so you wannabee a Domestik Goddess? » House & Home

Fixing Old Plaster Walls

guest — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:01:07 +0000

Once again, He Who Hogs The Power Tools has graciously agreed to do a Guest Post for us. The topic of fixing a cracked plaster wall is one that comes up around here a lot… Just this morning, in fact, there was a lively coffee-shop discussion on the subject. Everyone around the table agreed — there’s no DIY method that compares to “buttoning it down” with plaster washers… ~ Jen

After a couple of years of trying to ignore the cracked walls and loose plaster in the living room of our 100-year old farmhouse the time finally came to tackle it head on.

I’m not talking about filling a couple of crevices with a bit of joint compound. I’m talking about full-on reconstructive surgery.

The Big Kahuna — an 8-foot canyon running diagonally from baseboard to ceiling where the plaster keys (the plaster that oozes between the strips of lath) were broken and the plaster at the edge of the crack was an inch away from the lath —was the major head scratcher.

So, what’s the best way to fix that old plaster?

Drywall over it?
Remove the plaster and start over?

Both of these options seemed like a lot of work (and mess).

But mostly — this old house still has it’s original 9″ baseboards and wide, profiled moulding complete with 6″ corner blocks which we wanted to keep intact. I searched the ol’ interweb and found just the ticket — plaster washers.

These cheap little doodahs work like a charm.

How to Repair a Cracked Plaster Wall with Plaster Washers

You just slip a plaster washer over an ordinary drywall screw and drive it into the lath and studs. It snugs the plaster back to the lath as the washer flattens out, leaving you with a countersunk screw that you can crackfill over.

Step by Step:

Remove any wallpaper before you start.

Press on the wall around the crack to find where the keys are still intact — the plaster will feel solid and shouldn’t move. Poke around a bit to see where the plaster moves. Press on a spot with one hand and check the area around it for movement with the other.

Zero in on the spots that have the most effect, and drive a screw/washer. Work logically from one end of a crack to the other, adding plaster washers every few inches (or closer, as required).

As you work your way along the length of the crack, also gradually place your washers closer to the crack itself. In other words, work from the stable plaster further away first and gradually move in towards the crack itself.

Don’t be shy. Use enough screws and washers to make sure the plaster isn’t going to move. (I used over a hundred of these plaster washers to tackle that crack I called The Big Kahuna.)

Fill any large holes in the plaster with pieces of drywall screwed to the lath.

After the plaster is buttoned down, clean any loose plaster from the crack. An old can opener (the kind we used to use to punch holes in cans before pull-tabs) is great for cleaning out the crack to accept joint compound. Use a heavy-duty joint filler like Durabond 90 which is made for large/deep cracks. (This stuff is hard to sand so use it in the deepest cracks to rebuild a solid base.)

Finish to the final surface with drywall tape and a couple of applications of conventional crackfiller until you’re happy with the results.

5 Tutorials to Make a Zig-Zag Quilt

Domestik Goddess — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:36:54 +0000

If you’ve seen a zig-zag quilt, you’ll immediately see the fascination. It looks like giant bands of rick-rack trim sewn into a quilt — but really, the zig-zag effect is achieved with a series of triangles and a trick of the eye.

Now, you might look at a zig-zag quilt and figure it’s pretty straightforward to make — but it turns out there are a couple of different ways to cut your triangle pieces and a couple of different ways to assemble them, too.

Check out these quilt tutorials for great instructions and, better yet, for the photographs and illustrations that are soooo essential to make sense of each quilter’s cutting and piecing methods —

I love the way this shows how the quilting community tends to share ideas and build on each others’ creativity, too:

Taylor Groneck has a quick tutorial for a zig-zag quilt based on a pattern in Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and with the advice of…

Nettie Pete (of Etsy and A Quilt Is Nice fame) who shares her Zig-Zag Quilt Tutorial for the quilt inspired by…

The Purl Bee’s Zig Zag Quilt. The Purl Bee is the blog of Joelle & Jennifer Hoverson’s awesome and inventive crafty-sewing shop, Purl, by the way — and if you visit The Purl Bee, better plan to set aside a couple hours to explore… and you’ll want to check out their Triangle Tutorial, too, if you’ve ever had trouble making nice trim corners.

In fact, most quilters (except maybe the real quilting divas among us) agree that the main challenge of a zig-zag quilt — once you’ve picked the fabrics and planned the colours layout — is to take care to get the points of the triangles lined up right when you’re sewing them together.

