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Photo courtesy: Montse Garriga/ Hemant Sagar

Charles-douard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, was a rebel with a cause. Famous for his statement, the house is a machine for living, Le Corbusier was not afraid to challenge the concept of an old-world home. It is no wonder then that the purist canvases of Le Corbusier inspired Bengaluru-based interior design firm FADD Studio to design a modern, minimalist home for a family of four in Gurgaon. While designing the 5,000 square-foot space, the design teamled by interior designers Farah Ahmed Mathias, Dhaval Shellugar and Dheeraj Dhamuwas deeply inspired by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeannerettheir deep sienna passage of the Villa La Roche, their Chandigarh series and the general polychromatic feel of some of their work. The furniture is a mix of imported brands and locally customised pieces. The natural colours and materials of the furniture stand out vibrantly against the textured grey walls of the house, giving the otherwise serious shell a dash of drama, says Ahmed. All design elements lend the space its Zen-meets-mid-century-modern look, lending the foyer a burst of life.

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

Interior Stylist: Shohini Munshi; Photo courtesy: Gokul Rao Kadam/ FADD Studio

This penthouse located on the 23rd floor of DLF Magnolia, Gurgaon, is designed by Love Choudhary of Delhi based architecture firm, AND Studio. The interiors showcase the firms signature style of embracing understated elegance into each and every detail. The brief was simpleto convert a spacious four-bedroom penthouse into a luxurious, serene space. The home boasts of warm colours that fill spaces with a sense of positivity and comfort. The concept of the home travels beyond the stereotypes of over-the-top residential apartments and instead focuses on a contemporary, clean design aesthetic. The client wished for a house that did not embellish the acuity of luxury rather subtly assimilated class and sophistication. By using plush furnishing and materials that aligned with luxury, the team achieved a home that was the perfect example of unpretentious indulgence. Composed with immaculate marble feature walls, tinted glass work and glossy accents, the home serves the intimate functionality required in a habitat, states Choudhary.

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Photo courtesy: Prashant Dubey/ AND Studio

Just like the confederate rose flower, this Pune apartment too displays a transitional colour scheme

Read more here:
3 Gurgaon homes that are evocative, art-filled and high on style - Architectural Digest India

Control did it stick the landing? (pic: 505 Games)

A reader explains why he was disappointed by the end of Control and its hints at a more daring and unpredictable storyline.

With only 69,000 metric tons of the stuff in the world, platinum the inert corrosion resistant metal has found its way to becoming the signifier of gaming excellence. I was proud that my PlayStation and Xbox accounts were platinum free, but no longer. Ive succumbed and became just another hardcore gamer scrub with a platinum, making it look like Im a trophy hunting obsessive. What game served up a googly and broke my gaming duck? It turned out to be the very excellent Control.

As I wandered the corridors of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), completing the story, the usual ping of the trophies regularly fading in and out I scrolled over them and realised, bloody hell, theres a real chance that I could nail this and lo and behold I made it. But this article isnt about that, this was just some common or garden humblebragging about probably the only platinum Im ever likely to bag. No. This article is about Controls story and how, while I loved it, I feel it didnt quite stick the landing.

I love single-player story driven games, theyre totally my bag, my genre and obsession when theyre good, and by god was Control good. Like a warm bath in a cloud with angels bearing me upwards to a rainbow slide into a ball pit of peanut M&Ms. Ive dabbled in other genres, but over the years Ive come to accept that these are the games that give me the most pleasure, so I seek them out and tend to single-mindedly devour them.

Alongside gameplay I need a story in order to place a game high in my mental top 40. So, for example, while the gameplay is probably better in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, I still think the Tomb Raider reboot is better since it had the more compelling story. With that in mind, in order to discuss what I need to about Control, Im going to have to talk about the story which obviously entails some spoilerific content, so, youve been warned.

Control opens strongly, with an intriguing premise, half Men in Black, half Ghostbusters with Star Wars Force powers thrown in. You play Jesse Faden, a young woman who arrives at the building of the government agency responsible for taking her brother after some unpleasantness in her hometown. Like Gordon Freeman, Jesse lands at the worst possible time, with everything in this mundane brutalist building in disarray.

