Home & Garden Archives - Page 8 of 11

Clever Ways To Use Ordinary Flower Pots

August 18, 2011/8 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Here’s how to create instant impact in the garden by using the same ordinary element over and over again.

CHEAP & CHIC | It takes a certain kind of fearlessness to believe that you can make a cliché look fresh. The cliché I’m referring to here is the wide-rimmed dime-a-dozen terracotta pot found in every nursery and hardware store from there to China. You know the (inexpensive) kind I’m talking about, pictured here empty. If you’re like me, you cannot wait to replace yours with their more curvaceous Italian cousins, or some skinny Long Toms from England, or something stunning in Asian stoneware. Read more

Why Reupholster When A Nip And Tuck Will Do

August 4, 2011/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Why flat out reupholster your old, classic sofa when a nip and a tuck may be all it takes to give it a lift.

SERVICE ALERT | Although home décor and design are all about modernism right now, I’m still in love with the George Smith-inspired scroll arm sofa and chair I bought on sale at Conran’s in England when my now-teenaged son was small. One thing I appreciate about my pieces is the way their fabric has faded ever so softly over the years in that endearing English country house way. It made me sad to think about completely recovering them when two of the arms frayed, one each on the sofa and chair, but what else can you do when your living room starts to look more shabby than chic? I had pretty much resigned myself to an expensive upholstery redo when Susan Poling walked into my life. Read more

Go, Go {Kitchen} Gadget: 2 Top Products

August 2, 2011/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Sweet solutions for ripening and peeling your favourite fruits and veggies.

MONEY WELL SPENT | With so many kitchen gizmos out there, you’d have thought that someone, somewhere would have long ago designed an attractive receptacle for ripening market-hard fruit on a windowsill. You can find clear plastic fruit ripening bowls, of course, dome-lidded containers that sweeten up a pile of fruits simultaneously (doubly quick when you add a banana to the mix), but I find these products cumbersome counter hogs. What I want is something that will tuck up out of the way on my windowsill and ripen just a few fruits—pears, tomatoes, avocados, the occasional cantaloupe or pineapple—in natural sunlight; something that looks attractive empty. Read more

Stage Craft: How To Sell Your House Quick

July 8, 2011/1 Comment/in Home & Garden /by Editor

If you want to cash in on the current real estate boom by selling your house, here’s what you can do to sell it quick.

TIPS & TRICKS | The real estate market is so white hot across Metro Vancouver right now that I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you were thinking about selling your place—or knew at least six other people who are contemplating selling their homes, too. But when there’s a plethora of properties to choose from, how do you make your home the one shoppers need to buy? Read more

These 3 Paper Pendant Lights Are Must Haves

June 20, 2011/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Nothing makes a unlit corner or a dining room come alive quicker and with more personality than a show-stopping pendant lamp (or three). These inexpensive paper versions are more than up to the task.

CHIC + CHEAP | It is not a stretch to attribute our current fascination with exotic pendant lighting to the return of the chandelier. After years of living with residential lighting programs dominated by invisible pot lights or tech-looking track, the glittery old-as-Methuselah chandelier showed up a decade ago to re-bedazzle the design world—and rekindle our interest in ceiling-hung light fixtures of all sorts, including these delicious ones made of paper, priced from $5 to $99. Read more

Win Two Heritage House Tour Tickets

May 23, 2011/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Subscribe or Invite a friend to receive Frugalbits FREE daily email by MAY 27, and be entered to win 2 tickets to Vancouver’s 2011 Heritage House Tour (value $80).

(23.05.11) Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Heritage House Tour is a one-day, self guided tour of a selection of historic buildings in Vancouver. Now in its 9th year, this event has brought over 15,000 people into over 100 privately owned, unique heritage buildings in our city. Each year, a different selection of homes is opened, showcasing a wide variety of traditional house styles and interesting historic neighbourhoods.

Your ticket is a 28 page guidebook with a map in the centre showing you where the homes are located, a full page write-up about each house, lunch suggestions and guest essays by local authors such as Michael Kluckner, Bruce Macdonald and James Johnstone.

Visit any or all of the participating homes on June 5th between 10 am to 5 pm in any order you prefer. Your guidebook is a numbered passport that will gain you access into the homes.

SUBSCRIBE or INVITE a friend to receive Frugalbits’ FREE daily email by May 27, 2011, and you will be automatically entered for a chance to win two tickets to Vancouver’s 2011 Heritage house Tour, and so will your friend, if they subscribe.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE; CLICK HERE TO INVITE

Photo: courtesy Vancouver Heritage Foundation

Shocking Colour Will Make Your Garden Pop

May 18, 2011/1 Comment/in GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

A jolt of crazy colour is an unexpected and inexpensive way to make your garden pop.

CHEAP TRICK | A Vancouver architect friend of mine has a sideline as a garden photographer, and not long ago he grumbled to me that one of the magazines he works for in the U.S. never puts his photographs on their cover. “I take great plant portraits,” he said, “but unless I am willing to include a brightly coloured chair in my shots, not one of them will ever make it.” That’s because art directors know the swiftest way to catch the attention of gardeners cruising the magazine racks is to hit them with a jolt of unexpected colour. Read more

Luxury Lovers Will Heart This Moving Sale

May 11, 2011/1 Comment/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Livingspace Interiors is having the mother of all moving sales, and the prices for high-end merchandise are surprisingly low.

SALES WE LOVE (11.05.11) | It’s rare to read the words “deep discount” and “luxury brand European furnishings” in the same sentence. That’s because retailers that sell furniture by recognizable high-style manufacturers, like Minotti and Paola Lenti for example, are more interested in showcasing sublime design at a warranted price than they are in unloading merchandise at bargain basement prices. High-end furniture retailers do put their products on sale but seldom at the blowout prices of the Livingspace Interiors everything-must-go moving sale. Read more

This Variety Of Nepeta Is A Bulletproof Plant

May 10, 2011/0 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

A gorgeous, indestructible, low-maintenance, high-performance, cost-effective garden: Is that too much to ask?

MONEY WELL SPENT | There are people who derive tremendous satisfaction from garden chores, but I’m not one of them. I love garden design and history, and enjoyed researching and planning our own garden with my husband, who is a garden designer. I loved choosing the plants and installing them, and I don’t mind occasional watering or weeding. But after that, I want to spend my time doing other things. I need my garden to be bulletproof: a gorgeous, indestructible, low-maintenance, high-performance environment—and of course I expect my investment in plants to be cost-effective. Read more

Home Upgrades That Really Don’t Pay Off

May 5, 2011/2 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Renovation projects that experts say aren’t worth your time (or money).

NEVER DO THESE | Not long ago, the website real simple.com ran the headline we’ve republished above. When I first saw it, I jumped on the story, only to find myself disappointed when some of their suggestions didn’t seem to compute: like never changing a bedroom into a home office because people won’t be able to imagine reconverting it into a place to sleep. Or that you shouldn’t install a concrete patio because it can crack and is too harshly reflective; hello, concrete done right should hold up—oh, and it can be repaired btw. Or the idea that you mustn’t waste wads on tennis or basketball courts, as if these were popular additions.

In the spirit of the realsimple idea, we decided to create our own Never Do List. Here are three reno projects local realtors say aren’t worth the time or money.