Another help for this might be the triangle templates and clear how-to illustrations in a new free zig-zag quilt pattern that Anna Maria Horner, author of Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing, offers as a free PDF download on her blog. “The Folk Dance” is what Horner calls her version of the vintage zig-zag quilt pattern.

Real World Organizing: Drawer Dividers

Domestik Goddess — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:22:02 +0000

Drawers collect junk. Small junk gets messy. Before you know it, you can’t find a thing. Dresser drawers seem to be the worst for this (except maybe for those kitchen drawers that catch all the bits and pieces of your life), for many of us. It’s a constant struggle against chaos.

I’ve used cut-down milk cartons to make drawer dividers, and Kleenex boxes with the top cut out. Any kind of square or rectangular box that can be made to fit snugly into your drawer — that’s a big help in getting organized. No one’s going to see them, but you can always line with fabric or sticky-backed vinyl shelf paper or such, if you want to pretty it up.

Storables has a nice simple 32-compartment diamond drawer organizer on clearance sale right now for $7.95, plus shipping. It measures 18.5″ L x 14.25″ W x 2.75″ H and can be trimmed down to fit smaller drawers.

But if you’re feeling particularly crafty, you can make your own “diamond” drawer divider. (The name refers to the shape of each cubby, but there’s no reason you can’t use it to keep your pieces of shiny-shiny away from the rest of your personal gear.)

Have you seen the cardboard inserts for wine boxes or boxes that are used for shipping glassware? That’s the kind of thing we need to create here… just like the store-bought drawer dividers, only made of sturdy cardboard.

Cut strips of cardboard that are just a little bit less than the height of the sides of your drawer, and as long as they’d need to be to fit your particular size of drawer. For the longest pieces, measure your drawer on the diagonal, inside, and cut two pieces of that length. (You can figure out how long the other pieces need to be quite easily as you go along, once you’ve got these first two cut and assembled.) Look back at the picture of the Storables unit, above, to see what pieces you’ll need.

At the mid-point of one of your longest cardboard strips, make a cut that goes from one edge straight in to the centre. If your cardboard divider will be 2 inches high, for example, this cut will be about one inch long — maybe just a bit more. Do that on both of them, then fit the two cuts together. Beginning to see how this works? Repeat with more strips of cardboard, spacing out the cuts to match the size of drawer compartment you’ll need and fitting one piece of cardboard into another.

Voila! A diamond-shaped drawer organizer!

And if plain brown cardboard isn’t doing it for your decor, you can always cover the strips with sticky-backed vinyl shelf paper (Mac Tac or that sort of thing) before you make the cuts and fit them together.

Dust Furniture One-Offs and OutTakes

Domestik Goddess — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:42:01 +0000

If you’re a fan of craft artist Vincent Thomas Leman’s “abstract traditional” style — the heart of the practical yet whimsical Dust Furniture — you won’t want to miss the Etsy outlet for handcrafted “prototypes, web exclusives, extras and sometimes, mistakes…”

Right now, the online shop is showing four gracefully curved tables, three funky clocks, and this fascinating two-part cabinet called “Crook and Cranny”:

This cabinet is comprised of two sections, a taller bookcase portion with shelves for storage or display, and a smaller cabinet section with a door and one interior shelf. The pieces interact with each other in an interesting way, with the taller section resting on the shorter section. The two parts are permanently secured together.

For a look at the fun-loving furniture pieces in regular production, and a list of boutiques and galleries where they’re available, visit www.dustfurniture.com.

Wookie of Your Dreams

Domestik Goddess — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:08:28 +0000

Lookee here…
It’s a heart-hefting Chewbacca, Bringer of the LOVE!

This polymer-shaped, Sharpie-enhanced tribute to the Wookie of your dreams is available as a magnet or a pin, and evokes the spirit of Valentine’s Day with handcrafted humour.

And much like love itself…
this wookie is flexible, but fragile.

By BicycleOcean (Naomi) of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Terra Cotta Girl

Domestik Goddess — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:56:53 +0000

This whimsical Girl with Ladybug Necklace vase goes very very very high on my shopping list (the one I keep for when I win a lottery) and already decorates the house of my imagination…

Just look at her, flaunting a pair of fishy earrings and a wild ‘do’ of whatever bright flowers you’ve got in bloom… Terra cotta, about twelve inches high (before you fill the vase), it’s made by one of my favourite indie ceramics artists, Natalya Sots.

