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I have been covering Apple now for 31 years and have a pretty good feel for how Apple works. Of course, how they worked changed over the years depending on who was CEO at the time, but there have been a few guiding principles that has driven the company from the intro of the Mac in

I was sitting in the third row of the De Anza Flint center when Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac. My first reaction upon seeing it was “that does not look like any computer I have ever seen.” But as he got the Mac to say hello to us and started showing us how it worked, I began to realize that Apple did not think like the PC vendors I knew at the time.

In , all computers were square boxes and most of them were painted battleship grey. And when it came to ergonomics, it was clear to me that not much thought was given to its design. Although Compaq’s first PC, which looked like a Singer sewing machine, did break the mold of past PCs, it was not long before they started making PCs in square box designs and basically copying what IBM and others were doing with their PC designs.

But the Mac broke all conventional wisdom of what a PC would and should look like and in my notes of the event, I wrote that Apple clearly thinks differently then the other PC vendors at the time. Little did I know that this term, or the grammatically incorrect “Think Different” theme would eventually become a major marketing campaign for Apple as it strove to set itself apart from the rest of the PC vendors schlepping PCs that all looked the same.

Think Different, Be Different
The first way Apple sets itself apart from the crowd is to “think different” and not let what others do impact the products or services that they themselves create and bring to market. This has to be a very freeing feeling for Apple execs as they continue to put themselves in the drivers seat and create new products and even new categories of products that have driven innovation desktops, MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, and laptops over the years.

Team Players
There is another important way that Apple sets themselves apart from their competitors and that is in the way they run and control their own company. I have worked with a multitude of companies over the years and so much of their decision making process is done by committees and having to get approvals and partnerships from one of their “silo businesses&#; before they can move ahead. This is why many companies have so many problems keeping up with Apple and the market. Their individual businesses seldom talked to each other and getting approvals on any device or project took serious coordination between these silo businesses to get anything done.

But Apple has one central executive committee that works together seamlessly to design products and make decisions on how the company moves forward. Also, they own their own hardware, software OS, software apps, and services, as well as their new Cloud architecture so they can tie everything together neatly. There are no silos inside Apple and all decisions are made by this single executive committee. That is why all they do works together so seamlessly. This difference of the way Apple runs their company compared to competitors can’t be emphasized enough. And it gives them a big edge over the competition because of that.

But the third reason Apple is set apart from their competitors is design.

At the Fortune Tech conference in Aspen this week, former Apple executive Tony Fadell summed it up pretty well. He told this stellar audience that “great design principles are pervasive in the Apple DNA.”

In Steve Job’s Stanford commencement speech, he spoke about his love for calligraphy and how this influenced his thinking about design and how this drove him to be a perfectionist. And you can see this design DNA in everything Apple brings to market. Although Steve Jobs is not with us any more, Jonathan Ive is now tasked to embed this design DNA in all of their products and teach it to new Apple employees as the company grows.

Over the last few years I have been often asked how to compete with Apple. At the moment, if you look at pretty much all of the smartphones and even new laptops like the Ultrabook as well as competing tablets, they all are mostly copying Apple’s smartphones, tablet and thin Macbook Air designs. So when I am asked that question, I tell these folks that if they really want to compete with Apple, they need to start innovating on their own and stop simply trying to copy Apple. These folks often shrug when I tell them this and point out that Apple’s products sell and they just follow Apple’s lead. But what they are really saying is that they have companies that are run very differently then Apple, that they have little design skills and that they must lean on others to drive any innovation.

The good news is that at least a few ODM’s are getting their own internal design teams and I am starting to see some really new and interesting products, especially coming out of Taiwan and Beijing. But even with that, the OEM’s are slow to react and continue to let Apple lead while they follow.

