Simple Guidelines for Choosing Kitchen Colours

How do you choose what colors will work for your kitchen design?

It’s easier than you think. Once you eliminate what won’t work, you are left with a simple palette to choose from. So here are a few ways to filter out colors from your kitchen.

Color for Small Spaced Kitchens

Don’t use dark timbers and colors that will make the space appear smaller. So avoid dark reds, purples, dark blues and greens.

Look for clear crisp colors or whites with a tint of blue, green or yellow for a subtle background of color. Keep cabinetry simple and unadorned and avoid clutter as it will create chaos in a small kitchen.

Color for Large Open Plan Spaced Kitchens

Don’t make a huge contrast in color to the remainder of the décor in your home unless you want your kitchen to visually dominate the living space. Choose a color that flows with the single open plan space. Generally open plan living uses one color for the walls and has small pockets of color to define specific areas within this.

Open plan spaces predominately use white as a wall color and then add color and texture to that. So colors that would work in a large open plan spaced kitchen are mottled, textured neutrals, whites, grays, black and silver metallics, materials like Corian, granite, laminates, stainless steel and tiles.

Then use color in accessories, flowers, jars, vases, pendant light shades, bar stools, pictures etc to provide focal points and pockets of color.

These kitchens are small functional and compact. They generally aren’t a feature of the home simply a necessity and often use colors and textures to blend into the space and encroach as little as possible.

Most apartments are strapped for space and don’t have an abundance of natural light so bright light and clear colors tend to work best. Once again neutrals, whites and grays with accents of clear crisp colors, teal, apple green, hot pink, citrus yellow in small forms. Therefore the timeless all white kitchen works well with white appliances or for a modern look, soft metallic gray with stainless steel appliances is sleek and functional.

Colors for Standard Typical Spaced Kitchen

Yippee!! Anything goes…. Obviously as long as it suits the style of your home and kitchen you can use any colors you like. The only thing to be weary of is lighting.

If you have a lot of natural light and well planned task and feature lighting then the colors you use can be strong and bold and you will still be able to see and the kitchen will be highlighted but if you have little natural light and poor lighting then either upgrade it or choose lighter more light reflecting colors.

Make the most of color, use it, don’t get obsessed with it – step back and visualize your kitchen and how it will look, use brush outs (large cards of paint colors) to hold up in the space to see how the color works at different times of the day with different light. Start gradually and build up color.

If you are in doubt, stick to neutrals and layer gradually. Add color until you get the look you want. After all haven’t we been told for generations from the real estate agents that white is best in the kitchen as it is the color of purity and cleanliness and the most versatile and the best kitchen color for resale!

http://kitchens.interiordezine.com/kitchen_styles/choosing_colors_for_kitchens.html

Keep That Window Working!

I just thought this was an interesting article...short, but useful. I've run into the sticky window issue a few times!

Windows are an everyday part of our life. We need to maintain our windows because of the moving parts. It does not really matter what type of window you have, from timber to aluminum they all use moving part to open and close. If you let paint or grime build up it will affect the performance of the window and may lead to the point where you can’t lock or close it.
•Aluminum windows need to be clean, and with the use of spray silicone you add a film of lubricant to the tracks and wheels or runners.
•Use the spray silicone inside the tracking system to improve performance.
•For those timber windows use the spray silicone on the hinges and stays, and by working the hinge and spraying at the same time, keep the window moving till you regain total movement.
•You must be careful not to get any silicone on paintwork or where you intend to paint. Most spray cans will come with a hollow piece of plastic so that you can direct your spray easily.
•The best way to secure aluminum windows is to install a key lock system where the pin passes through the sliding and fixed tracks locking the window into position. When you remove the key the window cannot be moved. There is also a similar locking system for timber windows

http://www.renovatehomes.com.au/?Page=Newsitem&NewsId=46

Spring Lawn Preparation

Now that the wintry weather is gone and the colorful blooms are back, it’s time to think about spring cleaning. But while you’re washing windows, scrubbing walls and dusting corners inside the house, don’t forget about rolling up those sleeves and giving the outside a once-over, too.

