January 27, 2012
With prices slashed in a closing sale, these New Objects Of Desire are flying out the door.
STEALS & DEALS | Nood, the New Zealand/Australia-based furniture and housewares retailer known for good modern design at reasonable prices, is shutting down operations in Canada. Their killer closeout sale is currently underway with everything in their two Metro Vancouver stores at 50 to 75 percent off the regular price. Though Nood won’t close its doors permanently until early March, we can’t imagine there’ll be much left to purchase by then (maybe its fabulous in-store hanging light fixtures?). Stuff is flying out of there really fast.
Here’s what we like best of what’s left. Get the whole story »
January 12, 2012
Add fresh drama to your home in winter with long-lasting—and inexpensive—cuttings from supermarket tropical plants.
By this time of year, when the garden is devoid of flowers, the florist shop is not the only source of plant material to put in an attractive vase. Cuttings from a potted plant purchased at your local supermarket or corner store can take their place.
December 5, 2011
Easy to make origami boxes add depth, elegance and fun to LED Christmas tree lights—or any other string lights for that matter!
BEAUTIFUL & EASY | We’ve used a combination of origami light cubes and bare LED bulbs (in a ratio of 1 boxed light to three bare bulbs) on every Christmas tree we’ve decorated in the last dozen years. The origami boxes produce beautiful, diffuse squares of light, something you don’t normally see on a Christmas tree. Some years we’ve chosen to box only white string lights, but mostly we box multi-coloured ones. To make our boxes, we worked with vellum squares (available at art supply stores or online) that deepen and intensify whatever colour light they cover. Get the whole story »
December 1, 2011
Here’s our 2011 guide to finding the eco-friendliest Christmas trees in and around Metro Vancouver.
HOLIDAY 2011 | While artificial trees come in hues to match your decor, real Christmas trees are green in more than colour. They are a renewable crop often grown on land unsuitable for cultivating much else, they remove carbon from the air while they’re growing, and they can be chipped for mulch after use. Here are three ways to get an eco-friendly green tree this Christmas. Get the whole story »
November 24, 2011
Replacing single-glazed windows with brand new double-panes used to be the energy-wise solution. Not any more.
When it comes to improving the energy efficiency of older buildings, one of the major things we tend to think of is replacing single-glazed windows with double-glazed models. A 2004 CMHC report on energy savings proves otherwise. Their case-study research found that replacing doors and windows averaged just 12 percent energy savings compared to 34 percent from insulating the foundation and ceiling plus draftproofing the rest of the house, 14 percent from insulating exterior walls and 39 percent from upgrading the furnace.
So it seems that dumping your single-glazed windows in the landfill and installing double-paned ones, which will have to be replaced if the seal fails, is not only more expensive but it’s also less sustainable. Get the whole story »
November 19, 2011
The gardens of international superstar Luciano Guibbilei are filled with great ideas both for people who love to work in gardens and for people who just love to look at them.
FREE & AMAZING | I’ve collected lots of garden design books over the years, and one of my all-time favourites is a 1971 black and white photo essay on Villa Gamberaia. I’ve never visited this surprisingly sculptural 17th century garden in Florence, and although I’d love to see it, I feel like Hungarian architect Balthazar Korab’s photographs already capture Gamberaia’s startlingly dramatic moods and educate me in ways no single visit ever could.
I pulled Korab’s book from the shelf recently when I realized that several of his photos had been used in Luciano Giubbilei’s 2010 picture book The Gardens of Luciano Giubbilei. Giubbilei, a garden design rock star in England who will be giving a FREE LECTURE in Vancouver on November 19, traces his passion for the style of gardens he makes to a stint in the trenches at Gamberaia and a gift of Korab’s book. Get the whole story »
November 17, 2011
Kick off your Christmas shopping tonight with the Shop Hop sale at numerous groovy Gastown boutiques.
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL | ’Tis the season, and the discount shopping is easy—or at least it will be tonight if you wander down to super-walkable Gastown where Shop Hop will be going on. This evening, between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., 31 of Vancouver’s most stylish shops will be offering pre-Christmas specials you won’t want to miss.
There’ll be music, of course, and free drinks, plus every purchase will net you a coupon you can exchange for comestibles at any of seven groovy eateries. To jump the gun (but never the couch, Tom), we canvassed participating merchants for a preview of what they’ve got on sale; in a holiday mood, many of them were only too happy to share. Get the whole story »
November 16, 2011
The website that pioneered members-only time-limited shopping now ships to Canada. Woo Hoo!
SHOPPING AROUND | With its crazy good deals on coveted designer products like the Hunter boots pictured here, Gilt used to be one of my favourite online shopping destinations.
But then the trouble of getting my purchases home—Gilt only shipped within the United States—eventually got to me. Besides, we Canadians finally got our own flash shopping sites (CLICK HERE for our story). Still, I’d wistfully check Gilt every so often if only for inspiration. Get the whole story »
November 14, 2011
Hedging is one of the most versatile and cost-effective green materials you can use to carve up a garden.
MONEY WELL SPENT | Carving up the garden into outdoor rooms has been so popular over the past 20 years that some designers believe it’s time to retire the idea, but I think it still has value, especially for a small plot where a wide-open design has the potential to be anticlimactic. Garden rooms create opportunities for mysterious and surprising moments, and walls made of hedging material are the easiest, least expensive and most natural way to fashion these kinds of spaces. Get the whole story »
November 9, 2011
Is common household bleach a threat to the environment? Can it kill you?
BACK TO BASICS | Call me a freak, but putting on rubber gloves and plunging my hands into my own toilet bowls to clean them with a scrubbing sponge doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me is that no matter what cleaning products I use, the bowls of my newish toilets look dirty again in days. Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of Vim, Ajax, Lysol et al., I turned to cheap, common household bleach. Get the whole story »
