khov.com

THE COUR IER
A PR IL 2010
C1
HOME improvement
www.thecourier.com
Homeowners, businesses
taking advantage of tax credit
for energy-efficient windows
By MICHELLE REITER
STAFF WRITER
Photos by RANDY ROBERTS / The Courier
DAN THOMPSON of American Windows and Siding of Ohio, Inc. installs an energy-efficient tilt and slide window at the
home of Terry and Nicole Bartsom of Findlay. A tax credit that’s part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
is allowing any homeowner who installs new energy-efficient windows to be reimbursed 30 percent of the cost of the new
windows up to $1,500.
Benefit
The tax credit will reimburse you 30 percent of the cost of energy-efficient windows (not including installation/labor costs), up to
$1,500.
Timing
The tax credit is in effect until the end of 2010. Windows must be installed in your “principal residence” between January 1, 2009
and December 31, 2010.
Details
From June 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2010, windows/doors/skylights must have a U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) less than
or equal to 0.30. From Jan. 1 - May 31, 2009, all ENERGY STAR qualified windows, doors, and skylights qualify.
You do not have to replace all the windows/doors/skylights in your home to qualify and it doesn’t need to be a replacement, either.
Installing a new window where there wasn’t one previously (like in an addition) also qualifies.
Qualified models
You can find the U-factor and SHGC on the National Fenestration Rating Council label. NFRC is the only federally recognized
organization for determining the energy performance of windows, doors and skylights. Visit www.nfrc.org) for information
concerning product performance.
How to apply
Reiter: 419-427-8497
[email protected]
File Tax Form 5695 with your tax return. You must have a Manufacturer’s Certification Statement to qualify.
Men, women do chores a
little differently | 2
Open the drapes and let
the sunshine in | 4
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for
By most accounts, this is the year for windows.
Those seeking energy-efficient replacement windows this year
may be able to receive a tax credit of 30 percent, or up to $1,500,
as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
allowed a tax credit for those replacing their windows with more
energy-efficient versions.
The credit, part of the $787 billion stimulus bill passed last year,
is equal to 30 percent of the first $5,000 you spend on windows.
The $1,500 off does not come at the time of sale, but will be a tax
deduction. The extension of the credit means it can be claimed for
either 2009 or 2010.
Rental homes, though, do not qualify for the credit.
For some businesses, this has meant a significant sales boost
though at least one business has not noticed much change.
The tax credit has been extended through 2010, which means
many businesses are working hard to get out the word and sell as
many windows as they can.
Anyone not yet aware of the rebate will likely encounter advertising for it.
“It’s had a positive affect on sales,” said Daryle Reinhart, the
owner of Clear Choice windows in Fostoria. “It’s spurred interest.”
Not all windows qualify for the rebate, but most do, he said.
Qualifying windows must have a .30 U-factor and solar heat gain
coefficient or lower.
Most windows manufactured meet those qualifications, but not
all, so customers may need to ask salesmen specifically for windows
that qualify for the tax rebate.
Terry and Nicole Bartsom, a Marion Township couple, had new
windows installed this month from American Windows and Siding
of Ohio, Inc., located on West Main Cross Street in Findlay.
The tax credit bumped the project up on their to-do list, Terry
said.
“We were planning to do it down the road, but we didn’t want
to miss the boat on it,” he said.
The Bartsom’s windows were at least a decade old, he said, and
were not as energy efficient as they could be. They could have been
losing heat, but he said he was not sure.
Still, the tax credit, which they will be able to claim on their 2010
taxes, was incentive to buy nine new windows this year.
Dennis Turner, American Windows and Siding Owner, said he
has not owned the business for long and does not know if the tax
credit has boosted sales in terms of numbers, but believes it has.
But he is quick to tell people about the tax credit as soon as they
walk in the door.
“We educate them about it, and offer them advice,” he said.
He said some roofs, attic insulation, air conditioning units and
heat pumps also qualify.
But not every business is necessarily seeing an increase. Times
are still hard economically and, tax rebate or not, some people do
not have the money up front to buy new windows, especially if they
have to wait a year to see the tax savings.
“I don’t see any influx of business because of it,” said Don Mills,
the sales manager for Overhead Door, located on Route 12 in Findlay. “I see people absolutely hanging onto their money. There is a
lack of confidence in what’s going on.”
Mills said there was a time when Overhead could not keep up
with business. Now, after one job is finished, he wonders if there
will be another.
About half of his customers are not aware of the tax credit, he
said.
All the same, he supports the tax credit.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “If the government gives you
something, you had better take it. It’s a really wise investment.”
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A PHOTO FROM “Suzanne Kasler: Inspired Interiors.” With collection of vintage blue accessories and blue printed fabrics, Kasler says she
creates a soothing, cool atmosphere is this entryway that doubles for dining in a show house she designed in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. The
beach theme is apparent in the seashell chandelier. The photo above, released by Clarkson Potter, shows an image from “The Find: The
Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects and Vintage Details” by Stan Williams.
Nothing says spring is
officially here like a home
getting transformed
By SUSAN ZEVON
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
On the leafy street where I
grew up, spring brought blazing
forsythia and a canopy of fresh
green blooms. But for me, the
season never truly arrived until
the afternoon I would come home
from school to find our apartment
transformed.
My mother and our housekeeper would work all day stripping the windows of draperies,
installing screens, polishing wood
floors and furnishings, and covering the sofa and chairs in crisp
green and white chintz. These
were the days before air conditioning, yet even on a hot summer day
that apartment seemed cool.
Today, few households boast a
full set of summer slipcovers, but
there are easy and inexpensive
ways to refresh your home for
spring.
It starts with the ancient ritual
of spring cleaning.
“Spring cleaning has been a
part of history for thousands of
years, and it is often integrated
into the religious practice of
cleansing the home prior to a
spring festival,” housewares
designer Rosanna Bowles writes
in her recently published “Coming
Home: A Seasonal Guide to Creating Family Traditions” (Stewart,
Tabori & Chang, 2010).
In Atlanta, where the summers are long and hot and there
is a tradition of gracious decorating and entertaining, designer
Suzanne Kasler transformed a
client’s home for spring with a
set of white cotton duck slipcovers, and a complete set of oriental
rugs in a lighter palette than the
deeper-toned rugs they replaced
over sisal carpet.
In her own home, Kasler does
not have a summer set of furnishings. She welcomes the season by
cleaning, paring down and changing accessories. She advises clients
to do the same.
“New books on the coffee table,
a change of accessories and a few
fresh flowers can make a huge difference,” she says. She finds the
color blue, “a water color,” especially cooling.
Spring is a good time to
experiment, says Stan Williams,
author of The Elegant Thrifter
blog spot and “The Find: The
Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treasures,
Flea Market Objects, and Vintage
Details” (Clarkson Potter, 2009).
“Move the furniture around,
change the direction of the rug,
reevaluate your window treatments for the change in light, take
down the drapes and roll up the
rugs,” he advises.
“Thrift shop finds give you the
liberty to experiment,” Williams
believes. “Buy a piece, experiment and if you don’t like it you
can donate it back and take the tax
deduction.”
You might try moving indoor
furniture outside, and vice versa.
Williams suggests transforming
old pieces: creating a tiered plant
stand out of an old dresser, covering old wingback chairs in white
vinyl for a cool and contemporary
look, painting an old table with
bold black and white.
Bowles suggests putting a piece
of furniture in storage to open up
a room.
She also likes to temporarily
replace accessories that are dark
and seem wintry with ones that
provide fresh, light accents. Set
the table with pastel dishes and
fresh flowers.
Other ways to renew your home
for spring without spending a lot
of money, she says, include letting
in the light (except at noon) and,
when the sun sets, opening drapes
and windows to let in fresh air.
Clear the kitchen and bathrooms,
counters and all, of clutter.
Lighten the bedding, using 100
percent cotton sheets and blankets
when possible.