Spending some time in the backyard as soon as spring rolls around can really pay off. “Winter can leave a lawn in pretty tough shape,” says backyard expert Michael Miller, president of backyard tool manufacturer Hound Dog Products. “But there are lots of little things you can do to help spruce up your backyard when the weather starts to turn warmer. By digging in to cleanup in early spring, you’ll be ahead of the game, and your neighbors will be playing catch-up all year long.”

Miller offers seven tips that the professionals use to ensure a successful backyard spring cleanup effort -- and to help your home’s outside sparkle and shine as vibrantly as the inside.

• Rake. As soon as the lawn begins to wake up for the season, give it a light once-over with a rake, taking care not to disturb any new grass plants by raking too hard. In addition to clearing leaves, twigs and other debris left over from last fall, the first raking of the year also allows you to assess the extent of any winter damage to your lawn. Look for early signs of pests or disease, and nip them in the bud before they cause big problems.

• Aerate. Heavy use throughout the year can cause soil to become compacted. Removing plugs of sod in the spring -- aerating -- loosens the soil and lets water, air and fertilizer get down to the grass plant’s root structure. For smaller yards, or for concentrated trouble spots in any size yard, consider using a manual aerating tool that removes plugs from the turf. If you have a large yard, consider renting a power aerator.

• Top dress. After you aerate, spend a few minutes doing what the experts call “top dressing,” spreading a thin layer of peat moss over the lawn with a rake. The top dressing helps to gradually condition the lawn throughout the year, strengthening the grass so it can resist disease, weeds and thatch, and reducing the amount of water and fertilizer it needs.

• Weed. Go after weeds early in the season before they have a chance to go to seed. Cultivating a healthy lawn is one of the simplest ways to crowd out weeds. Or, remove dandelions and other broadleaf weeds with an easy-to-use weeder. Ergonomic tools like the Weed Hound have helped make long afternoons spent weeding nothing more than a backbreaking memory. All you do is place the tool over the weed, step lightly on the footrest, and pull the weed up, root and all.

• Fix bare spots. Whether it’s due to disease or dog urine, bare patches can make a yard look shabby. A quick and easy way of improving the look of your yard is to repair the discolored patches, especially in early spring, when the cooler temperatures help the grass grow. Just clear away the dead-looking patches, sprinkle grass seed on the newly exposed soil, add fertilizer, and keep the area moist until it sprouts.

• Remove thatch build-up. Thatch prevents sunlight, oxygen and moisture from getting to the nutrient-hungry soil below. But it’s easy to remove, especially if you do it regularly -- every year or two. Just go at the yard with a dethatching rake or power dethatcher to clean away the layer of tangled roots and stems. It takes some elbow grease, but it will help clear the way for new growth.

• Give your tools a spring tune-up. Spend a few minutes in the garage or storage shed making sure your tools are in good working condition -- before you need to use them for the first time. Consider taking your lawn mower in for an annual tune-up. The dealer can replace the oil and spark plugs, sharpen the blade, and get it ready for the season.A little effort in early spring can lay the groundwork for a thriving, healthy backyard -- and have your neighbors turning green with envy.

http://www.homeownernet.com/articles/springlawnprep.html

Spring Cleanup: Getting Your Garden Back Into Shape

It looks as though...dare I say it? Spring has almost sprung in Prince George! After a couple of MONTHS wondering if we were going to get spring at all...looked for awhile there like we would just go back into winter...it looks as though Jack Frost has given up. It is a bit dreary outside as I write this, but...I was fortunate enough to see both robins and tulips just the other day!
So anyway, thought I'd post another article on spring gardening...it has some interesting tips in it. Enjoy :)



Early Spring is a great time to emerge from hibernation. We all do it; humans, animals and even our gardens. If you take some time to give your garden an early boost, you will likely be rewarded with a spectacular growing season.Early SpringTiming is different in all parts of the country. But you may find that if you get outside and do a little work in your garden before the start of the growing season, your garden beds will look fantastic. You may even enjoy the cool weather and getting your body in shape for the gardening season to come.

