Design2Share Q&A is a video podcast series that answers your home design questions. Irwin Weiner and Nicola Chernicoff are decorating pros who offer plenty of tips and advice, sharing their lively and opinionated style sense with viewers.

Design2Share Q&A Interior Design Podcast
Design2Share Q&A, the video podcast series that answers all your interior design related questions. Our co-hosts, Irwin Weiner and Nicola Chernicoff, have design opinions and tips galore in each short episode.

The 8 Best Interior Design Color Sources
by Design2Share
3 Feb 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - I love how both the fashion and interior design industries are run by "trends." So-called experts and manufacturers come out at the start of each new year with their color trend prognostications. They group colors together into compelling "stories" and tie in editorial hogwash aimed at attracting consumers. "These shades of green will give you the comfort you're looking for in a world plagued by a declining economy - and who can't use a reassuring life?" "These colors radiate warmth and sunniness, putting you into a good mood and energizing your life." It all sounds good, but it boils down to the very real psychology ...
Irwin's Kitchen Remodeling: the Demolish-and-Wait Phase
by Design2Share
2 Feb 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - The ground has now frozen hard and is sometimes getting dusted with snow outside our country house in rural Pennsylvania. We're now approaching Week 6 on the project, and demolition has been completed on the walls and floors of our kitchen, back entry area (which has served as our laundry room and catch-all storage area with large old-fashioned potato bins), and a small powder room. Our contractor and his son and step-son banged and pried and pulled and hauled away at surfaces to take off the new and bring it down to the bare bones. It's exciting to see the layers of old brick veneer taken off the kitchen wall, disc...
Here's How to Celebrate Chinese New Year
by Design2Share
1 Feb 2012 at 5:00am
Jennifer Allen Frank - Chinese New Year landed on the new moon of January 23, 2012 in the U.S. It is the Year of the Black Water Dragon. The Chinese New Year is a time to welcome longevity, wealth and prosperity and to eliminate negative chi from the past. This year will be marked by excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity. The year of the dragon is traditionally associated with new beginnings and good fortune. Those with entrepreneurial spirit are particularly favored to see much success in the coming year. Generally, it's predicted that any new venture may benefit from the outstanding luck often associated with the drago...
Wood Wonders from J.B. Blunk
by Design2Share
31 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - The epitome of 1960s counterculture artists, J.B. Blunk is now revered for his sculptural forms in wood. We wanted to feature this silent video overview of Blunk and his work to underscore his talent and vision. He wasn't just expressing himself or rebelling against an established art culture; he let the wood do the talking. Go to the J.B. Blunk website for more information.   Click here to subscribe to our daily design videos and features. 
CB2 Shakes the Interior Design Establishment
by Design2Share
30 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - Did that headline get your full attention, home designeristas and -istos? With the opening of the new CB2 store at the front of the D&D Building in NYC, Crate & Barrel is signaling to the pillars of the design world that their lower cost, trendy, more youthful brand of interior design is knocking at your door. The styles and trends were fresh as Jay and I explored the new store on 3rd Avenue last week - but the immediacy of sales to anyone off the street or on the Internet challenges interior design professionals that here is yet another high design resource that is no longer only "to the trade."  Not that the quality...
Irwin's Kitchen Remodeling: Scope of Work
by Design2Share
27 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - We're a bit behind in catching up our readers on the progress of our home remodeling project in rural Pennsylvania. We really miss our kitchen, and the novelty is fast wearing off of having to eat out all the time on the weekends when we're in our weekend house. Part of our Weekend Therapy is to plan a meal and cook something spur of the moment, so we'll be happy when it's all over. In this video, I'll take you through our emptied kitchen, laundry room, and powder room and describe the scope of work - and next week I'll show you two videos with substantial progress made on the project. Whenever homeowners begin an exten...
Our Top Tips: How to GREEN-UP Your Home's Interior
by Design2Share
26 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - There's little excuse ... well, maybe inertia ... for not jumping on the GREEN bandwagon with your home design and decor. If you want to think ahead and plan for your family and planet's overall health and wellness, GREEN is the answer. We've come up with a list of eleven tips on how to go more eco-friendly around the house. Engineered quartz countertops made with recycled materials are scratch resistant, stain resistant, scorch resistant, chemical resistant, mold and mildew resistant, and stronger than natural stone or other solid surface materials. Use them on countertops throughout the house, including kitchens, ba...