And when going through those
closets and cabinets, donate what
you no longer like or need to a thrift
shop or charity, or sell it. Open up
your home and life to the possibility
of change signaled each year by the
arrival of spring.
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HOME IMPROV EMENT
THE COURIER
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
Gaming
furniture
moves into
family rooms
Housekeeping
primers for novices,
male or female
Huge growth in
video game sales
convinces furniture
No surprise: Men, women do
makers to create
household chores differently
new designs
By MELISSA KOSSLER
DUTTON
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Furniture makers have long
made pieces for storing gaming
consoles and their accompanying equipment in children’s room.
Now they’re starting to offer more
stylish varieties for other parts of
the house.
“Gaming consoles have really
moved out of kid’s bedrooms to
family rooms,” said Patricia Bowling, spokeswoman for the American Home Furnishings Alliance in
High Point, N.C. Furniture makers
have “kicked up a notch” the functionality of living room and game
room cabinets, she said, and borrowed many of the storage ideas
and organizational aspects of children’s bedroom furniture.
The newer pieces can store the
various controllers and specialized
accessories, such as musical instruments and sports equipment, that
are popular among video game
enthusiasts. Designed to keep a
room tidy and attractive, the furniture also can accommodate cords
and plugs.
The trend toward hanging
televisions on the wall rather
than storing them in cabinets
also has helped drive the need
for new, family room-style furniture, designers and manufacturers
said.
Huge growth in home gaming
sales convinced Hooker Furniture in Martinsville, Va., to start
designing furniture for games,
said spokeswoman Kim Shaver,
citing a 2009 Centris study that
said more than 33 million U.S.
households have systems.
The pieces are such an important part of the company’s furniture line, she added, that it intends
to create a gaming room at the
International Home Furnishings
Market in High Point, N.C., this
month.
“We’ve decided to ramp our
development of the gaming console,” Shaver said. “It’s extremely
popular with retailers and designers.”
Hookers’ gaming cabinets come
in three finishes and are designed
to reduce clutter, she said. “The
units are more casual in design,”
she said, and are meant for family
rooms and recreation rooms.
Designer Eric Ross of Eric
Ross Interiors in Franklin, Tenn.,
said he counsels clients putting
together game rooms to choose
furniture with doors that will hide
the sets and accessories.
“You’ve got to conceal all the
equipment,” he said. “Children
aren’t neat.”
A nice feature of some of the
new furniture is full-extension,
pull-out storage trays that let
players see all the games at once,
Ross said.
Before furniture makers
started manufacturing consoles
for gaming systems, homeowners often tried to create their own
with shelving and baskets — a
do-it-yourself solution that Ross
found lacking.
“You can see in the baskets,” he
said. “It’s just not practical.”
Van Shephard, senior designer
at Lombards Furniture Galleries
in Columbus, Ohio, agreed that
a cabinet is best, to hide all the
game parts. Some high-end retailers have starting making TV cabinets designed to accommodate
the wires and plugs from gaming
units, he said.
“It’s very up and coming,” he
said. “It only makes sense.”
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By JENNIFER FORKER
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s no secret that men and women sometimes take
different approaches to housecleaning. After I married my husband, I found him cleaning the toilet by
disassembling it first.
His father? Family lore says Grandpa John once
cleaned the kitchen floors by moving the table and
chairs into another room, filling a bucket with scalding, sudsy water and throwing it on the linoleum floor
— mimicking how he mopped barracks floors during
Army basic training in the early 1960s.
“It was clean, it was fast, it was efficient and it got
the job done,” said Grandpa John Clarke, 73, of West
Warwick, R.I. “It’s not how I do it anymore. Now we
hire a cleaning lady.”
Two books have hit bookstores to help the housekeeping-challenged. One is clearly female-oriented,
promising to impart the wisdom of grandmothers.
The other? Grandpa John would agree with its logic:
Teach men shortcuts and encourage speed.
“How To Get Things Really Flat” (The Experiment, 2009) not only tries to help men understand
the art of ironing, as the title indicates, but author
Andrew Martin hopes to liberate women by emboldening men: Yes, you can do the dishes (and the laundry).
He does this with humor and bluntness.
“My argument is it’s not difficult to learn (how
to do certain chores) so why not learn it? Men are
perverse in not learning it,” Martin said in an interview from his London home. “They spend hundreds
of hours of their lives arguing with their wives. And
I say why not find something better, more original
to fight about?”
“How to Sew on a Button: And Other Nifty Things
Your Grandmother Knew” (Ballantine Books, 2009)
takes a similar tack for women untrained in the
household arts. The book idea started with a pie gone
wrong, said author Erin Bried of Brooklyn, N.Y. She
tried to bake a strawberry-rhubarb pie for friends and
learned — after serving it — that she’d used Swiss
chard stems instead of rhubarb. The greens gave the
pie a decidedly grassy — and inedible — taste.
“It was so embarrassing, I decided to write a book
about it,” said Bried.
These two authors researched their books in
similar fashions: by interviewing those they deemed
“experts.” Martin spoke with the women in his life,
particularly his wife, and a few obscure scientist
types. Bried searched out other people’s grandmothers. Ten of these women share their ideas on thriftiness and entertaining, housecleaning and, yes, even
how to sew on a button.
Bried, a senior staff writer at Self magazine, says
her book is for folks seeking more self sufficiency.
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The Associated Press
ERIN BRIED IS the author of “How to Sew
a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your
Grandmother Knew.” A senior staff writer at Self
magazine, Bried says her book is for those who
are seeking more self sufficiency.
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“We are in tough economic times, and we’re all
looking for different ways to save time and save
money and make life simpler,” said Bried. “If you
know how to hem your own pants you can make the
decision to do it.”
Martin, the author of seven novels, says the trick
in getting men to do housework is to teach them
shortcuts, which are more than speedy — they’re
“manly.”
He tells men to use the vacuum attachment to
dust — or to dust with both hands — and to work
fast, against the clock. Making it a contest — that’s
manly — will get the job done.
Martin warns women to start their men off slowly
with chores that show noticeable results. That’s why
men like to mow, he said.
“You can see where you’ve been,” Martin said.
“You can see you’re achieving something.”
The same can hold true for ironing and vacuuming.
“There is something about vacuuming,” said
Martin. “It’s more manly. It’s noisy. It’s violent.
People have to shut up for it.”
Martin even has a favorite vacuum attachment.
“I say the best attachment is the narrow one,” he
said. “That is the most violent.”
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A step by step guide to spring cleaning
By The Associated Press
Spring-cleaning tips, adapted
from Erin Bried’s “How to Sew a
Button: And Other Nifty Things
Your Grandmother Knew” (Ballantine Books, 2009):
Step 1: Schedule the spring
cleaning (to get into the proper
mindset). Have all of the proper
supplies on hand and set aside
plenty of time.
Step 2 : Make a checklist,
room by room, of what needs to
be cleaned. In each room, dust
every surface, wipe down dirty
walls and doors, vacuum and/or
mop, steam clean rugs if necessary, wash light fixtures, remove
and clean drapes or blinds, beat
cushions, rugs, pillows and mats
(outside), and clean windows
inside and out.
Step 3: Room-by-room specialty tasks:
Kitchen: Wipe out fridge,
defrost and wipe out freezer,
clean oven, organize pantry and
drawers.
Bedroom: Flip and rotate
mattress, change bedding, wash
pillows (if washable), swap
out winter clothes for summer
clothes (donate anything no
longer worn).
Bathroom: Besides the usual
cleaning of toilet, shower, sink
and counter, clean out the medicine cabinet and drawers.
Home office: Remove books
from shelves and dust; wipe
dow n computers ; orga ni ze
important papers.
Step 4 : Prioritize tasks. If
you have helpers, delegate tasks.
If not, make sure you can finish
what you start to avoid bigger
messes.