Spring Clean Up

If you did a great job bedding down your plants for winter, you may not have too much work to do this Spring. However, you still should put in a little effort to make sure everything is in order.If you were a little too busy last fall to do much cleaning up, you will find that you have some work to do.

Clean Out Those Garden Beds

One of the first things you will want to do for a good Spring clean up is to clean out your garden beds. If you have any annuals left in your beds that are shriveled and dead, rake them up and dispose of them. Better yet, compost them to use in the future as mulch. If you have any perennials which you haven't cut back, be sure to do that now. You don't want to have this year's plants emerging amongst brown and shriveled stalks. Cut back these dead perennials all the way to the ground. However, make sure not to cut back plants which will grow from old wood, such as Hydrangeas.

Mulch

Mulching and its annual removal is a matter of personal preference. It is also a matter of cost. There are many gardeners who believe that winter mulch must be disposed of in the very early Spring, so as not to spread disease. If any of your plants had leaf spot, or any other garden pest or disease, this will surely be carried over in the mulch. In addition, if leaves from elsewhere have blown in and settled in your garden beds over the winter, you may have spores or cocoons hiding in your garden.

In theory, you should rake up the winter mulch and dispose of it or compost it (the high temperatures of composting will kill off any nasties). However, this can be back breaking, time consuming and expensive.

If, for example, you noticed that your roses performed very poorly last year and had funky looking leaves, you may want to do some extra Spring clean up in the rose beds. That is, if you are lucky enough to have rose beds! Other wise, try to get out all of the dead leaves, weed and plants and leave the mulch behind. You may even find that if you take up all the mulch too early, your plants get a little too chilly. Just make sure that you get rid of the dead and shriveled leaves and plants and you should be just fine.

Garden Bed Maintenance

Early Spring is a great time to look over your beds and perform any necessary maintenance. You will be able to walk freely around in the beds and get to any spigots or fencing that needs repairing before your beautiful plants are up and growing.

Early Spring is also a great time to inspect the foundation of your house if it is going to be shortly blocked by growing plants. Take a few minutes and examine the foundation of your house to make sure nothing looks like it is wet or in disrepair. You may not be able to do this if you have foundation beds and gardens which will soon be growing.

Clean Out Last Years Pots and Containers

Early Spring is also a great time to clean out any pots and containers that may still have last year's plants and soil in them. Mulch or dispose of any dead plants that are still in those containers and get rid of the soil. Chances are that last year's plants have leached all the nutrients out of it, so you can compost the soil as well.

Reap Your Rewards

If you put in a little bit of effort early this Spring, your planting and garden beds will be in great shape for the whole growing season. Your plants will be primed for success and their surroundings will be beautiful.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/139103/spring_clean_up_getting_your_garden_pg2.html?cat=32

Tips to Making Painting Easy

Summer is the season of the "do-it-yourselfer." Handy homeowners come into their own as the weather warms and they can embark on all those home improvement and maintenance tasks that languished all winter. Painting tops the list for many homeowners; it not only protects your interiors, painting is a great way to liven things up.

Giving interior walls a fresh coat of paint is well within the abilities of most homeowners. The experts at Wagner Spray Tech, makers of tools to ease every painting task, offer the following helpful hints to get you started on your paint project:


Preparation

•Good surface preparation is the key to a long-lasting and great-looking paint job. Repair cracks or chips, sand and smooth rough edges, and clean chalky surfaces. Give the walls 24 hours to dry after you have wiped them down.


•Assemble all painting tools and cleanup supplies before you start. You will need paint (one gallon per every 300 to 400 square feet), painter's tape, drop cloths, brushes, rollers, paint tray liners, paint thinner and rags. For fast, easy painting, consider a power sprayer or power roller. Recent innovations make these tools easy to use, easy to control, easy to switch colors and easy to clean.


•Protect floors and furniture with a drop cloth or sheet.


