Water-jet technology cuts precise shapes with a single blade, twice the thickness of a human hair. We can use it for floor design, mural design, and backsplashes–shapes and patterns that would be unthinkable with a traditional cutting tool. Yet it is cost competitive with other cutting techniques, and often able to cut designs not otherwise economically achievable.

Like most computer-generated design, you get a representative drawing before creating the real thing. Is it for your next project? If you think you may be relocating in 5-7 years, create a general enough pattern that other’s can live with the design as well. (Vs. your family crest!)

Remember, your home needs to fit YOU and YOUR living style, like your favorite shoe fits. Ask yourself, “Does the Shoe …..FIT?” If not, contact us. We help you create the environment that says who you are, not what magazines currently feature that may NOT be your living style!

        ***Sorry I missed you the end of December; I unexpectantly had to go back in the hospital, but am now looking toward a GREAT 2012 for us all!!–Sharon

Well, we all like festive lighting, but this certainly didn’t sound too environmentally based. ….Until he told us the entire lighting cost would only be a fraction of last years’ cost!  HOW?

They switched for the holidays! Today’s LED Holiday lights are reliable, fairly inexpensive and EXTREMELY economical to use. They will pay for themselves in a very short time, and continue to be economical to use for a long, long time, because they last much longer than any of our bulbs. Besides–there are no bulbs to break or go out.

L.E.D. stands for light emitting diodes; they are not bulbs at all, but produce a good white light (the current ones, not the earlier ones).

Although LEDs began being marketed about ten years ago, they were mainly used as novelty accent lighting for commercial buildings. As technology has progressed, LEDs are moving into offices and are just beginning to be seen in our homes. Recessed lighting seems to be the best interior method of handling LEDs at this point….in addition to strings  of light. They are the new lightinhg technology. Isnt it time to switch?

Remember your interior and exterior surroundings need to fit YOU like your favorite shoe fits you, in order to be functional and attractive. Ask yourself…..”Does the Shoe FIT?” If not, contact us; we are the experts in interior spaces and yard space. You’ll be glad you called or wrote us.

1) What about exterior lighting? We’ve written about it before, but what do YOU have? Shiny brass or solid black isn’t as “today” as finishes like antiqued copper, bronze or brushed nickel.

2) Your house numbers and other hardware may also need an updated finish, as those suggested above.

3) Have blooming flowers as long as your locale allows–and then tasteful winter landscape looks with interesting bare shapes, textures, and colors. (Think of some things like Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, tall grasses that don’t droop in the snow like switchgrass, and color like redtwig dogwood–something similar for your yard.)

4) Paint your home in subdued colors of nature, muted greens, deep reds, pale yellows–for a peaceful look. Bright high-contrast colors exaggerate a house’s flaws.

Remember, you want the home to be appealing, but it can also reflect YOU. Our homes should fit us like our favorite shoes. Ask yourself, “Does the Shoe….FIT?” If you need some help, contact us. We are the interior/exterior design experts.

Let’s consider a few often overlooked components that affect curb appeal. First we’ll take the bigger items, in later blogs the smaller things. First, realize the garage door is ofen the most prominent feature of a home’s front. They are often flat, lackluster slabs of steel or vinyl. Trade these for doors with mouldings, windows, or a carriage house look.

Second, is the siding dreary aluminum, vinyl, or asbestos siding. Often under it, you’ll find well-preserved wood clap boards that could be repaired and painted for a much improved image. Today, fiber cement siding, with high fire resistance, is available that resembles real wood and require no work.

Third, the front door is the focal point of your house–or should be. Replace the door with perhaps a mission style oak door, or a six panel colonial with blown glass windows, ar arc top French doors. Achitectural salvage yards are great places to begin a search.

Invasive procedures aren’t always necessary. Next blog, we’ll discuss the accents that can transform your home’s exterior appearance.

And let’s hear from you readers what you’ve done to improve curb appeal of your home. Your home needs to fit you like your favorite shoe. Ask yourself—DOES the shoe fit?  If not, contact us, we’re the licensed and awarded design company that handles interior and exterior spaces based on YOUR life style.

However, you may have put in some new plants that aren’t doing so well now that summer has arrived. What happened? My biggest guess is that you didn’t heed the little tags in the pots when you bought the plant. These tags tell you the amount of sun & water, and often soil type this particular plant requires. If you looked at it, do you know what type of soil you planted it in?