Clearly some emergency has upended the natural order of things and Jesses first interaction is a cryptic conversation with the enigmatic Athi, which does nothing to ease your shredded nerves as you creep around corners waiting for the inevitable appearance of the big bad responsible for all the terrible feng shui. Athi advises you to go to the directors office for a chat and its here that the story really lifts off.

The exposition comes thick and fast after you pick up that service weapon in the form, of well-produced and acted video presentations, environmental storytelling, and a snowstorm of documents. Objects of power, The Oldest House, The Hiss, Hedron Resonance Amplifier (HRA) devices. Jargon and lore are thrown at you at a million miles an hour it can be overwhelming to take in but after a while you start to piece it together.

It seems that you and your brother were targeted by the FBC after you both encountered an object of power, allowing a being from the astral plane called Polaris to latch onto Jesse like a benevolent hitchhiker. Whilst Jesse escaped the FBC her hapless brother Dylan was not so lucky. Experiments were conducted which had the side effect of driving Dylan quite, quite, opera music conducting, dancing in his underwear mad. Dylan is possessed by a malevolent entity from the astral plane called The Hiss, which was ushered into our dimension by the previous director a weak-willed person who let the job get on top of him, literally.

Theres a lot of potential in the story as its laid out but the longer I played it I knew they would play it safe and not throw any curveballs at me. Polaris is a nice astral plane resident and not a string-pulling evil doer and those hints that you and Dylan could in fact be the same person are debunked almost as soon as theyre hinted at and thats what I mean by sticking the landing.

None of the curveballs were completely necessary to elevate the game but I couldnt understand why the game would hint at interesting and leftfield turns but consistently avoid taking them. I wanted it to go there but they werent brave enough and, unlike Spec Ops: The Line, they stopped short from suggesting youd been playing for the wrong side the whole time.

By reader Dieflemmy (gamertag/PSN ID/NN ID)

This Readers Feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Control owners get impossible free upgrade, then have it taken away

MORE: Rogue One writer wants to make Control movie and so do Remedy

MORE: Remedy describes PS5 upgrades for Control, hypes up ray-tracing and SSD

Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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How Control never stuck the landing with its story - Reader's Feature - Metro.co.uk

Heroes of the Crisis

From medical professionals to social-justice activists to culinary stars, here are some of the locals who have helped get us through the most challenging of times. By Daniella Byck, Rob Brunner, Rosa Cartagena, Sherri Dalphonse, Mimi Montgomery, Luke Mullins, Jessica Sidman, and Anna Spiegel.

For the first time in memory, there are serious questions about whether the worlds oldest democracy can actually pull off a democratic election. We asked a bipartisan group of five experts to unspool their own disaster scenarios. Compiled by Benjamin Wofford.

Inside Washingtons super-luxe lockdowns. By Mimi Montgomery and Jessica Sidman.

Cosponsored by Washingtonian, these annual awards honor distinguished reporters and editors. Meet the 2020 winners.

Bidens Mar-A-Lago?: Would Rehoboth become Joe Bidens Mar-a-Lago?By Washingtonian Staff.

Dating Games: The DC dating guru who will play a better you online. By Jane Recker.

ESPN Goes G0-Go: How Trouble Funk got on SportsCenter. By Andrew Beaujon.

Bird Watching: The Twitter account that IDs helicopters. By Rob Brunner.

Netflix Heads to Gallaudet: Deaf U captures students sometimes messy lives. By Rosa Cartagena.

Big Picture: A swimsuit-company-turned-face-mask-factory in Vienna. By Lauren Bulbin.

Books, movies, TV, music, and other things were loving this month.

Interview: Howard president Wayne A.I. Frederick leads a historic university. And performs cancer surgery. Interview by Michael Schaffer.

Politics: A top Republican operative on why the GOP is dead. By Benjamin Wofford.

Culture: The challenge of marketing a Covid vaccine. By Jane Recker.

Drinking Responsibly: Six nearby wineries with big outdoor spacesso you can sip safely with a great view. By Sherri Dalphonse.

Lesson Plans: Six ways private schools have changed in the wake of coronavirus. By Sherri Dalphonse.

Status symbol: The $4,295 treadmill. By Mimi Montgomery.

Winter Restaurant Preview: There will surely be heartbreaking closures in the coming months. But a surprising number of new places are on the way, too. By Ann Limpert, Anna Spiegel, Jessica Sidman, and Daniella Byck.

