You can too build it yourself - with a little help

When I’m not slaving away on my Toronto Star column or blog, I’m involved with Jim Caruk’s BiY Learning Center –  a new educational facility with two GTA locations that teaches homeowners how to do everything from choose paint colours to lay tile. I think it’s a great idea — there’s such an under-serviced need for consumer information and education around home reno and decor. If you want to see what it’s all about, you can drop by this evening (July 28th) for an open house, where you can learn what BiY is all about and what they're offering for the 2010-2011 curriculum. You can get your hands dirty in the workshop — and meet Jim and other instructors. There will also be light refreshments and — rumour has it — prizes to be won! For more details, click here.  

Show your stripes - or checks

 

Fortunately, my home office isn’t quite as wretched as the “before” pic above, sent to me by Benjamin Moore Paints. But it’s almost as bad, and I KNOW I should bestir myself to get down to an office makeover. BM’s “after” pic is an ode to take-no-prisoners colour, and incorporates stripes, which I seemed to see all over the place on a recent trip to Europe. Checks were also big: I got a lovely set of cherry-pink checked sheets on sale at Zara Home in Portugal. I’m going to put them in a cottage bedroom that’s painted a pale, minty green in which I’ve dressed the tops of vintage night-tables with Marimekko’s Lumimarja wallpaper - hot pink and red berries on branch motifs set again a white background (see below). I got it through New Wall, which has some amazing papers.  So fresh and pretty. I love the bold use of colour in the after pic, but I’m not sure I could handle it day in and day out at the office. What about you? For your home office, would you prefer big, bold stripes or a single strong colour?

Port, Porto, Portugal

PORTO, PORTUGAL -- It was tempting today to skip the official tour organized by the Portugese Cork Association and wander instead the twisting streets of this beautiful and historic city (after all, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site), with its steeply narrow buildings, fronted with ornate metal grills and elaborate stone decoration. Had I made my way as far as the River Douro, I would have been looking toward the banks on which the grapes used to make the famous Port wine are grown. Along the way, I could have stopped and stared at the gravity-defying houses that are literally built into a huge cliff that faces the river. 

On the whole, however, I'm glad I didn't. Had I done so, I would have missed seeing the incredible process by which rough cork bark is transformed into granules that are then pressed under high heat and pressure into sheets which become a variety of flooring products, including conventional cork flooring, or underlay for other materials -- such as vinyl, wood veneer and recycled leather (perhaps my fave look). It didn't hurt that when we stopped at the family-owned Amorim and Granorte flooring factories, they plied us with gorgeous Portuguese sweets and Port (both red and white). And you know, dear reader, I'd never miss a chance to bring you news that you can use to make your home more beautiful or eco-friendly. Or a free drink. 

Back to Lisbon tomorrow and then home to Toronto the day after. Look for a story in my Hot Home Products soon about how cork combines style and sustainability. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some streets to wander. 

Cork harvesting in Coruche

SPECIAL BLOG REPORT -- Greetings, gentle reader, from Coruche, just outside Lisbon, Portugal, where I spent the morning at Fidalgos, a farm situated in an ancient cork oak forest. As a guest of the Portuguese Cork Association, I saw farm workers (“debarkers”) harvest the bark of cork trees with an axe, using a process that hasn’t really changed over the last 2,000 years. (Use of cork for shoes and other products goes back at least as far as the Romans.) 

Fidalgos has about 2,000 hectares planted with cork oak, pine and eucalyptus, and is part of some 730,000 hectares of cork forest in Portugal. It’s also a biodiversity “hotspot”; home to about 100 species per hectare, some of which are endangered. I’ve added below a pic of a harvested cork tree. (Credit where it’s due - I have Karen Kirk of Home and Garden magazine to thank for the pic; she generously shared hers when my camera went on the blink. More pics tomorrow, I hope.)

At Fidalgos, I learned that cork is an extremely sustainable material; cork comes from the bark of the trees, which can be harvested every nine years - and the trees have an average lifespan of about 250 years.

 We were lucky enough to have videographer Mike Lewis with us, and he’s promised to put together some fabulous footage for me to upload to On the House. So keep watching this space!

