Revamping your home with paint

First Sarah, now Style at Home.The magazine's style editors have teamed up with Home Hardware and Beauti-Tone paint to create nine new colour palettes.

“At Style at Home magazine, our editors rave about how a few coats of paint can revive, refresh and completely transform everything from an old wooden chair to a diminutive powder room to your entire house,” says Erin McLaughlin, Editor-in-Chief, Style at Home. “Never underestimate the power of paint.” 

 

The new palettes include Elegance, a serene blend of warm whites and creams; Manor, a combo of glamourous shades for a sophisticated look; Townhouse, a mix of soft neutrals with "cheeky accents"  for a look "as cosy as it is au courant"; Romance, a blend of moody mauves and tones of antique grey to create the illusion of patina; Fresh, a combo of bright springy colours for a happy look; Loft, a palette of deep greys and pure whites; Cottage, which is simply described as "relaxed weekend living comes to life with a cheerful East Coast-inspired palette"; Exotic, a mix of rich deep colours for a sophisticated, globetrotting look; and Farmhouse, a selection of soft whites accented with fresh spring green that's "evocative of the best of contemporary country style."

And, because no launch is complete without some magazine-worthy decor inspiration, Home Hardware has come up with 10 ways to revamp your space with paint:

1. Paint the ceiling of a bedroom Pale Sky, below, for a dreamy effect. 

2. Paint the inside of an open or glass-front cabinet in a pretty accent colour like Fern or Cornish, shown below, to showcase collections on the shelves. 

3. A front door painted in Blacksmith (below) is like a little black dress for your home – always chic. (I love the idea of this one - and would expand it to window frames too!)

4. If using a dark colour in a small room, paint the trim the same colour as the walls. Doing so will minimize contrast, making the room seem more spacious. 

 

5. If a room has a garden view, painting the interior walls in Granny Smith (below) or Viburnum will unify indoors and out, making the room appear larger.

6. When decorating a whole room, decide the paint colour last, since paint comes in almost every colour, but furniture, fabric and flooring don’t.

7. Every room can use a piece of furniture that’s painted black. Paint a side table Jet. 

8. Painting walls in a flat finish with trim a warm white in an eggshell finish is a no-fail recipe for painting success.

9. In a room with sharply angled ceilings, such as an attic, paint the walls and ceiling the same colour.

10. If you’re painting one wall in a bedroom a deep accent colour (we suggest Smoke), make it the headboard wall. In any other room, make it the wall you see first upon entering the room.

New app to help you find your dream home

My iPod Touch and I are rarely more than a foot apart at any given moment during the day. Whether I'm checking my email, updating Twitter, browsing the web or getting ready for a trip to Ikea, I've come to expect that there will be an app for almost anything (Read my roundup of helpful home apps here).

So it was only a matter of time before a neighbourhood-based real estate search app caught my attention. This one, called HomeRoamer, (Found via TechVibes) - which is expected to be available soon for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android - uses GPS technology to search for homes in the neighbourhood you want to live in. 

Basically, when you're in the neighbourhood where you want to buy, you're supposed to activate the HomeRoamer app and it will pull details for available nearby homes from MLS.ca. The one catch is that realtors must sign up to let the app access their listings.

The app is designed to show you locations on a map, along with property details like price, photos, rooms and sizes, and gives you the ability to phone or email the listing realtor or forward the details to your own agent to set up the next steps. It also accesses open house information, and can be integrated with your calendar to give you reminders. There's also a mortgage estimator.

The app is free for consumers, although there's also a Pro version that's available only to licensed real estate sales representatives or brokers.

What do you think - would you download this? I love the idea of getting my MLS fix on the go!

Weekend roundup

Yourhomers are pretty evenly divided when it comes to splitting the household chores with their families. According to last week's poll, a slim majority - 56 per cent - make cleaning a family affair. Check out our tips and tricks for getting your kids, partners and the men in your life into the act.