Brass Appeal: Five stunning kitchensall with brassplus our directory of kitchen remodeling resources.

The Briefing: Bethesda:Whats new in the popular suburb.

Our New Home: Look inside Washingtonians new offices.

Off the Market: The months luxury home sales.

Svetlana Legetic on her first jobat a Serbian casino. As told to Ann Limpert.

Join the conversation!

Go here to read the rest:
October 2020: Heroes of the Crisis - Washingtonian

ST. LOUIS These are unprecedented times for the airline industry. With business pummeled by the pandemic and federal aid expiring October 1, furloughs and layoffs loom.

American Airlines flight attendant Allie Malis is one of more than 30,000 airline industry employees holding out hope for a last-minute stimulus agreement.

Its crazy. Tomorrow Im unemployed and today Im waiting for Congress to do something, she said.

Dan Reed, a senior contributor for Forbes, says COVIDs effect on business travel created a problem the airline industry it might never solve.

Without those higher business fare travelers on board, or without as many of them, something is going to have to change in the back of the plane, something is going to have to change in the schedule. Which all affects the economics, he said.

Reed says the longer planes and the people who operate them sit idle, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to recertify them.

Now with a third of the employees being removed from the equation, and probably 45 percent of the fleet being parked, its just hard to see how the equation ever comes back to being the way it was, he said.

Even for Southwest Airlines, the lifeblood of St. Louis-Lambert International Airport, and one of most nations most financially healthy airlines, Reeds outlook is grim.

If it gets worse, and the delay of a return to travel extends deep into next year, all bets are off, even on Southwest when it comes to layoffs, Reed said. This is an unprecedented time when were seeing an industrys foundational economic equation being changed. How it will come back together is hard to predict.

And for airline workers like Malis, navigating a holding pattern unlike any theyve ever experienced.

I mean, I dont know how to feel right now. Do I feel sad? Do I feel scared? Do I feel angry and frustrated? Theres so many emotions that are pulsing through my veins and through the veins of, you know, a thousand other American Airlines flight attendants who are also on this last day of the payroll support program, which is stabilize our jobs, maintain our health care, and we dont know whats going to happen next, she said.

More here:
Uncertainty grows within airline industry amid grim outlook for the future - fox2now.com

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Residential Digital Faucets Market 2020-2024 The analyst has been monitoring the residential digital faucets market and it is poised to grow by $ 1.88 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period. Our reports on the residential digital faucets market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05192437/?utm_source=PRN

The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the increasing consumer expenditure on bathroom and kitchen remodeling, flourishing residential construction industry, and technological advancements in residential digital faucets. In addition, increasing consumer expenditure on bathroom and kitchen remodelling is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well. The residential digital faucets market analysis includes type segment and geographical landscapes.

The residential digital faucets market is segmented as below: By Type Automated Manual

By Geographical landscapes North America Europe APAC South America MEA

This study identifies the strong distribution network between manufacturers and retailers as one of the prime reasons driving the residential digital faucets market growth during the next few years. Also, new product innovations and the growing popularity of smart bathrooms will lead to sizable demand in the market.

The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our residential digital faucets market covers the following areas: Residential digital faucets market sizing Residential digital faucets market forecast Residential digital faucets market industry analysis

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05192437/?utm_source=PRN

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

__________________________ Contact Clare: [emailprotected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

http://www.reportlinker.com

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The Global Residential Digital Faucets Market is expected to grow by $ 1.88 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast...

Union, N.J. Bed Bath & Beyond has put together a three-year plan as part of its transformation strategy. Full details will be announced at the companys Investor Day event on Oct. 28, but during this mornings second quarter analyst call, executives previewed some of the changes.

Sourcing: A newly formed procurement organization will crated a centralized spending control and vendor management process to deliver substantial savings. BBB had previously announced that it plans to develop more house brands, cull duplicative skus and pare its supplier roster.

Product priorities: The retailer plans to expand and double down on private label brands in bedding, bath, kitchen and storage/organization, said Tritton.

Physical stores: The plan includes what president and CEO Mark Tritton intimated will be a broad store remodeling program launching next year. In the meantime, one-third of the 200 stores slated to close permanently will go dark by the end of this year. The company expects to transition 15% to 20% of the sales generated by those locations to digital or other nearby company stores.