And then there is “Catch 22 of Gardening”–You can’t always believe those  tags!! If a plant supposedly will grow in “any” soil–take that with a BIG grain of salt. If you have clay or sand, that plant is going to have problems no matter what its name is.  My advice is to till in LOTS of compost and well rotten manure–to amend the soil.

Secondly, although the plant tag may say to establish the plant in Sun or Part Shade—if you are near or in the Rocky Mountains–you might “bake” the plant in our strong sun. When we first moved here, I did bake some nice rose blossoms. They never wilted, just dried and preserved on the stem.  Then I learned that many of the plants growing in Eastern US sun, prefer semi-shade around the Rocky Mountains, because of our strong sun. 

Our last garden tip for this blog has to do with a plant being “deer resistant.”  Deer Resistant is NOT Deer Proof; Some plants are better than others in resisting deer appetites though. Last autumn, the deer never ate one flower off of my black eyed susan (rudbeckia) plants, a plant that is “deer resistant.  BUT–THEY ATE OFF EVERY SINGLE LEAF OF EVERY SINGLE BLACK EYED SUSAN! The poor plants looked really stange! Luckily, that was in October, and this year the plants look good as new. This isn’t always the case.

Remember your spaces need to fit your life like your favorite shoe. Ask yourself, “Does the Shoe…..FIT?  If not, contact us, the interior/exterior space specialists. Hundreds of others have. —Sharon Breay

When we simply plant things that appeal to us, where ever there is room, we often lack harmony, which is defined as all objects having a common trait. When a space has harmony, it gives us humans a sense of order and peace. After a full day we long to come into our garden for some relaxation, recouping some peace in our lives.  A variety of textures, colors, heights, shapes, etc.,etc. may be robbing us of this peaceful feeling.

Yet, if here isn’t some contrast in our garden, it may look boring. If an entire yard has nothing but white tulips, all the same height, all in neat rows, we don’t appreciate it as much as a sprinkling of groups of white tulips in various areas of the yard in groups (not rows) of 3, 5, 7, or 9 plants per group. These groups of pure white tend to harmonize the entire space. The varying number of plants per group gives a little interesting contrast to them.

Contrast provides a little spark to our garden. However, if we plant 1 shrub with a purple flower, one medium sized plant with tiny foliage, one small plant with large yellow flowers, one large leaved plant; as lovely as each of these are, there is no harmony to the group. There is no element that carries through.  Bjut what if we planted several of the large leaved plant around the shrub, with some tiny foliaged plants encircling or bordering the entire group? Or perhaps we have shrub, with large leaved plants, and tiny leaved plants intersperced through the space, but they all had flowers in the same color?

To help you achieve a beautiful yard or garden, give some thought to planning the harmony and contrast of the space before planting. 

And if you need a little help, contact us. We are the interior-exterior space specialists, and can make your yard fit you like your favorite shoe. Ask yourself…..Does the Shoe FIT?

What do I do?  Well, I use a lot of my mom’s old techniques. I block some of the sunshine from coming into the house. It’s hard for me to live in a dark environment, but even simple sheers at the windows are a help. We have light-blocking top-down / bottom-up shades for the 6’ high bedroom windows, and set them to give us early sunlight only, while still having some daylight in the rooms through the entire day. It’s amazing how only 18” of opening in each window will give plenty of daylight in the summer.

Our mountain home doesn’t need air conditioning, but we do keep the hottest window exposures closed until evening. We’ve always planted or had a few shade trees in the yard, shading some part of the home. We save MUCH energy by these few tricks.

This is the time to get the cooler colored accents through the home, those in sky blues, ice blues, grass greens, mint greens, and purples and blue violets. Be sure to have live plants around, perhaps a water feature or two, and take the extraneous out of the space to give a spacious, airy feeling.

Have cooler-evening or under-shade-trees get togethers. Splash the table with bright, colorful summer prints and foods. Set a garden atmosphere. Again, have a water feature.

Summer is a wonderful time for enjoying our homes as havens of relaxation. Create the environment, and then give yourself a little down-time daily to enjoy them.  Remember–YOUR home should fit you like a favorite shoe. Ask yourself, “Does the Shoe….FIT?” And, give me a call if you need some help adapting your spaces to your lifestyle.

