Yup!  Spring cleaning is here. Duh. Everybody’s talking about it, so I thought I’d hop on the bandwagon!  I’ve got 4 tips for a cleaner life.

#1 Access.  Have your cleaning supplies handy so you don’t have to go hunting around for them.  If the goodies are there, you’re more likely to do small touch up cleaning rather than waiting to do a big ol day of cleaning.  I’m loving Windex’s Touch Up Cleaner because it sits on the counter right where you need it.  There’s one for the bath and one for the kitchen.  Smells pretty delish, too.

#2 DECLUTTER! Everybody knows to declutter during the springtime; however, if I told you you could declutter your laundry room by not having any detergent bottles lying around would you believe me?  Well, BELIEVE ME because there is a washing machine into which you pour a gallon+ of liquid detergent, so you never have bottles hanging around ever again!  Amazing, right?  Also, it has the highest capacity on the market, so fewer loads sounds like more free time to play croquet!  I know, I know… what’s it called? GE’s washing machine with SMART DISPENSE!

#3 Maintenance Free.  I say invest in things that don’t need to be tended to.  Most of us have a bathroom faucet with finger prints and watermarks… not to mention all of the toothpaste funk (but I can’t really help you with that one!).  Moen’s Ashville faucet is science class great!  It’s so smart, and I’m so NOT smart, so I copied all of the crazy details from their site, so you can see for yourself! It has  ”spot resist brushed nickel with Microban® infused into the faucet finish, Microban® technology works 24/7 for durable antimicrobial protection that won’t wash off or wear away.”  See?  I told you it was fancy schmancy… and cute, too!

#4 Protection! You know what they say… no glove no love.  Um, well that actually has nothing to do with this, but I am super serious about this.  We want to toss the crap we don’t need and protect & preserve the stuff we DO need… like our digital lives — whether we’re talking about our work or home life, documents, pictures, music, etc.  For years now I’ve backed up to Carbonite because I have a fear of my computer crashing, or my house catching on fire with said computer in it!  I believe in off-site back ups as opposed to an external HD for the irrational fire fear.  Makes sense and you know it.  Now go back up your files!

Oh, and Happy Spring!

When we got there, the place was a mess!  NO style.  NO organization.  NO place for clients to chill.

Not to mention NO way of even knowing where you were located!  Uh, are we in somebody’s basement, or are we in an up-and-coming rap mogul’s office?

Believe it or not, this was an easy makeover thanks to Pier 1’s rich colors and lovely fabrics and 3M’s mini projector!

Furniture first:  I gave him a clean-lined white desk from Pier 1 and 2 stunning mustard brocade-backed chairs.  I rearranged where his desk lived which gave him some executive seating… and before you can say Ice T, we had created a fantab place for Ryan to take meetings.

Then, I added this moody high-backed sofa and the famous pompadon chair and boom, a rapper’s delight was formed.

Projector next: I took an old serving tray that I found in a thrift shop, projected Ryan’s company’s logo for Knock It Out Records onto the glass of the tray and simply traced the logo onto the tray.  Then, I hung it on the wall and voila, the nook became the hangout that was needed.

Check out the makeover @spacestv.

1. Double duty is 1/2 as cheap!  Making sure items in any given room serve two purposes is quite trendy these days.  For example:  The Murphy bed allows one room to be an office/meeting room part of the time and a bedroom the other part of the time. Using school lockers creates an entertainment center that also double as a very organized clothing system.  And she’s on a roll…

1. Sure, people have been using vinyl graphics on their walls for a while, but now people are using them on their actual furniture and cabinets.  Forget replacing cabinets, or even repainting/restaining existing ones.  Instead, placing colorful vinyl sheeting on the insets of cabinet doors to create an entirely new look is quite hip these days.

1. It’s hip to be square!  Laying new flooring is crazy expensive laying carpeting OVER existing flooring is a cheap cheat!  Carpet squares from places such as Flor are a fun way to get as creative as you want with jazzing up the ground on which you walk!  Also, if there’s a stain, now there’s no need to replace the entire carpet — simply swap out that one tile.  Genius, I say!  And, my last prediction for trends of 2013…

1. Creating wall vignettes is tres happening right now.  Whether it’s 25 mismatched pix frames that are all painted the same color, or a plethora of one item in varying styles/designs… vignettes are a way to showcase your favorite things and yet still be current stylistically!