New customers: BBB gained roughly 2 million new online customers during the second quarter 40% of them new to the brand. The latter are six years younger than established customers and less likely to use coupons, which have long been a drag on the retailers bottom line. Coupons arent going away, but in the future coupon offers will be more curated, Tritton said.

In another plus, new customers are buying from higher margin categories, specifically bedding, bath, kitchen, food prep, cleaning and home maintenance, he added.

The second quarter ended Aug. 29 generated healthy results for Bed Bath & Beyond, including its first positive quarterly comp since Q4 2016 and strongest adjusted earnings per share in more than two years. We bel this was a pivotal quarter for our organization, said Tritton.

Q2 net sales slipped 1% to $2.7, driven in part by the sale of the One Kings Lane division. Digital sales jumped 88%, while net sales from stores fell 18%. Total comp rose 6%.

Continue reading here:
BBB: Strategic sourcing, store remodel initiative on the agenda - Home Textiles Today

Debbie and Greg May

SAN JOSE, Calif. (PRWEB) October 01, 2020

Greg and Debbie May, co-owners of May Construction, a Santa Clara Valley residential remodeling firm, have recently seen a surge in new business as a direct result of changes made to their customer service model, which they attribute to their status as a married couple working in business together.

The success of May Construction, Inc. has occurred despite the challenges residential remodelers have faced over the past six months. Through careful planning and adapting their business approach to a new reality, the Mays have brought in 12 new design/build projects over the past several months an unprecedented leap in growth for their business.

"It is not altogether uncommon for residential contracting firms to have a family-owned business with married couples working together," Debbie explained. "But a shift in our communication has led to tremendous growth that would not have been possible had we not been a couple in business together."

"We would not have seen this type of growth even during normal times," Debbie went on We continue to receive referrals from satisfied clients, but this positive shift is something else entirely.

"As a married couple who own a business together you develop special tools to draw on," Greg added, "especially what I believe is the most important tool of all -- clear communication. It has helped us withstand some hard times in the past and right now has catapulted us forward.

"Greg and I have distinct roles in the company," Debbie elaborated, As a licensed contractor Greg handles anything directly related to design and/or construction. I do the initial evaluation with clients, as well has oversee business development, do the bookkeeping and manage the office staff."

"In a way it's like a well-timed baton transfer in a relay race," Greg went on. "Everything is planned out well in advance to ensure success. Debbie makes the initial contact with a client, and it's important for her to gather information and see if the project is a good fit. From there, after Debbie's careful screening, I speak to the client in more detail about their remodeling needs."

Greg May is an expert builder, providing the highest standards for superior customer service and backed by integrity, dedication, and commitment to superior craftsmanship.

This important but subtle change in understanding, the Mays believe, could only have come about by being wedded in marriage and in business. "There was an ah-ha couple-type of moment," Greg said. "Debbie and I shared a knowing glance and knew right away we were onto something that would benefit our customers."

That's something we would not have realized had we not been a couple in business together," Debbie affirmed.

"We found a silver lining," Greg added. "We will continue to use this approach. We feel pretty optimistic about where May Construction is headed.

Greg May was trained in construction by his father, and has continued his family's tradition of excellence since 1977. May Construction. Inc. specializes in design-build, whole house remodels, additions, kitchen, and bathroom remodels throughout the Santa Clara Valley.

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Wedded in Marriage and Work: Greg and Debbie May's Construction Business Thrives During These Challenging Times - PR Web

Tim Griffin is leaving The Kitchen after nearly a decade as the director and chief curator of the experimental New York art space. During his tenure, Griffin continued and expanded the storied institutions focus on interdisciplinarity and oversaw a program featuring Chantal Akerman, ANOHNI, Charles Atlas, Gretchen Bender, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Ralph Lemon, Aki Sasamoto, and Tyshawn Sorey, among others. His term also led to new initiatives including the hybrid talks series The Kitchen L.A.B. and electronic music series Synth Nights. Griffinwho began helming the nonprofit in 2011 after a seven-year run as the editor-in-chief of Artforum, where he is currently a contributing editorwill shift into an advisory role at The Kitchen by years end; he has accepted a visiting professorship in the art history and English departments at Ohio State University in Columbus, where his wife, Johanna Burton, directs The Wexner Center for the Arts.

