habitatsustainable decorating

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departmentseditor’s noteby Michael Boodro

good thingsfresh ways to display fall food and decorate for the holidays

homekeepingour editors share tips for bring-ing order to every room

house tourhow to decorate your living room bright and sustainably

eco-artistan inside look into the work of Todd Mclellan and the art of destruction

d.i.y.decorate your home with hand-made yarn bottles gardeningnothing deterred this couple from buying a down-at-the-heels property, or from turning it into an inviting lush garden

collectingthe best places to find vintage dishware with curves and splashy colors

reportsare all eco-friendly countertops created equal? We tried out seven samples to find out.

finishing touchthe wood-slatted wall in Randy Brown’s home in Omaha adds a perfect touch.

featureswallpaperlearn how to roll on your own wall paper with no mess

fall decorappropriate accessories, colors, and decorations to use in your home for autumn

pillow talksee the latest pillow trends and learn how to choose your own fabric and make you own

green houseadding plants to your home is a great way to bring nature in

home-madetracy wilkinson shares with us her stunning pottery work

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Want to design your own home decor? Use these materials to help you get started!

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decorate your living room with a bright vibe while on a budget

sustainable space

Blue as an accent color brightens up a previ-ously neutral room. The sustainable fabrics usef for the fabrics is a great exra touch.

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I recently received an email from a young woman who was very frus- trated by the lack of affordable green options for living room design. She has a mod-est lifestyle and resides with her husband in a small rental apartment in a big city. From what she told me about their life it sounds like they are already doing a lot of things to reduce their environmental footprint. For example, the couple has no car and either walk or use mass transit. They rarely eat out, preferring instead to cook at home with fresh ingredients from the local market. They also work for so-cially responsible companies, choosing to make a difference

instead of a big salary. Admira-bly this couple wants to do still more and right now their focus is on how they can make their living spaces more sustainable. A quick read of the glossy design magazines and blogs offers little help. They tell us that the answer lies in reclaimed 18th Century floors, FSC certified wood tables, CFC free poly-urethane chairs, and artisanal, handmade, free trade everything else. While these are certainly important initiatives to consider, their high cost and associated exclusivity, certainly begs the question of relevancy for this couple, as fwell as the majority of other people, who simply cannot af-

ford these high design culture options no matter how beautiful or green they may be. My suggestion is to step back and consider the bigger picture about living spaces. Green design, at its core, needn’t be about the pedigree of the fixtures and finishes.

The simple truth is that a living space that is efficient and a joy to be in is inherently

sustainable because it will be effectively and highly used throughout its long life. A dark, poorly proportioned space that is awkward to use and de-pressing to spend time in is a waste of materials and energy, no matter how green the furni-ture pieces are that fill it up.

Decor is one of the most importnat parts in making your iiving room sustainable and beautiful. By adding posters, accent paint colors, wallpa-per, lights, plants, etc, you’re home can be transformed in seconds. It is the little things that count when protecting the environment. It is also more financially capable to focus on buying sustainable accessories rather than huge pieces of fur-niture. Every type of accessory, ranging from pillows to display dishes can be made sustain-ably. These types of eco-frienly products spice up your living room and make it very enjoy-able to be in. You’ll be surpised how much decorating can make a difference. It is also very important to

Photos by Johnny McLellan

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step back and take a look at the big picture“ “

to page 58

Photographs (current and facing page) by Johnny Miller

These details show how to use space effectively and visually. All objects seen are sustainably produced and can be purchased at a low price.

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Bold & Noble offers a variety of designs and screenprints, all sustainably produced and manufactured in their office.

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pre-plan your space. Create a floor plan of your living room.Therefore, there will be no wasted space and still not be cluttered. The room should seamlessly allow this to hap-pen without any wasted space, circulation conflicts, or impedi-ments with other parts of the house. While this may sound like more of a functional argument than a sustainable one, remember that sustain-ability should also be a matter of joy and fulfilment rather than just kilo-joules and particulate counts. The second step is tomthoughtfully furnish the room for use. Here again we need to place our actions within a bigger context. Living room furniture is the stage on which we live our lives. It is not a tableau to only look at but not touch. A grouping of living room furniture should be designed

to fit the way you really want to live. Otherwise, it will just be a waste of the energy that was required to produce it. Finally, it is important to remember that most furniture pieces have second, third, even four lives. Like the hous-es in which we reside, chairs, sofas, and tables usually last longer than we do. Sustain-

ability is about moving beyond our fascination with the shiny wrapper of the new, no matter how green its

label. Re-purposing an existing piece of thoughtfully designed and well-constructed furniture is a great way to recognize, and respect, the natural capital that is embodied in its creation. In short, there are lots of green design options for living rooms, and the most important ones don’t cost much money.

