Mark Brunetz

When it comes to home furnishings, where do you splurge?

Since quality of living is first in my book, I always invest in the place where I sleep.  The perfect combination of a great bed, premium mattress and comfortable bedding allows me to rest peacefully.

Although most would say a sofa is next, I vote for a chandelier.  Because of where it’s typically positioned and its luminary influence, the right chandelier can make or break a room.  But a show-stopping fixture doesn’t have to break the bank.

In fact, the French crystal chandelier above was purchased at an estate sale for under $500 by a client who loves chandeliers.  To honor her eye for the ornate, I positioned it as a focal point in front of a fireplace resting an antique gilded frame on the mantel behind it to set it off. Read more…

Over the years, I’ve developed a battery of thought-provoking questions that I ask clients before taking on a design project.  With 33 questions in all, here’s one that always gets people thinking:

If your house were burning down, what’s the one thing you would grab?  And why?

Minus other family members, pets and all family pictures, if you were standing on your front lawn, what one object would you safely go in and grab knowing that you are leaving everything else behind?  It can be large or small, light or heavy, that doesn’t matter.  It’s more about choosing an item than it is about rationalizing the logistics of moving it.

Giving this question some serious thought, I thought it would be interesting to turn the tables and answer it for myself.  So here goes… Read more…

On a recent trip to the Pacific Design Center, I fell in love with a clever side table consisting of stacked wood in an hourglass silhouette.  Resisting the $1900 temptation, I wondered if I could craft this idea into a DIY project and make it for less money.  Way less!

First of all, when it comes to crafts, I suck.  Seriously.  I’ve never been a crafty person.  Despite designing actual craft rooms for a myriad of homeowners across America, I’ve never personally been able to master the art of cutting, gluing, sewing and bedazzling.  So I turned to the craft-master himself, Mr. Mark Montano.

Turns out, Mark’s new book THE BIG-ASS BOOK OF CRAFTS 2 (a cheeky sequel to his wildly popular first book) is hot off the press and contains the perfect solution to my DIY dilemma.

Read more…

I’m crazy about plums; not just for their incredible sweetness but mostly for their vivid array of intense colors.  Heart-shaped and encased in full, dark red to purple-blue skins, plums are the perfect muse of any designer… and baker.

For those of you who don’t know, my partner Eddie is what I call a dessertologist.  As an evolving master in the art of desserts, when these plums arrived at our house via the farm, Eddie saw them as an ingredient.  I saw them as inspiration. Read more…

A giant hug to all of you who subscribed to Mark Brunetz: My Life in Design.

As you know, I promised to send a free, autographed copy of my book

to the first 50 friends who signed up.

Envelope please!

Read more…

During a recent trip to NYC, I managed to slip into the Sirius XM studio to talk with Terri Trespicio, host of ‘Whole Living’ on Martha Stewart Radio about eco-fabulous design and organization!  Turns out, people were less interested in talking about jute, recycled rubber and sustainable bamboo, and more interested in kvetching about their husbands.

A lady named Karen got on the line and asked what advice could I give her concerning her husband who she describes as a slob.  As hard as she tries to keep the house tidy, her man is a tornado when it comes to clutter.  After 12 years of marriage, she was ready to throw in the towel (a dirty one off the bathroom floor I imagine).  Turns out, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with this topic. Read more…

I have a confession to make.  When I was kid, I got caught in the act.  I’m not talking about singing ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ at my parent’s dinner parties while going through puberty.  It’s actually far more embarrassing.

I’ve often wondered how I turned out the way I did and I think it all started when I was 8 years old.

I remember playing with my best friend in the living room of our house in Cleveland, Ohio.  We were doing what most little boys do at that age, coloring in our Colorland coloring books.  We each had our own set of Crayola crayons, the 64-pack with built-in pencil sharpeners – a dream come true for any kid.  Right?

Aquamarine, Bittersweet, Burnt Sienna, Periwinkle, Orchid… so many colors, so little time.   Enamored by the kaleidoscopic cornucopia of colors, I got caught up in the moment and inadvertently slipped one of my friend’s crayons into my Crayola box.  I distinctly remember it being Goldenrod. Read more…

If I hear one more person say they don’t want to have me over for dinner for fear I’ll judge them, I got news for you.  I’m ALREADY judging you for not inviting me over for dinner.

Nowadays, I’m finding that more and more people are suffering from what is called C.H.A.O.S. or Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome.  It’s an irrational fear that if a friend or neighbor walks in your front door and sees anything out of place, or better yet, a disjointed color palette, that they will judge or admonish you.  It’s so Desperate Housewives!

Eddie and I have this plaque on our house that says ‘The most beautiful decorations in this house are the people who visit it’.  It was given to us by Eddie’s parents who bought it in Jalisco, Mexico; where they were born.

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As a designer, the number one question I get asked is how do I go about picking a paint color.  I wish there was a simple answer, but what I can tell you is there are some easy guidelines I’ve developed over the years that make spinning the color wheel much less dizzying.

In college physics at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, I first experimented with a spectrophotometer, a device that measures color objectively.  It was only later as a designer that I realized color is much more subjective.  What looks sublime to you may look sub par to another and ultimately what matters most is how you feel about the color in your space.

So instead of telling you that red has been shown to raise your heart rate or that green can relax or rejuvenate you, I’m gonna walk you through the easiest way I know to go about picking a paint color so that you can do it for yourself.  Granted, there are so many things to consider when choosing a color, but this is a shortcut that always works in a pinch.  Easy peasy. Read more…

Welcome to Clutter Cocktail, a sparkling blend of useful information for living clutter free!

This week, Pat from Philly writes ‘I like to think if I de-clutter it, they will come.  I am trying to build relationships and I feel like I have this constant weight of clutter on my shoulders.  Please help!”

Pat, I love Philly… the city of brotherly love, cheese steaks and now clutter.  This calls for a Mojito!

For those of you haven’t ingratiated yourself to the 100 year old Cuban drink, I suggest you do.  I rely on it heavily to remind me that muddling, a process of blending the lime with the mint, is the key to its sweet success.  As Tito Bacardi once told me at Mandalay Bay, ‘If you don’t muddle it, no amount of white rum will make it right’.

Pat, it’s time to learn the art of muddling! Read more…