L ike most retailers, I’m crazy busy in the fall. My calendar is filled with events.

Even though life is insane this time of year, fall is my absolute favorite season. Atchison, the historic Kansas river town I call home, is filled with drop-dead gorgeous trees on fire with red, orange and gold leaves.

I will never forget the year autumn passed me by. I was working about a million hours a week, leaving for my store before the sun came up and arriving home long after it set. Read more…

The wonderful charm of Victorian homes makes them desirable. But if homeowners choose a restoration approach, lifestyle adjustments can be significant. The size and shape of the spaces work well with period furniture. I have seen reproduction kitchens where great efforts have been made to conceal modern appliances.

However, many people prefer to keep the general architectural character and make thoughtful modifications and additions to adapt to today’s family activities. It must be a careful transition from old to new. Read more…

A major revolution is occurring in design products for post modern outdoor landscaping applications and indoor use. Serralunga, Studio4LA, and the Trivi Collection are in the vanguard for many of these new exciting shapes and forms that are sweeping the world of art, architecture, and exterior design.

These products showcase spectacular artisan fabrication, unique geometry, and post modern design features that are wowing crowds in Milan, Pairs, and New York. The result is a new school of art that is a world apart from their predecessors. Read more…

Walk into your neighbor’s back yard this summer, and you might swear you’d taken a wrong turn and ended up in the living room, save for the grass, trees and open sky.

Outdoor “rooms” can include all-weather rugs, grill islands — even fireplaces. And customers are looking for beautiful furniture to complete the look, with pieces that are as comfortable as they are stylish.

“They want it to be the comfort center,” said Carl Vice, general manager of Casual Living and Patio Center on Industry Road. “They want to feel just like they’re sitting inside on their recliner. They want to be that comfortable outdoors.”

Pieces that move, says Vice, are desirable. Seven out of 10 chairs sold at his store, he guesses, rock, swivel or glide.

While wicker is still a popular choice, the traditional natural material, which deteriorates if left outdoors, is being replaced with a synthetic wicker, a man-made material woven around an aluminum frame. Read more…

Curb appeal. It’s that good impression that a prospective buyer receives when looking at a home for purchase. It starts at the curb before the buyer even walks into the home.

As more homeowners recognize the value of improving such first impressions, there’s a growing interest in landscaping - with plantings, stone work and the creation of points of interest, such as fountains or enclosed spaces. As some designers have said, “the garden is the new kitchen.”

Lately, the desire to improve curb appeal has also meant the creation of a distinctive driveway. Treating the driveway as part of the landscaping is one of the hottest new design trends. Read more…

Good landscape lighting not only provides a safe path to your door, it turns your house into architecture, and your yard into art.

“Try different angles and notice how different plants look when lighted,” lighting designer Thomas Williams of Troy, N.Y., suggests. “Remember that you don’t have to light everything. Less is often more. You are not trying to erase the night; you are creating electric moonlight.”

Professionally designed landscape lighting, which encompasses much more than entryway sconces and stick-in-the ground lollipop lights, can cost from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars, depending on the extent of the job and the quality of the equipment used, Williams says. Read more…

Imagine relaxing in your living room, pool deck, favorite restaurant or boat as the cool evening breeze softly spins around you; a glance upward revealing a burst of lingering colors beyond imagination as the day wraps up its final show time performance: sunset. All this comfort & beauty from your living room? Sure, if you have followed the large group of consumers and service businesses that have succeeded in creating distinct outdoor rooms that provide the same ambiance as they have indoors. Read more…

With summer in full swing, homeowners are spending more time outside enjoying their yards, pools and patios. Whether outdoor spaces are used for entertaining or for relaxing on a warm summer night, the right decor can turn a bland space into an extension of your home even after the sun goes down.

According to Michael Berman, LAMPS PLUS Certified Lighting Designer, “The right lighting paired with outdoor furnishings can offer both aesthetic and practical benefits when spending more time outdoors during the warm months. Proper lighting and decor can supplement evening activities and visually enhance the beauty of your home,” said Berman. Read more…

Good manners are important when considering a new look for the exterior of your home. Sharon Grech, Benjamin Moore’s Colour & Design Manager for Central Canada suggests you start your planning with a stroll around the neighbourhood.

Check out the neighbourhood

“Inside a home, it’s important to consider the relationship between rooms, ensuring there is harmony” she says. “When working outside it’s important to examine the relationship between the house and its neighbours. In a recent redesign of a renovated home our Benjamin Moore Design Team found that only a small change made a big difference to the way our house fitted into the streetscape.” There were a number of other recently renovated homes nearby, and most exterior treatments used shades of beige and taupe. The Team wanted their house to stand out from the crowd, but without looking out of place. As is often the case when planning an exterior, the colour options were limited by what was already there. Read more…

Highbrow designers call them portals. You also might hear them referred to as transitional spaces. In the language of the ordinary homeowner, they are, quite simply, gates.

Yet, too often the gate is the last thing you consider when adding a fence to your home site. It should be among the first.

A gate is a functional outdoor doorway, but it can also be a bold artistic statement. The size, shape and material you choose for the gate can literally make or break the fence you have in mind. Read more…