Natalya’s wildly distinctive colourful ceramics are found at arts-and-craft festivals in the Chicago area, online at Etsy), and in her fascinating Flickr photostream where you can also catch a glimpse of her works in progress.

Draftstopper Door Snakes

Domestik Goddess — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:45:20 +0000

Not everyone likes snakes, I know that — but here’s a little fellow who has a lot of appeal — to the eye, the ankles, and the bank account.

Those of us who live in old houses know all too well that an under-door draft can make you cold and uncomfortable in even a well-heated room. And the air that seeps through the crack where window sash meets window sill? Chilly! Before you know it, you’re reaching out from under your afghan to turn up the heat…

In fact, ECOutlet says as much as 20% of heat loss in a typical home can be due to drafts. They’ve got a line of dandy draft-excluding psychadelic snakes (made with vintage fabrics) that are stuffed with eco-friendly buckwheat husks, natural and biodegradable.

Saltylemon’s 36-inch-long door snake is made to lie along the bottom of a door or windowsill, stopping cold air from sneaking in and cranking up your heating bills. A practical bit of whimsy? Why, yes! And this one has a nice touch — it’s got a velcro fastener, so you can remove the stuffing for easy cleaning.

Over at Amethistle, tie-dyer Sara went DIY and recycled jeans and old socks into a draftstopper snake. She explains how she did it on her blog, if you’re interested in sewing your own. Sara does make the point (which I have learned, too) that you need to have a lot of stuffing to fill out a snake — more than you’d expect to need.

The trick to stuffing your draftstopper is to add something that will give a bit of weight to the snake, to hold it snug against your drafty door or window sill. Beans and rice are popular choices. You can certainly stuff with fibrefill or scraps of old quilt batting, etc., but the draft stopper will work best if you add in an old length of curtain rod, or last summer’s collection of beach pebbles, or something of the sort.

A door snake draftstopper is a fun, quick, inexpensive sewing project that’s all straight-line sewing, making it easy enough for kids and beginners to do yet offering all sorts of opportunities for exercising your creative vision. Big buttons for snake eyes? Tag ends of shiny ribbon for the forked tongue? Sequins for a rattler tail? Have a look around and see what materials you have that could be repurposed into a one-of-a-kind draftstopper.

Whether your decorating taste runs to the whimsical door snake, or to an elegantly simple tube of fabric, like TheMorae’s draft dodgers or TuttieLou’s antique handwoven linen with dainty appliques (both available on Etsy.com) — it is one simple, doable way to be green and frugal, to save money on heating costs, and to keep your home a bit more cosy this winter.

Irish Dried Cat

Domestik Goddess — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:09:35 +0000

First, let me give you a little background on “Lucky” — the mummified cat that one Domestik Goddess reader discovered (most unexpectedly!) in the roof of an old thatched cottage in Ireland…

Note to the squeamish: You didn’t honestly think I was going to spring a grisly photo on you, did you? This tiny little thumbnail picture is here for you. If you’re all prepared to study “Lucky” in more detail, however, you can click on the small picture to see a larger version — or read on to see another thumbnail photo that gives just a tiny bit closer look).

A while back, you might recall, I wrote about the fascinating old tradition of hiding ritual objects in houses as protection against evil spirits and witchcraft. And I mentioned the old boot — a tiny child’s riding boot, well worn, and just the one — found many years ago in the chimney wall of my grandfather’s old farmhouse in New Brunswick, Canada. That tiny old boot was an object of great fascination all through my own childhood, and I longed to know the story behind it. That’s why, when I learned of this old superstition that led people to hide strange objects in their houses, I was (and remain) quite fascinated — which is why I wrote about Dried Cats and Witch Bottles in the first place.

Strange Things Found in Old Houses

It turns out that this sort of thing is much more common than one would think — at least in northern Europe and the United Kingdom, and in countries like Canada and Australia, which were largely settled by colonists from that part of the world. No doubt other cultures had their own versions of the superstition…

Boots and shoes were common choices for protective objects, in the UK tradition, it seems; and I’ve learned that other bits of clothing are sometimes found in old houses as well.

My theory:
It may have something to do with keeping close a very personal piece of gear that once belonged to a loved one who died — something about a loving spirit offering its protection to those left behind. And it makes sense to me, learning that many of these objects had clearly belonged to children, that the purity of an innocent young child would have been seen as having extra power to protect the family in the home where these objects were hidden away.