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STEVE RUARK / Associated Press
STEVE SCHIFF, president of Dynamic Draperies in Dover, Del., stands near a window treatment in the dining room of his home in Newark,
Del. “The most obvious thing,” says Schiff of using your windows to mark the return of spring, “is to open the treatments and lets the light
shine in.”
419-423-5723
Open the drapes and
let a little sunshine in
HEY MR. FIXIT,
WEÕVE GOT JUST
THE RIGHT BOOTS
FOR YOU.
Days of alternating drapes may be gone
but you can still use window treatments
to mark the change in seasons
By CAROLE FELDMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The days when people swapped
out heavy velvet drapes for lighter,
more translucent ones come spring
are gone — window treatments
are too expensive for many of us to
have multiple sets of draperies.
But there are other ways to use
your windows to mark the change
of season.
“The obvious thing is to open
the treatments and let the light
shine in,” said Steven Schiff,
owner of Dynamic Draperies, in
Delaware.
Here are some other tips:
• Clean.
Wash your windows to remove
winter’s grime, said Meghan
Carter, who runs the Web site
AskTheDecorator.com. She prefers mild soap and water to the
ammonia-based glass cleaners.
Clean windows on a cloudy day
or when they’re in the shade, starting from the top and using a damp
squeegee blade to wipe off cleaner,
Consumer Reports advised.
Clean the window coverings,
too. For curtains and drapes, use
a soft brush or dusting attach-
ment to a vacuum cleaner. “Set on
reduced suction to prevent fabric
from being drawn into the nozzle,”
the magazine said.
Screens also should be cleaned.
And consider choosing one of the
newer screening materials that
might give a clearer view.
• Consider switching to
lighter window treatments.
Fabrics help determine the feel
of a room. If you have storage space,
heavy, dark drapes can be taken
down for spring and summer and
stored. Put them on a “nice round
fat hanger,” said Oma Ford, senior
deputy editor for home design at
Better Homes and Gardens.
While it can cost $4,000 or
more to outfit a house with custom-made window treatments,
Ford said ready-made curtain
panels can be much less expensive
for those who want to swap out
drapes in the spring.
And she suggests thinking outside the window box.
“Consider using a lightweight
bedspread or tablecloth,” she said.
They can be attached to a rod with
clip rings. “You might be able to
find some fun patterns,” she said.
For kitchens and bathrooms,
cloth napkin squares hung on a
tension rod with clip rings can
create “a fun, no commitment style
statement,” Ford said.
• Or, if you want to keep your
drapes up all year, consider:
Layering window treatments
is one way to make them work
all year. Sheers, blinds or shades
layered underneath those heavy
drapes will let light in yet still
provide privacy.
Ford likes the “tropical feel”
of shades made from bamboo or
woven natural material.
Fabrics in lighter colors will
produce a “little more springy
feeling,” she said, because they
reflect the light that comes into
the room.
Carter recommends staying
away from thick heavy fabrics in
dark shades. A neutral color in a
mid-range fabric “gives you a little
coziness while still being kind of
fresh,” she said.
• Think practical.
Function should be the first
thing to consider when picking fabrics for window treatments, said
Schiff, who has been in the fabric
and window treatment business for
more than 35 years. Is the drapery
supposed to provide privacy? Cut
down on bright sunlight?
“Each solution has its choice of
fabrics,” said Schiff, who lives in
Newark, Del. “If all you need to
do is diffuse rays of sunlight, you
can use almost anything.”
Today’s windows provide more
insulation than in the past. And
even if you live in an old house
and haven’t replaced the windows, storm windows provide
some insulation. “There really isn’t
the need for the heavy, insulated,
velvet draperies like grandma
used to have,” Schiff said. “From
an energy point of view, draperies
are a piece of the puzzle, but not a
major piece.”
• Decorate around the windows.
“Moving plants near windows
gives more of a sense of bringing
the outside inside,” Schiff said. It
doesn’t matter whether the plants
are in the house or outside, or
whether they are real or artificial.
“It’s a great way to freshen and
put a spring uptick to a house,” he
said.
Mirrors also can add light to a
room by reflecting the natural light
from the windows. “I wouldn’t recommend that people slap a mirror
up just anywhere,” Ford said. “If it
feels like there’s a window missing,
that might be a good place to put
a mirror.”
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TROY, N.Y. (AP) — Cityscapes of glass-clad
buildings gleaming in the sun make Anna Dyson
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Dyson heads the Center for Architecture Science
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wants to turn office windows into multifaceted solar
power generators. Their “integrated concentrating
dynamic solar facade” consists of grids of clear pyramids that help focus the sun’s rays to generate energy.
It would essentially make buildings look as if they
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The Associated Press
THIS UNDATED PHOTO PROVIDED by Sarah Dorio/Decor Demon shows an outdoor living room designed by Brian Patrick Flynn. To
create a budget-friendly outdoor living room, Flynn recovered patio furniture found at a flea market with soft indoor/outdoor fabrics.
Great design ideas for turning
even most unexceptional deck
into inviting outdoor space
By MELISSA RAYWORTH
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Homeowners with sprawling
backyards often put at least a bit
of effort into decorating their outdoor entertaining space. Maybe
they splurge on some high-end
outdoor furniture and an elaborate grill, plus a few accessories
to give the space style.
But what about the rest of us?
When a home has more modest
outdoor space — perhaps a porch
or patio, or a balcony off the
master bedroom — these limited
spaces are often ignored.
Genevieve Gorder often sees
clients who paid top dollar for an
apartment with a balcony only
to ignore the space because they
don’t know what to do with it.
Gorder, host of HGTV’s “Battle
on the Block” and a judge on
“HGTV Design Star,” says these
small and mid-size spaces can
seem tough to tackle.
“Any outdoor spaces can be
kind of intimidating,” agrees
designer Brian Patrick Flynn,
founder of decordemon.com.
“When you design a room, you
have four walls and it’s easy to
conceptualize what will fill it.
Outside, the possibilities are
endless and you don’t really have
a sense of scale. The sky goes on
forever.”
But there are great design
strategies for turning even the
most unexceptional deck or patio
into an inviting space for outdoor
entertaining this summer:
LOOK DOWN
“The biggest impact for your
buck is to focus on the floor,”
says Flynn. Paint a concrete slab
or old decking with a worn finish
using “porch and deck paint,” he
says. “It’s fantastic on a pretty
spring day. A lot of bold sunlight
will dry that paint and you’ll be
walking on it within hours.”
Gorder suggests shopping
online for marine paint, designed
for the hulls of boats. It’s impervious to weather and comes in
great bold colors.
Choose a solid color or paint
some stripes to extend the look
of the space.
Then add some warmth. “I
love the idea of layering little
area rugs outside, in an ethnic,
Moroccan-y way,” says Los
she says, referring to metal
racks hung with lots of candles.
So are hurricane lamps, paper
lanterns and artificial LED candles. “Make it sexy outside and
people will be there,” Gorder
says. “You’ll use that space
more.”
Another can’t-lose choice:
Bur nha m says little white
Christmas lights never lose their
charm. She wraps a few strands
around an olive tree just off her
patio to add a soft
glow.
Angeles interior designer Betsy
Burnham. “We did it in sort of
an American way on a porch in
northern Michigan,” she says,
“with striped kilim rugs. It made
it so intimate out
there, and you
can sit down on “Flowers and plants
LIVING THINGS
them because it’s are your paint outside.
Burnham and
not just a cold outThey’ll last all year
Gorder both
door surface.”
advise selecting
No ne e d t o and give that brilliant
plants to create
spend a lot, she
the perfect backsays: “Pull them pop of color.”
drop. “You want
from in front of
your sink. Be cre— GENEVIEVE GORDER, HGTV the height, so
ative with what
PERSONALITY that when you’re
sitting you still
you already have
have
green
in your house.”
behind you, not just down at the
YOU DON’T HAVE TO COMMIT ground,” Burnham says.