I cant imagine a more inspiring or humbling experience among artists than what The Kitchen, and its dedicated staff and board, has offered me over the years, said Griffin. Few places have such a history, decade after decade, of presenting the unexpected. Even fewer have people so deeply committed every day to supporting artists innovative work, and who, time and again, manage to pull it off whatever the challenges.

In addition to organizing exhibitions and performances, Griffin has spent the last two years fundraising in anticipation of The Kitchens fiftieth anniversary in 2021 and the renovation of its building at West Nineteenth Street in Chelsea. The organization has raised $11 million ahead of its special benefit show, Ice and Fire, curated by Kitchen board members Wade Guyton and Jacqueline Humphries opening with online viewing October 8. In the last few months, the venue has also adapted to pandemic-induced lockdown, introducing The Kitchen Broadcast and revising its residencies to include a TV studio model. A search for a new director is being conducted by Isaacson Miller.

Excerpt from:
Tim Griffin to Depart The Kitchen After Nine Years as Director - Artforum

Asia Pietrzyk

It has come to my attention that my apartment sucks. Objectively, that might be too harsh an assessment, but it certainly feels true right now. Dont get me wrong: It has big, sunny windows; appliances that are functional, albeit old and ugly; and an amount of closet space that I would describe as enough. But the many things the apartment leaves to be desiredcheap fixtures, landlord-beige walls, and an ancient tile kitchen floor that never quite looks cleanhave become unavoidably obvious to me as Ive sat inside of it for the better part of this year.

The longer I sit, the more the flaws taunt me. The shallow kitchen sink, combined with the low slope of its faucet, makes it impossible to fill a pitcher straight from the tap, but most of my daily drinking water used to come from a machine at the office. The back wall of my kitchen, swathed in white paint, has borne the brunt of gurgling vats of spaghetti sauce and sputtering pans of fried-chicken grease, but I failed to notice the unscrubbable spots when I wasnt standing in front of the stove preparing three meals a day, every day. The dusty ledges and shelves, unsightly window-unit air conditioners, and scuffed, jaundiced paint job werent so irritating when they werent my whole world.

In May, when the novelty of quarantine baking began to wear offone can make only so many galettes out of frozen fruit originally bought for smoothiesmy idle hands turned to the problems around me. Armed with my pathetic beginners tool kit, I started small. I raised and releveled a shelf that had been crooked for, by my estimation, at least two years. I ordered frames for prints that had been stashed in my closet and charged my long-dead drill battery to hang them. I scrubbed my tiny kitchen with Ajax from top to bottom, and in the process realized that some of my stoves components werent supposed to be the color theyd been since I moved in. I sharpened my chefs knife. I flipped and rotated my couch cushions. I ordered and assembled a new shoe rack, even though my feet dont go very far these days.

[From the July/August 2020 issue: Amanda Mull on the end of minimalism]

The sense of satisfaction I got from these projects grew as the weekends went by, along with my belief that I could do pretty much anything after watching a couple of instructional videos on YouTube. I couldnt control much in the pandemic, but I could control what happened in my own 450 square feet. As summer began to creep toward fall, my ambitions expanded: Install a new showerhead? Paint my cabinets? Put up a peel-and-stick tile backsplash? What couldnt I do with Google, a Home Depot credit card, and a total willingness to lose my security deposit?

I was stymied only by the popularity of my impulses. As I looked for cabinet paint, backsplash tiles, and even a new kitchen faucet, out of stock warnings abounded. Gathered around a firepit in a Brooklyn backyard, a friend of a friend complained that the citys home-improvement stores appeared to be out of lumber, one of the many effects of skyrocketing demand atop shaky supply chains. Millions of Americans had simultaneously decided the same thing: If were going to be inside, it might as well be the inside we want.

Gretchen Schauffler had been through this before. In 2008, she and her husband were running a business called Devine Color, which she started by selling customized paint shades to her Portland, Oregon, interior-design clients out of the trunk of her car. The couple was in the midst of selling the brand to Sherwin-Williams, she told me, when the economy collapsed, and with it, all talk of a deal. The market crashed, and we were buried, Schauffler said. Homes were being foreclosed upon, not freshly repainted.