A Carpenter’s Tale

If you’ve been following DomestikGoddess.com for a while, you may be aware that we’re always bashing away at This Old Farmhouse — and this summer was no exception. Tearing off the old back porch, we found the name of the man who built the house, a century ago, written on the back of a piece of moulding. That led to talk of things found in old houses, and our carpenter, Alvin, told us to look out for money.

Questioned about this, he told us that he’s found a great many objects hidden in the walls and ceilings of old houses where he’s worked on renovations. A shoe or two, for sure. And some strange hieroglyphics, marked onto old beams with chalk or charcoal. Bottles of various sorts. And a lot of old newspapers — but that’s a different thing, I think: old newspapers were often used as a feeble attempt at insulation between clapboards and plaster.

But mostly what Alvin has found is coins — some of them quite rare and collectible, too! Almost every old house where he’s had to rip out old plaster walls has produced a coin or two, he says, tucked away on top of a cross-member or roof truss; one had been hidden on a projecting brick inside an old fireplace chimney. It pleased me, somehow, when Alvin told us that all but one of the homeowners asked him to put those coins back where they were — or at least as close as possible, given whatever changes had been made during renovations, to where they had been hidden away a century ago.

Clothing, footwear, money… all that’s well and good. But other traditional ritual objects are a bit less pleasant to contemplate. Bottles of urine, for example — “witch bottles” as they are known. And the corpses of cats. Which brings us to the subject of this photograph.

“Lucky” the Irish Dried Cat

A couple weeks ago, Jules, in England, came across Dried Cats and Witch Bottles, my little write-up about the mysterious tradition of hiding protective objects in old houses:

I have only just found out about dried cats. Foolishly I brought the one that dropped out of the roof in my old cottage in Ireland back to England. Now I really think I should take it back – what on earth will Ryanair make of it?

How wonderful is that?

Naturally, I asked whether there was a photograph… and received this picture of “Lucky” within the day!

(Imagine, if you will, the great delight it gave me to shout out to He Who Hogs The Power Tools, “Someone just emailed me a picture of a dead cat!”)

Jules said that they all “ran screaming” from the house, when the mummified cat dropped out of the thatch, then went back in (”very slowly”) to see what it was that had descended so abruptly.

In the same house they also found two shoes — a small child’s dancing shoe, up in the roof space, and another that had been boarded in at the side of the fireplace. And in another house — a timber frame cottage in Kent, England — a large shell under one of the foundation timbers, under the stairs. It must have been placed there carefully, deliberately, or else it surely would have been crushed. (I like to think that it might have been a treasured souvenir of some sea-faring son, lost at sea; the shell kept in memory of him, and hidden in the house so his spirit could keep the family safe from harm.)

Jules checked in with Sam, the brave friend who appears on the other end of the pitchfork, and they’ve both given kind permission for me to publish this rare photograph here — because you know it’s just too interesting not to share with other social-history buffs!

As for “Lucky,” he is currently residing in Jules’ barn and awaiting his return trip to Ireland — where he rightfully belongs.

Old superstitions and domestic rituals don’t easily die out, even when the meaning of the ritual becomes obscured by the passage of time. I’m starting to suspect that there may be many more of these ritual objects hidden in old houses across Europe and “the colonies” than we, steeped in the 21st Century, might realize. And when we do find these strange objects, odds are that we fail to recognize them as having a special significance in cultural history. Perhaps you’ve found something peculiar, too, in the midst of an old-house renovation?

Flushed With Energy-Efficient Success

guest — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:17:14 +0000

The past 18 months has seen a mad lot of home renovation work at This Old Farmhouse. It culminated this week with the installation of a lovely pair of dual-flush low-flow toilets. Not so exciting to many, perhaps, but then we don’t get out much… In fact, He Who Hogs The Power Tools just sent out the following “news release” to family and friends, trumpeting our green plumbing triumph. Enjoy! ~Jen

Upgrade to “Dual Exhaust” System

No, it’s not what you might be thinking — we’ve just completed the changeover to more environmentally responsible dual flush toilets in our two bathrooms — which is the last item on our list of upgrades for the government-sponsored Home Energy Retrofit program.

No, it doesn’t increase performance in a ‘68 Mustang kinda way (although as you can see in the pictures below, we’ve temporarily got “four-on-the-floor”!) but by replacing two thirsty 20-litre-per-flush toilets (driven by two coffee drinkers), we’ll significantly reduce our water consumption — and cut back on the electricity that’s used to pump that water, too.

