Renovation & Design

Renovation & Design

Kitchen colours

CIL paint is unveiling its digital Culinary Collection of paint colours, featuring what it calls a mouth-watering palette of 20 hues, with names such as Adorable Peach, Bright Cherry, Cranberry Zing, Curry Spice, Lime Twist and Olive Oil.

"White kitchens have been trending for a number of years, but now we're seeing a resurgence of colour in the kitchen, from cabinetry to counters to walls," said Alison Goldman, brand manager for CIL paint, a brand of PPG Architectural Coatings, crediting the revival to current rich-in-colour bohemian, retro and return-to-nature trends in home decor.

"The kitchen is the most used room in the house and the area where family and friends tend to gather, so it's the perfect place to add colour and personality to a home," Goldman said. Still, it's important to choose kitchen colours wisely, she cautioned, as some are better suited for this multi-purpose environment than others.

"Warm, uplifting colours, such as yellow, red and orange, and soft shades of grey, violet, blue and green, are known to be more conducive to appetite-building, entertaining and conversation," she said, explaining CIL paint took these findings into account when developing its new palette.

This Culinary Collection brings together top kitchen-colour recommendations from CIL's existing paint lineup. "No matter what the look or size of your space, the collection has a colour recipe for everyone," Goldman said. For starters, she offered these suggestions as good choices for:

Modern kitchens: Grey is all the rage in home decor these days, and muted grey walls work especially well in a modern kitchen. Try Oyster Bay (90YY 63/044 SE48) or Barley Beige (30YY 68/024 DL50) grey from CIL paint as a base, accented -- on one wall or through accessories -- by a favourite pop colour, such as turquoise, tangerine or raspberry. Other striking wall-colour options, particularly in kitchens with stainless steel appliances, are lemon yellow or apple green. If a full wall of these bright colours is too much for you, paint them above your cabinets only or even inside cabinets with glass doors to liven up the room.

Country kitchens: Complement wood cabinetry by painting the walls cosy shades of terra cotta red, such as Burnt Pumpkin (24YR 12/447 DL08) by CIL paint, warm orange such as Persimmon Berry (60YR 26/605 DL10), or light sage green such as Cabbage Patch (90YY 62/264 MC21), creating a welcoming space reminiscent of open fires and roasted foods. Don't know which colour to use? Simply identify the predominant undertone of your cabinetry or flooring -- yellow, orange or red, for example -- and choose a paint colour with the same base.

Small kitchens: Make a small space appear larger by minimizing the contrast between the walls and cupboards. Choose a palette of colours with similar tonal value -- such as Peach Punch (56YR 48/398 CP10) orange, Ripe Banana (39YY 66/628 DL18) yellow and Citrus Fruit (70YY 52/532 DL21) green from CIL paint. Another option is to paint a focal wall a bolder colour and the other walls a lighter version of that colour. Use the kitchen's vertical space to stack rows of shelving or add upper cupboards extending to the ceiling to maximize storage and the visual height of the room.

Windowless kitchens: If you can't see the outside from your kitchen, consider bringing the outdoors in through the use of colour, such as optimistic shades of light green and yellow. A soft yellow -- such as Citron Ice (53YY 83/348 CP19) by CIL paint, for example -- can simulate the look and feel of sunshine. Crisp, white paint on trim, ceilings, mouldings and doors will help brighten the walls even more. For maximum brightness, install the right combination of artificial lighting in the room -- including task, overhead and ambient lighting -- and use high-gloss paint on doors and trim to reflect the existing light.

"When choosing paint colours, take into account the colour and design of your cabinetry, countertops, tiles, moulding, appliances, lighting and flooring," Goldman said. "And remember that paint isn't just for walls -- freshly painted cabinets, tables, chairs and other decorative objects go a long way in helping to create a spectacular kitchen decor."

Have an appetite for painting your kitchen? View the new Culinary Collection by CIL paint at cil.ca, where you can also ask CIL paint experts all of your colour, decor and paint questions.

connieoliver2015@gmail.com

By Connie Oliver
March 28

Renovation & Design

POND paradise

Water, when used in a decorative form such as a pond or water feature, can play a dominant role in today's modern oasis, evoking the sense of a more natural setting even in the urban jungle.