 

Blind ambition

What’s hot in blinds theses day? I According to Mike Muyal, director of marketing for Newell Rubbermaid Canada, which makes Levolor products, Canadians are loving "soft" shades, and moving away from hard window coverings. Soft shades include cellular-type, roller shades and roman blinds. In terms of colours, the taupes and off-whites continue to be popular, perhaps because they’re safe. But more adventurous types are choosing designs and fabrics that add a punch of colour. For example, striped patterns on roman shades are very hot sellers right now. Blinds in stronger solid colours — espresso, black, sage, Dijon, sterling blue, and slate — are also gaining. Whatever colour or pattern you go for, make sure you measure correctly. For good advice, go to Levolor

Cool it, baby!

Sure it’s hot. But you can stay cool without going postal with the AC. Here are some tips from, among other sources, Direct Energy  and Treehugger,  which recently had a terrific special edition on green ways to beat the heat.

Install a ceiling fan. I am such a, um, fan of these. Moving air throughout a room automatically makes you feel cooler. Don’t forget that fan blades should move the air downwards in the summer and upwards in the winter. And if it’s superhot at night in the bedroom, rinse your top sheet in cool water, wring it out and lay it on top of you. Just don’t tell your Mom that you do because, if she’s like mine, she’ll insist that that by doing so “you’ll catch your death of cold”.

Add awnings above south facing windows in your home to reduce solar gain.

Plant a vine or climber at your home. According to an article by Lloyd Alter on Planet Green, climbers can reduce the maximum temperatures of a building by shading walls from the sun, the daily temperature fluctuation being reduced by as much as 50 per cent.

Check the SEER (Seasonal energy efficiency ratio) rating on your air conditioning unit. A 13 SEER rating can deliver as much as 28 per cent more efficiency than that of an older, 10 SEER air conditioner.

If you want to find other ways to make your home more energy efficient in summer and winter, book a home energy assessment with a company like GreenSaver.

Expecting a corking good time

Gentle reader, I'm headed off this weekend to Portugal to learn about the cork industry there, and how it's being increasingly used in home and decor products. Exciting, no? Among other spots, I'll be visiting the Montado cork oak forest in Coruche and the Granorte factory, which makes sustainable cork products. I'll have a ton of questions, but it occurred to me that you may too. So if you have a cork query, let me know by submitting it to the comment section below. I'll do my best to get any questions left  before Saturday answered while I'm there. And I promise to try to post some pics while I'm away.

The perfect paint

 


While researching an upcoming column on how to choose paint colours, I came across a video made by design expert Cobi Ladner for Sharp Electronics. It's got some good tips. So I thought I'd share. Click here to watch. While I do love colour (such as the vibrant red from Beauti-Tone shown in the pic above) and have been recently ooh-ing and aah-ing over some of the brighter hues from the line Beauti-Tone did with Style at Home magazine, I must say my fave colour this year is the subtle String shade from Farrow and Ball I used on my cottage living room. I think my husband must be getting sick of me saying, "I love this colour!" But I do, I do! Every time of day I walk in the room, in any kind of light, I love how it looks. And I love how it looks in the evening, when it's lit just by the woodstove or candles. I think it may be the perfect neutral. Pictures soon, I promise.

Finding a formidable foe in fruit flies

Yes, dear reader, I'm back. And yes, I probably should have spent the morning finding some fascinating blog-worthy tid-bit for you. But I found myself instead dealing with an epic infestation of fruit flies. Gross me out nerds pits, man! (This will only make sense to those who came of age in the eighties. For the rest of you, let me just say that this is a disgusting turn of events.) Exhaustive research (I went to chowhound) has led to me try two approaches. And yes, it did too take all morning. I have put on the counter a half cup of old red wine in a shallow glass over which I've secured a piece of plastic wrap and poked a few holes with with a fork. I've also put a funnel into a small mason jar filled with a few over-ripe strawberries. My cunning plan is to trap the minute menaces. At least they will die happy.  I'll report back soon on which method is more successful.  If, that is, I'm not driven insane by them first. Watch this space.