This spring, Kate and Brent Halfwassen plan to build a storage shed with a green roof behind their 1,600-square-foot 1890 Victorian home in Riverwest. Because the roof is level with an adjacent slope and can hold 165 pounds per square foot, it will double as a play space.
“A lot of the homes in Riverwest are like that and can do something similar. Kids could look at it as a tree house and parents as a greenhouse,” Kate Halfwassen says.
Benefits of green roofs include reduced stormwater runoff, better heat insulation and reduced greenhouse gases through the plantings. But the Halfwassens also believe that the garden roof reclaims a slice of the urban landscape and serves up a chance to practice sustainable agriculture in an unlikely spot in an unlikely locale. (more…)
Combination of colorants, crystals and fiberboard open up fantastic new possibilities in the fields of interior design, household fabrics and furniture.
BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, Sonae Industria and CRYSTALLIZED* – Swarovski Elements will host a unique display at the KAP Forum in Cologne during the PASSAGEN 2008 exhibition, which will be held from January 14 – 20, 2008, to coincide with the “imm cologne” furniture fair. On the initiative of BASF, these three partners have put together an unusual display of combinations of materials that have never been seen before: brilliant colors by BASF incorporated into medium-density fiberboard TOPAN* colour by Glunz, the German subsidiary of Sonae Indústria, and decorated with crystals by Swarovski.
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Bathroom storage has evolved from over-the-toilet shelves to today’s sophisticated furniture pieces with pullout drawers and removable trays.
It’s a response to a common dilemma facing homeowners with new or newly remodeled bathrooms: How to provide bathroom storage without sacrificing style.
“In contemporary bathrooms with the sink mounted to the wall, there’s no place to put anything, said Kurt Schnakenberg, vice president of sales for Chicago Brass, a wholesale dealer in Highwood. “It looks great, but living (with) that bath doesn’t work because you can’t perform your daily activities in there.” (more…)
The hothouse colors, the hand-painted tiles, the lazy drift of hammocks and mosquito netting: If you visit Mexico, it’s hard not to fall in love with the look and the lifestyle.
But unlike a craft or curio that you can pack in your suitcase, Mexican style isn’t always easy to bring back home. And if you do, it may not look the same. Hibiscus pink, you may say to yourself. What was I thinking?
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Denise Little decorates her Troy home to showcase art — her art, her daughter’s art, her granddaughter’s art and the art of prominent artists such as Tom Palazzolo, Barry Rowe, John Glick and Camillo Pardo.
“My passion is art, so my approach to interior design is to not let my decor interfere with my art,” says Little, who is a painter, patron of the arts and promoter of artists.
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