COLIN & JUSTIN: LET THE SUN SHINE IN!

By Colin and Justin:


Conservatories. In Britain they’re everywhere, fastened to the sides of homes across our tiny island like limpets clinging to seashells. Their popularity as “buy now pay later” commodities has afforded them a huge sector of the home improvement market and they (in their various forms and price points) add to the domestic space of almost every U.K. demographic. From those in council properties and starter homes, right across the gamut to suburban residents and the wealthy elite, sunrooms are added, by the thousands, each and every week.

In Canada, conservatories are less frequently witnessed yet, properly conceived, they make wonderful additions to the North American real estate landscape. In a weird juxtaposition, you guys actually have better weather for these rooms than Brits (save for your wintry onslaught where many people worry that a conservatory wouldn’t make useful extra living space), yet they’re added in smaller numbers. Properly planned, however, and constructed by reputable installers, these bright airy rooms make great four season retreats that can augment lifestyle to the max.

The conservatory, in Britain certainly, came to prominence during Georgian and Victorian times when home owners built them, grand style, as “orangeries” at the side of large properties. As perceived statements of wealth and to keep up with the Joneses, they were expensive structures that enhanced Britain’s architectural landscape, providing as they did, somewhere to take the sun or rear fruit or horticultural specimen plants.

But one aspect that got the better of the great British conservatory was the weather. While these ostentatious structures were undoubtedly beautiful, our less than temperate climate battled relentlessly with fuel costs and upkeep on a day-to-day basis. In winter they were bitterly cold — and draughty — whereas in summer they were often uninhabitable owing to magnified heat levels and their traditional south-facing position, which only served to further increase the greenhouse effect. So, as light levels and cold factor increased, the popularity of the great British sunroom waned.

Historically, these glass houses were constructed on a concrete or stone bed and built from oak or similarly weather resistant lumber. As manufacturing processes became more reliable — and when double (and subsequently triple) glazing became the norm — a renaissance occurred and the glass house (albeit packaged more modestly) began to reappear. These days, if you scan British magazines, you’ll find room-sized conservatory prices slashed to as little as $6,000. Sunroom construction is once again a booming trade and renewed interest, since post-war 1950s Britain (and particularly since the mid-1980s), sees them, once again, embellishing British homes as useful extra space. Nowadays the conservatory isn’t simply somewhere to enjoy the sun, it’s, variously, a dining room, a utility room, a secondary living zone or a spillover games room for kids.

From what we see, the traditional Victorian sunroom isn’t as popular as it remains on the other side of the pond. More recently, however, this appears to be changing as competition makes them more affordable. As an alternative to regular extensions, they’re often easier to build and — potentially — offer less planning hurdles. As always, before taking the plunge, speak with your local planning department to ascertain which building, electrical or plumbing permits are required. Or do as we did, for this project, and bring in an expert supplier who’ll do all the work to ensure your new structure satisfies building code. Never tackle a conservatory DIY job unless you are suitably qualified and abreast of all municipality regulations.

Let’s get down to business. You’ll remember that last week we created a wonderful family zone for Bill and Hilary. And today? Well today we reveal the work we did to update their existing sunroom. Yes indeed, so weather and time battered was the existing structure that there existed only one solution to make better of it: to wield the demo ball.

Footprint

Using the existing “bed” allowed us to avoid extra costs and kept the overall size of the room identical. Bear in mind though, that the rules may be different for your structure if you’re building on top of an existing footprint. Again, speak to your planners to make sure you’re respecting all relevant rules. Our clients found their previous solarium to be of perfect size but its rickety construction meant it could only be used in summer. And even then, penetrating sunlight often made its temperature unbearable. With proper consents — and supports in place — we removed the door that lead from the house and inserted in its place an open aperture that provides beautiful flow from old to new. We’re sorry to keep banging on, but take the advice of experts. A quality installer such as DreamSpace (providers of our structure) will advise on all aspects of your new room from initial planning, code restrictions and, of course, construction itself.

Conservatory style

In the first instance we considered creating a cutting edge glass “cube.” However, as our client’s home is more traditional, we finally settled on a traditional aesthetic with more than a whisper of Victorian styling. A higher pitched ceiling provided added volume and gave our scheme commanding presence. Double glazing and rigid build mean the wind no longer whistles through and the conservatory’s open concept wafts heat from the connecting living room on colder days.

Decorative mood

Pre-painted timber diminished workload enormously and the only decor required was on the low wall areas, which we painted soft beige, and the area behind the sofa which we papered to match the living room. As far as we see it, in this case certainly, it’s the conservatory’s pared down simplicity that gives it its visual strength.

