We’re excited to share with you that Richmond now has its first green retail home-improvement store, EcoLogic!
EcoLogic is located at 1606 W. Main Street in the Uptown district of Richmond, and carries a variety of beautiful products available for making your home a better and healthier place. Among the products carried at EcoLogic are natural linoleum, salvaged hardwood flooring, cork flooring, soapstone and slate countertops, PaperStone countertops (yes, they’re made from paper), recycled glass tile, eco-friendly paints and earth plasters (our favorite, American Clay), and LED lighting.
At Dramatic Changes, we use AFM Safecoat products and American Clay, and we are thrilled that Fred and Stephanie have chosen to carry them in their store. These great products deserve all the attention they can get! For more information on EcoLogic, feel free to stop in their store for a tour, or you can visit their website here.
The Richmond Symphony Orchestra League will soon present its 13th Designer House. The beautiful home, Tara II, a distinctive white mansion, is located close to the Country Club of Virginia, and towers over its spacious front lawns and looks onto Cary Street.
There will be approximately sixteen design areas which will be transformed into individual showcases for some of Central Virginia’s most renowned and up and coming interior designers. Dramatic Changes is fortunate to have been brought in to paint several of these spaces, and we’re providing a few “before” pictures in this blog entry.
The Designer House will make its debut at an elegant Gala Opening Night Party on Friday, September 12 and open to the public September 15 through October 12.
For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit this link.
A little while back, we posted a picture of a bathroom that needed a bit of color help. The combination of salmon-pink tile and mint green appliances was a little much for the owner. She struggled to choose a color to balance them out. Here’s the update on the color that was chosen for the walls - Chocolate Brown! What do you think? Do you have any nightmare rooms in your house that need some color support? For more color consulting ideas, visit the Hue blog.
I am a subscriber to a great color blog called Hue, and today I received the most recent post from author Rachel Perls who’s in the process of painting her new home in California. Her bathroom is a clash of two very distinct colors, mint green appliances and a peachy, rose-colored tile. She’s trying to figure out what color to paint it. What would you suggest? At one time or another, we’ve probably all been in her shoes!
I was recently introduced to an organization that brings issues related to sustainability and eco-friendly living called Back Porch Initiatives. As you’ll see on their site, Back Porch is a non-profit organization working with communities to cultivate local responses to the national and global issue of energy consumption. The Back Porch team is committed to collaborating with communities on existing resources, leveraging new ideas, and developing practical, economical and environmental solutions.
Back Porch has extended an invitation for us to present during one of their weekly community conversations on Monday, July 21st, 2008. We’ll be speaking about healthy paint options available here in Richmond, and will also likely discuss the local green-building resources. We will be at Globehopper Coffeehouse at 2100 E. Main Street in Richmond’s historic Church Hill. This event is free and open to the public.
If you aren’t free to attend this coming Monday’s conversation, please know that Back Porch holds these talks every Monday evening from 7-8 pm at Globehopper.
I recently came across a great website that helps people choose color palettes. It’s pretty comprehensive, and it seems to be the place to go if you love color. I perused their collection of popular palettes, and this one caught my eye. If you’re looking to repaint your home, consider visiting the COLOURlovers website for some ideas.
When considering new additions to your home decor, consider supporting a local artist:
Last year during a trip to local coffee shop Stir Crazy, I was awestruck by an art installation featuring mobiles made out of (among other things) recycled teabags, candle wax, and bamboo. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan of the artist, Dale Keator. It turns out that she’s featured again this month in the same location. Do yourself a favor — Take some time to visit Stir Crazy, grab a tasty beverage (I recommend the ginseng peppermint tea), pull up a comfy chair and admire the beauty of her work. Dale’s pieces vary in size from just a few inches to spanning an entire wall. Here is a statement from Dale about her teabag collages to give you a sense of the energy behind her work:
My artwork is a collaborative effort. The teabags; having had a previous life from perhaps an endearing conversation, a thoughtful quiet moment, or a relaxing sigh of relief from a hectic day, help to create the calming charm that is intended for my pieces. All of the teabags are saved and “gifted” to me, by friends. It is friends that started the momentum on this “projectâ€, which actually started as a result 9/11 and realizing the importance of friendships. Every teabag paper is different, much the way people and relationships are.
I would like the viewer to enjoy the experience of the teabags by watching the movement, smelling the tea particles left on the papers, listening to the sounds as the sewn strands of teabags gently touch each other.
The tea, the tags, the string, the staples, and of course the papers…all are used in making my pieces. And all are used to evoke compassion.
In our business, We find ourselves addressing this topic all the time. We go to someone’s house, listen to them describe their needs, and we provide them an estimate based on what painting needs to be done in their home. Homeowners often ask, “What kind of paint do you use”? Here are a couple of important things to consider…
Whether you’re having your home painted professionally or doing it yourself, we encourage you to choose paint that meets the following criteria:
- eco-friendly
- excellent quality (I know, it sounds like a no-brainer)
- can be purchased from a local business
Consider shopping at Eco Supply, Power of Color, EcoLogic, or Virginia Paint Company. Their healthy paint options perform as well if not better than their traditional competitors. They’re reasonably priced, often costing the same as a reputable brand. Best of all, by buying from these local businesses, you’re supporting our local economy. It’s a win-win situation.
As the resident paint and color fanatic, my eyes are always peeled for new ideas. I glean inspiration from everywhere — Yesterday, I fell in love with the color of the shirt worn by a woman in front of me in line at Cafe Caturra. It was the most awesome red — a bit weathered, a little bit orangey (is that even a word?), sort of salmony. The walls of my living room are an airy, pale green-blue-gray, and now I’m craving a gigantic painting for my walls that has the “lady’s shirt red” in it. I also have a ton of plants, and I love the idea of the airy aqua combined with green and red.
How do you choose the colors for your home? We work with local color consultants in Virginia who specialize in helping homeowners who want help decorating their space with the right hues, and are happy to put you in contact with them.