Rather than decorating your
“Use some potted boxwoods,”
outdoor space and keeping she says, or small potted citrus
everything out there all summer, trees, “and you’ll all of a sudden
consider mixing and matching have this sort of manicured
indoor pieces just for occasional greenery outside.”
parties.
Flynn uses masonry nails to
hang art on concrete or brick
exterior walls during outdoor
parties, then brings the art in
when he’s done entertaining.
He also brings out a bedroom
dresser (on casters, to make
moving it simple) to use as a
sideboard, setting up a bar on
top.
These designers also love
bringing out colorful, oversized
floor pillows (either ones made
for outside or ones you already
use indoors) and clustering a
few together. “The best size is
a 30 -inch by 30 -inch,” Flynn
says. “It fits any size person’s
butt sitting down, but little kids
can also curl up on it.”
A small outdoor dining area
becomes exceptional when the
table is set with cloth napkins,
napkin rings and even a bit of
china and crystal, Burnham
says. You wouldn’t leave these
items outdoors all the time, but
treat yourself to using them for
summer get-togethers or an al
fresco dinner for two.
Adds Gorder: “Anytime you
can use the vertical, you can
trick the eye” into thinking a
space is larger than it is. She
loves potted sea grass, which
is low maintenance and grows
tall.
Also, think color. “Flowers
and plants are your paint outside,” Gorder said. She loves
geraniums. “They’ll last all
year and give that brilliant pop
of color.”
Many people assume that
adding lights outdoors requires
elaborate, expensive wiring,
Gorder says. But there are tons
of low-tech options for “creating
the mood.”
“Candeliers are gorgeous,”
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CUSTOM CREATION
“The key to making things
look designer,” Flynn says, “is
making them look custom.” He
uses Trina Turk’s line of outdoor
fabrics from Schumacher (think
bold, Palm Beach-inspired patterns) to cover pillows and outdoor upholstery. If you’re saving
elsewhere, like using flea market
furniture instead of new pieces,
it’s worth splurging on a bit of
custom upholstery, he says.
And if seating space is limited,
Gorder suggests creating a long
bench that runs the length of
one side of your balcony or patio.
“Even if you have to custom make
it out of an old door or plywood,
do it,” she say. “You will use it.”
201 E. Lincoln St., Findlay
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1660 Tiffin Ave., Findlay
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TOBY TALBOT / Associated Press
DAFFODILS BLOSSOM in the sunshine in Montpelier, Vt., in this
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daffodils, there was birdsong, there was grass. And we had our little
house to clean and paint and decorate, because it was, for once, our
own place. We relished our private pod of family life.”
Taking on
spring away
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THE COURIER
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
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LAUREN JOFRE / Associated Press
THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE WRITER’S HOME in the suburbs. While she and her husband reveled in the opportunity to move, with their
two children, away from the big city and into the suburbs, they quickly discover that their suburban lifestyle faced just as many challenges
at city life had. The only difference was that in the city there were no worries about woodpeckers to intimidate, termites to kill or bulbs to
plant in the garden.
Family of four adjusts to termites, woodpeckers and joys of suburbia
By LAURA JOFRE
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
My husband and I were city
folks with two young children,
excited to be buying a house in
the suburbs: rooms and floors!
Our own driveway! Our front
yard, tiny though it is! We even
got two trees: one in the front and
one in the back.
“There’s no trash on our street,”
was the first thing my 5-year-old
daughter said. Not only was there
no trash, there were no shouters,
loiterers or urine smells: nothing to be wary of. There were no
downstairs neighbors complaining
about the racket, and no upstairs
neighbors blasting music while
moving furniture. No more airshaft views through pigeon poo
windows or laundry-room roach
fears: Life would be a bucolic celebration of the seasons and open
spaces. We bought garden tools.
Shortly after we moved in
the spring, we heard a persistent
knocking that recalled our old
noise-averse downstairs neighbor. It turned out to be a blackand-white woodpecker with a
jaunty red cap, who systematically
drilled circular holes in our brown
wooden shingles. We went from
admiring the bird to banging on
the window to squirting it with
a water gun (rain! It shivered in
delight), to fixing a fake owl to
the roof.
It wasn’t scared. It pecked
straight through the shingle and
flew back to the tree. It turns
out that one of the woodpecker’s
natural adaptations, to protect
itself from pecking-induced brain
damage, is to have a very small
brain.
A neighbor advised us to paint
our house a less tree-like color.
Maybe there was something
unpalatable about our trees. The
one behind the house had ants all
over it, which thrilled the kids.
“Look, Mom, they’re going right
in!” That didn’t seem right. I
grabbed a stick — I was sort of
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ / Associated Press
AN ACORN WOODPECKER dangles from a tree as it looks for
food at Rancho San Antonio Park in Los Altos, Calif. “Shortly
after we moved in the spring, we heard a persistent knocking that
recalled our old noise-averse downstairs neighbor. It turned out
to be a black-and-white woodpecker with a jaunty red cap, who
systematically drilled circular holes in our brown wooden shingles.
We went from admiring the bird to banging on the window to
squirting it with a water gun, to fixing a fake owl to the roof.”
excited that we even had sticks —
and tentatively poked the bark. My
stick encountered no resistance for
several rotten inches. The arborist
said it should come down.
So, suburban nature was not
carefree. Still, there were daffodils, there was birdsong, there was
grass. And we had our little house
to clean and paint and decorate,
because it was, for once, our own
place. We relished our private pod
of family life.
My father came to see the
house one day that spring; as we
approached the front door from
outside, my father said calmly,
“That’s probably termites.” I may
have screamed. The invasion covered roughly a third of the door.
Termites! I had heard of them:
They ate houses. Why wasn’t my
father alarmed?
“They’ll be gone in an hour,”
he said. They left behind only a
few wings as evidence of their
cavorting. I kicked them off my
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doorstep.
The next spring, I was more
prepared. We planted a new tree,
enjoyed our crocuses. The woodpecker kept knocking and we kept
trying to turn him away, like seasoned naturalists who know a pest
from a prize. We also acquired a
robin who bashed against our
window in a daily brawl with its
reflection. The window held.
But when spring, in its indiscriminate energy, actually entered
my house, well, I lost it.
It was a warm day, and the kids
and I were heading out to the paradise of our yard. We approached
our front door, from the inside, and
found it seemingly covered with a
grayish brown blanket. As it came
into focus, I saw the blanket was
actually a moving, squirming mass
of termites.
“Ew, Mommy, look at the
door!” shrieked my daughter.
“Are those bugs? ” asked my
son, 3, fascinated.
Oh, it was horrifying. There
were just so many. Some of them
were flying. And they were on the
wrong side of the door. Nature was
fine, woodpeckers and rotten trees
were fine: They were all outside.
I hustled the kids down to the
playroom.
“You guys want to watch TV?”
I asked. “And I’ll see if those silly
bugs want to go outside? Do you
think they’re lost? ” The kids
nodded slowly, skeptically, and I
strolled out of the room, practically humming in my composure.
Then I sprinted, face averted,
past the front door. I found the
yellow pages and the biggest ad
for pest control, and dialed with
shaking fingers.
The nice lady I spoke to advised
me to vacuum the termites, as if
it were that easy. She waited as
I wildly waved the vacuum hose
at the door, trying to accomplish
the job from the distance of the
hose length, with my head turned
away and my eyes closed. Nothing doing. I had to get up close,
grit my teeth, and vacuum those
suckers.
“What do I do with the vacuum
bag?” I imagined the termites all
crawling around in there, becoming angry, plotting.
“Well, I would throw it away,”
she said.
Eventually, we would replace
a section of plywood wall hidden
beneath our front steps where
the termites had found their own
homey bliss.
We installed a baiting system
and so far have seen no more termites. Our new tree is thriving.