In 2018, out of the paint business for years, Schauffler started Design Is Personal. The company makes products for the do-it-yourself projects that you might be inspired to undertake after an HGTV bingesticky-back wallpaper in fun prints, easy-to-install carpet squares, and wall planks that give you the fixer-upperlook, no nail gun required. In early March, as the United States first pandemic hot spot blazed in neighboring Washington, Schauffler was terrified that the same thing was happening againdisaster had come, and it might take her company with it.

But in April, she realized that she had the opposite problem: Orders had started pouring in. Schauffler told me the companys sales are up 400 percent over last year, and her best sellerssheets of peel-and-stick white subway tiles and metallic mosaicshad completely sold out twice already. Everyone was at home, they had time, they looked at their environment, and they went online, she said. They started watching tutorials and ordering supplies.

Home Depot and Lowes registered monster sales increases not long after the pandemic began, both on the internet and in their brick-and-mortar storeswhich Home Depot lobbied local governments to label essential businesses. Thats in spite of interruptions in residential construction and professional remodeling in many areas of the country.

At Apartment Therapy, a website about home improvement and design, editor in chief Laura Schocker viewed the countrys pandemic anxieties through the prism of her readership, which is 60 percent larger than last year compared with the same period in 2019. Home, if were lucky, is our safe place, she told me. Customizing it to reflect back who you are as a person is something positive we can do right now. Early how-to-sanitize traffic gave way to people looking for tips on setting up home offices and workout nooks, then to those in search of ways to maximize tiny yards and balconies as summer set in. Now, as temperatures cool, people are settling in for the long haul, looking for more complicated DIY projects.

Of all the things that Ive done to better my apartment, soothe my anxieties, or occupy my time during the pandemic, nothing has worked quite as well as replacing my kitchen faucet. The project cost $75 and took about an hourit would have been even faster if I hadnt needed to learn some tricks for removing bolt covers with needle-nose pliers and loosening a seized nut with a lighter. But those roadblocks made it all the more satisfying. Not only does the more functional faucet make my now-constant dishwashing less of a slog, but installing it was a reminder that there are still some problems that can be solved by one person wielding the right toolor even the wrong one, if you can figure out the magic combination of search terms to punch into Google.

Humans have a need to be competent, to feel like they have some control over their existence, says Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist, especially when theyre feeling emotionally tender and isolated. Nesting is another way to describe the impulse that is likely driving many of the newly minted DIYers, she told me. Its a desire to eliminate your homes nuisances and aggravations in order to maximize comfort. One way thats done, Augustin said, is by moderating the complexity of your space. We dont realize were doing it, but were always sweeping our environment, visually, and when you have a lot going on, when there are many objects and colors and shapes in view, it makes you stressed. The same thing can happen when an environment is too spare. Humans tend to like soft lines, colors, and textures.

DIYing, as a pursuit, has some baked-in advantages in these bizarre times. Namely, its just you, doing things by yourself in the safety of your own home, without the intervention of outside disease vectorser, professionalsunless you screw something up. New technology has met the moment. Both Schauffler and Schocker told me that DIY-friendly products have improved substantially in recent years, with adhesives and finishes that are more durable and affordable and less amateur-looking, which might make a weekend project more attractive to people who never would have done home repairs themselves in the past. Then, too, if youre one of the millions of newly unemployed Americans, finding a way to feel useful might help combat the depressing aimlessness of being out of workand the internet is teeming with guides for free or low-cost home-improvement projects.

When it comes to the mostly young, mostly female consumers who buy renter-friendly home-upgrade products and read articles about how to make a some-assembly-required dresser look like a million bucks, theres probably an even simpler explanation for why theyre investing in their environs this year: What else is there to do? The (somewhat shaky) conventional wisdom is that Millennials, who range in age from their early 20s to nearly 40, prefer to buy experiences instead of things. They supposedly rent in exciting cities, travel, go out to dinner, and spend money gallivanting. In a world in which almost all experiences have been precluded by a global disaster and an American passport is basically uselessand in which many of those young adults were striving for a lifestyle that their bank accounts could only occasionally support, anywaymaybe notions about what constitutes an experience will change. You can learn to do anything on YouTube.

This article appears in the November 2020 print edition with the headline Fluffing Your Own Nest.

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The Higher Purpose of Home Improvement - msnNOW