Bruised's Profile

Elmer's wood glue should be perfectly fine for what you're going to do. Glue/clamp before you do any cleaning/refinishing--that way any glue that oozes out onto the surface will come off easily when you clean away the surface dirt instead of soaking into the grain.

You need to be able to clamp TIGHTLY--as much pressure as possible. But don't affix the clamp directly onto the wood. Use spacers (I always use scraps of basswood). Otherwise you risk the clamp making dents in the wood.

Yeah, I hate, hate, HATE seeing shutters bolted to the siding on houses that obviously would not fit the window opening when closed. Too skinny, too wide, too short, too long...

I can accept fake shutters--even on the really fancy older homes that have actual working shutters they're almost always in actual fact just for decoration--but they should at least be plausible.

This is particularly unforgivable because these folks made their own shutters. All they had to do was measure the width of their sashes and divide by two... By what arbitrary means did they decide to make these shutters too ridiculously skinny?

And yes, before they did anything else they should have just killed those ratty, oversized yews and just started fresh with some new foundation plantings.

Jeez. Unless you're limited by what's going on on the exterior or a ceiling height we can't see, it would be SO TRIVIALLY EASY to raise the header and raise those windows up higher on the wall.

Then you could run the cabinets underneath and have a far more functional and comfortable layout.

Or OPTION D: Relocate the door to the dining room so that you can run cabinets across the entire wall on the right, from corner to corner. Instead of that single door to the dining room in the lower right corner, put in a nice big arch or french doors that open the rooms up to each-other.

(I hope that's an existing room that's being remodeled and not new construction, because the layout sucks.)

No need to make a big mess using a jigsaw to cut all the way through the panel and frame. Just cut away the back of the frame around the perimeter, perhaps using a sharp utility knife. This will leave the face of the door intact.

This would be an an excellent thing to do with natural stone--particularly slate, which would cut easily because it is relatively soft and cut edge vs. factory edges shouldn't be an issue.

I wouldn't even want to bother trying this with most manufactured tiles.

Well Mr. Modtomic just beat me to it.

I was going to say that they look a heck of a lot like these:
http://www.designaddict.com/design_radar/index.cfm/fuseaction/design_radar_one/radar/6298/Chrome_and_Suede_chairs/

My guess would've been more late 60's or more likely 70's--Thayer Coggin, Milo Baughman, Pace Collection, Anton Lorenz...the way that seat is done is kind of a Poul Kjaerholm knockoff.

Good god, Mr. Modtomic, the upholstery as it was in that pic on kaboodle is hideous--very 1980's trailer house with that puffy vinyl. They look MUCH better without it.

If they were mine to fix up, I'd take cues from the Poul Kjaerholm: http://www.voxarchitectae.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/PK11-4.jpg

One can also probably go to their nearby university for maps. My state university's geography department offers files or printouts of maps, aerial photography and satellite imagery for very nominal fees.

Pretty sure it's a Robert Sonneman design for George Kovacs.

The trick here is that it's smack in the middle of a transitional period between the 80's and 90's. I'm going with 90's, but just barely. This looks exactly like something you guys scanned from an issue of Metropolitan Home or House & Garden (During it's Anna Wintour incarnation as "HG"), circa 1989-1992.

Is this some Broadway choreographer's weekend house in upstate New York?

I go with 90's because to me it feels like it has more of an edge of that 1990's attempt at gaiety and heedlessness--sort of "Monica's apartment from 'Friends'" or "Benny & Joon."

That frenchy commode back by the staircase with the flower arrangement pulls everything back towards the late 80's, so there I am thinking 1991-1992-ish.

Too bad there's no wooden bowl filled with Granny Smith apples or Michael Graves Alessi teakettle to more decisively date this kitchen by.

My university's art gallery has a set of those hanging on a wall in the sculpture garden.

Not "Sullivan-esque"--attributed to Louis Sullivan, 1899.

Did Randall Kramer and his client poke around to get appraisals of the actual value of those pieces before pursuing this project? Original Adler & Sullivan architectural fragments can go for a mint.

The balusters were covered in brown paint? Did anyone bother to assess whether that paint could be removed in such a way as to leave the original bronzed finish intact? Or did someone brazenly, carelessly strip or sandblast them right down to the raw cast-iron, thereby destroying the historical integrity and market value of the pieces?