Generally we associate ponds, formal or informal, as one of the components of the so-called bells and whistles of the well-appointed landscape. The prospect of installing a pond, however, does not make a big splash with homeowners who would prefer an alternative to both the price tag and ongoing maintenance of a large pond project.

While the love affair with the elegance and visual interest of a water feature is as strong as ever, the trend today is toward a new expression. Now, whether you garden on a condominium terrace or in a small urban backyard, the glistening reflective surface and trickling sound of a water feature can be yours with relative ease and affordability.

Container water gardens or patio ponds are the new aquascapes where simplicity rules.

How simple? The basic ingredients for a patio water garden consist of a container, water and plants. While it is possible for do-it-yourselfers to use any type of container, ensuring first any drainage holes are sealed with a bit of caulking, many garden centres this spring will offer a range of specialized water bowls in lightweight fibreglass or plastic.

What about choosing the right plants? Even that has been made easy with the availability of ready-to-go aquatic mixes of diverse and unusual plants.

Submerging a plant's roots in a patio pond is a fascinating concept. Generally, gardeners are reminded to avoid waterlogging their plants or risk drowning a plant's root system, and here we have an entire range of plants to choose from that love to have their feet wet.

Why don't aquatic plants drown? The International Water Garden Society (IWGS) divides aquatic plants into four groups: floating, submerged, floating-leaved and marginal. Plants in each of these groups have specially adapted leaves and roots that allow them to survive prolonged wet conditions.

Floating plants such as water lettuce with light-green velvety leaves or water hyacinth with striking light blue to violet iris-like flowers provide shade but also filter the water. Marginal plants that generally grow along the edges of a pond or bog, or can survive partially submerged conditions, feed on nutrients in the water, providing valuable filtration that in turn reduces algae growth.

These can include variegated spider-lily with its lovely, fragrant white blooms or dramatic upright tropicals with broad leaves such as elephant ear (Colocasia), canna, and calla lily. Narrow-leaved upright marginals include cattail, sweet flag and dwarf papyrus.

All play an essential role in balancing the pond ecosystem.

Hans de Jongh, Paridon Horticultural Ltd., in Delta, B.C., supplies plants including aqua plants to retail garden centers across the Prairies.

Initially, de Jongh anticipated local demand would mainly be for hardy varieties, however, the demand has been greater in Manitoba for tropical water plants than anywhere else. He credits this to our usually bountiful heat and sun in the summertime, ideal conditions for tropical plants to thrive.

Perhaps one of the most interesting plant selections for the water garden is Sarracenia purpurea, known more commonly as the purple pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant that requires moist conditions and hungrily traps insects. Relatively short at only 30 cm, the purple pitcher plant will surely attract interest with its exotic, trumpet-shaped leaves with red to deep purple colouration.

Gayda Rempel, retail manager at the Green Spot in Brandon, says some of her customers have been successful in overwintering the purple pitcher plant, the most cold-hardy sarracenia species native to North America.

The trick, she says, for caring for pitcher plants indoors is to keep them really moist. It can be tricky, though. Easier to overwinter water lilies, says Rempel, who lets the tops get hit by early frost, then allows them to sit and drain for a few days before popping them into a black plastic garbage bag, which she seals and stores in a cool dark spot indoors.

In the spring, Rempel retrieves the water lily, cleans it up, repots or divides, invigorates with a little aquatic fertilizer, then returns it to her water container for another growing season.

Most pond plants are annuals, however, some are hardy to our growing zone and can be transplanted into the garden in the fall. Hardy selections include marsh marigold, ligularia, corkscrew rush, creeping Jenny, arrowhead and some of the cattail varieties.

Unlike annuals, which are usually purchased at the garden centre in their ubiquitous black plastic containers, water plants are sold in special aquatic containers made from a flexible mesh filled with a lightweight aquatic potting medium with good mineral content. When placed directly into your decorative container, the soil stays in place while allowing water to flow through.

While some plants are sold separately, there are also aqua packs with ready-made combinations for a naturalistic, marsh-like container design.

Jordan Hiebert, co-owner of Lacoste Garden Centre in Winnipeg, says the mesh bags make it easy to transplant perennial water plants because the roots stay intact without being ripped.

The art of water gardening can be as simple as you like. Of course, even a container water garden comes with its own set of bells and whistles. Hiebert has a line of low-profile patio ponds made from double-walled fibreglass. "The benefit of an aquabowl," says Hiebert, "is that it has a built-in shelf."

