Save Water, Add Style: Choosing a New Shower Head

By far the easiest plumbing fixture to replace yourself is the shower head, and doing so can have a huge impact on the looks and water use of your bathroom. Older shower heads use a LOT of water, raising both the water bill as well as the energy bill, since heating hot water constitutes a large part of building energy use. If your shower head was installed before 1992 (when the Energy & Policy Act of 1992 went into effect), it can be using over 5 gallons of water a minute - enough to fill an entire bathtub in 9 minutes flat!  Replacing that shower head could reduce shower consumption by about 70%. Even if you have a 2.5 gallon per minute (gpm) fixture, which became the legal limit after 1992, updating to a 2.0 or even a 1.75 gpm model can save 20%-30% of your water use.

What's wrong with a 2.5 gpm fixture? Well, nothing, really. But the thing to keep in mind when you hear about plumbing code or legal limits for plumbing fixtures is that it is a law. Meaning the bare minimum. Meaning the WORST possible thing you can still legally build because it is against the law to do any worse. If you want to accomplish significant water savings and have the fixture pay for itself in about a year, it’s possible to do much, much better. 

The great news is that there have been leaps and bounds in plumbing technology in the past few years, and switching to a high-efficiency shower head does not mean sacrificing your shower experience. Not. One. Bit. Regardless of what your brother's friend's aunt said about one she tried 30 years ago. Shower manufacturers have tweaked the size of the droplets and the speed of the flow to create products that look and feel (and wash out shampoo from long hair, reports a girl with long hair named me) just as well. In fact, this one reason alone may make for an even better shower experience: your water-hogging shower head will no longer cause you to run out of hot water.

Lamp Shade Sources

Whether you make your own lamp, restore an old one or have just had a lamp for a long time, at some point you may need a new lamp shade. The following are some great sources for shades, in a range of price points listed from high to low:

Saving Lamps

When I moved into my apartment, I was desperately lacking in light sources and my mother graciously donated an antique lamp that had been sitting in my parents' garage. My plan at first was to make it white and glossy to emulate the Jonathan Adler Capri lamp, but after noticing the frayed cord, I decided to rewire it as well. 

For anyone as petrified of rewiring lamps as I was: don't be scared! It's a piece of cake, it's cheap and it doesn't require any tools. A standard lamp kit costs about $11 and comes with everything you need, including simple directions. Lamp kits are available with or without the harp (the curved piece that holds a lamp shade up if the lamp shade has spokes that meet at the top of the shade). You may not need the harp, as many lamp shades such as the ones sold at Ikea and Target attach at the base of the socket.

How to Create a Gallery Wall

A gallery wall is a collection of artwork that looks casually assembled; a perfectly haphazard mix of sizes and shapes. It's a great way to show off a collection of prints, photographs or even objects. It also makes a space look more personal and lived-in than a single piece of art. 

Some helpful tips to pulling off a great gallery wall that shows off your style: 
- Keep frames approximately 3" apart for more structured look...

... or space frames wider apart for a more bohemian vibe

via Little Green Notebook

Better Than Sliced Bread: Closet Rod Light

A great and inexpensive solution for those who don't have lighting in the closet. A closet rod with battery-operated lights integrated along the bottom. 

 via LA Closet Design

 
It attaches to a shelf above, similarly to a standard closet rod - no wiring required. The light portion uses an energy-efficient LED light instead of fluorescent bulbs and also has a motion sensor to turn the light off for you, further conserving the battery. Comes in 22” and 34” lengths. 

Not the right sizes to fit your needs? Rite Lite offers less sleek but just as convenient products like LED puck lights and LED strips that can be affixed inside your closet. Also wireless and energy-efficient. They use LED bulbs and have motion sensor or remote control options.

Spring Swishing

With spring around the corner, I know many of you are getting ready for spring cleaning. There's an amazing way to clean away clutter, organize your closet, go shopping and hang out with your friends at the same time: Host a clothing swap party!

photo via the-budgetista.com

  
The premise is simple: Each guest brings a few articles of clothing or accessories that they no longer have use for, and other guests can choose from among them. One person's unworn, ill-fitting or regretted purchase is another one's treasure. And it happens to be really fun.

Best of Brooklyn Flea

There is nothing I love more than a good flea market, and one of my absolute favorites is Brooklyn Flea. It takes place every single weekend. In the winter it is indoors at Hanson Place, the building directly next door to the every-single-train stop at Atlantic Terminal. In the warmer months it moves outdoors and turns into a sort of block party, at Fort Greene on Saturdays and Williamsburg waterfront on Sundays. If you're looking for something original, vintage, hand-made or delicious you're in luck.

Over embarrassingly many trips to the Flea (I'm there just about every other weekend) I've found a few amazing vendors for home goods. The following is a short list I recommend to anyone visiting for the first time: