MoreShelter!

My Blue Heaven

By Megan Richcreek-

At the San Francisco Design Center last Wednesday, color was in the spotlight, and it was as vibrant as ever!  The House Beautiful color Institute, with the help of Kravet and Benjamin Moore paints, organized showroom presentations on everything from the psychology of color to the new eco-friendly fabrics.  The day's mantra: We love color!

When you choose to wear a certain color, it says something about your personality, and in turn, if you choose to paint your room that color, it also correlates with your personality.  The presentation on the psychology of color given by Color Expert, Kate Smith, imparted insight and design ideas surrounding the color to look for during the fall season: blue.

What do you think of when you think of blue?  Water?  Air?  Who knew that the phrase "feeling blue" could suggest a state of tranquility, or a well-established and traditional sense of style rather than sadness?  How about this?  When paired with warm tones, a blue palette can come alive- evoking sensual or adventurous moods!

All these mood variables were described by Ms. Smith in her presentation on the color blue.  A primarily blue palette tends to produce a calming effect, whereas when paired with bright splashes of color, it can morph from tranquil into playful and imaginative.   This breaks the long held belief that blue is only for kids rooms.  A warm earth-tone room with just a touch of blue, whether in a vase or decorative pillow, has the potential to evoke a completely different mood.  The design possibilities are endless, and this is only with the color blue!

While I'm on the subject of color, I'd like to give you a heads-up on another hue that's always in style: green.  And when I say green, I mean eco-friendly!  Eco-friendly fabric was another feature of the House Beautiful Color Institute design show last week.  These new fabrics by Robert Allen/Beacon Hill have an eco-friendly twist, yet do not sacrifice style or vibrant color.  The softest of the fabrics, ranging from recyclable products to organic cotton, is by far the bamboo chenille.  Heaven!  Perfect for covering your own chair, sofa or a piece from the Robert Allen home furnishing collection.  The fabrics meet all environmental standards when it comes to fabric content, dye composition and finishing treatments.  The perfect fabrics to fit a sustainable lifestyle, wherever you live!

Details:
Robert Allen/Beacon Hill Showroom is at 200 Kansas St, SF, 415 864-4822
Robert Allen website

To get more info on the psychology of color from Kate Smith, visit Sensationalcolor.com.
For design ideas, see House Beautiful.

Old Is New Again- Trending Away From Tear Downs

Meet Anna Minton and Mark Kaufman- one eco-friendly family that has saved their home from the bulldozer.  Anna and Mark have restored Anna's family home on a beautiful piece of property in Kent Woodlands, saving it from the typical tear-down and replacement with yet another McMansion.  This would have been a very likely occurrence given the current trend in Marin. 

Anna's father, architect John Minton, designed the home in 1953.  He designed the steel-framed home originally with a passive solar design.  The floor to ceiling windows face south, which allow the sun to shine into the home from October to March, but not during the summer months.  The roof is cantilevered, which also limits the sun exposure.  The foundation is cement slab with a built-in copper radiant heating system that still works five decades after installment.  This classic home, far from being outdated in 2008, is still very modern, and livable.  Anna and Mark reside in the home with their two teenage children and their black lab, Kimmy, who breeds for Guide Dogs For The Blind.      

1953 sustainable materials are still working for them today.  All they had to do was fix some immediate problems, and complete deferred maintenance. They hope to keep the home in the family through the next generation.

Inside, the furnishings are also sustainable and quite stylish.  The Spanish dining table is a family heirloom dating back to the 1800s.  The living room sofa is one my personal all-time favorites.  It is an extraordinarily long (12 feet!)silk custom couch designed specifically for the Minton's living room by Gumps in the 50s, and it's still going strong!  In the kitchen they retained the original marble countertops and wood cabinets.  They still even use the original electric cooktop from Thermador.

Original cork flooring remains installed on the stairs and in the second story bedrooms.  Unfortunately, due to weather and mild earthquakes, the cork did not last downstairs and has been replaced with tile.

Landscape designer Michelle Derviss, and her partner, Miguel Chavez of Derviss Design, were hired to help with the outdoor planning.  Michelle loved the original classic modern design.  The yard's layout is essentially the same as John Minton's design in the 1950s, with the addition of a blue stone fountain pointing to Mt. Tam.  The hardscape had water, soil erosion and earthquake damage and needed replacement.  Much of the original aggregate was used to bolster paths on the hillside property.

