25 easy ways to live green at home

By 

Yuki Hayashi

Photography 

Tracey Ayton

Easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint and be a better friend to the environment.

Being environmentally friendly at home doesn't have to mean sacrificing your sense of style. Smart choices can ensure that you do your part, all the while looking (and feeling!) good about your contribution to our planet's wellbeing. Here are 25 ways that you can live green at home and be a better friend to the environment.

1 Buy for the long-term. Save toward a quality sofa, for instance, rather than a series of cheapies that you'll be throwing out every five years. A well-made sofa can be recovered several times over the course of its decades-long life.

2 Pack a litter-less lunch. Make sure your food storage containers are free of harmful bisphenol.

3 Lower your thermostat a few more degrees and cosy up with your sweetie under an eco-friendly bamboo throw blanket!

4 Buy cotton mesh produce bags and take them to the market instead of using plastic bags for your fruit and veggies. They will help keep them fresh in your crisper drawer, too, and are washable when needed.

5 Renovating? Add character to your home with reclaimed and salvaged items. Top hits: re-plated chrome bath fixtures, re-enameled vintage bathtubs, reclaimed barn board flooring and salvaged architectural accents like columns, corbels and mantels.

6 Switch to eco-friendly cleaning products. Look for products that are biodegradable, phosphate-free and not tested on animals.

7 Or just check out your cupboards: Vinegar diluted with water is great on windows and floors; baking soda is great for gently scouring and deodorizing kitchen and bath surfaces.

8 Use reusable shopping bags when grocery shopping.

9 Reduce your use of paper towels. Use re-useable, washable cloths whenever possible.

10 Get an energy audit and find ways to improve your home's energy efficiency. Common to-dos include improving insulation, upgrading windows, installing weather stripping, trading up to a high-efficiency furnace and installing a programmable thermostat.

11 Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). If you really, really don't care for them, just change your porch light, laundry or utility room light to CFLs. You won't notice the difference, but CFLs use 75% less energy than standard bulbs.

12 Recycle and compost.

13 Consider reading your daily newspaper online instead of in paper form.

14 Plant a tree on your property. Or more, if you have space. Trees provide wildlife habitat and help cool the planet.

15 Help clean your indoor air with houseplants; studies have shown that they can clear toxins like benzene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde from the air (these baddies lurk in paint, varnishes, particle board, foam insulation, cleaning products and other common household materials). Philodendron, dracaena, spider plants and peace lilies are particularly good clearing the air.

16 Eat organic. Pesticide residues harm wildlife on land, and with rain, run off and pollute lakes and rivers. Fertilizers can produce fatal algae blooms that destroy fish stocks. Further, many common agricultural fertilizers are known to have negative effects on human health.

17 In the market for new appliances? Buy Energy-Star certified products.

18 Stash reusable shopping bags so you'll have them where you need them: in your bag or briefcase, at home, in the car, in your office desk, etc.

19 If your lawn languishes without lots of fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide and regular watering, consider letting it die and replacing it with moss or a drought-resistant ground cover like creeping thyme, clover, or a grass species native to your region.

20 Put a rain barrel by your downspout to collect rainwater to use in your garden later.

21 Eat local. Less travel equals fewer fossil fuels used for shipping. (And food tastes fresher, too!)

22 In the housing market? Consider a property within biking or walking distance of your office, so you're more likely to leave the car in the garage. (Look for good connections to public transit, too.)

23 Install aerators and low-flow showerheads so you can save water without sacrificing water pressure.

24 Put your dryer on vacation and use an outdoor clothes line or indoor drying rack whenever possible.

25 Eat better-quality meat (organic, hormone-free, free-range), but save money – and your heart – by eating it less frequently. Work vegetable protein into your diet with tofu, beans and nuts. Vegetable protein uses less water and land to produce than meat.

Treat your windows right

http://www.styleathome.com/decorating-and-design/window-treatments/treat-your-windows-right/a/658

By 

Heather Camlot

Beautiful window treatments can make all the difference 

to any room.

Window treatments are essential for blocking out light, maintaining privacy and, for interior decorator Candice Olson, hiding her pregnancy. “Thank God for blinds,” says the host of Divine Design on W. “It's my way of protecting my neighbours from me!”

Window treatments come in a variety of styles, colours and materials to help you achieve the look you want and the coverage you need. But with so many options, narrowing them down can get a little tricky.

Selecting window treatments 
Function should be your first consideration, says Kimberley Seldon, host of Design for Living on HGTV Canada and STYLE AT HOME decorating editor. That includes the desired amount of sunlight and privacy, as well framing or distracting attention from a view. “Look at the room architecturally,” adds Candice. “If it's a beautiful window, sheers are the answer. If it's a problem window, drapery can hide a lot of flaws.”