Eat it and weep.

I just spent the morning blabbing on and on about the wonders of Velcro Brand removable hangers for holiday decorating and was just told that you can enter a contest to win an entire bag of Velcro Brand swag!  So, I wanted to share the swagalicious news immediately… if not sooner!  Enter here.  Seriously, the Velcro tape doesn’t damage the walls so it’s simply perfect for holiday decorating in odd parts of the house where you would’t want to damage a wall.

Also, I talked about the need for good lighting during the holidays and in general.  Bad lighting can seriously ruin good design.  I’m just sayin’.  Last week I put a Samsung LED lightbulb in one of the table lamps in my “lounge” and I must say the soft white light it throws off is way brighter and crisper than that of the traditional bulb in the lamp right next to it.  I guess I need to run to Lowes to pick up a matching bulb as this looks kinda silly (the picture doesn’t do it justice… I guess I need to get a new camera, too!)

It was so super fun to showcase my goofy family photos.  I SO hope my mother doesn’t kill me that I showed the silliest pix of her on national TV!  Listen, when I’m sharing holiday table decorating tips, everything is fair game  Sorry Mom!  Actually, I really do love my idea, so here it is in case you missed the segment.  Take cheap wooden frames, stain them using 1 of 24 colors by Minwax and then place goofy family photos in the frames like I did.  Place those pix frames in front of place settings at the holiday table instead of the standard written place cards.  The silly photos make everybody laugh and they get people talking which is certainly better than what happens at many holiday dinner tables!  Duck, there’s a dinner roll coming your way…

Sometimes ya gotta do what you don’t necessarily WANT to do.  This could be one of those times if I didn’t have some snappy gadgets and tricks to make it much easier than it normally is.  I was just on a few news stations talking about this stuff…

Tip #1 HIRE OUT.  Seriously.  I know you’re a superstar (so am I), but there are times it just pays to have a pro do it.  Right this minute, my house is being pressure-washed by an expert to prep it for painting (proper painting tip: you want to clean the house before applying paint or you’re painting over dirt. Gross).

Sure, pressure washing is easy to do; however, do I have all day to rent the machine, lug around the ladder, run inside and out to mop up the water that squeezes through the window?  Well, yeah I could take a day to do it, but do I WANT to.  NO.  I’m busy working and don’t feel like wasting my precious free time doing this.  HIRE OUT.

Tip #2 PLAN AHEAD. Spending a few bucks now could save major bucks later.  Get your heating system checked out NOW before the chill sets in.  A) you won’t have any nights huddled under 27 blankets, B) you’ll be able to make educated decisions as opposed to shotgun decisions = less stress and C) you can shop around for the best prices should you find out you actually need a new unit as opposed to a quick repair on the existing.  Sadly my unit is old and yet still runs; however, I am wasting major dough with an inefficient heat pump.  Ugh.  It’s time to be good to Mother Nature and invest in Carrier’s eco-frendly Infinity unit which has Greenspeed Intelligence (I’m sure it’s way smarter than I am!) which is THE most efficient system on the market.

Tip #3 TIDY.  This time of year people seem to pop in at a moment’s notice.  Just happened last night in fact.  A friend from college stayed over as he was in town for the night and rather than stay in a hotel, we could wake up together and have coffee in our jammies!  As I mentioned, the house is (and was yesterday) being pressure washed which meant stuff was flying through the windows and the place was littered with bits of paint chips and twigs.  CRAZINESS I say.  Having a vacuum that works on all surfaces and is easy to carry around makes picking up the mess easy peasy so it’s not such a chore (no pun intended).  I know this is odd, but I like to sweep and vacuum!  I find it relaxing.  I’m weird.  Well, Samsung just started selling this canister model here in the US.  It has an extra large brush head (15″… that’s what SHE said) which means is covers a lot of ground in one pass.  Also, you can wash the HEPA filter in the dishwasher or washing machine!  Cool, right?  Honestly, I’ve been emptying the bag in my old vacuum for years because I could never find my particular U bag.  SO annoying.