We’ve planted more bulbs. And
our house, now painted white,
no longer attracts the woodpecker. Every year, I’m overjoyed
by spring’s arrival. But then my
city training kicks in, and I can’t
help it: I glare outside with a fair
amount of suspicion.
Here in the suburbs, I have to
stay alert.
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HOME IMPROV EMENT
THE COURIER
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
Here are a few options on what
to do with all that unwanted stuff
By DAN SEWELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Spring for many homeowners
means confronting all the things
that have filled up the closets,
basement and garage over the past
year. As the late comedian George
Carlin used to say: “Your house is
a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”
Getting rid of that stuff has
always been tricky — especially
if you hope to come away with
some cash.
Today, because of the Internet
and the recession, there are more
options than ever for trying to sell
used items. To newspaper classified ads, garage sales and flea
markets, add Facebook, Craig’s
List, eBay and other online trading sites. To pawn shops and consignment shops, add an expanding
array of resale stores that pay cash
on the spot.
Laura Deaton Morarity, who
was preparing to move recently
to a new public relations job in
Seattle, was a little stunned at
how much she had acquired in her
Cincinnati-area home after living
there just four years.
“It was just a ton of stuff. My
husband and I just decided, ’We’re
selling everything’ except our
clothing, books and some keepsakes,” she recalled.
But in the middle of a bad
winter, how do you do that
quickly?
Her solution: a virtual yard sale
on Facebook. She posted a photo
album on the social networking
site and alerted her friends and
family, who also got their Facebook
friends involved in the buying.
In 24 hours, Morarity sold
everything she listed: couch,
chair, dining room set, loveseats,
TV stand and more.
“It was really kind of shocking how fast it went,” she said,
adding that she priced to sell but
came away with enough cash and
savings on moving expenses for
a head start on stocking a new
home.
Tighter household budgets
mean that not only are more
people buying used, but they also
are holding on to things longer,
increasing demand for good-quality resale items.
AL BEHRMAN / Associated Press
LENA ELAM, LEFT, sells clothes to employee Lise Hopkins, right,
in this February file photo at a Plato’s Closet in Cincinnati. The
store buys and resells clothing items.
“We are attracting more and
more customers that never went
to resale before,” said Renae Blonigen, brand director for the Plato’s
Closet chain, which buys and sells
used youth clothing. “We were
doing well before the recession,
and that has really exploded our
business.”
Johnny Crowell, a co-owner of
the Home Consignment Center, a
16-store chain based in Danville,
Calif., also said that sales are up
while fewer people are offering
their sofas, dining room sets and
other furniture for consignment.
“I suppose it’s because fewer
people are moving or upsizing,”
said Crowell. His stores have
added to their inventory through
furniture factories and other
steady sources.
Crowell said the business,
started in 1994, prices consignment items to sell so that customers quickly get their 50 percent
take. It also offers pickup and
other services to make it easier
for sellers.
Minneapolis-based Winmark
Corp. has been opening dozens of
new resale stores, including Plato’s Closet, and outlets that buy
and sell used children’s clothing,
sporting goods and musical items.
A Hollister shirt in nice condition
that sold for $30 new might land
the owner $5 to $7 from Plato’s,
which then might sell it for $13
to $15.
Kate Finger, general manager
of 15 Plato’s and Once Upon a
Child stores in the Cincinnati area,
said sales at the suburban Colerain
Township store jumped 24 percent
last year after a 32 percent rise in
2008. But that means it needs a
steady supply of more good stuff to
sell, so employees try to make sure
every buyer understands they can
also bring their own used clothes
— the chain looks for still-trendy,
new-looking items — for cash on
the spot.
Lena Elam, a regular at the
Plato’s store in Colerain, said
being able to sell her three children’s used clothing enables her
to replace them with used clothing she wouldn’t be able to afford
new.
“What they don’t buy, then I
take it on to Goodwill,” said Kim
Patterson, a suburban mom who
had just sold some of her two children’s jeans.
Goodwill Industries International Inc., the Salvation Army,
and other charities provide
another option: They can help give
your clothing, furniture, books
and other items appreciative new
homes while you support their
humanitarian efforts — and can
also get a tax deduction.
“We have found that in a tough
economy, people like to know that
their donations are being reinvested back into the community,”
said Jim Gibbons, Goodwill’s
CEO.
On the Net:
www.goodwill.org
www.winmarkcorporation.com
www.thehomeconsignmentcenter.com
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FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
With a small Manhattan apartment, Erica Linderholm struggles
with a common affliction: too
much paper.
Bills, mail and magazines sit
in what she calls “nice stacks”
on her kitchen counter and table,
occasionally moved to make way
for other activities, such as eating.
Carefully chosen bins hold old grad
school papers, waiting to be reread
— or not — when time allows.
Work stuff gets lugged around in
a rolling bag that Linderholm purchased with the idea of tackling
some of it during the 45-minute
commute between home and her
job as a teacher.
“I just schlep it around,” she said.
“It’s another vessel for stuff.”
Despite our supposed growth
as a paperless society, a look at
many kitchens, hallways and home
offices shows that we are still anything but. Amassing, stacking and
losing papers is alive and well in
American homes, and some organizational experts say that stunts
progress.
“Essentially, what most of the
piles represent are incompletion,”
said David Allen of Ojai, Calif.,
author of “Getting Things Done.”
Papers cease to be problems
when they are read, dealt with and
filed away, he said. Instead, stacks
of untackled material — unread
articles, unpaid bills, unanswered
invitations — weigh heavily on us,
making us less productive. They
eat up space in the brain as well
as on the kitchen counter, he said.
Alaina Yoakum, a sculptor
and stay-at-home mom in San
Rafael, Calif., said she had been
“overwhelmed by my paper problem” when she turned to “Getting
Things Done” for help.
“I was overlooking bills, misplacing permission slips for my
kids, forgetting about fliers for
events I’d wanted to attend, and
so much more,” Yoakum said. “I
felt at a complete loss as to how
to deal with the mass overload of
papers.”
“And it was becoming embar-
rassing,” she said.
Since reading Allen, Yoakum
said, she now has a system: Establish an inbox for new papers, which
need to be reviewed in a timely
manner. Papers that require action
— writing a check or making a
phone call, for example — that
can be done in two minutes or
less should be dealt with then.
Anything taking longer needs to
be scheduled to do later, or filed
away for future reference.
The results, Yoakum said, are
liberating. “It hasn’t been difficult
to make the change,” she said.
“Now when I’ve had to suddenly
find an important paper or receipt,
I knew for a fact that I could find it
there. I didn’t have to go scavenging my car, my dresser, or under
my bed for it,” Yoakum said.
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HOME IMPROV EMENT
THE COURIER
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
FINE TOUCH
FURNITURE
Be bold with home decor that
wows instead of whispers
Audacious decor
accents should be
playful, fun, fresh
By KIM COOK
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In its new spring collection,
CB2 has a brilliant orange wool
area rug emblazoned with the
phrase “Keep Calm and Carry
On.”
The pre-WWII slogan was
originally conceived to calm anxious Brits, but this rug is more
startling than soothing. And it’s
popular; the retailer sold out fast
and had to re-order. Marta Calle,
director for CB2, says there’s
lots of interest in decor “that’s
fresh and new, with great detailing. People want pieces that say
‘modern’ in an exciting and
unique way.”
Some stores may still be playing it safe with inventory, but
many have clearly opted to go
bold, and homeowners looking
to add a bit of wow to a room
will find lots of options.
Let’s start with walls.
The always-daring Tampabased designer Given Campbell gives us a new collection
of wallcoverings inspired by
several Catholic patron saints.