The bottom line, unless these competitors start innovating on their own, is that Apple will continue to have at least a two year lead on them and thanks to their ways of “thinking different,” management style and design DNA, will keep their competitors following them instead of truly leading the market forward themselves

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Summer entertaining is one of my favorite things to do. I think it&#;s because of the causal, laid back feeling you can create when putting a gathering together. I also love the idea of having a designated area that can be transformed into a fun spot to hang out and enjoy a good time. We live on a lake and spend most of our time outdoors, in the other months too. Because pf this, we needed a space that was covered and functional to create a low key hang out. so, we turned this old shed into what we lovingly call, &#;The Beer barn&#;

Outside Before

The first thing we wanted to do is update the outside to give it a more updated and polished look to make it more cohesive in our yard. Paint usually makes the most impact at the lowest cost. I wanted it to have a rich, rustic look and I love the look of woods and dark colors. For the main color we used Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams. 

Then I wanted to bring in some warm wood tones so I stained the doors in Early American.

The rest of the changes were just aesthetic things to give it more personality. We added the wood whisky barrels to bring in more of the warm woods and planted real Olive trees in them We also added a big farmhouse light for character and ambiance.

We also added flagstone at the entrance to give it a more finished look and to avoid having a muddy entryway to the door.

We also added a window box with flowers for additional color as well as this pallet wall planter. You can see how we built the planter here How To Create A Planter With An Old Pallet. We also landscaped around the barn earlier in the season and you can read about that hereHow To Create A Garden In A Small Space

Inside Before

The inside required a lot more work but the end result was so worth it. One of the biggest issues was that it also was becoming a catch all of junk. We still need it to store items for the lake, however a lot of it was cluttering up the space and making it hard to enjoy as a functional space to hang out.

First thing we did was to clear out the whole shed. We through out anything we didn&#;t need or that was broken. That way we could determine how much space was truly needed to store items and how we could best store them.

We knew that finishing off the walls would make a big impact in keeping the area looking cleaner and more appealing, however we did not want to spend a lot of money. I love the look of barn wood walls but knew that it would be more time consuming and expensive. So, we found these faux barn wood looking panels at our local Lowes. The whole cost for them was about $

Then, all we did was nail the panels to the studs. There were some tricky cuts involved but we really weren&#;t super picky on the small details for the shed. Once we had the panels up it already made a huge difference in how clean and bright it felt. 

I decided that painting the floors would also add a more finished look to the room. However, I really didn&#;t want to put a lot of time or money into it. I had originally bought garage, concrete paint to paint the floors but didn&#;t like the gray option with the barn wood browns. I wanted to keep with the rustic feel. So I decided to try concrete stain.

My first mistake was the color selection. They color I selected I though was a taupe but once I painted it on the floors, it looked too gray. So I went back and bought a darker more brown color and love how it turned out. Since it is a stain, I really wanted it to look like stain not paint on the floors, so when I applied it, I didn&#;t do a heavy even coat. I loved the layered more splotchy look it gave. 

Once the walls and floors were complete, I painted the old bar to clean it up and wow what a difference that made. Then it was a matter of adding the decorations and items we needed to make it fun and inviting. The TV was placed on a shelf and we added old vintage waterskis and signs. The wooden vintage cooler even looked better in the newly designed space. 

The fun fishing pole light was a project my husband did a few years ago. He used an old minnow bucket for the base, filled it with concrete then stuck in an old fishing pole. He created the lamp using a lamp kit and the inner part of the minnow bucket as the lampshade. It was super easy and adds so much character to the whole room.

I know we will enjoy this space so much more now and it will quickly become a favorite spot in the yard. I love that even if it&#;s starts raining, we can sit inside and enjoy watching the lake or a game and still be &#;outside&#; by the water. 

Isn&#;t that such a fun space and can you believe how different it looks ? It always amazes me what a difference paint makes in any space. We really love how this turned out and know we will enjoy this space for many years to come. I hope you enjoyed seeing this makeover and learning how you can turn an old shed into an outdoor bar. Make sure you subscribe so you won&#;t miss any new posts. I love hearing from you so feel free to ask any questions.