A few loose ends

This column will be a bit of a catch-all, so please bear with.

I hope that any of you who are actually taking the time to do a floor plan will take this week and finish it. In the next column I’ll help you continue with the process of designing a room by looking at the usage of the room and what that means to you and your floor plan.

Sundial lighting in Vernon now has stock of the spray chandelier cleaner.

Once again this week I had to witness the very sad outcome of what happens when you don’t test your paint color first. The interior of this home hadn’t been painted in a long while, the walls were a soft beige. The homeowner chose a color based only on a small paint chip and bought enough paint for the entire job. Unfortunately the natural light in the room has a very strong effect and instead of a soft pastel it has become a rather overwhelming acidic color. There is talk of re-upholstering because some of the furniture no longer works. The house is also open concept. The color they chose is also a trendy color. I would wager they will be re-painting within a year. You can check my website http://designsewlutions.ca/archives for my column ‘How to choose a paint color’ from June 5, 2009 if you are thinking of painting. Please do this.

Winter is coming. So, now is the time to look at your home and make sure you don’t have any heat ‘sinks’. This is what I call those places in the house that suck the heat out of a room. The crack under the door, the window that doesn’t shut all the way or the fireplace that takes all the warm air up and out. Get your drapes cleaned now if they haven’t been done in a few years. I will come and take them down, get them cleaned and rehang them for you. This is also a great time to have your venetian blinds cleaned of all the summer dust. Be careful cleaning them. Often the cords or tapes are cotton and too much water will cause shrinkage. Clean each vane. Tedious but necessary. When done, close the blind and lightly spray with static guard, close the blind the opposite way and spray again. The static guard helps keep dust from ‘sticking’.

And.. Happy Anniversary to me!!! I’ve been writing this column for two years now. Thank you for reading.