Living room furniture is the stage on which we live our lives

“ “John Brown

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-Director of Wyeth Design

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yarn & bottlesMaterials 12 glass jars 1 to 3 skeins of yarn Double-sided tape Scissors

Budget $20-$30

A bit of yarn transforms plain glass bottles and jars into ac-cent pieces. Start with vintage milk bottles or recycled jam jars, or pick up some ball jars or blue shades. Coil yarn around all or some of the jar. With three simple steps, you are on your way decoratinng sustainably.

1. Apply double-sided tape evenly over any curved portions of the bottle that you’d like to cover with yarn, such as the curved neck of the milk bottle; this will hold the yarn in

place, making an easier job of wrapping as well as a neater-looking result.

2. Wrap the bottle. Start-ing with the lip or base of the bottle, attach the end of your yarn to the bottle with a small piece of double-sided tape, slightly below (if starting from the lip) or above (if starting from the base) where you want the yarn coil to begin. Begin wrapping the yarn around the bottle, wrapping over the loose end and making tight, even coils that follow the profile of the bottle. When you are about 1/2 inch from where you want to stop wrapping, apply a piece of double-sided tape to your intended stopping point, wrap to there and trim the yarn.

decorating has never been so easy!

Sabrina Moyle

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it all started from a kinder-garten finger painting class.

ances piece by tiny piece, he creates intricate patterns with hundreds of minuscule metals, wires, strings, and springs that become beautiful and interest-ing photographic studies. He takes away the initial function of these objects and gives them a new, artistic function. Not only is his work interesting to look at, but it is a sustain-able and effective solution. Instead of a ringing tele-phone, he presents a tranquil layout of the vast parts of that telephone — each tiny digit, each vital screw. He takes a similar rotary phone and pho-

tographs it frozen in mid-air, just before the countless units fragment all over the room. After visiting thrift stores and collecting old electronics that still worked, McLellan came up with the idea of taking them apart and pho-tographing the insides. This project shows that with imaginative power, discarded electronics can transform into wonderful art. “I wanted to photograph them in some way that would give them meaning for their ex-

istence,” McLellan told art blog E-Junkie in an interview. “I tried a few versions and ended up laying them out disassembled. I have a very keen interest in

finding out how things work. I can just imagine the hands that put them together with such precision. We don’t get the same thing out of

current technologies, and the products now don’t last nearly as long.” To show his audience the process of “disassembling” these electronics, McLellan

made a video that documents his laborious method. In the short sped-up video, he takes apart an old alarm clock, a camera, and a typewriter. He then meticulously organizes each disassembled machine in his studio — slowly crafting an orderly masterpiece from scratch. One viewer called it an “organized mess”. View the video and find out more about the inspirational photographer at his personal website, tod-dmclellan.com. He is a great source for inspiration!

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Kelsey Herman

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President of R&R Arts

Todd McLellan uses a more organized approach in his ‘Destruction of a Type Writer’.

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ntoddm lellacinsight into the art of destruction

It started from a kindergarten finger painting class and grew from there.Todd McLellan was born amongst the gold-en wheat fields of Saskatch-ewan. Raised by a carpenter and electronic technician, he became fond of the hands-on approach. He harvested his passion in Alberta, and in 2002 he moved to Toronto, Canada. Like many great image makers, he has a passion for creating visuals extending beyond one discipline. Todd enjoys being creative, both in studio as well as in the great outdoors. Look around your bed-room or kitchen, and chances are that you have a myriad of electronics just waiting to be used. These appliances have a function, making our daily lives easier with the click of an “on” switch. But Canadian photog-rapher Todd McLellan became fascinated by the underlying nuts and bolts — those intri-cate parts that work together to make machines function. McLellan’s 2011 project, titled “Disassembly,” is just that — as he takes apart appli-to page 59> Todd McLellan’s

‘Destruction of a Camera’

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DREsSyourwall

The time has come to redecorate a room in your home. You stand there in front of a large blank wall with your paintbrush and you just totally blank. Where do you start? Fortunately for you there is a tool that makes the daunting task of painting such a large surface so much easier. What is this amazing and wonderful de-vice you ask? It is the versatile paint roller. Paint rollers allow people to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to paint a large, flat surface, like a wall with few windows or a ceiling.

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Most people go straight for the cheap DIY type paint roller when they go shopping. They work just fine but there many other options for you to choose from. The biggest problem for most people is the “cutting in” process around windows and awkward corners. Anyone can tell you that painting a corner with just a roller is pretty much impos-sible. Still there are ways around this problem. You can cut in with a brush first and then go back and roll the rest of the walls. The professionals have a trick to get around this. Guess what that is? Yup a professional paint roller. The little plastic caps on the end of a normal paint roller are missing on these ones so you can paint in much tighter spaces. That means that you need to do less cutting in and you can avoid using the brush to paint corners all together. However, you’ll still need to paint the area where the wall connects to the ceiling and

crevices that are too tight for the roller to get into by hand. If your baseboard trim is already installed, you may also want to cut in around the baseboard with a brush, too. When you shop for a paint roller handle and covers, you should start by thinking about the job you are buying them for. The traditional short roller is fine for normal walls. If you are do-ing a cathedral ceiling, though, you may want to look for a rod extension. This extension screws into the handle and allows you to paint those higher spots with ease - much better than trying to balance on a step ladder while painting high up on the wall. Next, think about the texture on the walls. There are covers that work better with different wall surfaces. For instance, pop-corn finishes need a roller that can handle that rough, uneven surface without falling apart and there are special roller covers

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tear off that old wallpaper and paint your own

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Paint Rollers can be used not only for walls, but for other home accessories such as tapestries and lamp shades.

