Louisville based home & design, travel, and food writer; serial renovator. Have dogs, will travel.
How Much Does It Really Cost To Refinish Hardwood Floors? Experts Confirm
There’s just something about hardwood floors—in fact, according to the 2024 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Report, some 24% of renovating homeowners opt for it. But hardwood takes a beating from the collateral damage of everyday living...
Before and After: Ripping Out the Dated ’80s Decor Gave Me the Entryway of My Dreams
The room wasn’t very promising at first. With no windows, bleak drop ceilings, (admittedly cheerful) pink painted wall paneling, muddy gray-brown vinyl floor tiles, and some ‘80s style niche shelving, it didn’t exactly beckon.
4 Brilliant Organizing Tricks I Learned Watching a Pro Chef Cook in a Tiny Parisian Kitchen
In hindsight, it was pretty absurd: Fly to Paris on a couple weeks’ notice with my chef friend, stay in a 30-square-meter (about 322-square-feet) apartment, and host back-to-back dinner parties for local influencers. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, aside from doing dishes for days, everything went right!
Is this the new 'it' spirit? Meet Cognac, bourbon's fancy French cousin
This is the story of a region built upon river trade, a lush swathe of land that turned out to be a dream for distilling a luxurious golden-brown spirit.
Three Amazing Paris Boutique Hotels for Design Lovers
Paris is a playground for brilliant designers who are infusing small, chic hotels with color, whimsy, and global flavors. These spaces instigate dreaming - maybe of your own home's redesign, maybe of the life that could be your...
From Motor City to Cycle City: How Bikes are Changing Detroit ...
There's a new spin on the Motor City—and it's on two wheels. Long synonymous with American auto manufacturing (and its demise), Detroit is now home now to a scrappy start-up determined to bring handmade American bikes to the world.
Authentic Victorian Charm with Timeless Italian Elegance
When long-time writer, designer and entrepreneur, Dana McMahan fell in love with an overgrown Queen Anne Victorian home dubbed "Sleeping Beauty," she quickly added home renovator and fairy godmother to her resume. Her elegant designs paired with the cl...
I just spent a week in Paris. Here's how I took the high-low approach to French dining
And just like that, travel is back.
If you, like 33 million other people, are headed to Paris this year, I’d like to share some favorites with a twist ― the high-lo...
EDWINS in Cleveland Is Teaching Former Inmates How to Run a Restaurant
The first glimmer of the idea that became EDWINS came with Brandon Chrostowski's arrest. He was 18 years old, just a kid in Detroit, charged with fleeing when they couldn't get him on a drug dealing charge. The judge offered him a second chance–but only if he got a job.
From Thai to cheap cocktails, 5 (tasty) reasons Detroit should be your next getaway
What if I told you there was a super cool city a five-and-a-half hour drive from Louisville with some of the best restaurants in the country, a booming bourbon and cocktail scene, and some of the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet?
If you’ve been, you’d know immediately I’m talking about Detroit. If the image that comes to mind when you think Detroit is still a forlorn rust belt relic, you need a re-set, and a weekend there is the way to do it.
I spent nine days in France getting a behind-the-scenes taste of the world's best food
“Have you tried the potatoes in the cheese?!”
I wanted to share my culinary discovery with the other travelers gathered around the increasingly rowdy table. The crispy fried potato cakes would crumble if you left them in the burbling fondue too long, but a quick swipe through the melty cheese delivered with precision avoided spills and made for the perfect combo.
Perfect especially if you were ravenous from hiking in the French Alps under a #nofilterneeded blue Octo...
8 space-saving ideas to steal from this tiny and perfect Paris apartment
Who doesn’t dream of a Parisian pied-à-terre to call their own? While most of us may not be able to pick up a little place in Paris, here’s one dream of a place we can take inspiration from.
Before & After: A Gut Renovation Takes a Victorian Kitchen from Drab to Dramatic for $50,000
But then my realtor told us about a cheap Victorian in need of some love in our home of Louisville, Kentucky. It was a behemoth of a house with several...
Before & After: A Dingy Studio Kitchen Gets a DIY Makeover That Pulls Inspiration from a Cute Bar in Italy
What do you do with a boring, beige, 45-square-foot kitchen in a studio apartment? Well, if you’ve just come home from Milan, where your favorite afternoon was spent soaking up the Wes Anderson-designed Bar Luce at the Fondazione Prada, you go all in on pink and green and make it the kind of place you could totally invite a famous filmmaker to ...
The Easy Beginner's Guide to Container Gardening
So you want to add some greenery at home and you're ready to dip your toe in container gardening... but where do you start? Honestly, it’s as easy as grabbing a pot and just starting! If a garden—as in digging up the earth and planting seeds—feels intimidating, or you don’t necessarily have a green thumb, container gardening is a low-stakes way to bring fl...