•Cover trim with a low-tack painter's tape to protect trim. Low-tack or less sticky tapes are easier to remove and less likely to harm wood.


•Protect windows with Glass Mask, a liquid product that is easier to apply than traditional tape. The product comes in a plastic tube that fits easily in the palm of the hand. To apply, simply press the attached applicator pad to the window and glide it along the trim that will be painted. Once the liquid is completely dry, you can paint the trim. Any paint that laps onto the Glass Mask can easily be scraped off with the included blade. One tube of Glass Mask will cover about the same lineal footage as three rolls of traditional tape. The product is available at hardware, paint supply and home warehouse stores.


•Remove loose fibers from roller covers with painter's tape or a lint roller before using.

Painting

•Spray or roll from top to bottom, left to right to cover neatly and evenly. Lighter, multiple coats will cover better than one heavy layer of paint.


•Sprayers offer the best and most efficient coverage when painting large areas or exteriors. After spraying, back roll to ensure even coverage.


•Use a quality brush or roller.


•Place a garbage bag over your paint tray, brush or roller to prevent the paint from drying. This will keep the paint for 24 hours - and let you take a break without worrying that your paint will dry out.

Clean Up

•For water-based paints, rinse brushes, rollers and tools with water. For oil-based paints, use paint thinner. Some power sprayers and rollers now offer disposable wet parts that don't need to be cleaned and are inexpensive to replace. This also allows easier color changes during the painting process.


•Use bristle protectors that fit over brushes and protect them when not in use. They are available at most hardware stores.


•Use a fine-tooth comb to loosen any debris left in the bristles after clean up.

Monthly Garden Maintenance: SPRING!

Spring is almost here - at least we hope it is! - so here are a few tips for getting on top of your gardening for the year!

The term garden journal is widely used, but do you know what a garden journal is? A misconception is that a garden journal is an unnecessary book of blank pages one uses to write down thoughts while lounging in the garden. That is certainly an option (we are not here to discourage creativity or lounging in the garden); however, a garden journal is more widely used as a tool to document the successes and failures in a garden.

When a car is manufactured, it comes with a user's manual. After a house is built, the owner receives a copy of the plans, and user manuals for appliances. Likewise, a garden journal is the manual of your garden that tells you when to perform specific maintenance tasks, deal with diseases, and care for individual plants. A garden journal is your one-stop for all this gardening information. To start your gardening journal off right, we've created a yearly gardening task list broken down by month.

Garden Production Schedule

Starting seedlings, preparing soil, buying mulch, deterring insects and rodents, planting new plants, spraying for diseases, trimming, cutting, dead heading, thinning out, dividing, adding nutrients, and picking produce and herbs are just a few of the tasks a gardener performs each year. Gardening can be an obsession which soon becomes a year round activity, as you'll soon see. For everything to bloom and grow on schedule, your plants must be planted, pruned, fed, and cared for throughout the year. Truly organized gardeners don't fly by the seat of their pants or take a hint from the gardening actions of neighbors, but actually adhere to a gardening production schedule each season. The garden journal is normally the guide used to care for the garden each year.

Gardening Tasks for March


° March is the perfect time to start seedlings indoors such as calendula, corn poppy, corn flower, sunflower, marigolds, zinnia, fox glove, impatiens, cosmos, snapdragon, and lupines. Gardeners use both seed starting kits available at most home improvements stores and online, or develop homemade starter containers by cutting down toilet paper rolls, stuffing the bottom with newspaper, and filling the top with soil. Whichever method you use, be sure to start the seeds during the month of March. If the seeds are hardy (check the package for details) you can plant them directly outdoors. Don't forget to provide some protection from rabbits, or the next time you check the seedlings they may not be there.


° When weather permits, cut back ornamental grasses or flowering plants that were kept taller for winter garden color and interest. Cut ornamental grasses down to at least 12 inches from the base. Prune rose bushes, small shrubs, and any climbing vines. If you plan to add rose bushes in containers, keep an eye on the weather and sneak it in on a warm day. Summer blooming perennials should also be planted in March, but only if they are a hardy size. It is still too early to plant seedlings outdoors.