For example, the paper named
for “St. Christopher,” the patron
saint of travelers, is interpreted
in a repeat of airplanes. A quirky 18-by-24-inch frameable version
yet wonderful troupe of snails of any of her papers “for those
makes its way across the paper who either rent or feel apprehennamed “St. Francis,” after the sive about installing wallpaper.”
patron saint of animals. From She’ll print in custom colors, as
feathers to fish scales, in softer will Campbell; inks used by both
earth tones and wilder hues like designers are eco-friendly.
There are many eye-catching
fuchsia, lime and gold, these
pieces to hang on the wall this
wallcoverings hold surprises.
Campbell thinks her art’s season — CB2 has a 3-foot-wide
appeal is simple: “Drama. Put- abacus crafted of iron and colorting bold wallpaper on even just ful rubberwood beads. It’s lowone wall in a room of any size tech, high-design wall decor.
B ro ok l y n - b a s e d g r a p h ic
instantly changes the feel of the
designer Jen Pepper interprets
entire room.”
She notes that with more her favorite serif and sans
serif typography
shelter magain dark walnut
zines featuring “Putting bold
medium- density
st rong pat ter n
fibreboard —
and color on the wallpaper on even just
cool, inexpensive
walls, people are one wall in a room
gifts for a typomore confident to
phile or modern
try it themselves. of any size instantly
But she has a
changes the feel of the artPcollector.
epp er ’s
su g ge st ion for
fledgling studio,
neophytes: “Use entire room.”
Pe pp e r s prout s ,
a bold pattern
in neutral hues.
— GIVEN CAMPBELL, TAMPA, is also producing
White on white
FLA., DESIGNER s o m e s t r i k i n g
laser-cut trivets;
is especially good
the deer and fox
for this, because
it’s both dramatic and subtle. motifs rendered in thick pink
It’s like design training wheels.” or green felt are pleasingly hip
Part of her sales go to St. Vin- folk art.
cent de Paul charity.
Mario Trimarchi has created
Los Angeles-based Kreme a sculptural dance of mirrored
Life has several fascinating wall- laser-cut steel in his Scirroco
paper patterns too, including a bowl, inspired by childhood
chain motif that’s both chic and memories of fierce winds and
edgy. Designer Cadee Wilder bits of flying paper. It’s available
offers the option of buying an at MOMA, as is a fun collection
of paint-drip-patterned trivets
and mugs.
Boston-based but Britishborn Martin and Michele Yeeles
have designed a series of plates
printed with photographs of
American roadside diners and
signs. That these evocative
images are printed on sturdy
melamine seems to add to their
charm.
Dandelions shot in black and
white add panache to inexpensive porcelain dinnerware at
CB2.
Finally, at the always-intriguing Mxyplyzyk, there are rhino,
moose and deer heads like cardboard origami for the wall, as
well as brightly colored bowls
with interior photo-prints of
yummy looking fruit, salad,
popcorn or spaghetti. Designer
Natalie Kruch has tied more
than 500 candy-colored balloons
to a wooden stool she’s named
Balloona.
Like all of these examples of
audacious yet affordable home
decor accents, it’s playful, fun
and fresh.
Just like spring should be.
Sourcebook:
www.bobsyouruncle.com Deluxe Town Diner melamine
plates, set of four, $40; Roadside Signs, set of four melamine
plates, $40
www.kremelife.myshopify.com Chains wallpaper, navy/
• Furniture Re-Upholstery
• Furniture Repair
• Foam Replacement
(Seat Cushions)
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• Free Estimates
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• Showroom of New Home
Furnishings
white, pink/white, black/white,
23.5-by-16-foot roll, $195; 18-by24-inch and 24-by-36-inch
prints, $40 and $55
www.givencampbell.com Saints wallpapers, St. Francis
(snails), St. Peter (fish scales),
St. Christopher (airplanes), St.
Bernard (quill feathers), $160
roll; 18-by-24-inch and 24-by36-inch prints, $59.95 and
$79.95
www.cb2.com Abacus iron and rubberwood
wall art, $149; Keep Calm wool
rug, 4-by-6 feet, $199; Dandelion dinnerware, $4.95-$7.95
each
www.momastore.org paint drip mugs, $12; napkins,
set of 20, $5; acrylic coasters,
set of 4, $20; Mario Trimarchi
stainless steel bowl, made by
Alessi, $150
www.mxyplyzyk.com PT bowls with interior photoprints of salad, fruit, popcorn
or spaghetti, $20; Balloona
stool, $215; Robbie rhino wall
art, $55
www.shop.peppersproutdesign.
com deer and fox trivets, small $35,
large $50; Serif and Sans Serif
Typography wall art, $70
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Are you ready for the next
RAINY DAY?
White can be fresh, practical
These designers say the
options for working with white are
numerous. White decor contrasts
well with textured stone or concrete floors, and looks glamorous
paired with lots of green plants.
Another choice: “Find wallpaper
that’s tone-on-tone, or white but
embossed with texture,” Nayak
says. “Wallpaper is huge right
now.”
It also helps add
pop to other
colors in the room
By MELISSA RAYWORTH
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
When interior designer Betsy
Burnham redecorated her office
recently, she made a decision that
surprised her staff: She focused
on the color white. White walls,
white ceilings, white furniture,
even white chandeliers.
“I’m a huge color fanatic,” she
says, “but I just think white makes
color pop so beautifully.”
Her favorite colorful accessories “never looked as good” as they
do now against a white backdrop.
“White is crisp, it’s young and it’s
really flexible.”
Decorating with white can be
intimidating. But, says designer
Brian Patrick Flynn of decordemon.com, “used correctly, white
lets other things truly work as the
breakout stars.”
Yes, there are potential pitfalls
in working with white (you’re
probably envisioning red wine
spilled on a white sofa). But it
can — honestly — be a versatile
and practical option.
TREADING CAREFULLY
WHY WHITE WORKS
“White is a trick designers use
to modernize things,” says Flynn.
Traditional pieces of furniture
and scuffed wooden floors are
revitalized by white paint. Their
imperfections are transformed
into appealing texture.
Designer Taniya Nayak, host
of HGTV’s “Destination Design”
and HGTV.com’s “$100 Half Day
Design” series, loves spray-painting old picture frames and mirrors
a glossy white.
“It instantly gives them a fresh,
mod look,” she says.
The backdrop of a white floor
and walls makes familiar furniture,
window treatments and accessories stand out in a new way.
White can feel traditional when
paired with ornate pieces, or
utterly modern with streamlined
furniture and chrome.
“White can also kind of work
as a mediator,” Flynn says. “Just
like bringing in a marriage counselor, white will work as a mediator between soft and loud colors.
You can use it to work as a bridge
between two colors.”
And a room that’s primarily
white is easily redecorated with
little expense. At her Los Angeles
design firm, Burnham did a white
bedroom for a client that included
SARAH DORIO / Associated Press
THIS PLAYROOM featured on Decor Demon demonstrates how
designer Brian Patrick Flynn adds color to ceilings and backs of
bookcases for clients requesting all white walls.
splashes of color in bedding and
throw pillows. If the client gets
bored, says Burnham, she can
swap out those few items and have
an entirely different look.
Most surprising, white items
can be easy to care for. Many white
fabrics are chemically treated
to be stain-resistant (or you can
have them treated), and all-white
slipcovers can be laundered with
bleach. White vinyl, a favorite of
Flynn’s, doesn’t stain. And white
tables can be protected by glass
tops.
Be careful in selecting upholstery, of course, and especially carpeting. A white carpet is “a train
wreck waiting to happen,” says
Flynn, unless you can easily clean
it (surprisingly, fluffy flokati rugs
are often machine washable) and
won’t mind doing that often.
HOW TO APPROACH IT
Flynn loves doing white walls
and furniture with bold color on
the ceiling, in accessories and in
the interiors of bookcases.
Nayak recently created a nautical look for her HGTV series that
pairs white furniture, ceilings and
columns with dramatic navy blue
walls and splashes of yellow.