The dual flush comes down to the basics we all learned as kids — #1 or #2. 4 Litres / 6 litres. Nuff said.

In the past 18 months we’ve made significant improvements to reduce our heating and energy costs, as well as adding a couple of quality-of-life items like a new veranda and fencing in the side yard so the dogs can be “relieved on their own recognizance.”

In return, the Feds will reimburse us about 3% of what we’ve spent (think Canadian Tire Money on the value of a slightly-used Lincoln Navigator). It’s not a lot, but along with the reduced fuel bills and the “feel good” factor — it’s well worth it.

Make Your Pictures into Giant (Free) Wall Posters

Domestik Goddess — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:43:32 +0000

So, you want your kid to have a bedroom that’s decorated to match his dreams — but you don’t want to spend much money?

Sensible!

Especially if the kiddy’s wished-for bedroom decor is based on the latest from Disney or Pixar or whatever video game is hot in the school yard this week…

What to do?
Well, here’s one incredibly frugal solution to that decorating dilemma…

Block Posters lets you send any image from your computer (up to 1 MB size file), slice it up, print it out, and turn it into a giant wall poster — free!

Check the gallery of other people’s posters (like the lovely Nemo wall art that Phil made for his young daughter’s bedroom) for inspiring ideas like these:

Leave the white edges of the paper on for a cool tile mosaic effect;
Decoupage the pieces onto a room divider screen;
Frame each paper tile separately in black and hang them really close together to look like a piece of stained glass;
Go black-and-white or monchrome for an high-toned artsy look;
Blow up a smaller image for a cool blocky pixelated effect (turn a nature shot into modern camouflage, anyone?);
Posterize yourself!

Okay, maybe your children don’t really want your face looming down at them from the wall above their beds while they’re sleeping at night… but you could do a nice family portrait, or a favourite pop star, or a role-model athlete, or even a screenshot from a favourite game…

Your imagination is the only limit!

Or, to be factual, about 8 feet x 10 feet is the limit, finished poster size-wise.
But you don’t really need a larger poster than that, do you? Unless you’re making a mural to decorate a great room… hmm….

Bad Advice for Frugal Halloween Decorations

Domestik Goddess — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:01:35 +0000

Photo: Photos o’ Randomness

As for decorating your place for Halloween on the cheap —

Decorate your home and yard with everyday items and almost-trash, like leftover candle stubs and toilet-paper ghosts, the glossy magazines tell you. Right. Not.

What genius was the first to suggest that lighted candles and paper products could be a safe mix? Now throw in gangs of rambling trick-or-treating kids wearing capes and robes and all manner of flammable costumes? Uh-uh.

Not only that, it has been known to rain on October 31st… So what happens to your elegant glowing lights and drifting ghosts, if it rains? Soggy toilet paper draped over trees. In the dark. Not so chic and clever after all, is it? And you’ll just have to clean it all up the next day…

You can do better, even on a tight budget.

Tips for Frugal Halloween Decorations

Get yourself a pumpkin and make a traditional Jack-o-lantern. If you draw the face on your pumpkin with magic marker, instead of carving into it, you can cook it up later and make a pumpkin pie. How frugal is that?

If the kids want to know why you’re not investing in the latest inflatable three-witches yard art, or strings of flashing ghost lights, just tell them you’re doing your part for the environment. Ninety-nine percent of school-aged kids know more about saving energy than David Susuki does, and they dig it. Get them involved in thinking of other ways to decorate —

Homemade orange-and-black paper chains looped across the porch railing?
Watercolour paints to make scarey scenes on the windows?
Construction paper cut-outs of spooky cats and haunted houses?
An old white bedsheet pinned up in a shadowy corner of the yard, to spook all your little trick-or-treating visitors when it moves in the slightest breeze?
…you get the idea.

And if you’re fixed on decorating with Halloween string lights around your home and garden, why not re-purpose the ones you use for Christmas and patio parties? This works especially well if you tend to go with plain white lights (very elegant) — and they’re low-energy, low-heat LED mini-lights, right? Add a few fake spiderwebs (and dangle a few pipe-cleaner spiders, if you’re feeling artsy-crafty)… you’re good to go.

Not quite enough festive Halloween decorating, yet, for your taste?

Decorate your front steps with an over-sized bouquet of dead branches (pick ‘em up when you rake the lawn) in a wide-mouthed container — I like an old stew kettle for this, but use what you’ve got — and tuck in a couple of mini gourds.