Tip #4 TWEAK.  Making over a bathroom and/or a kitchen are both MAJOR projects that can’t always be turned out in a weekend, but you can do a fluff and fold makeover, as I like to call them.  Go to my fav store, Home Goods, and simply change out the towels, the shower curtain, bath mat and soap dish to a new color scheme.  Then change out the shower head to something delicious like Waterpik’s Riata shower head which has 14 different spray settings (including a whole water saving feature!)… and for less than $100 for EVERYTHING you’ve just changed up how you experience life in your bathroom.

Tip #5 SPEND ON QUALITY.  Listen ya’ll, I’m a frugal fanny.  I don’t like wasting money.  It drives me crazy, actually!  Well, in my old age, I have learned that there are places to spend money and places not to… I say never spend on a trend.  Trendy clothing is wear it for a season and toss it.  There’s no need to support a major fashion label for goofy shoes that you’ll never wear next year!  However, appliances such as a stove or refrigerator and a dang good pair of sneakers are all smart places to put some moolah.  Another great place is my latest obsession:  the ROBO REEL which is a 50′ extension cord.  What?  Spend money on an extension cord when you an pick up a cheapie at Home Depot for pennies on the dollar?  This is no ordinary extension cord, people.  It self-winds into a little housing unit that looks like a pumpkin or an Ewok and you can carry the whole thing with you no matter where you’re working.  It keeps the cord from tangling (which normally mine is always tangled) and it has the ability to be hung on the wall (or even a ceiling mount!), so it’s out of the way.  I’m not doing it justice.  Watch this vid and you’ll be as awed as I was.  To be honest, I do NOT own one of these YET, but I’m thinking about plunking down the dough for a good extension cord that I’ll have for the rest of my life — and every project on my docket.  You know, now that the Retro Metro houseboat is done the RV is next, so maybe it’ll have to be a part of the makeover budget

I can honestly say that I have never been in a room as messy and disheveled as Charles Rooke’s.  OK, maybe it wasn’t so much the MESS as much as the mayhem and destruction that I’d never seen before!  There wasn’t one UNBROKEN item in the room… am I exaggerating?  Um, NO.  Not by a long shot!

My mission with the makeover was to give him things that I HOPED would be unbreakable like this fantastic locker structure I found online at Jorgensen in Utah.  Not only was this the perfect design item, it was also the perfect organizational item for him.  Win win for sure!

Next indestructible item to be put in the room was this groovy metal chair.  Worst thing that could happen to that would be a few dents, right?  And, truthfully, some dents might just give it some character… at least that’s what I say about myself

Then, I took the knives out of his hands (and walls), and placed them ON the wall, not IN the wall as they had been.

I found a cute kids desk, from the 60s, at a thrift store and turned that into his night side table.  I figured that if it had survived for over 50 years with a whole bunch of kids banging on it… it just might be able to stand up to Charles Rooke’s banging ways!

It’s been a few months since I left there, and I wonder how his room has survived?  Come to think of it, maybe I don’t want to know

Want to see the room come to life?  Check it out @spacesTV

Yes, I actually just made over a TV star’s space – from Jerseylicious.  You know how they say TV people can be really uppity and pretentious?  Well I’m here to tell you that Jesse Munoz is FAR from that… she just so happens to be the sweetest dang thing in the world… pretty AND sweet.  BITCH!

Jesse is a makeup artist who had no place to even do her OWN makeup let alone a client’s!!  So, I gave her a home studio fit for the celebrity makeup artist that she is!

What I really wanted to give her was a cozy place for clients to come, and get beautified for a special event.  What we wound up giving her was a launching pad for life.  It’s kinda awesome to see how a makeover can really rejigger someboy’s life, and that’s what happened with Jesse’s double room redo.

Lighting is probably the MOST important element (besides the actual makeup) when making up a face.  And, it just so happens that Jesse had the worst lighting possible.  I knew that that was the A #1 mission with redoing her rooms.  So I hunted and hunted until I found this extraordinary lighting/mirror table from Vanity Girl.   I will admit that it wasn’t exactly the cheapest thing; however, it was worth every single penny when she walked in that room!  Her face lit up and the tears started streaming when she realized that she “had arrived!”