If you prefer something preppier, she says, try white and navy
with a bit of bright green. (Other
color combos she likes: Rooms
done entirely in black and white,
or white with gray and chartreuse
accents.)
If you have a room with large
windows, you’ll make the view
more of a focal point by doing
a very white room. “The view
becomes your art,” says Nayak.
Choose your shades of white
carefully.
“You want it to be livable, not
like Liquid Paper,” Burnham says.
“If there’s too much blue in it, it’s
just going to be blinding.”
Some whites are warmer, with
a slightly yellow undertone, while
others have a cool, bluer tinge.
There are also greenish whites,
purplish whites and many other
varieties.
If you’re using several white
elements in one room, a mix of
cool and warm whites can clash.
And remember that changes in
daylight (from golden sunshine
to the gray light of a cloudy day)
may change the way a particular
shade of white appears.
If you’re using glossy white
paint, it will draw attention to
imperfections in ceilings, walls,
floors and furniture. If that’s not
appealing to you, Nayak says
matte paints are better for hiding
imperfections: “Matte is a flat
look, but washable.”
One worry about very white
rooms is that they can feel cold
or impersonal. “I love bringing
in wood tones” in floors, ceilings
or furniture, says Nayak. “That’s
the No. 1 way to warm up a white
room.”
Anything from a pale natural
wood to a darkly stained finish can
work with white.
All three designers suggest
mixing in strokes of color or even
a bit of animal print, rather than
doing a room entirely in white. It’s
a challenge to give an all-white
room personality, Flynn says, since
color is the main way we express
ourselves when we decorate.
“I’m absolutely blown away and
captivated when somebody can
successfully pull off an all-white
room. But to really pull it off,” he
says, you have to be “a master with
texture, scale and shape.”
“I love all-white rooms to look
at, but I don’t necessarily know I
could live in one.”
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HOME IMPROV EMENT
THE COURIER
FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010
C9
Decorative, faux
painting is back
Produce patterns
that rival wallpaper
By CAROLE FELDMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Associated Press
THIS PHOTO RELEASED by Creative Carpet & Rug shows how the stairs look after one of their stair
runner installations.
S TA I R R U N N E R S
When decorating, don’t
forget about the staircase
Often overlooked in many homes
By LISA A. FLAM
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
You walk up them, you walk
down them, perhaps countless
times a day. When you look down,
though, do you see any sign of
your personal style?
Staircases, once decorated
with detailed, elaborate runners
in the Victorian era, have been forgotten in many homes, or at least
bumped down on the decorating
to-do list.
“Stairs are ignored. Period,”
says Genevieve Gorder, host of
HGTV’s “Dear Genevieve.”
“People think of stairs and
hallways as strictly utilitarian —
a place to get somewhere else,”
she says. “But they are some of
the most beautiful places to decorate.”
FIRST IMPRESSION
work other things in without being
stuck in a time warp.”
On the other hand, Lowell
favors something simple and
neutral, like a textured sisal wool
runner.
“The idea is to add texture and
luxury to the space but not drown
the space or lock in any overt patterns,” he says.
Hunyadi, whose store sells
mostly traditional styles, says
more people have been asking for
something nontraditional.
Her store has started to carry
tonal looks, and runners with
scrolls, trellises and fabric-type
patterns — styles that made up
about 30 percent of sales during
the last few years.
However, carpeting with more
pattern will show less dirt and
dust than a more solid carpet, she
notes.
Adding a runner to a staircase
in the front of the house can help
make a good first impression,
especially because entryways
often don’t have the space to feature fabric-covered furniture or
windows.
A runner can add color, texture
and pattern to a space. And the
carpeting can cut down on noise
and provide a safer walking — or
in the case of kids, running —
surface.
“People want a more finished
feeling, but they forget the stairway,” says Christopher Lowell,
host of Fine Living Network’s
“Work That Room.” “An upholstered staircase can give them
that feeling.”
Since hardwood floors have
made a comeback over the past
few decades, many homeowners
are shopping for runners because
they’ve either ripped out wall-towall stair carpeting or have moved
into new homes with all hardwood
floors.
Homeowners also want runners to combat stairwell echoes,
or for safety.
“We have people who have
fallen down the stairs, and we
also have people who have dogs
who have fallen down the stairs,”
Hunyadi says. “A hardwood stair
is certainly more slippery than
something with carpet on it.”
SIMPLE VS. TRADITIONAL
MAKING IT WORK
The traditional Oriental style is
a runner mainstay, offering lots of
colors around which to decorate.
“They’re somewhat timeless
and classic, and a lot of times
they’re not going to tie you to
a particular trend,” says Eileen
Hunyadi, who owns The Stair
Runner Store in Oxford, Conn.,
with her husband, John. “Traditional styles can be around for
quite a long time and you can
Hunyadi advises coordinating
a runner with the colors and style
of the home’s main floor, not the
upstairs.
“The lower part of the house is
really where you’re going to view
the stair runner,” she says.
Many homeowners try to
match the runner to a color in the
home, Hunyadi says, which can
be tricky, so she points them to a
complementary hue.
BYE, BYE, WALL-TO-WALL
As Gorder puts it: “It’s not
about matching so much as creating a sense of flow. Pull colors that
are in your home that you like, and
connect them to the staircase.”
The staircase is also a good
place to try something new. “It’s
a great place to debut something,
but make sure there are connective qualities that make it feel like
it’s supposed to be there,” Gorder
says. “This is an opportunity to
play. You can introduce more color
and be a little bit more bold.”
RAW MATERIALS
Besides style, consider price.
Runners are generally made of
wool or a synthetic fiber.
Hunyadi says her wool runners generally cost 25 percent to
30 percent more than synthetics,
but there is some price overlap
among higher quality synthetics
and lower end wools.
Wool is softer to the touch, she
says, has more of a matte look and
releases dirt more easily. Synthetics, which used to look a little
shiny, still catch the light differently than wool, and hold onto
dirt more.
While wool carpeting can actually wear away from use, synthetics do not.
“If you put the two side by side,
you can tell the difference,” says
Hunyadi. “But when you take the
other one away, many can’t.”
W hichever materia l you
choose, take care of it.
“Take off your shoes, vacuum,
vacuum, vacuum and have it professionally cleaned as appropriate,” once every year or two, she
says.
CARPET ALTERNATIVES
If you want to add style to
your staircase without carpeting,
Gorder suggests tiling the risers
— the vertical part of the stairs
that gets scuffed easily. Or try
making a paint “runner” in a bold
shade of marine paint, or sanding
one, creating the look with contrasting wood colors.
“Painting a runner down the
stairs in a pattern, stripe or polka
dot is a really contemporary way
to attack the stairs,” she said.
Elaine Griffin is crazy about
stripes — in small rooms and kids’
rooms, powder rooms and halls.
She also likes glazes and metallics. Stencils, too.
Decorative and faux painting
is back, although in a subtler style
than the “Dallas” and “Dynasty”
days of the 1970s. “We overdid
it then,” said Griffin, a New York
decorator, designer and contributor to Better Homes and Gardens
magazine.
Bonnie Roberts-Burke, a real
estate agent, had 80 feet of stripes
painted in her 100-year-old Washington town house. They start in
the living room, go up the stairs
and all the way down the hallway
on the second floor. “It pulls it all
together,” she said.
The stripes — each 5 inches
wide — are of the same creamy
blush beige color, but alternate
between satin and flat finishes. “It
just makes the most interesting patterns,” she said. “It changes as the
light in the house changes.”
Roberts-Burke said it gives the
house an elegant feel. Her husband,
David Burke, finds it warm and
calming.
The couple hired a professional
to paint their stripes. Griffin said
many homeowners try decorative
and faux painting themselves; “civilian painters,” she calls them.
Paint and glazes can be used
to create a marbled look, textured
effect or a wood finish. With them,
you can produce patterns that rival
— or even surpass — what is available in wallpaper.