Blinds

Having a wonderful sunroom is one thing, but unless proper measures are taken to deflect sun penetration on excessively bright days, you could end up creating unusable space. We fell for the gentle raffia finish of our specification window treatments and they add welcome texture as well as useful heat baffling as and when required.

Flooring

Continuous solid oak flooring, sweeping elegantly from the living room beyond, seals the connective deal, and the avoidance of a threshold bar provides better visual results while also avoiding a potential trip hazard. Again, planning all these little details with your provider will tempt the very best from your project. To add further warmth, we sourced a lux deep pile brown and green striped rug and its provision provides a further link to the living room.

Sofa

Perfectly sized to fit across the largest wall, our comfy sofa is ideal for our newly constructed room. Some specifiers might have chosen traditional wicker furniture for their clients but ours needed extra useable living space more than they needed harder edged conservatory kit. And besides, our project also doubles as a kids play zone so keeping floor space flexible and unhindered by a three piece conservatory suite made better sense.

Tables

A chunky brown leather coffee table provides a little extra bang for our clients’ buck, serving as it does as perfect toy storage for Bill and Hillary’s wee boys. Double bubble (triple bubble in this case as the padded table also provides extra seating) is always our Holy Grail so search out items, like this, with extra function. If the doorbell rings and mom or pop need to quickly tidy, all they need do is lift the table top and stash Buzz Lightyear and his Toy Story pals deep inside!

Colin and Justin: Black and white and red all over

By: Colin & Justin

Whoa! Check out that mountain of washing atop the drawer set in our chaotic before shot. Thank the Lord that there’s an accommodating sofa to collapse upon and a handily positioned plastic bucket for the vomitus flow that would surely occur as a consequence of the housekeeping headache lying ahead. Is it just us or does this room, pre-treatment, look like a laundry? Or, as there’s also a sofa in there, is it maybe a living room? Or is it, God forbid, a ramshackle sleep zone? Hmm. The double bed, secreted shyly towards the rear, certainly suggests sleeping was a possibility, but just imagine how distracted hibernation would be.


And it so needn’t have been like this. It’s interesting to note that today’s featured design crime sits within a large family house, a home with lashings of storage scattered generously around three commodious levels. With a surfeit of closets (and a finished basement that struck us as the perfect spot to tackle the aforementioned ironing) a spot of auspicious reorganization was clearly required. Our mission was simple: to reidentify the messy mélange and, in doing so, give our clients, a frustrated mom and pop with no idea where to start, a boudoir to be proud of. Fortunately, lying just off camera, there exists a walk-in closet which, properly rearranged, is the perfect storage for clothes and linen. We simply opened the doors and stacked everything neatly. We’re old-fashioned that way.

Wall colour

By now you’ve probably figured us out. We play acres of expansive white — in the majority of our designs anyway — against “popping” accent wallpaper, linens, soft furnishings and rugs. It’s not that we prefer avoiding explosions of colour (boy, we’ve ignited a few of those in our time), but more an inclination to safeguard expenditure further down the line. That which our peeps enjoy now — and that which they might prefer at a later stage — can be polar opposites. Therefore, the result of our rebrand, while imbued with lashings of personality and wheels of colour, is flexible. A brand new (and thoroughly adaptable) scheme which can be tailored, via new accessories, at the drop of a designer hat.

Flooring

Our clients wished for a luxurious wooden floor and we happily concurred. We would also, however, add a strident rug in our key note colour — red — but more of that shortly. We opted for solid timber, but if you’re keen to save a little money, there are great laminates available, many of which are perfect for bedrooms. Rona carries a great selection, so jump online and start searching.

Bed and nightstands

First things first: As a general rule, your bed should be positioned on the largest unbroken wall. Doing this allows for optimum “circulation” and ample space for symmetrical dressing with nightstands. At the moment, we simply can’t get enough painted timber furniture. A staple throughout many of our projects, its chunky appearance has lashings of style and fits perfectly into 101 schemes. Whether seaside or cottage inspired, or even slotted into a modern condo, painted timber is just so darned dreamy. In fact, we recently used precisely the same bed in a cavernous loft gig and dressed against exposed brick walls and post and beam architecture, it looks perfectly at home. We’ll show you that project in the coming weeks.

Bed dressing

Country style bed, funky bed linens: A match made in designer heaven. For a pared down look, opt for self-coloured linen with little or no decorative detailing but, if like us you fancy edgier results, try something like this gorgeous damask.

Tip: If you’re reluctant to invest in bedding for fear it might go off trend, do as we did and buy a printed fabric duvet rather than opting for appliqué, or a design boastings detailed stitchery. The former, owing to less expensive construction, will generally be better value than the latter. Or, if you’re feeling daring and want to juice up an existing plain duvet, use a large stencil and carefully apply fabric paint to create your own work of art.