This allows for more creativity in displaying plants. The bowls are also designed to hold a water lily in the centre, which helps to provide shade as it grows. Hiebert has a range of options to customize your bowl. Pumps and spitters add the beauty and sounds of water. Hiebert says the most popular type of spitter is a contemporary style made of bamboo. There is even one variety with a deer-scare option as well as more elaborate versions made from materials such as brass. An opening in the shelf accommodates cords for a clean look.

The addition of LED lights helps to extend the enjoyment of your patio pond well into the evening.

Polished rock can be placed in the bottom of the bowl to act as a filter, breaking down sediments or suspended particles in the water, and this helps to clarify the water.

Hiebert says natural bacteria or a product such as barley extract also helps to clarify water and further reduce maintenance. Goldfish can be added, too, and will do their part in eating mosquito larvae. Ensuring at least half the surface water is shaded with the leaves of the aquatic plants promotes a healthy ecosystem. Avoid crowding plants, though.

Ideally, your water container should receive up to six hours of sunlight. While water lilies are tolerant of some shade, they are more likely to bloom in full sun. Avoid excessive evaporation by choosing a location that is not subject to high winds.

Prefer to use your half whiskey barrel as a patio pond? Although it won't have a ledge, Rempel simply inverts a black plastic pot and sets it in the bottom of the barrel. Plants can be placed on it directly, or add a flat slab to serve as a surface, such as a piece of flagstone. Depending on the width of the base of your container, a series of inverted pots can be used to vary the height of plants.

If you want to protect the interior of a wooden whiskey or wine barrel, plastic preformed liners are available. There are also plastic versions of whiskey-barrel containers.

At season's end, Hiebert recommends storing fibreglass aqua planters in a garage or shed for the winter, preferably resting it on a piece of plastic or plywood rather than in direct contact with a concrete floor. Fibreglass weathers the elements without breakage or expansion, as it does not absorb moisture, so it can also spend the winter outdoors. However, Hiebert cautions against turning it upside down on your patio. The rim of the container can freeze to the surface and become damaged.

The empty container can also sit in the garden over the winter months, but storing it indoors together with the pump and spitter and any other accessories will ensure the longevity of your investment.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com

By Colleen Zacharias
March 28

Renovation & Design

Art's black sheep no more

Once considered the rebels of the art world, street artists are now part of contemporary pop culture. So, it is only fitting IKEA, the Swedish retailer known for its affordable sleek designs and modern sensibilities, would enlist graffiti artists from around the world to create 12 posters for its annual art event.

"Street art has been kind of the black sheep within the art scene," says Henrik Most, the creative leader behind the art event, which launches globally April 1. "It was connected to music, to graffiti, to subculture. It was not connected to artists coming from academic institutions as educated artists."

Times have changed.

Tapping into the talents of a diverse group of street artists from 11 different countries, including Sweden, China, Spain, Brazil and the U.S., IKEA is bringing art inspired by the graffiti in subway tunnels and spray-painted on the side of abandoned buildings into the home.

"Some street artists work very graphic, some black and white, some more graffiti like," explains Most of the variety of styles in the new collection. "And then we have different techniques; from spraying and throwing paint to fine drawing, stencils and collage, while others have been working more digitally."

One San Francisco artist known simply as Elle incorporated bold colour with a strong female message in her glow-in-the-dark poster inspired by the psychedelic '70s.

"I wanted to make a piece that was full of energy, colour, animals and a strong woman centrepiece," she says.

Hua Tunan of China leaned more toward realism with an ink drawing of a large eagle.

"It represents the courage that I think many street artists have," he says of the fierce, beady-eye bird. "The eagle is free, colourful and brave. It's also one of the traditional animals of China."

Only available while quantities last, all 12 posters in the collection are $20 each. Seven are verticals measuring 70 centimetres by 100 cm; the remaining five are 100 cm by 70 cm horizontals.

"We think that art belongs in people's homes. And with these collections, art becomes accessible for a lot of people -- you don't need to be wealthy to buy something unique," Most says.

-- Postmedia Network Inc.

