SHOPPING AROUND | Lamp shades are not something I shop for often, but when I do, I find myself frustrated by the poor selection and quality out there. My particular peeve is shades with plastic backing, which not only becomes brittle and cracks over time but also looks so, well, plastic. Read more
Cheap + Beautiful | Many of the clients in my residential landscape design practice can afford whatever kind of outdoor lighting they want, so it surprised— and delighted— me a few years ago when one of them suggested we find places to put white string lights in her large and rambling garden. “I love the way they look and the kind of feeling they bring to a garden,” she told me, rattling off a list of “happy, fun” string light sightings that included weddings outside, hill towns in Europe, those blocked-off laneways with shops and bistros in San Francisco.
My client may have been a romantic, but she was definitely on to something. Of all the ways to light a garden—up-lighting, down-lighting, moonlighting, etc.—few methods can match humble, cheap low-voltage white string lights for creating a genuine feeling of enchantment. Read more
WASTE NOT Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the times were desperate around my house. After what seemed like eons of continual nagging by me and my husband, our children, lovely individuals all, continued to leave the lights on when they exited their rooms, or any of the other spaces in our home they frequented with regularity.
“Turn off the light when you leave a room” is one of our basic house rules, along with “Do not take hour-long showers” and “Avoid drinks in disposable containers” if at all possible. But where wasting water and steering clear of junk plastic seemed to click with my tribe, remembering to douse the lights remained an issue. Read more
DIY | When Terri Brandmueller renovated her Vancouver kitchen awhile ago, she thought a lot about how the surface materials and finishes would look when viewed together. She had dark wood and white laminate cabinets; butcher-block countertops and a solid beech island; and stainless steel appliances—everything set against a backdrop of white beadboard wallpaper. What was missing, she figured, was a serious splash of colour, and the surface behind the range seemed like the perfect place to put it. This is how she hit upon the idea of installing the light-reflecting sheet of glass pictured here, back-painted ocean blue. Read more
SPENDING SMART | Early last April when we were busy launching Frugalbits, I was also busy buying sterling silver flatware. The only other time I’d purchased sterling silver was the last time the U.S. and Canadian dollar were at par. Whenever the dollar is near par, I think about buying things south of the border that I’d otherwise consider an indulgence; much as I love it, sterling silver flatware falls into this category. Read more
MORE IS BETTER | Repetition, as designer Kelly Deck pointed out to me recently, is central to good interior design. “If we’re designing the interior architecture of the home, we often determine well in advance what repeating architectural elements we’ll use throughout the design. Perhaps the millwork and doorways will all have chunky wood wraps, or the hardware throughout will be square, polished and jewel-like. These are subtle uses of repetition, but they’re fundamental in creating an interior that feels quiet and unified.”
More literally, repetition is very effective in decorating, particularly when you’re trying to stretch a budget—or make a high-impact artistic statement. Here are the ways the model, the writer and the designer have multiplied to great effect. Read more
CHEAP + CHIC | Sometimes subversive, typically surprising and always fun, the useful and poetic products by Areaware trigger an emotional response. This trend-setting New York-based company’s mandate is to “create thoughtful products that encourage a dialogue between people and their everyday surroundings,” and the first time I flipped through their online catalogue and discovered the marble and resin Distortion candlesticks shown here, designed by Paul Loebach, I wanted to give them as Christmas gifts to all my designer friends. I worried that something this original and arty might be too expensive, but discovered the opposite is true: these traditional-with-a-twist 10-inch-tall candlesticks are a steal at $24 each. Read more
Last year in an effort to simplify my life, I looked into buying an artificial Christmas tree, preferably one that came predecorated and opened and shut like an umbrella: I could pop it up before Christmas, then collapse and store it till next year. Then I discovered that the whole point of a Christmas tree is to bring evergreen trees or branches indoors as reminder that winter will eventually end and the world will turn green again.
Real Christmas trees are green in more than colour as they are a renewable crop and often grown on land unsuitable for growing much else. And like any crop, there are different shades of green.
Kelly Deck has immersed herself in the spirit and lifestyle of the West Coast design community. When she opened her interior décor boutique on Vancouver’s Main Street in 2002, she began a successful foray into homes and backyards, developing a design presence that champions the integrity of coast living and the importance of design.
Now the director of Kelly Deck Design in beachside Kitsilano, her full-service interior design firm specializes in private residences. Her ideas have gained national reach through her Globe and Mail column The West Coast Way; her HGTV series, Take It Outside; and her appearances on Urban Rush, CityLine TV and Breakfast Television.
SAVE YOUR MONEY | Have you checked recently to see what drycleaners charge to clean down comforters, pillows and jackets? Bloody expensive, this service! Drycleaners have their place to be sure, but paying them to fluff your down when you can do it yourself with minimal effort is silly. Read more