Dumpster Diving Pays Off with Stolen Art Find

Irwin Weiner ASID - My partner Jay likes to take home old things he finds on the curbs of New York City. He's wise enough not to go for throw-out upholstered furniture or old mattresses. (Think: bedbugs!) But one day he brought home a painting I despised. It's an abstract of what looks like an Eastern European village and there's an old woman bent over walking with the help of a cane. Art is visceral, and I took an immediate disliking to the piece (it's now hanging up in a storage barn in the back of our lot in rural Pennsylvania).

But Jay loves his "major art find" and showed me the story of "Tres Personajes," the Rufino Tamayo masterpiece that was found by a woman who was dumpster diving in the very spot you see in the photo above ... on the streets of Manhattan, just like Jay's art discovery. The painting that she found, however, had been stolen 30 years before her 2007 discovery; she had the painting researched, returned to the owners, she collected $15,000 reward for the painting's return and Sotheby's gave her

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3 Furniture Stripping Tips and Design2Share's DIY Rules

Irwin Weiner ASID - If you're Ron Hazelton, home handyman and DIY expert, purchasing and restoring an antique dresser from a flea market is an easy-peasy snap. But you or I may have a few problems with project details. After all, in the do-it-yourself world, it's important to learn shortcuts and best practices. I found one of Ron's great, short-and-sweet tips videos on how to get stripper out of small details and recessed areas. He demonstrates three different ways to remove stripper "gunk" from hard-to-reach places, and I must say ... he makes me want to go out and find an antique door this weekend so I can try out one of his techniques. And one of them really does involve kitty litter!

The DIY rules here at Design2Share are simple: If you can have fun and enjoy a home remodeling or redecorating project - or in this case, furniture refinishing and restoration - and you can do it within a weekend or a short series of weekends or weekdays, then KNOCK YOURSELF OUT and tackle that do-it-yourself project. We wouldn't dream of stopping you. But if you won't enjoy the process, if there's a remote possibility that the project will drive you and yours nuts, and if the task at hand is too complex, then it's not a do-it-yourself assignment.

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Many DIY Steps to Faux Painting and Distressing Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - Are you a do-it-yourselfer? I can barely spell "DIY," but I can wield some power tools masterfully and hang a mean picture or wall accessory! Perhaps it was the fascination with things I haven't done before that attracted me to this video demonstration of the different steps to distressing furniture. I can see this technique applied to new wood floors (well, maybe not all the steps, but certainly some of them), kitchen cabinetry, and picture frames. This might be something I take up in my dotage and set up a home shop in the basement and crank out gifts for friends and family. So if you see some DIY distressing in your future, try the techniques in this Designed & Made Custom Workworking video.

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The Sweet, Artistic Life of Paula Sweet

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - Creativity in daily life? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be talented enough to hand-paint your house in a fine art style, decorate your furniture with bright colors, make your family's dinnerware, and fill your own ceramic vases with flowers from the garden? If you're Paula Sweet, you're all that and more.

We were recently guests of Paula and her husband Richard and daughter Kayla in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Their house rambles on a wooded hillside and is a mid-century modern delight, with beamed ceilings, painted concrete floors, a koi pond, swimming pool, and Paula's art studio. She's fascinated with small, curling tendrils on vines and collects them on her walks through the woods, marrying them with ceramic plaques and small studies that take up whole sections of her walls, along with bold portraits of people in her life.

Originally known for her break-out wearable art fashion - the luxurious, washable

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