° Clean up the yard and garden areas and dispose of any left over leaves. Don't simply cover leaves with mulch - damp leaves are a breeding ground for garden-eating bugs and mosquitoes.


° Depending on the region, narcissi, daffodils and other bulb plants bloom from late winter to early spring. If you don't see signs of them in the garden now you soon will. Be sure to fertilize the bulbs as soon as leaves appear above the soil. Once bulb plants start to die, cut off the flowers, but wait six weeks before cutting leaves and stems.


° If your lawn is disheveled it won't matter how spectacular your garden is, so be sure to fertilize and reseed any bare areas.


° Finally, scrub down any garden stones covered with algae or garden decorations left out through the winter.


Gardening Tasks for April


° During April, continue to care for seeds you started in March, and if need be plant more seedlings indoors.


° April can bring harsh storms and winds, so secure climbing plants or fragile rose bush branches. Twist the vines and branches to decorative spikes or lattice to keep vines from breaking in the wind. Add decorative stakes to tall, top heavy plants like delphiniums, hollyhocks, and cone flowers. Some variations of Shasta Daisies need stakes as well.


° April is a very important month for your rose bushes. If you want bold and beautiful rose bushes in July you have to fertilize, prune, mulch, and be on the lookout for bugs in April.


° If April isn't full of showers, trim shrubs in the garden and landscaped areas of the yard.


° If rhododendron flowers were not trimmed from last year, be sure to dead head them by April. (That is, if they haven't already blown down the block during a bad storm.) If you plan to add additional evergreen shrubs to the garden, April is the month to do so. Actually, any shrub or perennial can be added this month that thrives in soil with an acid pH.


° Rudbeckia (black-eyed susans), Shasta Daisies and aster are three popular garden perennials. Not all gardeners are aware that you can divide these plants as they age. Yay, more plants to plant! The time to do that is, you guessed it, April. In the summer and fall months, make a note in your garden journal about plants you feel can be divided the following spring. That will help you keep track.


° Be sure to till and hoe the garden soil to prevent weeds from growing, or from taking away nutrients from seedlings.


° If you should have a late winter frost or snow storm, cover flowering plants with plastic and secure with bricks or buckets of sand. As long as the soil is the proper temperature, your plants should be fine.


° Plant phlox, thyme and other alpines.


° If soil temperatures permit, plant sunflower.


Gardening Tasks for May


° Continue gardening tasks covered in previous months. This includes caring for seedlings, weeding, and trimming.


° Plant hydrangeas, fuchsia and other shrubs that prefer warmer weather. As the lovely to look at azaleas bloom, be sure to deadhead daily so new flowers have room. Do the same for rhododendrons and other flowering bushes in your garden.


° Check the pH level of soil and make adjustments as needed.


° Walk the garden area and look for overcrowded areas, or overgrown plants that may be blocking others from the sun. If needed, trim plants or thin out areas by replanting elsewhere. If areas of garden weed barrier ripped over the winter, apply a new barrier sheet to the area. Add mulch to your entire garden area.


° Plant annuals within the garden, in containers, and as borders. You can plant annuals in April or March if the soil temperature is right. Be sure to regularly deadhead annuals to promote new growth.


° When the wind blows, seeds from lawn weeds are carried to garden areas where they take root. Continue to mow the lawn and add weed killer.


° Add homemade or store bought slug traps throughout your garden.


° Of course, don't forget to care for your indoor seedlings, to check plants for diseases, add protection against rabbits, and document anything of note in your garden journal.


http://www.doityourself.com/stry/gardenjournal1

Use Colour to Change Space

INTRODUCTION
The Designer's Lesson


You know the formula by heart: warm colors advance and cool colors recede.
The advice that usually follows this statement is to paint the walls a cool color if you want a room to seem larger; if you want it to feel smaller, bathe the walls with a warm hue. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple.