Or more of those pipe-cleaner spiders and artifical webs.
Or bits of orange and black ribbon, tied in bows.
Or a photo of your mother-in-law.

Whatever scares you.

Photo: Sylvanfeather

And here’s a bonus idea — you can save time and money, both, if you simply go with more general “seasonal” decorations, and simply add a touch of spooky Halloween goodness for the night itself.

Think of a wreath of colourful autumn leaves, or a harvest-themed display of gourds and pumpkins, or a decorative scarecrow.

Instead of having a box of special Halloween decorations that will be used for a week or so at most, you’ll decorate once — and the decorations will do you for Thanksgiving too!

More of "Frugal Halloween Tips":

Bad Advice for Frugal Halloween Costumes

Amaze Your Friends and Burglars

Domestik Goddess — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:05:47 +0000

The Defendius door chain (Art Lebedev Studio) is a clever design exercise, but I’m betting this maze lock won’t turn up on the front door of too many homes — and it probably wouldn’t be endorsed by too many firefighters, or insurance types, or anyone else who thinks that getting out of your home quickly might be a good thing…

Still, isn’t it just the most engaging piece of home hardware you’ve seen in ages?

So I’m thinking, why not use a maze chain to lock a cupboard door, and put the car keys there when you throw your next party. And if your cousin Johnny is one brew past figuring out the puzzle in, oh, 30 seconds — too bad, guess he can’t drive home!

Zyklus Spiral

Domestik Goddess — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:26 +0000

This innovative shelving, Zyklus by creosa interior, is all about the play of light in Klimt-inspired spirals. At least, that’s more or less what Architectural Digest said back in May when they raved on about this designer piece. Whatever the inspiration, it’s a crisp modern interpretation of the Art Nouveau aesthetic that takes furniture into the realm of sculpture… Nice!

Stark white or subtle colours for the lacquered metal spiral, with cross members of coordinating MDF or natural wood. The unit is approximately 58″ x 50″ (15″ deep) and holds up to 700 CDs, or 70 bottles, or whatever else you might fancy. So, one piece of furniture is both art and multi-purpose storage and display unit — how often can you say that?

Heirloom Beer Glasses

Domestik Goddess — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:10:08 +0000

The Spiegelau design team has drawn on 500 years of glass-making experience to launch its new collection of thin-as-a-whisper beer glasses.

Throughout the world, there is a fast growing range of different beers just waiting to be discovered. In order to get most out of the characteristics of beer (appearance, aroma, taste, finish) it is essential to choose the right glass.

Three styles of glasses suit the most popular brews — an elegant gift for the malt beverage connoisseur.

[H/T Luxist via Everything and Nothing ]

Balloon Stool

Domestik Goddess — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:05:36 +0000

If I were to tie 500 deflated balloons around a bright pink painted wooden stool, you just know it would look unbelievably lame.

At Unica Home, however, Natalie Kruch’s Balloona Stool Confetti is sheer brilliance — “making the ordinary both intriguing and beautiful.”

I first read about Natalie Kruch and her colourful creation last year sometime, just a little snippet in Canadian Interiors.

She was just about to graduate from the University of Alberta’s Departments of Art and Design, and the stool (which started out life as an occasional table) had been picked up by Umbra when it was exhibited at Toronto’s Interior Design Show! Now, that’s an appropriately uplifting story for such a funky-cheerful piece of furniture, isn’t it?

Flying Art in a Trapeze Frame

Domestik Goddess — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:42:21 +0000

I want to talk about picture frames, really I do. But first let me tell you how this comes to mind. See, last night I went to visit my friend Betty, interior designer extraordinaire. And whenever I visit her, I get all excited by the many and varied trapeze lights that she’s used in her chalet-style home. Those airy wire and metal structures seem to fly across the open spaces, yet are so unobstrusive! — and a surprising choice against all the natural wood.

Since I’m living in This Old Farmhouse, however, something as modern as a trapeze style fixture doesn’t seem quite appropriate here.

So, much as I love the almost-not-there look of trapeze style fixtures, I’ll likely stick with my early-1040s ceiling lights until something perfect comes along.

But what about flying a few sleek wires on the walls?

Ah, that’s a different story!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got about fifty kabillion photographs to display and not nearly enough wall space! (Who isn’t always on the look-out for a nifty solution?)

I keep coming back to these Umbra Trapeze Frames that I’d first spotted some time ago at Amaroni — that’s a UK-based site, but the exact same Umbra frames are closer to home and considerably lower in price at Amazon.