Chair

As a further decorating detail, we found these lovely chairs and fell in love with their scrolled floral design. As recently as two or three years ago, a chair like this was far less generic and, consequently, might have set you back a small fortune. These days you’ll readily find this type of chair for as little as $100. It’s a statement piece and will punctuate even the simplest scheme.

Window dressing

As our wee Scottish grannies would say, “Never fuss, never worry.” Nevertheless, the traditional Scottish maxim still rings in our ears, long since our old girls slipped off this mortal, and we bear their counsel in mind throughout much of the work we do. With adequate pattern elsewhere (rug, bedding, chair, etc.) we pared window dressings back to their minimum and headed to Zellers for simple white drapery which we hung on unfussy cone-tipped black rods.

Rug

While positioned in an essentially monochromatic project, the circular rugs — and their swirling red and white composure — add an extra jolt of life. We actually found two similarly patterned rugs (the other was rectangular) but we chose the round fella as its shape provides visual relief when played against the room’s rectilinear nature and the square cut lines of the furniture. Reminiscent of the classic tree of life, it’s the perfect place to land each morning as a new day dawns.

Tip: Think about rug or carpet pile before investing. Stouter finishes like seagrass and jute are great (they look fab and stimulate nerve endings in your feet) but a soft 8-millimetre pile such as this is extra rewarding.

Chandelier

Feeling horny? Then what better way to enliven your crash pad than with a funky chandelier crafted from imitation stag antlers. This creation actually arrived boasting natural toffee tones but, to take it in an altogether different direction, we carefully masked off wiring and bulb areas and sprayed it crisp white using heat proof aerosol. The fact is we liked the results so much we bought three more: two for our Toronto condo and one, which we shipped to Scotland, for our guest bedroom.

AROMATHERAPY FOR YOUR HOME

By:  Jennifer O’Connor

Toronto Star

I can handle dusty shelves or an upswept floor, but I cannot stand it when my apartment smells stale, or worse, stinky.


That’s why I use lavender and tea tree oils in my kitchen. In my bathroom there’s a dish of dried rosebuds that I got at the health food store. I also get beeswax candles there or at the farmers’ market.

I consider the scent of my home to be as much a part of its decor as a rug on the floor or the knick-knacks on my shelf.

And I’ve learned there are a few simple and not-too-expensive ways to express your olfactory style.

First, says Danielle Sade, director and instructor at Healing Fragrances School of Aromatic Sciences, it’s “very important to understand that we have to eliminate the chemicals in the home, like cleaning detergents.” (The City of Toronto has some enviro-friendly recipes for cleaners on its website, www.toronto.ca/garbage/hhw.)

Also, throw open the windows every once in awhile. “Fresh air,” says Sade, “is one of the best things you can get for the scent of your home.”

Baking soda is also great because it gets rid of odours. Sade recommends adding a few drops of essential oil to it and putting it in the bottom of a garbage can. You can also sprinkle your carpet with some scented baking soda, let it sit for a few minutes and then vacuum.

A simple way to add scent to your home is to put some essential oil — Sade likes the combinations of a couple drops each of lavender and geranium or lemongrass and orange oil — on a cotton ball. Place the cotton ball on the floor or in a little bowl in areas that you want to be scented.

Floral scents such as geranium, lavender, clary sage, rose, jasmine and ylang ylang are good choices, Sade says, as are citrus scents such as orange, mandarin, lime and neroli.

You can also burn beeswax candles. “(They) are amazing,” she says. “They’re very good for the environment as well. It’s great to use them on their own because they’re actually giving off the scent of the beeswax, which is beautiful.”

Before you go diffusing fragrance everywhere, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

“Even though it’s a natural product, you want to know what you’re doing,” she cautions. “There are some oils that can affect animals. There are some oils that you don’t want to put around people who are sensitive or have allergies.”

If you have any questions, talk to an aromatherapist or a knowledgeable staff member at a health food store. Also, although natural potpourris are fine, some people may have allergies to them, she adds.

It doesn’t have to cost a lot to scent your home. I have one 15ml bottle of essential oil that cost $13 (although I’ve bought other bottles that cost as little as $6), but remember you’ll only be using a couple of drops at a time, so it will last quite a while. The price of beeswax candles may also surprise you as they cost $15 to $20 for a pillar. But beeswax burns slowly and one candle can last for many hours. Of course, baking soda is cheap, especially if you can buy it in bulk, and opening a window is free.

The most important thing, says Sade, is to create an environment that smells clean. “Pure cleanliness is the most beautiful scent you can walk into.”

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