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Have you ruined your home or garden lately? Maybe the question should be: Who hasn't?
After all, who hasn't put up wallpaper, bought a sofa or planted a shrub that looked fabulous in the shop, but garish in the home?
Take comfort. You're not alone.
And to prove it, the W Network premiered Honey I Ruined the House this month, hosted by interior designer Naomi Cleaver. Airing Thursdays, the program showcases debacles in inferior decorating.
Not much new in that -- every home improvement show trots out dirty design linens -- but wait for the techno-twist.
Cleaver uses surveillance cameras and an electronic tagging system to track where the family spends most of their time in the home. Armed with this data, Cleaver explains why the home design project flopped and then pulls off the real fix. Before and after surveillance shows occupants make more of use well-designed spaces than ugly, clunky ones.
The show is a U.K. import, and while we all enjoy programs helmed by Brit-in-a-snit hosts -- think Debbie Travis -- what indignities do we Canucks visit upon our own homes and gardens?
We asked some Victoria pros about common house and garden goof-ups and how to fix them. Don't let this list get you down. As Victoria landscape designer Twyla Rusnak says, you're not making mistakes, you're teaching yourself what works and what doesn't.
1. Bickering focal points
Too many focal points in one room spell design disaster. Determine the room's best feature and play that up, says Ivan Meade, principal designer at the Meade Group.
Scale down other features so they take a supporting, rather than competing, role. Homeowners often overlook the fireplace as a natural focal point. Dress it up. Let it shine.
In the example above, the floor-to-ceiling fireplace anchors the room, but it competes with an eclectic collection of wall art and strong rectangular lines from both the coffee table and three-seat sofa. Meade updated the fireplace with limestone tile set in a woven pattern and elegant walnut and maple woods. He edited out the distracting knick-knacks, and replaced them with classic accents, such as the sculptured head and glass droplet vases. In its earlier form, the room was filled with too many straight lines that created a train-track look. The round coffee and accent tables change up those silhouettes, allowing the fireplace to take
center stage, without overwhelming the space.
2. Wearing a housecoat and slippers in public
House exteriors intimidate homeowners into going for safe, but blah, color schemes, especially because the cost-and-labor factor is huge. The result is a poor first impression, a big no-no, especially if you plan to sell the home.
"You never get a second chance to make a good first impression," quotes Kareen MacPherson at By Design Interiors.
Dress up your house in its best colors and textures with help from a color consultant. You're already spending lots on paint and
labor. Spend a little more to show your house at its best.
3. Under planting
Planting a row of low, spreading flowers and shrubs along a fence, as in the example below, leaves the boring band of fencing to dominate the landscape. By varying the height, texture and shape of the plants, the garden will grow to obscure the fence and become the focal point, says Steve Veenstra, owner and operator at Carmanah Landscaping.
4. Over planting
Just like the saying that children's eyes are too big for their stomachs when it comes to dessert, so it can be with gardening where horticultural appetites can outsize garden beds.
Steve Veenstra of Carmanah Landscaping, says overgrown cedars bunched up against the house block light from entering the home, and create a security risk by concealing the street view of the lower windows. In the makeover, , trees, shrubs and plants have been moved away from the house, which also creates a more esthetically pleasing landscape.
5. Self-sabotage in the laundry room
Only one in 10 owners of high-efficiency front-loading machines uses a specialty low-sudsing detergent in their washer, according to a survey for makers of Sunlight detergent, and that results in wasted water and energy.
Warrington Ellacott, 43, spokesperson for appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Canada, says regular laundry detergent is designed for top-loading washers that drink 40 to 50 gallons in a wash cycle.
By comparison, HE machines use 14 gallons. Mixing a regular detergent in an HE machine will cause over-sudsing, sensor malfunction, suds spillovers, filming, improper washing, and will leave residue on clothes and in the washing machine.
When suds fill the HE machine, the sensors read that bubble-buildup as water overfill and the machine goes into a "suds-lock." That's when the washer stalls on an error cycle as it tries to pump out the excess. That can extend a 30-minute cycle into an hour or more, wasting energy. Paul Hughes, technical manager at Unilever Canada, says the cleaning performance of traditional and HE detergents is equal.
Why do people stick to their traditional soaps? Maybe it's because they think more bubbles equals more cleaning power.
"Cleaning is not directly related to bubbles, although consumer surveys we get back suggests people believe it is," said Hughes.
6. Flood-pant syndrome
In Canada, electric baseboard heaters are commonly placed under windows, leading to safety concerns about flowing drapes catching fire. Too often, homeowners address the problem by hemming the drapes short, leading to a home decor faux-pas: Flood-pant syndrome.
"It's like seeing people's socks and shoes when their pants are too short," says designer Ivan Meade. "It doesn't look good at all."
Relocating heaters is a pricey fix, but Meade says the problem can also be solved by creating long flowing side panels to flank the window, then using horizontal blinds or Roman shades to cloak the window, creating privacy free of fire risk. Place the curtain rod as close to the ceiling as possible, rather than just over the window frame, so the side panels draw the eye up, rather than cutting your room visually short.
7. Color coward
Have you exhausted all the shades of white on your home interior? Kick up your heels and go bold.
Here's how: Buy sampler tins of paint, or small cans, and paint one-meter squares in the designated rooms. Check the
color in different lights, looking to see its overall effect and how it works with your upholstery and draperies. "However many times it takes to get it right, it's worth it," says Kareen MacPherson at By Design Interiors, .
8. Dishing up the dirt
Not all top soils are created equal, says Veenstra. Look for soils with good sand and organic content to ensure healthy root growth and good drainage in your property.
"Soil is the nucleus of your landscaping," says Veenstra. "Don't cheap out on it."
The other thing to remember about soil is to make sure not to push it right up to the house or fence. Keep it away from contact with stucco, siding and wood, leaving a 10- to 20-centimetre air gap.
"You need a proper air gap," Veenstra says, "or you might end up with rot."
Air gaps are not required if the soil butts up against a concrete foundation.
9. Taking a hard line
Too often homeowners look only as far as their own property line when planning their landscaping.
Twyla Rusnak, landscape designer at Rusnak Gallant Ltd. recommends taking stock of your
neighbor's plantings and creating your garden to blend, not compete, with theirs.
10. Ignoring the studs
Most homeowners know it's wise to mount shelving and art frames from a stud, but not so many give the same thought to mounting objects off the house's exterior. Gordon English, president of Victoria's Canadian Home Builders Association and owner of Genco Construction Ltd., says homeowners sometimes mount a water hose bracket, wall planters, satellite dishes or other objects by nailing or screwing straight into the siding without looking for a stud.
The weight of that object and/or the pulling it takes when being handled can pull the siding away from the wall, introducing a new avenue for water to make its way inside the structure.
Use a stud-finder to mount your objects off a wall stud, and save yourself from having to take on a nuisance fix down the road.
-- CanWest News Service
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