Indoor vegetable garden for your kitchen

Last year, while watching Dragons' Den on TV, I saw an incredibly innovative solution to year-round fresh herbs and veggies in your home:  the Urban Cultivator.  Interested in learning more about this novel appliance, I contacted their head office in Vancouver.  The size of a wine fridge, it can be built into the cabinetry of a new kitchen renovation like a dishwasher, or it can be a stand-alone appliance on wheels.

 

I think this is perfect for vegetarians and those people concerned about eating fresh, healthy home-grown greens year-round in Canada.  The distributor for the Urban Cultivator is Appliance Love,  located in downtown Toronto and Mississauga.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback.  Do you think this is something that will one day be as essential to the modern kitchen as the refrigerator and stove?

Please visit my website Tobi Brockway Interiors Inc. to see my portfolio and for more information on how we can help you with your own residential interior design project.

Interior Design Show Highlights

IDS13 was one of the best yet in terms of creative ideas and innovative products.  As you walked into the Convention Centre, there were enormous balloon structures floating above the escalators.

I found out afterwards that this installation comprised of 1,600 twisted balloons was created by 25-year-old Willy Chyr, a Toronto born artist now based in Chicago.

For those coffee aficionados who are renovating their kitchens in the near future, here's something to consider.

 Miele has a cappuccino/espresso maker designed for built-in cabinetry, just like a wall oven or microwave.



I've selected Satin Finish Soho hardwood flooring for a few of my client projects.  At their booth, the flooring on the floor was especially interesting.

Imagine my  surprise when I found out that flooring was actually laminate.  That's right, laminate.  Something to consider when hardwood flooring isn't practical or doesn't fit in the budget.  From Satin Finish's High Performance Collection, it's colour Nordic Ice.

The Interior Design Show never fails in delivering fabulous backsplash tile.  This year the one that caught my eye was a combination of iridescent, pearly tiles.

Tones of grey, soft brown and cream - absolutely gorgeous.

The last item that caught my eye was a new line from Buhler Furniture.  Manufactured in Winnipeg, this company specializes in wood media cabinets,  many with fireplaces.  This is their first foray into contemporary design and I especially like the flexibility of design and colour.

Available in 6 different designs and 4 different wood finishes that can be mixed and matched, I'm so happy to have a Canadian-made contemporary cabinet to recommend to my clients.

Which ones are your favourites?  Please let me know what you think and as always, please forward this blog post to your friends and colleagues.

Please visit my website Tobi Brockway Interiors Inc. to see my portfolio and for more information on how we can help you with your own residential interior design project.

Protection for your dining room chairs

One of my clients with young children has found a great solution for protecting her brand new parsons dining room chairs.  She was concerned with the safety and environmental impact of fabric protectors such as ScotchGuard but desperately needed to prevent greasy little hands from soiling her new chairs.  She found Sure Fit Dining Chair Covers available at Bed Bath & Beyond.  These inexpensive covers make sense for non-parents too, for whenever you are entertaining young guests. 

These covers are machine washable, and while they don’t keep liquids from getting through to your chairs, they grant you a few extra seconds to catch the spill before it penetrates too deeply.  Have company coming? No problem, they slip off in seconds!  

Thanks for the tip, Christine!



Please visit Tobi Brockway Interiors Inc. to see our portfolio and for more information on how we can help you with your own project.

Coffered Ceilings

In the new custom houses that we've worked on in the past year, I've noticed that high-end builders are installing coffered ceilings in one or more of the rooms. The effect is dramatic and visually stunning. Most of us consider this luxury detail to be luxury-priced. However, there are many ready-made coffered ceilings products on the market today which can add an extra architectural element to your own home. For the do-it-yourselfer, check out Home Depot's step by step instructions. For those considering a home renovation, ask your contractor to price out a coffered ceiling. You may consider the enhanced value to be well worth the price.

Create your own virtual pin board

Before meeting with my long-time client, Amanda, to discuss a new project, she told me she would email me a link to her "pin board" to give me an idea of what she liked. This "pin board" displayed pictures of furniture, rugs and accessories that she had found on various websites. Thus was my first introduction to Pin Interest, a fabulous website for finding inspiration and great ideas. Not only is it a quick and easy way to copy images into my own pin boards, but it shows what everyone else has put on their pin boards. Here's what my "Products I Love " board looks like that I just started.

I can have as many different boards as I like: "Design Inspiration", "Photography and Art" - the possibilities are endless. And no need to cut out from magazines. As I surf the internet checking out websites, I click on the "Pin It" button on my bookmark toolbar and the image is saved directly to my pin board. So start pinning and follow my pin boards!

Insights into 2012

Happy New Year! Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

Here's my prognosis for the coming year:

• Whether Canada will continue to avoid the recession that's affected the US and Europe or not, Canadians will redecorate, renovate and improve their homes. This should include an emphasis on planning, budgeting and smart purchases (quality + price = value).
• Social media will be bigger than ever. We'll be spending even more time trying to keep up with friends and relatives' Facebook messages.
• The IPad and apps created to make our lives simpler (4 new design app's in the last couple of months!) will cause information overload to a degree never experienced before.

Here's my 2012 mandate for this blog:

To distill through all that information, to sort out what's worthwhile and to provide you with the most relevant and useful tidbits on a regular and timely basis.

And to start off the year, here's a new product brought to my attention by my client Christine:

Magic Sliders, easy-to-apply cushions for the bottom of furniture that work on hardwood and carpet. There's nothing more aggravating than putting on a felt-type cushion on dining room chairs for the hardwood and then having to move them on a carpet. Problem solved.