A bold green or blue can pull in the walls around you just as effectively as the warmest red, while a soft yellow can make the walls seem to dissolve, enhancing the sense of space. It's a matter of value -- lightness or darkness -- and intensity (how saturated or pure a color is) as much as temperature.

Mood Changes and More: In general, lighter, paler, or less intense colors will enlarge the apparent space; darker or more intense colors will shrink it. The impact of color on space is also a question of mood. Color affects your mood, which in turn affects your perception of a space and your comfort level in it.

Remember, too, that neighboring colors affect each other. If you juxtapose two colors, the eye will perceive them to be as different from each other as possible.
Complements -- colors that lie directly opposite each other on the color wheel -- intensify each other. If you use red and green in a room together, the red will seem more red and the green will appear more green.

Every scheme needs a dollop of contrast to intrigue the eye and to feel balanced and lively. When you work with complements, you automatically have that contrast. An analogous scheme of warm or cool colors will require the addition of an element of the opposite temperature to give the scheme punch.

COLOR VALUE
Light and Dark

Value refers to how light or dark a color is; among all colors, yellow is the lightest value, and purple is the darkest.

When you want to alter the sense of space in a room, use low-value (dark) colors to draw the walls in around you. Use high-value (light) colors to push them away and make a room appear a bit larger.

Every color can range from light to dark, so you can use your favorite hue to shrink a room or expand it by choosing the appropriate value.

CONTRAST
Focal Points Pop

High contrast between a room's walls and its architectural features outlines the room's boundaries and calls attention to its shape and size. If the room is generous, you'll notice the size more; if it's diminutive, you'll be more aware of that too.

Furnishings that stand out sharply against the wall color also help define the space more precisely. Ocean blue walls contrast briskly with white woodwork and upholstery, sharpening awareness of the dimensions and limits of the space.

A bold golden yellow, on the other hand, blends with gold-color accessories, painted furniture, and white woodwork and upholstery, enlarging the sense of space even though the color is deep and warm.

COLOR CAMOUFLAGE
Create Dimensions

If you're faced with a boxy room that feels boring, try a multicolor palette to change the proportions. How do you choose a palette for this kind of illusionism? As a general rule, plan on either a warm or an intense color for the wall you wish to bring forward and either a cool or a subdued color for the walls you wish to push apart.

In a long, narrow hall, for example, painting the end wall coral and the corridor walls sage can visually shorten the corridor because the coral will advance visually. Conversely, a short hall will seem longer if you paint the end wall a lighter color and the corridor walls a darker one.

For a starting point in choosing specific colors, consider your givens. If a piece of furniture (such as a red sofa) is a focal point, then choosing its complement (green) for the nearest wall will intensify both colors and draw the eye toward that part of the room.

For the remaining walls, select a light value of a color that appears in other furnishings or in an architectural feature. For the ceiling, decide whether you want to lower or raise it and choose your color accordingly.

No matter how effectively you select colors for this kind of space-altering approach, using different hues on each wall and the ceiling breaks up the space and may easily create visual chaos.

Decorating with planes of color -- changing hues wherever one plane meets another -- is an option best suited to those who enjoy the stimulation of lots of color in their environment.

Alter the Sense of Space

Lofts and new homes with open plans and cathedral ceilings offer similar architectural challenges for homeowners. If your living room, kitchen, and office all share one large, undivided space, can you use more than one color? And if so, where do you stop one color and start the next?

In traditional homes, cased openings, columns, and pilasters provide natural boundaries for starting and stopping colors. To develop a palette, pull out colors from your home's furnishings that will blend rather than match exactly. Start with a rug or fabric that offers three or four compatible colors. Include both warm and cool hues and keep them in the same tonal range.

To map out where you'll apply each color, think about creating a sense of movement through successive spaces by arranging the colors from warm to cool or vice versa.

Also consider the light that each space receives. Natural light changes the appearance of any color. To gauge the impact of light on your chosen colors, buy a quart of each color and brush the paint onto large pieces of poster board. Tape the poster board to the walls to observe how the colors change throughout the day and by lamplight.

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/color/basics/use-color-to-change-space/?page=1