Los Angeles, as fabulous as it is, can often feel like the annoying kid in class, desperately seeking love and attention (and maybe affection, too) and stopping at nothing to get it. While LA was good to me, it's hard not to poke fun at it from time to time. I remember one starlet I worked for in particular who insisted I make her guest house look "shabby chic like an Adirondack camp." Now, bless her heart, but I don't think she'd know the difference between an Adirondack camp and a margarita, but I went with it and designed what I thought was a pretty cool space. Shabby Chic, by the way, with its white denim slip-covered sofas, pickled wood floors, crackle painted furniture and overly botoxed fans, is as far away from Adirondack design as the Adirondacks are from Los Angeles! I thought of this today while reading through emails I received from people after posting the tip about using wood floor boards to create a cool bar. Many weren't sure if I was suggesting to use the floor boards on the counter or sides, and while that particular day I was suggesting to use them as the countertop, you could also use them on the sides, as I did for said LA diva and her "adirondack camp in the shabby chic Hollywood Hills." I thought about this space again last week as I was zipping through an antique store in Rhinebeck, New York searching for old shutters to use as cabinet doors. A few minutes strolling in a cool store scored six sets for under $50. I had to chuckle to myself, remembering back to the diva project in LA all those years ago, where I had to hire someone to distress store-bought shutters to make them look like the hundred year-old one's found resting in the shadows of the Adirondacks. The LA version, by the way, cost about $500 a shutter proving trying to be chic often comes at a shitty cost!
