A Few Things

I spend a fair bit of time on the internet researching things, looking for new things, reading what the industry leaders are up to —  just generally keeping up with the business. Or at least trying to. There is a lot of information out there; it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Every so often I run into something I think is shareable. Here are four. 

First off, I painted my long dark hallway a few years ago. The pre and post hall was so different it warranted a column — I’ll link to it on the website. Just recently I saw a DIY special on fixing hallways and the star of the special was the fake window at the end of the hall. The gal frosted the glass in a fairly large framed window she had hanging around in the to-do-something-with pile in the garage. She hung it on the end wall with battery-operated lights attached to the back side of the window and voila!! a fake window adding a ton of light to the hallway. Really clever.  

http://www.hometalk.com/14056800/my-long-dark-hallway-neefed-some-lights

My colour Guru, Maria Killiam, sent out a blog about painting brick. I HEARD all those gasps. And get this — this was painting the BRICK HOUSE. Yes, the exterior. The whole shebang. If you hate the orange brick of your exterior but thought you just had to live with it, think again.  If you know me at all you know I believe it’s good to paint brick when it’s necessary, and the houses showcased in Maria’s blog are perfect examples of the miracle of painted brick.

http://www.mariakilliam.com/paintingbrick

Then there is the whole Christmas tree thing. If you want the ambience of a tree but can’t do real and just can’t bring yourself to do fake, have a look at the top Modern Christmas Tree DIY’s from Apartment Therapy. I like this site. They do a lot of realistic DIY projects; I always find an idea or two I can stash away for future use.

The featured image of this column is from this article on Hometalk.

But take a look at these too.

And one last thing. The paint companies are releasing their paint colours for next year. To say they are all over the spectrum is an understatement, but in a simplified rundown here is what we have so far.

Benjamin Moore: Shadow (darkish mid-toned gray)

Sherwin Williams: Poised Taupe: (mid toned taupe, purple undertone)

Glidden: Byzantine Blue: (purple-blue mid-toned gray)

Olympic:Cloudberry: (mauve)

Krylov: Copper

Valspar: Crushed Oregano ( lime green)

Farrow and Ball: Peignoir  (pink beige)

Behr: Wanderlust: (dark blue-green)

HGTV Home: Useful Gray: (taupe)

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas/Festivus/holiday season.