I was recently invited by Lowe’s Home Improvement to join them for their first-ever Lowe’s Designer Challenge to create an inventive, stylish and functional outdoor space using their wonderful array of products.     For participating, they would make a $25,000 donation to the charity of my choice.  And if my designed space won the challenge?  I would get ANOTHER $25,000 to donate to the charity of my choice, too.    With $50,000 at stake for a good cause, why not?

First up, I had to sketch out the space.   Since I’m not much of an outdoor grill guy, I thought why not create an outdoor movie theater?     It makes use of their all-weather furniture, the latest in screening technology to watch movies almost anywhere and a simple painter’s tarp that acts as a movie screen.

And here it is in real life!   What do you think?

The entire inspiration came from these outdoor chairs I saw at Lowe’s when I started the planning.   They could be put together to create one large lounge area or broken up into individual pieces.   When I broke them up, I saw soft cushiony chairs that could become individual seats as if it was a Hollywood private screening room.

I’ll be posting details how you can help me WIN the Lowe’s Designer Challenge tomorrow.     Please help me rally votes so I can give $50,000 to charity!   (PS-The charity that I chose is Rachael Ray’s Yum-O Foundation which empowers kids to have a healthy relationship with food and cooking).

I’m very excited about our new Danny Seo organizing solutions coming to HomeGoods stores right now.    They are designed to help get your closets in order (perfect for Spring Cleaning) and, of course, make use of sustainable materials and ingenious design to help get your closets in tip top shape.

I took this shot at my local  HomeGoods store; you can find a nice selection in different configurations if you visit your local store right now.

It includes this great 6-compartment sweater organizer (although I use mine for t-shirts, workout clothes, etc).    It’s reinforced on the inside with slats of bamboo to give it stability, too.

This 10-compartment shoe bag is great for any hallway closet or for an apartment dweller.  I know lots of my NYC friends would love this, so I picked up a few to give them as gifts!

And this behind the door shoe organizer is perfect for making use of unused space in a closet.     It easily hold 24 shoes and is made from durable unbleached cotton.

If you saw my Nate Berkus Show “House Proud” tour last week, you know that I live in what I jokingly call “The Glass House.”   Well, there’s some truth to that joke because of the large panes of windows that surround the house.

With large windows comes changing environments outdoors and recently I realized we are on full-blown Spring/Summer outside.   I love this time of the year because it feels more private: shaded, lush green lives, no bright streaming sunlight poring into the house like it does in the winter.

Here’s a view from the bed in the guest bedroom.  Pretty, right?

A little dark.. but from the master bedroom, you can see the dense forest that goes all the way down to the streams at the bottom of the property.    On rainy days, you can hear the rushing of water from the bedroom.

Another view.

The bamboo grove in front of the house.    This stuff grows so fast!     You see that bamboo shoot literally growing next to the window?   That came out of nowhere in less than a week.    I have to stay on top of this so it doesn’t get out of control.

And from the great room, I love looking out at the Adirondack chairs under the canopy of the forest.    No lawn to mow—which is great—but a lovely, soft mossy forest floor covering the backyard.

Happy Friday!

Before I share my five “Do Just One Thing” tips from my syndicated column of the same name, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of my new knife set coming to store in a few weeks.

This 3-piece Santoku knife block set includes a 7″, 4.5″ and 3″ knife, all packaged in a sustainable bamboo knife block.  All of the knives are also made from 100% recycled stainless steel; recycling one ton of steel conserves about 2500 pounds of iron ore, 1400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone, so it’s strong, durable and good for the planet.

I love these knives and I think you will, too!   They’ll be in stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods in a few weeks.

Okay, onto the tips!!!

1. Many road warriors rack up loyalty points with airlines, hotels and credit card companies that can be redeemed for free stays, flights and perks in lieu of cash.  This holiday season, take a look at all of your program points and donate some of them to charities that are tied to different programs.   Starwood Preferred Guest allows you to donate points to the American Red Cross, Marriott is partnered with Children’s Miracle Network and American Express has a whole variety of charities you can choose from to donate Membership Reward Points.
2. If you’re making a donation to a charity, be sure to tell them that you would like to opt out in receiving any free gift (a t-shirt, tote bag, etc) or regular newsletter/magazine.    These items are used as incentives to help raise money for the charity, but cost money to make and ship.   By opting out of receiving something you probably didn’t want anyway, you can make sure the full value of your donation is going towards their good works.
3. When lighting candles or starting a fire in the fireplace, it can be easy to stock up on the plastic wand firestarters that are pre-filled with lighter fluid and create a flame with the flick of a switch.   The problem with these convenient starters is that most of them are not refillable and are thrown away, plastic components and all.   Stick with regular matches or stock up on free matches whenever you eat out instead.
4. Here’s a simple and easy decorating idea when you need a large tablecloth for a party, but don’t have time to make one or run to the store: raid your linen closet.  A large flat sheet—a thick one like flannel works best—looks great on the table, usually comes in a neutral, solid color and is machine washable after the party.
5. If you have to print out documents, make sure you don’t waste any paper by opting for double printing—on the front and back side of the paper—before you hit PRINT.   To do this, many laser printers offer an easy option function that lets you choose “double sided printing” for all of your documents.   It can be as simple as a click of the mouse to reduce your paper usage in half.

When you have a lot of stylists, editors, photographers and all of their assistants in your house throughout the year, THINGS tend to get shoved into places with my knowledge.

Spring is a good time to open closets, cabinets and anywhere else stuff can get stashed to see what’s there, what you need and what you can donate or purge.

Take this guest bedroom closet: an old PC, desk chair, LED task lamp, painting and random photography equipment all stashed together.     Yes, it may be out of sight, but it’s not out of mind.   So, it all comes out to be recycled or donated.

Having my own Danny Seo bedding collection in stores means I really don’t need to save old bedding I’ve used before we launched my line.     It’s all in great quality (the red flannel sheets I bought in Canada one frigid day), so they will be going to Goodwill and hopefully to a good home.

I guess the point of a reusable water and coffee thermos is that you, well, reuse it.   I need to purge these and promise never to accept or buy another reusable one until I really, truly need it.

The oil painting I had on top of this guest bedroom bed was sold on my OneKingsLane Earth Day sale.   So I pulled out this little flea market find to hang in its place…

What do we think?   It’s sorta  comical, isn’t it?