What Are the Worst Home Design Mistakes?

Imagine you have decided to do your own home design, including handling all construction and interior decorating from the ground up. How do you think you would do? Would you make any mistakes along the way? Design2Share Q&A co-hosts Irwin Weiner and Nicola Chernicoff have seen many design projects in their time, and some make them shake their heads with a range of emotions from exasperation to sheer pity. In many ways, you could not make more mistakes than some so-called professionals who are in practice today. This episode covers our hosts' "pet hates," those things they despise most about today's design scene. You'll hear some interesting rants and stories about the McMansion building craze, fake shutters, sliding mirrored and bi-fold closet doors, fake flooring and porcelain tile, molding no-no's, and furniture supersized for the scale of the room. You'll come away with great tips on what to avoid around your own home!

Why Should I Hire a Landscape Architect?

Design2Share's Nicola Chernicoff and Irwin Weiner interview noted New York landscape architect Steven L. Cantor in a special Design2Share Q&A episode. Go onsite to explore one of Steven's landscaping jobs, a beautiful historic residential court hidden from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. Once home to rock stars, television personalities, and fashion models, this urban oasis was transformed by a great landscape plan, the help of many artisans, and two years of hard work. Learn about what landscape architects can do for homeowners, see how they interact with landscapers and other vendors, discover fresh ways to add punch and interest to your outdoor garden spaces, and marvel at a bit of Steven L. Cantor's beautiful work in both a courtyard and rooftop garden scheme.

How does American design compare to what the Europeans are doing? Design2Share Q&A's co-hosts Irwin Weiner and Nicola Chernicoff bring their years of design work on both sides of the Atlantic to comment on some of the key differences. In this episode, you'll learn how American color trends link more closely with the fashion industry, how color is used more boldly in Europe, how a sense of history permeates European design sensibilities, what "perfection" means to Americans, and how wit sets European design apart from the rest of the world. The bottom line: American designers and homeowners are learning the best traits from designers around the world!

Q: What Value Does A Fireplace Add To A Home?

Fireplaces are fantastic focal points for the rooms in any home, but what are the secrets for using a fireplace to add value to your home? Irwin and Nicola, our New York designer co-hosts, love the fireplace and share their advice and common sense tips with you on making your fireplace addition really count. In this episode you will learn the do's and don'ts for placing plasma TVs above the fireplace, which room gives you the best resale value for fireplace additions, the fuel gel fireplace trend (easy, inexpensive, and stylish), using decorative mantels and other fireplace surround materials to tie in with your room's color scheme, and the romance of coal and woodburning fireplaces (particularly if you love chimney sweeps)!

Q: What Should I Consider When Decorating My Half Bath?

You would freak out if you knew how many years the average person spends using the toilet. It's not a pretty fact, but it's a fact that your toilet can be in a very beautiful room (and that's what counts in the end)! Nicola Chernicoff and Irwin Weiner take you onsite to a powder room and in this episode they will cover the resale value of adding half baths to your floor plan, what elements make up a typical powder room as opposed to a bathroom, how to add whimsy and style to bathroom decor, the latest trends and appliances to make this room greener and higher functioning, the early days of bathrooms (and we're talking sitting on stone, people!), the glam days of powder rooms, Irwin's pet peeves about bathrooms (and other outrageous bathroom humor), and a special tip about quiet, energy-saving toilets.

Q: What Are The Trends In Master Bedroom Design?

Decorating is a moving target. Trends come and go, and even how we use the master bedroom is evolving. In this Design2Share Q&A episode, Nicola and Irwin delve into the latest trends in decorating and kitting-out your inner sanctum. You will learn about the his-and-her wave that's sweeping closet space and bathrooms (and even extending to separate bedrooms), alternative ways to decorate the master suite, amenities and those little extras that will turn your bedroom suite into a relaxing haven, TV tips to keep the tube hidden when you're not watching, the hot electric bed movement, remote controls to do everything except brush your teeth, Irwin's recommendation for laundering pillow cases, and our favorite tip of all (hint: you can sell your iron)!

Q: What Can Make My Dining Room Special?

Formal sit-down meals have been supplanted by today's casual, on-the-go lifestyles. But the dining room should never become the dinosaur of your home's floorplan. Take back the dining room and use it every day! Join us as Irwin and Nicola talk about turning your dining room into a special multi-purpose room. This Design2Share Q&A episode will cover the versatility of your dining space to accommodate everything from simple suppers to holiday feasts, ideas for turning dining areas into more family-friendly spaces, tips for tables, how to flex up on your seating space, how the wealthy historically set up their dining rooms, rules of thumb for dining room seating, ways to decorate and light your dining room, and style tips that will elevate your dining room from ordinary to stunning!

Q: Can I Use My Collections When I Decorate?

If you're like many people, you like to collect odd things like old photos, paperweights, Hummels, or imported beer cans. Now that you've done the packrat thing, we see no reason not to incorporate these treasures into your decorating scheme. Nicola and Irwin, our Design2Share co-hosts, take you inside a home proudly displaying collectibles to cover a few decorating basics: how to use collections to express your personality, how to entertain with collections, using flea markets and eBay to add and subtract to your collections, how to group collections for best display, and how collections can enhance your home's color scheme and style. Irwin also waxes poetic about collectible insects, so don't miss the buzz!

Q: How Can I Work From Home Without Making a Huge Mess?

More people are working from home than ever before, and turning whole rooms into a chaotic nightmare of files, loose papers, books, and disarray. Design2Share Q&A has been flooded with questions about storage and home organization, and we decided to focus our response on the home office (or library, study, den, spare room). In this episode, Irwin and Nicola share tips and advice on what essentials belong in a home office, how to use storage containers to maximize utility and minimize clutter, how to combine the home office with a library look to avoid sterility, how to decorate the home office to make it a relaxed and quiet space, ways to make the home office serve several functions, and the importance of good lighting. And don't miss our tip on feng shui and the proper placement of your desk!

Q: What Can Make My Renovation Less Intimidating?

It's all in the planning. Home renovations always cost more money, take more time, and cause more aggravation than we anticipate. The end result, however, is almost always worth your painful efforts. Watch Irwin and Nicola, our Design2Share Q&A co-hosts, as they advise you about getting all your design specs in writing, help manage your expectations for how a remodeling job should turn out, demonstrate their favorite renovation tricks and tips, walk you through one of their remodeling successes, and discuss special details that can make your next remodeling job that much more satisfying. And don't miss their recommendation for greening up your next home renovation!

Q: How Can We Make Guests Feel Welcome In Our Home? 

If we listen to the angel on our left shoulder, we definitely want to make guests feel welcome and stay with us in our apartment or house. But pay attention to the devil on our right shoulder, and we come up with designer Irwin Weiner's tip for keeping visitors from wearing out their welcomes. He and fellow designer Nicola Chernicoff pour themselves some wine, relax in a great toile-covered guest room, and share their advice for how to add fine hotel amenities to your guest room, why pillows can be a problem, how to experiment with color when decorating small rooms, the valuable no-wrinkle sheet tip, Nicola's advice for maximizing guest room sleeping comfort, and Irwin's unique design for squeezing ample bed space into a tiny guest room. And, of course, you'll get his devilish tip for unwelcoming house guests!