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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

Can House Cleaning Make You Happier?

June 11, 2012/2 Comments/in Fitness & Health, HEALTH, View All Health Stories, Well Being /by Editor

Get out the squeegee, Margie—doing housework may well be the way to improve your state of mind.

HAPPY TALK | We don’t need social scientists or surveys to confirm that having a clean house is a natural mood booster. But did you know that actually doing the cleaning may improve your mood as much as having a house that’s clean? In her new book, The First 20 Minutes: Surprising science reveals how we can exercise better, train smarter, live longer, author Gretchen Reynolds reports that a recent large-scale survey done in Europe found an “inverse association between housework and distress.”

Fast Relief: How To Make Embossed Cards Quick

June 6, 2012/6 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

The perfect alternative to E-cards, these beautifully embossed greeting cards are super simple to make.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | Embossing your own stationery is super easy. You will need 90-pound watercolor paper (although you can emboss on lighter papers), a burnishing tool and some sort of template to outline the image. Almost anything with relief will work; I used a metal drain tile from a plumbing store, a simple bracket from a hardware store and a leaf template I found at a graphic arts supply store. 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

Bed Making 101: Fold “Hotel Corners” Right

April 11, 2012/8 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Contemporary bed making requires a skill practiced by the military and hospital and hotel staff. Here’s how to do it right the right way.

DO IT RIGHT | The wedding cake bed—you know, the ultrafeminine one (pictured here) with a frothy meringue of duvet, pleated bed skirt and rows of European shams racked up against the headboard—may not be passé, but it is not what’s currently hot in bedding. What’s in fashion in bedding right now is a tailored, masculine effect, characterized by lean, clean lines and multiple layers of fitted sheets and flat covers drawn in tight to the bed frame. Read more

Easy Make Stands For Your Little Art Works

March 27, 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

Make this classic art support for small images from a simple block of wood.

While not everyone has huge pieces of art gracing the walls of their home, most people do have plenty of little pieces, whether they are favourite photos or original, miniature works of art. But just how do you display these smaller things? You can hang them on the wall in thoughtful groupings to create a tableau, or you can find a way to set them on a table. For years I had been looking for an elegant way to display framed art or photos on a table top. I have never liked plate stands and using an easel seems derivative; finally, I designed an easy-make support of my own. Read more

How To Make A Spectacular Pot Garden

March 23, 2012/0 Comments/in GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

How the late, great British designer Sir David Hicks used easy-to-come-by Plain Jane planters to create a spectacular pot garden at his home in England.

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | Garden ornaments can be expensive for sure, but they don’t need to be. Witness the clever way the late, great British Interior and garden designer Sir David Hicks employed ordinary available-in-every-garden-centre containers to create a particularly eye-catching pot garden on his own estate, The Grove, in Oxfordshire, England. Read more

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