I look forward to your comments!–Sharon Breay, Breay Design   &   “Does the Shoe….FIT?” Workshops

Perhaps the best solution for “the dog’s” paths, is to make them into actual paths. The dogs establish patterns, so if you have dog paths, make it a mulched path, put some shrubbery at some of it’s curved edges, and allow both the dog and you to enjoy it. Remember the human mind is always intrigued by what it cannot see around a curve.

Don’t you just hate it when the puppy—or older—dog eats your prize flowers? Actually, you could lose both dog and flower, because many common plants are poisonous. Check with your nurseryman before buying a plant if you have a plant-eating pet. Garden edging is a deterrent to this. Dogs dislike running over large river rock, sharp granite (driveway stone), and prickly bushes (juniper, barberry, cotoneaster, etc.) With a couple feet depth of such edging, most dogs avoid the entire garden bed. 

Dogs love to dig. But a dog often digs under the fence because they want to see what’s on the other side, especially with the all-prevalent privacy fencing. So give them a window!  Cut a small holes in the privacy fencing in a couple locations at the dog’s eye-level (or level’s if you have different size dogs).  Help your doggie to be aware they are there.

Give Fido a place where he can lay in the shade, and he may also stop digging to get down into the cooler soil.

Remember if we have pets, they live on our property also—but do not think like humans (even if it seems so).  We can lessen our stress and their corrections, by thinking a little like them!

Asymmetrical balance

Last posting we discussed symmetrical furniture, and/or accessory arrangement as being great for a formal style of space, having a mirror image or 50/50 balance. But what if you don’t care for formal, and it’s somewhat predictability?  You still need balance in the arrangement of elements to have a feeling of assurance to the  space.

Aysmmetrical balance is for the more casual style. Instead of a 50/50 mirror image, as symmetrical balance of elements, aysmmetrical is more like 65/35. It balances, but not as a mirror image. It’s a little like many of our lives in this day and age. We may work extra long hours for awhile; then take off time to be with family to balance our life. 

An example of an aysmmetrical furniture arrangement would be the sofa having a chair or two perpendicular to it, with  a table and lamp in the corner, between the sofa and chair(s). Think of an “L” as an example of symmetrical balance.   

Accessories look great arranged aysmmetrically; perhaps one item taller, with one or two small items on one side, and three or four small items on the other side. For interest, we wouldn’t align the objects in a straight row. We’d put some forward, some back, something a bit in front of the larger item.

Aysmmetrical arrangement is particularly pleasing in architecture that is also non-traditional, non symmetrical.  It often works well with the architecture of western homes. If in doubt, walk outside and look at the front of your home. Are windows and other features  the same on the right as on the left? Is the door centered in the front view? If so, you have symmetrically balanced architecture, as opposed to aysmmetrical.

And remember–if your surroundings don’t fit “you”  like a favorite shoe, you need a little redesign!  –Sharon Breay,    Does the Shoe….FIT?   design programs & workshops

1) Planning only the “first impression” :

2) No natural shapes: The architectural features of the property will have plenty of hard edges and 90 degree angles. Create a relaxing, naturally shaped landscape with undulating curves.

3) Forgetting basic design principles and elements: Without a cohesive plan, even lovely plants create hodge-podge.

4) Putting King Henry in front of the log cabin: Plan your landscape to compliment the style of your home, and your style of living.

5) Not discussing what is important in the landscape to each family member: The family does live there; create an enjoyable yard for everyone.

6) Not admitting the time you have to care for it:  There are low maintenance landscapes, or elements that can be very attractive if you don’t have time for heavy upkeep.

7) Not reading the mature size, water needs, and soil needs of a plant:  No one needs a King Kong monster towering over the garden in a few years; plan for proportion of the mature sizes with other yard elements.  Also, compare the plant ‘s water and soil needs with those of your yard.  You want healthy plants once you’ve invested in them. 

Omitting exterior lighting: Install entry lighting, task lighting, and accent lighting for a well-balanced, pleasing look in the evening.

9) Planting skimpy, small plants to save money:  Plant cost effectively by staging the project over a few years if necessary. Purchase the trees & shrubs in the early stages, using a big enough sized plant to enjoy in a year or two.

And remember–if your surroundings don’t fit “you”  like a favorite shoe, you need a little redesign!  –Sharon Breay,    Does the Shoe….FIT? design programs & workshops