By Karen Turner
March 28

Renovation & Design

When replacing siding start with a clean slate

Question: I read an article you wrote on the Internet and it prompted me to ask about a new siding project on our home we are planning. The house still has the old cedar lap siding, which has become a bear to upkeep with paint and caulk and so much of it is rotten. A number of years ago we had all the windows replaced. I've done some research and have been impressed so far with the LP SmartSide product. It looks good, is easier to install than fiber cement, and it's not cheap looking like vinyl siding and lasts longer. Currently the house has only the siding, no sheathing, blown in cellulose insulation, which we did 26 years ago, because there was no insulation at all. On the inside, most of the walls are plaster with a gazillion layers of paint. That's it, cedar siding, studs, drywall.

What is your professional opinion of the Smart Side product compared to others like cement board or vinyl or real wood again? Also, what is the process for this old house? From what I have researched, the way to do this project would be to remove all the old siding, put in new insulation batts, plywood sheathing, house wrap, then lathe strips for air space for the siding. Would this help prevent moisture problems? For this process I assume a vapor barrier cannot be put in unless you removed all the interior walls?

I'm really doing my research because we've had several siding "experts" give us estimates, most are saying that they just put the siding up over the old stuff and then beef up the widow trim and wrap with aluminum. I'm not buying into that. Seems like it's putting a Band-Aid over a major cut needing stitches.

Thank you so much in advance for your advice, Deborah Blackwell, Wisconsin

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We have a house that was built in 1962 and we are looking at putting siding on. We got a quote from a company, but they want to remove the original wood siding before they put the new siding on and the quote is quite high. I just want to know what your thoughts are on this, as a lot of companies just put the vinyl siding over the existing wood siding?

Thanks, Marilyn Neumann

 

Answer: When wondering about whether to go the extra mile during renovations or upgrades, you should always err on the side of a little more, rather than a little less. As the often overused saying goes, "do it once, do it right".

Choosing a product to use for retro-fit siding on an existing home can be a slightly daunting task, due to the numerous options available. I'm afraid that I am not at all familiar with the product in the first inquiry, so further research may be required before settling on it. The main thing to explore are the long-term results of previous customers who have used this product. How long has it been in use, particularly in a cold climate location like Wisconsin? Has it held up well to the snow, cold, and heavy rain that may be normal environmental conditions in your area? This information is critical because a lot of building products may be developed and successfully used in moderate climates, but will not do well with the extremes in temperature and humidity fluctuations in our northern areas.

As far as the methods that should be employed to replace the existing siding on the homes in both submissions, more is better. While it may be possible to install new siding over top of older layers, it is not advisable for several reason. Firstly, the older wood siding may have a fair bit of wood rot or decay that may be hidden. This will continue to occur if it is covered with another layer of siding, which may even promote quicker deterioration due to the lack of fresh air and sun for drying. Also, removing the older layers of siding will allow a good inspection of the sheathing beneath. This is important to see if moisture has penetrated the siding layer, causing damage to the sheathing or framing. With the siding off, any damaged sheathing may be easily replaced. Going to the sheathing level will also allow removal of any older building paper that may also be damaged, and allow easy installation of new paper or housewrap under the new siding.

Removing older siding may also allow for improvements in the thermal protection of the existing exterior walls. Because older homes often have minimal insulation in the walls, removing the wood siding should allow easy access for removing the old sheathing and insulating the wall cavities from the outside. This will allow for a high quality job, without major disruption inside. It will add a significant cost to the job, especially replacing all the sheathing, but may be well worth the effort. Alternatively, rigid insulation can often be installed over top of the existing sheathing on the exterior, prior to the new siding layer. Either of these methods should improve comfort and energy conservation levels within the homes.

The final consideration are the windows and doors. Installation of an additional layer of siding over the old will add thickness to the exterior walls. This will normally require building up all the door and window frames or brick moulds. That can add quite a bit of time and cost to the job, so removal of older siding and replacement with a product roughly the same thickness may negate the need for this additional work.

While it may be possible to save some time and money when upgrading older siding on a home by going over top of the existing, it is not a smart choice. Removing the older siding to accommodate the new material will do a better job, possibly preventing costly extensions on the window frames, as well as improvements to the insulation. When doing home renovations going that extra step is almost always the right approach.

 

Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the past president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors -- Manitoba (cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358 or check out his website at trainedeye.ca.

trainedeye@iname.com

By Ari Marantz
March 21