After working on a gardening piece this week (learn all about how to get your own Alice in Wonderland inspired garden here), my own attention has shifted to designing outdoor spaces. Are you planning to spruce up your balcony or yard with some new furniture? Check out our balcony style and patio furniture trends, then cast your vote in the front page poll.

And, as always, there's some great weekend reading, including:

- Colin and Justin hit a dining room with the Midas touch

- Gifts to make mom's life easier

- What they got May 8

- Mark Cullen's gardening tips

Yep, that's cardboard

Furnishing a home is a daunting and expensive endeavour. And while we'd all love to carefully shop for that perfect piece, and save up until we can afford it, it can be tricky to make do without some key pieces to get you started.

For an alternative to the milk crate and dumpster diving I did to furnish my first place, there's a new line eco-friendly cardboard furniture from YUP, launched at the Green Living Show the end of April.

The furniture is made from recycled (and recyclable) cardboard fibre, a durable, mouldable product they discovered while working with students in McMaster University's Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program.

The furniture lines include pieces for any space and are available in a natural khaki tone (the Innovation Line) or can be painted, silkscreened or decorated with fabric (the Xpression Line).

The dining set, which includes six soft back seats with recycled paper fabric upholstery, retails for $1,199. Other available pieces include sofas for $459 to $789, a sectional for $999, and beds, including headboard, from $200 to $380.

YUP will be opening its online shop and first YUP Xpression Centre in Mississauga in June, retailing the fibre furniture as well as YUP green home information and other eco lines.

Smart Sponge for messy roommates

It’s hard not to cringe when someone uses your dishcloth to wipe up a mess on the floor or, worse yet, in the bathroom.

To help quell those cross-contamination fears, there's Smart Sponge: clearly marked sponges, with illustrations, for use around your house.

The California-designed product comes in a pack of five for $8.99, featuring sponges for your dishes, table, sink, tub and toilet.

The sponges, which expand to two centimeters when you add water, are available at stores across Canada. For retailers, contact Zest Products at info@zestkitchen.com or 705-735-3300.

Clean up your mudroom

Your mudroom makes your home’s first impression, but it’s also the spot where you’re most likely to drop items and forget about them.

To keep it clean, professional organizer Jane Woolsey says the key is to determine the room’s function, including what you’d like to store there, and get rid of anything that doesn’t belong.

Pick up pieces such as benches, shelving, hooks and boxes to help max out your options. Woolsey uses garage organizing systems to create versatile and surprisingly stylish storage.

And don’t forget the design, she says, “If it looks nice, people tend to want to keep it that way.” She adds that keeping things off the floor helps you maintain a clean space.

To help get kids into the organizing act, she uses Avery’s Design & Print online service to create DIY stickers with photos of the kids, so they can label and recognize their own mudroom storage boxes, bins and baskets.

At my house (shown), there's still a lot of work to be done, but a dish for keys, bus passes and gadgets helps keep mudroom surfaces clear, while a storage bench holds hats, scarves, gloves and out of season items. 

What do you do to keep your mudroom in tip top shape?

Weekend roundup

According to last week's poll, the majority of Yourhomers - 79 per cent - support the province's ban of water-guzzling toilets (read the full story here). Fourteen per cent are opposed to the move, while the remaining seven per cent said they don't know. Check out the rest of our eco-friendly Earth Day coverage in our Green Living section.

This week, we're still in spring cleaning mode. I want to know if your whole family lends a hand when it comes to tidying up the house! Let me know in the front page poll, and check out our tips and tricks for getting your kids, partners and the men in your life into the act.

For more weekend reading, check out:

- Colin and Justin channel a chic New York state of mind

- Our roundup of single-cup coffee makers

- The wrap up of our Birth of a Condo series

- Why Ty Pennington's coming to Canada

- How fixed mortgage may ease rate rise stress

- A look at recent real estate transactions in the GTA

- Our home tour with Jian Ghomeshi