Utility Chic
October 2, 2010
By: Alicia Hughes
Shopping for your new Utility chic space think straight-lined and non bulky. Your furniture should be modern, but don't count out comfortable. Look for straight-lined sofa upholstered in washable canvas. Metal chairs, stainless -steel or plywood tables, utility shelving, pantry carts or bakers racks on wheels.
For your window treatments you should look for pleated paper shades, roller shades, white sheers hung on tension rods, hinged pine shutters with pulleys, with wire curtain rods.
For your soft furnishings you should look for white cotton duvets, sheets, pillowcases, table cloths, and napkins, terry cloth bath towels and bath mats, ticking, canvas, burlap and burlap like upholstery fabrics for toss-or floor-pillow coverings, cotton dish towels, and sisal, coir, or cotton rugs.
Your table top furnishings should include plain white china, stainless-steel flatware, pots, pans, and chargers, standard clear glasses and stemware, black place mats.
Your table top furnishings should include plain white china, stainless-steel flatware, pots, pans, and chargers, standard clear glasses and stemware, black place mats.
Accessories for your utility chic space should include all things re salvaged, but keep them to a minimum ...
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Pros and Cons:
Hardwood Flooring vs. Bamboo
October 1, 2010
By: Nigel F. Maynard
Wood is one of the most loved flooring material in the home building and buying universe. Prized for its exceptional good looks and warmth, wood is highly versatile and sustainable. In the past 10 years, however, there has been a great disturbance in the force, and now wood has an able and extremely popular challenger: bamboo.
Though bamboo has had a limited history in the U.S. construction market, it has been widely used in East Asia and the South Pacific. One of the oldest building materials known to man, it has been used to build fences, houses, and furniture, and has even been known to hold up suspension bridges.
Bamboo is very much like wood, but it’s not wood. Technically speaking, it’s a tree-like grass that grows extremely fast, making it among the fastest-growing plants in the world. This rapid growth has made it one of the darlings of the green building world.
“Bamboo has the potential for rapid growth,” says The University of Tennessee College of Agricultural and Natural Resources in Knoxville, Tenn. “Shoots have been observed to grow over 3 feet in a single day.” In fact, The Bamboo Site says the plant grows so fast that it matures to reach market in about four years. With the exception of quick-yield trees, hardwood species take about 60 or 70 years to reach harvesting age.
When it comes to performance, bamboo is often compared to some of the hardest hardwoods, but it depends on the type of flooring, species, and quality of the manufacturing.
“Hardness is the main factor in durability,” says Teragren in Bainbridge Island, Wash. "How hard is the bamboo? Bamboo flooring can be as soft as pine and harder than maple depending on the species of bamboo used and when it was harvested. Teragren specifies only Optimum 5.5 Moso bamboo harvested at maturity (five and a half to six years) when fiber density peaks. As a result, Teragren bamboo averages 25 percent harder than red oak and 12 percent harder than North American maple ...
Though bamboo has had a limited history in the U.S. construction market, it has been widely used in East Asia and the South Pacific. One of the oldest building materials known to man, it has been used to build fences, houses, and furniture, and has even been known to hold up suspension bridges.
Bamboo is very much like wood, but it’s not wood. Technically speaking, it’s a tree-like grass that grows extremely fast, making it among the fastest-growing plants in the world. This rapid growth has made it one of the darlings of the green building world.
“Bamboo has the potential for rapid growth,” says The University of Tennessee College of Agricultural and Natural Resources in Knoxville, Tenn. “Shoots have been observed to grow over 3 feet in a single day.” In fact, The Bamboo Site says the plant grows so fast that it matures to reach market in about four years. With the exception of quick-yield trees, hardwood species take about 60 or 70 years to reach harvesting age.
When it comes to performance, bamboo is often compared to some of the hardest hardwoods, but it depends on the type of flooring, species, and quality of the manufacturing.
“Hardness is the main factor in durability,” says Teragren in Bainbridge Island, Wash. "How hard is the bamboo? Bamboo flooring can be as soft as pine and harder than maple depending on the species of bamboo used and when it was harvested. Teragren specifies only Optimum 5.5 Moso bamboo harvested at maturity (five and a half to six years) when fiber density peaks. As a result, Teragren bamboo averages 25 percent harder than red oak and 12 percent harder than North American maple ...
