Make your home greener
As compact fluorescent light bulbs increase in popularity, their environmental impact — namely the mercury released when the rarely recycled bulbs are dumped in a landfill — has some rethinking the old-fashioned incandescents.
House of Chairs
Before the first course, I knew that we were in for a rare dinner party. For one thing, when the host took his seat at the head of the formal dining table, he was flanked on either side by his miniature dogs. They sat in fancy high chairs. They ate off fine china. … Read more
Summer sizzle: hot trends
Hot trends, cool stuff, big ideas, little wonders.
Aurora Glass recycled drawer pulls benefit charity
Aurora Glass near Eugene produces home products made entirely of recycled window glass.
Get the look: Hotel Modera
Good design looks effortless. It rarely is. Ask anyone who has tried to create a cool mid-century look only to end up with a hot mess of mishmash. Getting the right color, texture, lighting and proportions within four walls is a balancing act. The Hotel Modera lobby in downtown Portland strikes that balance with a look that is pulled together without being too matchy-matchy.
Curvy and Cozy
A new study conducted at OSU compared the impact furniture has on our emotions. Two rooms contained angular furniture. Two contained rounded furniture. The virtual rooms appeared gray to avoid color and texture influences, and both the angular and curvy furniture was arranged in the same pattern. Students declared all the sparse rooms boring. But they rated the two rooms with curvy furniture significantly higher for pleasure and approachability.
Someone’s in the Kitchen
Most of us have seen, what I like to call, Joan Rivers houses. They are homes of a certain age with really bad face lifts. The remodeling meant to make them look fresh and new, instead simply looks scary-weird. The Architectural Heritage Center knows all about updating a house while honoring its history. The center hosts its 13th annual Kitchen Revival Tour this Saturday.
I sink therefore I am
This won’t be pretty. You might want to avert your eyes. But I need to confess: I am in love with a sink. Yes, that’s a little sad. It’s an inanimate object made of porcelain. It cannot love me back. But have you seen the graceful curve of it? The way the white ceramic appears to be swimming through water like an exotic sea creature?
Another KO for NK
Not to turn this into the all-Neil-Kelly-all-the-time place but . . just got word worth sharing. The Oregon company recently won two national CotY awards. Not “Coty” as in fragrance giant, or “COTY” as in the American Fashion Critics’ Award, but C-o-t-capital-Y. CotY stands for Contractor of the Year and it’s given by NARI or … Read more
Hitting the wall
In the neighborhood where I grew up, all the houses were identical in layout. That made each the perfect blank canvas for the woman of the house to express herself. (The men were busy doing manly things.) Each woman just happened to express her unique individuality in a manner almost identical to her neighbor. They painted … Read more