The garden has a functional beauty, filled with goodies to feed the family.  My favorite story is the one about Mark trading 240 lemons for fresh fish, from a local fish store this year.  The very prolific lemon tree, planted in the 70s has even allowed for a batch of Limoncello!  Mark is a long-time gardener and has developed a sustainable fruit and vegetable garden.  The garden includes tomatoes, peppers, basil, garlic, shallots, carrots, beets, asparagus, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, two varieties of plum, four types of pears, figs, lemons, apples, peaches, apricots, cherries, tangerines and oranges.  Mark has to constantly remove the oak acorns so that they do not take over the place,  but he's also nurturing a couple of dozen coastal oak seedlings.

This is one of my all-time favorite Marin stories about a family who has really stepped up to the plate for sustainable preservation.  If you are looking to preserve a property , or wish to locate one for preservation, please contact me at The Madison Company.

For more information and sources on preservation-

**Landscape Architects: DervissDesign.com

**Native landscape blog website: Gardenrant.com

Click here for the complete index of photos of the Minton-Kaufman home.

 

Dumpster Divas In Our Midst

Once, in the 1960s, my mother remodeled an entire bathroom using cast-offs from the Marin dump.  My sister, Kelly, recently acquired a beautiful Kohler pedestal sink in perfect condition from the dump in Petaluma, for a whopping $5.00.  I remember living in an apartment complex, where you would leave items outside the dumpster for folks to help themselves to- headboards, shelving units, chairs, desk.  Naturally, some of us were more comfortable with the idea than others, and we ended up with dozens of headboards, random chairs and barbecues on our patio.  Often, we would wind up regifting them back to the side of the dumpster.  My mother went "junking" since we were children, and we have all followed in her footsteps.  Aunt Bonnie and Mom even picked flowers out of the dumpsters at the flower market in the City.

We can't all be dumpster diving divas like the women in my family... some of us prefer to do it online from the privacy of our own homes.  Online dumpster diving can have the same results; saving items from the landfill. 

I discovered something called Freecycle while watching a story about Freegans on Oprah. Freegans are a community that takes recycling to the next level.  Basically, the Freegan tries to live in a way so as to completely, or severely, limit buying anything new.  I'm not suggesting that we all go totally Freegan, but there are ways to recycle and have fun, while helping the environment.

Craigslist has a 'free section' where people post items they want to get rid of for nothing.  There are numerous organizations in the Bay Area devoted to recycling everything from building materials to furniture to everything you can think of.  Also, don't forget garage sales!

Think globally, act locally! One woman's trash turns out to be someone else's desperately needed pedestal sink for her newly renovated bathroom.  Where there's a will, there's a way!  When visiting my sister, Tracy, in Champaign, IL, she found a Louis French-style cane headboard that she wanted to ship to Marin.  Fed Ex and UPS both told me that the package was too big & bulky for ground, but we were determined. Armed with turkey leftovers, I bribed the airline skycaps, and they checked my headboard all the way through to SF.

Here is a list of some Bay Area recycling & freecycle organizations:

The ReStore (Habitat for Humanity)

Craigslist Free Stuff

Freecycle

The ReUse People

Building ReSources

IReUse

The Away Station

Introducing RiDesign and RiShelter!

Rita is our MoreShelter columnist, and she'll bring you the latest in housing news, but with a twist.  She's going to focus on the 'green' side of real estate.  She'll be writing about preservation, 'green' construction, recycled designs and much more under two new categories: RiShelter and RiDesign. 

Rita has been with the Madison Company Realtors since 2004 as a licensed California real estate agent.  She is a native Alaskan, and has lived in Marin since the 1960's.  Proud to be an alumnus of St. Hilary's School, Marin Catholic High School and St Mary's College, Rita lives in her home-town of Tiburon.  Rita's  start in the business of 'green' began early, in 1986, when she and her father formed Renew Computers, a computer recycling company here in Marin.

Whether you're looking for that unique property to refurbish, or a boomer looking to downsize, Rita's real estate know-how and Marin-market savvy will help you find exactly what you're looking for.  Check out her website here, and keep an eye on MoreShelter for her two new columns, RiShelter and RiDesign.  Keep it green with Rita!