Home & Garden Archives - Page 5 of 11

It’s Easy To Recover A Worn Out Office Chair

August 22, 2012/2 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, DIY, Home & Garden, View All DIY Stories /by Editor

Drab old office chair + fresh new fabric + easiest reupholstery job ever = sitting pretty.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | When my gaze fell on this cheeky little chair in a friend’s home office, I had to laugh. It was the unexpected choice of fabric, I suppose. Never intended to be a serious design statement, the chair seemed to represent many people’s working lives today, where the comforts of personal style meet stark office severity head on. It’s what I like to call the “cottage industry look.” Read more

Soap Dish by Brendan Power- Heather Ross

How To Make A More Effective Soap Dish

August 8, 2012/0 Comments/in Chic & Easy Projects, DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, Home & Garden, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Here’s an attractive and easy way to address a perpetually slippery problem.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | It may not be the biggest problem of our time, but how do you keep a bar of soap from turning into sludge—or sliding all over the place? Read more

The Perfect Planter Box For Wee Gardeners

July 10, 2012/0 Comments/in GARDEN, Gardening How-To, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

On sale right now at Pottery Barn Kids, this planter is perfect for wee gardeners or patio gardens.

SUPER VALUE | If you want your kids to fall in love with gardening, it’s a good idea to get them digging early. To very young children, popping their first seeds in soil, watching them come up and then harvesting the fruits of their labour is powerful magic.

When I was in Pottery Barn Kids a few weeks ago, I spotted the rectangular galvanized planter shown in the photo above (on the left) and thought finally a decent-size soil receptacle raised to just the right height so little people can easily tend and keep an eye on seeds they’ve sowed (it’s also the perfect size for adults wanting to grow herbs or a small crop of salad vegetables). Read more

Where To Find Asian Blue & White Dishes

July 9, 2012/0 Comments/in DECOR & DESIGN, HOME, Home & Garden, View All Home Stories /by Editor

Gorgeous, everyday blue and white dinnerware from around the Pacific Rim is inexpensive and plentiful. Here’s where to find it right now.

CHEAP & PERFECT | Sam Carter introduced me to the joy of collecting inexpensive Asian blue and white dishes. Carter, who is now professor emeritus at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and currently working on a variety of innovative international projects—including facilitating internships for Emily Carr students in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and Korea—has, for the longest time, picked up antique and contemporary blue and white dishes wherever he touches down. Read more

Turn Phototcopies Into Artworks On Canvass

July 2, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, Home & Garden, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Photo transferring used to belong solely on t-shirts. Here’s how to take this idea out of the closet and put it on your walls.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | The first thing that comes to mind when I think of photo transfers is the unoriginal projects first year art students have to do. But one day, while I was making some photocopies, I thought about how transferring images onto ready-made mini-canvasses from an art supply store would leave them with an impression that looks painted on but without the brushstrokes. Photocopy transferring, I subsequently learned, can turn any snapshot into art. Read more

Where To Find The Best Pots & Pans For Less

June 27, 2012/0 Comments/in FOOD, Home & Garden, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Stratospherically expensive All-Clad pots are among the most coveted cooking equipment on the planet, and for good reason: they last forever! Here’s how to slice their price.

SHOP WISE | My family and I have been in a horribly abusive relationship with our All-Clad Master Chef pots and pans (pictured below) every day for the past 15 years. Poor things! We cook on an open burner gas range and routinely scorch their bottoms; we’ve also allowed them to cook dry and blacken more times than we’d care to mention (gotta love built-in smoke detectors). Read more

Use Mass Planting To Create Great Effects

May 28, 2012/0 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Simple does not mean stupid. Don’t underestimate the intelligence behind the less complicated look for gardens.

DESIGN WISE | It’s been two decades since gardening became a fashionable endeavor in North America. If we’ve learned anything during this time, over and above garden history and plant vocabulary, it’s that maintaining a garden is damn hard work. Only those who love mucking about in the dirt survive and thrive in the trenches.

This knowledge, plus a fascination with mid-20th-century modernist architecture and the gardens that went along with them, has lead to the pursuit of simple, (and hopefully) low maintenance planting schemes. Read more

No-Screw Shelving By Peter Cardew

May 25, 2012/1 Comment/in CANADIAN CONTENT, DECOR & DESIGN, Home & Garden /by Editor

Kick out the Billy (IKEA lovers will understand)! Replace it with no-screw shelving designed by Peter Cardew—on sale right now at 18 Karat. (VIDEO)

FURNITURE WE LOVE | To our list of favourite contemporary home furnishings designers/manufacturers (who just happen to come from western Canada)—Niels Bendsten; Omer Arbel; Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen of Molo—we would like to add the name Peter Cardew. A man better known both here and abroad for award-winning architecture, Cardew has, in recent years, turned his talent to designing furniture for 18 Karat (now back in business after an hiatus), and this collaboration has resulted in some fine furniture pieces, particularly in wood. Read more

What A Small Patch Of Lawn Can Do For You

May 10, 2012/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

A small patch of the green stuff may be just the sort of versatile ingredient your garden needs.

DESIGN WISE | If you want to get maximum mileage from your outdoor space for physical play or entertaining, the most versatile garden surface I know of is good old-fashioned lawn. Lawn is a four-letter among guerilla gardeners who see it as an ecological disaster and a colossal waste of energy, and I do agree that a large area is imprudent. But a small patch can be a godsend. Read more

The Must-Have Book For Home Renovators

May 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Thinking about renovating? Then this “bible” of home improvement ideas belongs on your bookshelf.

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | A lot of what I know about how a house should work on the inside and mesh with the outside I learned from the bible. Not the authorized King James version but a book called A Pattern Language, a renovator’s bible that I return to repeatedly for inspiration and guidance.

First published decades ago, this tome consists of 1,170 tissue-thin pages of poetically written advice on how to make considered meaning-filled homes and communities. At its core are 253 simple patterns, each one an answer to a design problem, that can be used in any number of combinations to make a family home or a small commercial building—even layout an entire neighbourhood. Read more