Master Strokes

Kristin Schlosser
Maineville, Ohio

"I'm always confused when I go to some people's houses and I can't detect any of their personality in their furniture or décor," says Kristin, who believes an interior is the natural projection of the soul. Kristin sees potential everywhere, even if it means sawing off the back a sofa to make a daybed or installing leopard-print carpeting on the stairs for a touch of glam. Ever since she got a pneumatic staple gun one Mother's Day, Kristin's been unstoppable. "My soul must be made of shimmer and fun," she says.

Kristin thought her stairway newels looked naked but didn't want to go with conventional ball-cap finials. She found her solution in a gift shop: four iron birds intended to be garden ornaments. Kristin snapped the birds up, stuck them on with Liquid Nails, and called the flock finials.

"I like them," she says, "because they're so unexpected."