And the reason why I keep coming back to this style is because they combine simplicity with elegance — and very practical, too. You can show a wide variety of sizes and types of photographs or drawings or whatever art needs hanging, and put the whole bunch up together as one graceful unit. I think it has a great uncluttered look that could work anywhere — in a ski chalet or cosy farmhouse just as beautifully as in a suburban bungalow or hip urban loft.

Modern Kitchen Design to Inspire a Clean Kitchen

Domestik Goddess — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:41:38 +0000

There’s a lot to be said for the sleek European style kitchen designs — the “clean aesthetic” that favours flat surfaces, neutral colours, and a pristine countertop free of all clutter — but it can be hard to pull off in an open-plan home.

Real life has a way of leaving its traces… despite all our good intentions!

Stilll, there are tips and tricks we can swipe from the top kitchen designers to help get a bit more of that clean open minimalist look into a real family home’s real working kitchen.

Trend Ideas is showing a fabulous Leuschke kitchen, for example, that started out as the typical closed-off kitchen of the 1980s. The architect opened out the kitchen to the rest of the house — a much better fit for today’s family tends to live, now that Mom isn’t stuck in the kitchen like a character out of Happy Days — but still found some practical ways to keep the kitchen mess out of sight. The layout relies on a few cleverly placed partitions and frosted glass sliding doors to conceal the pantry and such.

One unusual feature is a simple frosted-glass panel on the long kitchen island — just enough to keep the sink area out of the sight-line of seated guests, but not high enough or solid enough to visually break up the wide-open spaces.

My own decorating taste runs more to the cosy-boho-vintage eclectic, to be honest. I’m not sure that I could personally enjoy an afternoon of baking in the midst of so much white laminate and so little colour, but that’s a small quibble… and it’s easy enough to introduce a shot of colour where it counts, without losing the look.

The key here, I think, is that even those of us with widely differing tastes can learn a lot — and find a lot of excellent ideas to swipe and adapt for use in other kitchen decor styles — by browsing photos of designer kitchens that do showcase the “clean aesthetic”: Ernestmeda and ALNO would be a couple of good starting points.

Stainless Steel and Fridge Magnets: 7 Solutions

Domestik Goddess — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:07:37 +0000

Whether it’s your family message center, an ever-changing scrapbook page, your photo gallery, or a do-it-yourself collage of spontaneous artwork, the front of the refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of real estate inside your home.

Oh, but those stainless steel appliances that look so elegant and modern? They’re a problem. Because it’s true — and the sales guys won’t think to warn you — your magnets won’t stick to most stainless steel refrigerators.

Photo: DairDair

Designers and decorators and magazine editors don’t quite get it. And I guess the appliance makers don’t either.

They may think we should revel in a pure clean uncluttered fridge front, but guess what?

We don’t.

We don’t want to live with a blank-faced fridge.

We love our fridge magnets — the holiday souvenir magnets and giftshop impulse-buy magnets, the tacky ad magnets from the pizza take-out, magnetic note pads, plastic alphabets, and strange glue-smeared scraps of felt on magnetic tape, made by loving preschool hands — all of them!

Our magnets help us to organize and celebrate our family’s daily lives. Right there at eye level — right in the heart of the house.

What the home appliance manufacturers need to do is sit down in my kitchen for a cup of coffee and look around. Maybe in your kitchen, too. Definitely in my friend Kathy’s kitchen…

Then maybe they’d begin to understand why North America resounds with the wail — “My fridge magnets won’t work on stainless steel!” And then maybe they’d get their act together to give us the one feature in a refrigerator that’s needed above all others: the ability to decorate the front of it with magnets.

Does it matter?

I say, yes.

So I’ve looked into this stainless-steel-fridge-magnet issue a bit, and here’s what I’ve turned up: 7 solutions!

None of these alone is the one perfect solution to your stainless steel fridge art crisis, but there are enough ideas here that some sort of mix-and-match fix should be possible:

1. Different Fridge:

Not all stainless steel appliances are created equal, however. Okay, this is science stuff and makes my eyes glaze over, but it seems to have something to do with the different amounts of nickel in the metal alloy that’s used to face the appliances that we call “stainless steel” appliances.

The good news is, some stainless steel fridges will, in fact, work for fridge magnets — especially if the magnet is fairly strong. The most magnet-friendly appliances have a thin sheet of stainless steel as a decorative face over a metal core that’s more ferromagnetic — meaning a metal that magnets will stick to.