Faux painting simulates nature
and makes a surface look like something else — “making a plain door
look like cherry or a plain plaster
column look like marble,” says Tracy
McGranaghan, a decorative painter
with studios in Annapolis, Md.
“Decorative painting,” she said,
“is creating patterns and color
dimensionally on walls and surfaces.”
It’s not just walls that are being
painted creatively. Furniture and
cabinetry, even floors and ceilings,
also are fair game. Meghan Carter,
who runs the Web site AsktheDecorator.com, said painting the ceiling
a color other than white can produce a more intimate feeling, especially in rooms with “abnormally
tall ceilings.”
“Paint is a wonderful thing
because it’s instant gratification,”
McGranaghan said. “In a very short
time, you can completely transform
a space.”
Faux finishes can add depth
and dimension to a surface. “It’s all
about subtlety, not so much knockyou-in-the-head drama,” she said.
Among the many types of faux
finishes, according to Better Homes
and Gardens:
• Sponging: Dip a wet sea
sponge into glaze and press it on the
wall. The glaze also can be applied
to the wall and then lifted in patterns using the sponge. It creates
almost a marbleized effect.
• Ragging: Press a rag against
a wall in which a glaze already has
been applied, removing some of the
paint. This will create a textured
appearance.
• Strie: Move a brush vertically over a wall to created a striped
effect, either applying the glaze with
the brush or removing some of it as
you work.
• Stippling: Use a brush to
create the appearance of little dots.
“That’s when you put on the base
coat and put on a glaze and pounce
with it,” Griffin said.
Wood graining also is popular,
McGranaghan said, as is the use of
Venetian plaster, which results in a
marbled look.
She also paints patterns —
“things that almost look like wallpaper” — on walls, cabinets and
furniture. And she uses stencils,
some that she buys and others that
she cuts herself.
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DEAN FOSDICK / Associated Press
A MULTI-SPECIES HEDGE NETWORK of tightly pruned evergreens direct traffic and provide a protective microclimate around a potage
garden in the backyard of a privately-owned country house in this 2009 file photo near Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. The hedges also are an
attractive complement to the many colorful blooms growing around the property.
Hedges serve
a variety of
purposes
By DEAN FOSDICK
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Good fences do make good
neighbors, especially if you like
hanging out with the wildlife
crowd. The right collection of
trees and shrubs adds long-term
interest and privacy, while providing cover for birds, pollinators and
other wandering critters.
Decide what it is that you want
from a living fence and then select
some flowering shrubs (lilacs,
quince, weigela), deciduous bushes
(barberry, burning bush, spirea)
or evergreens (arborvitae, boxwood, yews) to accomplish it. All
provide a different look or serve a
different purpose, from security
to nourishment to sound abatement. And there’s nothing wrong
with blending varieties or even
incorporating them into standard
fencing.
“Diversity of species is good
insurance against devastation by
pests, including insects, disease
and mammalian,” said Barbara
Bates, a horticulturist with the
Kane County office of University
of Illinois Extension.
“Multi-purposing plants” also
give you more bang from your
landscaping buck and labor, she
said. “There are many fruiting
shrubs and dwarf trees that will
provide food for family, friends and
wildlife. Those that have displays
of bloom, fragrance and fall color
can add a seasonal dimension of
change to your landscape.”
Hedges are used primarily for
creating property borders, establishing visual screens and directing traffic flow, Bates said.
“We are impatient and want
instant gratification when we
can get it,” she said. “Fences are
faster than hedges and serve the
purposes equally well. (But) for
plant people who root themselves
in their garden abodes, the era of
hedgerows continues.”
Hedges are practical, with tree
and shrub barriers tending to outlast fences, said Michael Kuhns, an
extension forester with Utah State
University at Logan. They also
act as windbreaks and protected
spaces where animals, songbirds,
game birds and pollinators shelter.
“You can use these barriers,
especially the taller ones, to create
microclimates,” Kuhns said. “Certain fruits and garden vegetables
are pollinated better where the
wind isn’t blowing, increasing pro-
duction. Fruit quality is enhanced,
too, because there’s less ‘rub’.”
If it’s a wildlife hedge you’re
after, then stay away from highmaintenance shrubs such as
formalized boxwoods or tightly
groomed topiaries.
“Some things are traditionally
clipped but don’t have to be,” said
Sharon Yiesla, a horticulturist with
the Lake County Unit of University of Illinois Extension. “That’s
especially the case with many of
the flowering plants popular with
pollinators. All you do when you
trim is remove the flowers and
follow-on food sources for birds.
It’s better just to leave them alone
and let them go natural.”
Many old-fashioned shrubs
that have fallen out of favor have
worked well as hedges. Aromatic
and long-blooming rugosa roses,
for example, grow quite large,
although a few of the newer
hybrids are smaller.
“The rugosas produce fruit in
the form of rose hips late in the
season,” Yiesla said. “They also
provide nice fall colors — yellow
leaves mixed with orange. Another
plus is that they have good disease resistance. They’re rugged
plants.”
So rugged they may be considered invasive in some areas. Check
with your county extension office
to be sure. Thorny shrubs make
useful barriers but require care-
Bird motifs, soft tones return for spring
Bring the outdoors inside
By KIM COOK
FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The return of birds and birdsong are one of
spring’s most welcome signs. This year, retailers
are acknowledging this with pretty avian motifs on
all sorts of home decor.
Pottery Barn’s collection features sparrow printed
bedding and table linens, embroidered and printed
pillows, and even a wall canvas with an antique bird
illustration. There are stoneware birdbath serving
bowls, and mugs with wee “nests” tucked into the
handles.
For a more modern take on the theme, MOMA
stocks a flock of perky, colorful bird-shaped clips
that could hold artwork or undies on the line. Urban
Outfitters has an interesting set of First Flight wall
decals, plus a sturdy hook shaped like a bird’s silhouette.
CB2’s spring line features a striking accent pillow
designed by artist Douglas Sheran, who is a member
of Creativity Explored, a nonprofit visual arts center
for the developmentally disabled in San Francisco.
CARPET
HARDWOOD
His bird illustration, in a swath of rich green over
black and white, resembles Japanese brush painting.
The adaptable blues are back in a big way. They’re
popping up all over soft furnishings and tabletop
pieces. Bright versions give a room a bracing shot
of color, while muted versions, paired with white or
chalky yellows, are soothing. For inspiration, check
out the Grandeur and Harmony palettes in Olympic
Paint’s new Audubon collection.
Anthropologie offers a beautiful ceramic knob festooned with bright blue dots; a set of those would
refresh the kitchen cabinets. There’s the charmingly
named Grace towel collection too, in blues and pinks,
embroidered with springy flowers.
French blue and Wedgwood blue are elegant tones:
Homegoods’ blue crocodile-printed leather slipper
chair looks swanky, but is priced modestly.
Pottery Barn’s soft, silky blue throw will comfort on a rainy spring day. Z Gallerie is stocking a
French blue filigreed urn, and a beautiful resin plaque
embossed with a realistic blue chrysanthemum.
Pier 1 and Homegoods have several unusual bowls
in their spring collections that look like melted blue
beach glass, as well as new versions of the multifunctional ceramic stool, this year in vibrant turquoise.
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ful consideration when deciding
location.
“Whenever you plant anything, you have to be thinking
about property line issues,” she
said. “Set them (thorny roses) far
enough back that they won’t be a
problem for neighbors, particularly
those with small children.”
Install a fence if low-maintenance landscaping is a priority.
Shrubs and trees can be sizable
investments requiring a great deal
of commitment.
That’s part of being a gardener,
though, said B. Rosie Lerner, a
horticulturist with the Purdue
University Cooperative Extension
Service. “You’ve got to enjoy that
kind of maintenance.”
On the Net:
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/
ShrubSelector
115 W. Main St.
McComb, Ohio 45858
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