Next, think about the look you want. “Any style of treatment can be used in any type of room – it's the decor that dictates the style,” says Kimberley. “An elaborately pleated drapery and valance look perfectly fine in a formal, traditional room, but absolutely out of place in a modern interior.” Still, some rooms have issues that need to be addressed. In a kitchen, for example, Candice prefers to keep things simple, taking into account airborne grease and food particles. For the bathroom, a soft sheer and simple valance work to soften hard surfaces. And don't forget about the humidity. “Anything with body will just sag, so it needs to be on the simpler side,” she says. Bedrooms are tricky with both softness and light-blocking priorities. “Typically, we'd do multiple layers, like a decorative side panel, a sheer behind that and then a blackout roller blind,” says Candice.

Budget is always an important factor. “It's amazing how much drapery fabric costs,” says Candice. “And wood shutters are a nice, clean, simple treatment, but they're super-expensive.”

And finally there are the trends. Trim is all the rage for fall, with traditional flat braids, cords, gimp and ribbons taking on a new life in tone-on-tone modern window coverings, says Kimberley. “It's like adding a beautiful necklace to a simple dress – it makes all the difference.” Going natural is also turning heads. “Anything that has a natural texture just takes the edge off of modern interiors,” says Candice. “It's a way to balance everything else that's so sleek and streamlined.”

Weighing the pros and cons
Window treatments fall into three major categories.

Blinds are screens typically on a roller or have vanes or slats and come in an enormous variety of materials, from fabric to wood. Keep in mind that many also come with poles and cords, which could be hazardous if you have children.

• Venetians offer flexible light control and can be inexpensive.
• Cellular shades are coveted for their honeycomb shape: two layers of pleated fabric connected to produce air pockets, which increase insulation.
• Verticals, usually made of PVC or fabric, also offer high light control and extra insulation.
• Roman blinds, which fold together when up and lie flat when down are well-suited to modern interiors and offer a tailored look.
• Motorized blinds are a boon to loft living and two-storey windows, but are very pricey.
• Shadings, another expensive alternative, have fabric vanes held together by sheer fabric on either side. Light always penetrates to a certain degree, but vanes allow for privacy.

Curtains are fabric that hangs from a rod or valance and can be tied back. Curtains refer to treatments that don't reach the floor – those that do are drapes. While curtains add elegance, natural materials such as silk fade in sunlight, while sheers allow sun to penetrate and fade your upholstery and carpeting. Therefore it's best to add a blackout liner placed between two layers of fabric or behind single curtains in your choice of material and colour. For natural materials, Candice suggests opting for a synthetic mix – polyester and linen, for example – to help the coverings last a little longer. If you have children, be wary of any hazardous trim or accents.

Shutters are often wooden hinged or solid panels that cover a window for privacy and light control. Popular right now are plantation shutters, which have thick, wide slats. Wood offers great insulation and a clean look, but shouldn't be used in high-humidity areas like kitchens and bathrooms. In some instances, shutters can also come across as stark, says Candice. “If windows are small in scale relative to the overall wall they're on, or if there aren't numerous shutters to create a rhythm of repetition throughout the space, shutters can sometimes look quite cold or bare on their own."

10 Easy, Low Cost Home Decorating Tips

By Barrett Lowery

Decorating your house can be a lot of fun. Whether you have been in your house for years or just moved in, decorating your house can be a challenge. Finding ways to accentuate the positive areas of your home and hide the negatives is an essential part of home decorating. Try beginning with these 10 Easy Home Decorating tips, and see how they can transform the look of your home.

1. Some of the most easy decorating ideas revolve around rugs. A different colored rug can completely reinvigorate a smaller room, and there are many different colors and variations to pick from in a variety of budgets.

2. Many people find art to be a great addition to their home. Putting up paintings or drawings is a great way to add visual style and culture to your home.

3. Furniture is a necessary part of every home, but you do not have to shell out big bucks to replace yours. You can freshen your furniture using varnish or getting new cushions with a different color for your sofa.

4. Paint should probably be in your DIY budget. It is really amazing how much a simple paint job can really change the atmosphere of a single area.

5. Consider adding pillows on your furniture. A couple brightly colored ones will work wonders on a sofa or a recliner.

6. Any easy room to update is the bathroom. You do not have to remodel the whole room to get a new look. Get a new shower curtain, and pick out towels to match.

7. In the kitchen, some new paint on your cabinets will freshen up the entire room.

8. Lighting can do a lot for a room. Adding in decorative lamps that look good are a fine conversation starter, and the lighting can provide a soothing aura.

9. Plants can present a more natural and welcoming environment. Just adding a few potted plants on a windowsill can provide a great touch of color. Plants work indoors or out, and are also an excellent choice for your patio. If you have less floor space to work with, try hanging plants.

10. If you want advice from design experts, it can be helpful to look for pictures either from a magazine or online. This can let you know what something will look like before you try it, or may even give you more great ideas.

Barrett Lowery supports shopping home goods online at http://www.home-goods-store.net/. His blog home-goods-store.net aims to share important information about home goods and home decorating.

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