Jesse has a gorgeous collection of vintage clothing so I wanted to put it on display for her clients to browse through.  Who knows, perhaps one day she’ll begin styling people, too.

I found a simple wardrobe at Ikea (yes, you can get more traditional looking things at Ikea these days) and dolled it up with 2 stripes of vinyl.  This created a custom look for less than $20.

The ballet wall was a vision that came to me in the middle of the night… tulle in 5 shades of purple flowing on the wall.  It was girly, soft and sweet – an outer representation of the inner Jesse. I ask you, who carries a zillion shades of purple tulle?  Mood Fabrics of course!

One of my new fav inexpensive design ideas is using Wallpaper for Windows to doll up a window that you don’t want to put curtain, blind or drapes on.  This one I used here is so modern looking and very in keeping with the duality of modern girly vibe we were going for.

To see the tears flow, go to @spacesTV. To tell me what you think, go to @tracymetro

I had never designed a “traditional” room before I met Jack Bingham, so this was something to which I was very much looking forward.  Typically, I’m asked to do modern, fun and playful spaces, so how did I get this gig?  Oh yeah, he was cast on my show, I Live with My Mom!

So, was I worried about whether or not I could pull-off this kind of room makeover?  NO way!!  See, design is design is design.  The only differences in creating modern VS traditional spaces are the colors, textures and overall vibes.  Everything else follows the exact same principles of good design – focal points, layout, lighting, ingress and egress, etc.

Jack’s room posed a big challenge because he really needed it to serve as a bedroom, an office and a refuge from his Mom’s cats –all at once!   Organizing maniac, Tracy, to the rescue.

First things first, I pushed his bed into the corner, made arm cushions out of scrap foam that I scavengered from my artist friend Ed Benavente’s, house and covered them with drapery panels from @Target!  Then, I loaded the bed/couch/daybed with a zillion mismatched and yet complimentary pillows.  Sleeping and entertaining seating SOLVED.

Next, making the space reflect the occupant.  I often extol the wonders of a good flea market and this room showcased a few such finds.  Jack is a religious man, so these iron-scrolled candle holders coupled with a crest he had gotten as a kid brought his essence to life.

Then, I created a study station by using both sides of the desk hutch combo.  This way, he can co-write some briefs with a fellow student.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t do it wearing ONLY his briefs

Finally, the most poetic element in his makeover was the empty frame awaiting his JD diploma when he graduates from law school.  Until then, the most beautiful element in the room is the painting Judith Asher painted especially for the room.  Crisp vibe – SOLVED.

Now that I’ve completed this country club vibe, I’m jonesing for another such room to makeover.  I now find myself looking at toile sheets, damask curtains and duck shaped pillows… in hopes that somebody will come quacking sooner rather than later, and I’ll be able to use the rescources that I’ve gathered in my mind.

To see the plaid, duck and gold-button blazer room come to life, go to @spacesTV

Tristen Sierra is caught somewhere between a girl and a woman, but what’s completely clear is that she definitely LOVES pink!  So, I wanted to give her what she loves, so I painted each wall a different shade of pink from a Behr paint chip!  You almost didn’t notice the gradation until the lightest color wall and the darkest color wall came together.

When I was asked to design Tristen’s room I was super excited because I knew exactly what she needed, she needed to move into a boutique, and since that wasn’t quite possible, I brought the boutique to her (minus the cash register!)

Some of us like to see our belongings, while others of us prefer to hide them away.  I’m the latter, but little Ms. T was the former, so I put it all on display for everyone to see.

Like her fab shoes collection…

And the purses…

And sunglasses…

And perfumes…

She’s a girl who likes the latest and greatest, but our budget didn’t afford us the luxury of purchasing a zillion new things (especially when you get her a PINK TV!) so I repainted a headboard that I actually FOUND (on the streets of NYC) and I repainted her old dresser allowing it to live a new life… oh, and never under estimate the power of a good “toss out!”

To see the makeover live and in technicolor go to SpacesTV and let me know what you think @TracyMetro