Consider Concrete Decorating Solutions for Your Home
by Design2Share
25 Jan 2012 at 5:01am
Irwin Weiner ASID - I've not been quick onto the custom concrete bandwagon for home design, having relegated concrete to the realm of the too-architectural approach to home design and home decor. Concrete can be an amazing addition to a home, both as a practical design feature and as a tactile element. There's nothing cooler than a concrete floor - one kind of texture - overlaid with a shaggy knotted handmade rug - another rich contrasting texture. Here are some of my favorite concrete applications from Concreteworks East, a supplier of custom concrete products out of East Brunswick, NJ. My personal favorite is the use of terrazzo within ...
White Decor Adds Winter Wonder to Interiors
by Design2Share
24 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Jessica Ackerman - If you think that white is one of the more boring colors to decorate with, think again. White can actually be used in many exciting and creative ways throughout the home to add a dash of decorating excitement. Because it can be combined with practically any other shade, white is also extremely versatile and easy to work with. Although white can be used to great advantage in your decorating scheme year-round, it can be especially fun to use during the winter months to create a "winter wonderland" look. In fact, what better way to celebrate the beauty of the snow outdoors than to use white to re-create the look indoors? If...
Our Top Tips: Play It Smart When You Renovate Your Home
by Design2Share
23 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - Our regular readers know that Jay and I are renovating our country home's kitchen and the back-entry laundry, powder room, and mudroom areas. We've been thinking a lot about how homeowners need to have their eyes wide open to the realities of renovating, as it's oftentimes an unnatural act and an extreme intrusion upon your family's home life. Here are Design2Share's top tips for renovating your home, should you want to tackle something fresh and updated during the new year. Protect yourself by hiring experienced, reliable, and highly-skilled professionals for any home renovation project. Personal recommendations from...
Online Design Kit Helps Newlyweds Mesh Furniture and Decorating Styles
by Design2Share
20 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - Overhearing couples discuss decorating their home - when they think you're not listening - is one of the most fascinating experiences ever! With their guards down, decorating can be a huge, contentious issue between married folk. New York interior design Ada Gonzalez kept overhearing newlyweds talking about "your furniture" and "my furniture" and couples qualming over how to incorporate two sets of clashing furnishings and accessories into a consolidated interior design scheme - so she developed an online e-decorating service she calls the Dream Design Kit to help couples decide what to keep, what to toss, and what to...
Come See the Houses of Tomorrow!
by Design2Share
19 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - There's a lot of Disneyland thinking in designing a futuristic home - and we're not talking your run-of-the-mill contemporary architecture. We're thinking of Tomorrowland, the Jetsons, Star Trek, and the house that just landed in your neighborhood from outer space! I'm fascinated with what houses may look like in the future, and for decades there have been numerous attempts to design and build the future of family homes. Here is a sampling of my favorites; click on each photo to learn more about them. For more futuristic housing wonders, see Design2Share's Scrapbook Collection of Photographs: Favorite Housing Inn...
Amazing Technology Turns a Patio Into a Pool
by Design2Share
18 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - Thanks to our lovely designer friend Bev Kahn in Sydney, Australia for sharing with us the story of Hidden Water Pools. This is an amazing patent pending technology that turns a high-and-dry circular patio surface into pools of different depths (up to 6 feet deep, half that depth, and a kiddies wading pool with as little as an inch of water). The patio surface lowers and water magically bubbles up to fill the gap and create the pool area. Families with small children, in particular, will appreciate the safety features this type of pool offers - no more dangerous pool water for children to play around when they're unatte...
Handmade Goods Elevate Design Beyond the Ordinary
by Design2Share
17 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - It's not a rarity to find a young, talented, good-looking interior designer shooting a professional video like the one we're featuring today - but I'll be darned if the video only identifies him as "Andrew," a bohemian, globetrotting interior designer who spans the gap between everyday-yet-exotic handcrafted products and multi-million-dollar interiors. If you know who this designer is, please drop us a comment so we can amend this post and link to his website. Many thanks! At any rate, Andrew and videographer Samantha Schutz have put together an entertaining show about introducing handmade Japanese pottery into a high-...
MLK Day: Good Time to Remember Artist Romare Bearden
by Design2Share
16 Jan 2012 at 5:00am
Irwin Weiner ASID - It's Martin Luther King day, and we're reminded as a nation of the important dream of civil rights for all people and the historic struggles of African Americans to gain equality in everyday society. An artist who plunged wholeheartedly into the struggle was Romare Bearden, perhaps the most significant African American artist of the last century, and many galleries and museums have recently been celebrating the centennial of his birth. Our friend Russell Goings, co-founder of Essence magazine (among many, many other accomplishments), was a close friend and collector of Bearden's work - see photo above for Russell with B...