Photos by “The Painted House”

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This assortment of handmade stationary shows the wide variety of uses for a paint roller.

for this type of wall so take texture into account before you start. You can also find covers that create a pat-tern. These covers make certain faux painting techniques much easier, since rolling is so much quicker than stenciling or freehand painting a design. Imagine being able to stencil an entire room or room in just a few strokes? The Rollerwall Design Painting and Decorat-ing System allows you to create the look of wall-paper patterns with your desired paint color and the patterned roller. If the pattern doesn’t look right, you can wipe it off before the paint dries. When you decide you are tired of that pattern, you can just paint over the walls with a fresh coat of paint and create a whole new effect with a different patterned roller and paint color. If you’ve used stencils or standard patterned rollers before, you’re probably thinking that there is no way the job is that easy. What about those globs of unevenly applied paint that make the pattern blurry? However, the Rollerwall products are designed to keep the paint from being too

thick or thin. A traditional roller cover is rolled in the paint. Then the patterned roller is snapped in front of the paint filled roller. As you roll the wall, the paint filled roller applies paint to the pat-terned roller in an even, blotch free layer, which is transferred to the wall’s surface. Another thing you may be wondering is whether matching up the pattern is as hard as matching patterns along wallpaper seams. It ac-tually is easier, because the wallpaper is so awk-ward to move into place when it is such a long, sticky strip. The Rollerwall roller is designed so that you can match the new strip of paint with the previous one by using a special guide on the roller. All you need to do is make sure that your first pass with the roller goes straight up and down so that the next strip can line up easily. So when the time comes you for you paint your home (once again) then don’t forget to include paint rollers in your painters toolkit - they do make life so much easier.

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Photos by “The Painted House”

www.paintsplashes.com-

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Fall Finishes

spice up your home for autumn with seasonal decorations

As the days become shorter and the temperatures dip lower, it’s time to bring some warmth back into your home. Learn how to bring the beauty of fall into your home us-ing our helpful tips and clever tricks. Whether you’re in the market for a festive fall centerpiece, a splendid fall door decoration, a seasonal wall display, or anything in between, we’re sure to have an array of ideas to help you infuse your home with the colors and textures of fall. >

Fall Finishes

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Do It Yourself decorations are a great way to prepare your house for the fall!1. Tin Can Jack-o’-Lanterns 2. Candy Jar Treats (found via Ashlee Proffitt Design) 3. Fall Pillows 4. Halloween Wreath (found via Ashlee Proffitt Design) 5. Papier Mache Pumpkins (found via Ashlee Proffitt Design) 6. Candy Corn Wreath 7. Easy Halloween Ornaments 8. No Carve Pumpkin Decorating

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Fall is an excellent time to update your home and add a few new touches before the short winter days force you inside, but not all of your modifications need to be huge alterations. There are very inexpensive ways to add a little holiday décor to your home in the fall, or simply ways to embrace the environment by bringing in a plant, collecting leaves for a photo display or filling a vase with stones and pebbles. The best way to get inspired for this season’s deco-rating trends is to take a long walk and make mental notes

of all the beauty Mother Nature has created in her home. Subtle changes such as adding a touch of color or a fo-cal piece of furniture can really give your home some (new) personality. When deciding on color, it’s easy to stay in the safety zone and stick with standard neutral tones. But in reality, more people are using colors that pop. Why not shed some of the boring colors that can seem drab and try spicy colors that stand out and grab attention. Chili-pepper red is the trend for this fall and into the

holiday season. Look for this color on everything from wall decorations to pillow accents to glassware. Painting isn’t the only way to give a stylish nod to autumn. Look for blankets, pillows, and rugs in darker colors and textured fabrics to complement your furniture. Choose fabric patterns with metallic or bead-ed detail, embroidery, or Middle Eastern influences. Besides providing an instant updated look, these easy additions will make your home seem warmer and more comfortable. Fill shelves, tables and bare cor-

ners with various-sized candles in delicious seasonal scents like cinnamon, vanilla, apple, and pumpkin pie. Use copper accents wherever possible for a rustic fall look. Also, add natural elements to your home decor for an eco-friendly touch. These acces-sories bring a natural and cozy look to your home and are the cheapest way to decorate! Fall is coming soon, so start your projects and crafts to get your house ready.

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Furniture First. Online

With gorgeous colors found in nature, home decorators are giving Christmas a run for its money by showing what a beautiful season fall can be.

Photo by Melissa D

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