If you haven’t bought a fridge yet, take a few magnets to the store and test the attraction before you make a final buy.

2. Different Side:

Many “stainless steel” refrigerators are made differently on the front than they are on the sides. If your fridge magnets won’t stick to the door, try the side of it — if your kitchen arrangement allows easy access to it, of course.

3. Different Appliance:

Or try the dishwasher, or another convenient appliance. For some reason — perhaps because the smaller expanse of metal on the face doesn’t need to have the same strength as a whole big fridge door, your non-fridge stainless steel appliances seem to be more likely to want to play nice with the magnets.

This is great, if all you want is to put your plastic alphabet magnets out for the little kids to learn to spell while you’re making dinner… but it’s not a great solution for those of us who love the ever-changing eye-level Metropolitan Refrigerator of Art.

4. Different Surface:

You can get magnetic paint and make yourself a new magnet display place from a convenient cupboard door, or even a section of wall. I like this idea very much, and a painter pal tells me that the magnetic paint does work very well.

You might even get a can of blackboard paint, too, and paint yourself a half-and-half magnet board and chalk board.

The only problem there is, in a small kitchen, you might not have the blank wall space to spare.

Oh, and you’d still have a great big bare shiny cold medical-looking stainless steel fridge, just beggin for some crayon art and a souvenir magnet from Niagara Falls…

5. Same Fridge Only Different:

Instead of replacing your old, magnet-friendly fridge with the hip new stainless steel you crave, at the cost of your art display, consider a refinishing job.

A good cabinet shop may be able to fit a new stainless steel panel to the front of your existing fridge, depending on the model and its age. If the new face-panel is thin enough, your magnets should still be able to work.

Or there’s a liquid stainless steel brush-on coating that’s a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new fridge if all you really need right now is a kitchen decor update.

It goes on a lot like paint, they say, but if that’s more of a do-it-yourself job than you’re keen to take on, I’ll bet the Yellow Pages can find you a professional painter or refinisher who’s done it a dozen times and can make your old fridge look like new stainless steel. For about $50 plus labor.

And your beloved magnets will still work on your fridge.

6. Different Sticky:

Some people say you should just use sticky tape, or reusable putty or clippers or chewing gum… well, something other than magnets, anyway, to post your photos and memo-notes on the fridge.

That’s not a bad idea, and it gives a great excuse to go browse in the office supplies store! The down side: you don’t get to use and display your magnet collection.

7. Different Metal:

So, if you go the tape-and-sticky-gum route for your fridge display, and you still want to show off your magnet collection — or if you’re bound and determined to use those magnets on the fridge, no other surface will do — there’s something called the Choopa Board that could be your fridge’s new best friend.

It’s a metal board that comes in three different sizes (and two colour options: white or stainless steel) with suction cups on the back. You stick one to the front of the fridge, then stick your magnets on the Choopa Board.
Problem solved!

Wake Up and Smell the You-Know-What

Domestik Goddess — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:06:07 +0000

“More bacon insanity!” crows a recent note from the gadget-loving DJ.

Typically man-like, he claims to be pining for a Wake ‘n’ Bacon alarm clock.

Never mind a blaring buzzer in your sleepy ear, or even the questionably less-jarring sounds of morning radio, this wake-up call will cook your breakfast as it wafts you to wakefulness with the nose-tingling scent of bacon.

And for our vegetarian friends (or for dieters who try to limit the fat-laden temptations that begin the day), Jay Garrett has pointed out an Alfie Lake design that might fit the bill.

This concept for an alarm clock would let you pick which fragrance you’d like it to emit, and set a timer. Fall asleep to the sweet scent of lavendar, for example, and wake to home-baked bread. Sadly, it’s all cartridge-based; actual flowers and baked goods not included.

Green Jade Dragon Bed

Domestik Goddess — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:14:00 +0000

I’m not saying I want to own this bed.

Just, sheesh! look at that incredible thing! To call such a bed “furniture” seems a bit of an understatement, doesn’t it?

It may not be immediately obvious why it’s called a dragon bed, but in among all the intricate carvings of flower designs are a pattern of dragon scales much like those on the imperial throne of the Qing dynasty, as well as other carvings of dragons and phoenixes. Sprinkled in are the symbols for happiness and long life.

Some experts estimate that it would have taken 10 workers a total of at least 3 full years to complete the job of carving the dragon bed — it’s made of 4 tons of precious jade.

Yang Zhibin, a collector from the city of Banjin, China, is the lucky owner.