From the category archives:

Green Cottage Living

Building and Architecture

Catching the Wood Wave

It’s Olympic time, and I’m a sports fanatic. I’ve been blown away by some of the coura­geous per­for­mances we’ve seen so far (Alexan­dre Bilodeau!), and am look­ing for­ward to more (obvi­ously I’ll be cheer­ing for skele­ton ath­lete Michelle Kelly). But I’m equally as impressed by some of the Olympic venues. In par­tic­u­lar, the Rich­mond Olympic Oval, […]

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Gadgets & Gear

Green your shower, save your septic

While it’s impor­tant in these eco-​​​​conscious times that we all takes steps to curb our water con­sump­tion no mat­ter where we are, at the cot­tage, where sep­tic sys­tems are our most sen­si­tive friends, the issue takes on added urgency. On an aver­age sum­mer week­end at my cot­tage, there are about a dozen peo­ple shar­ing the shower […]

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Accessories

Upcycling ideas from Simple Home

A charm­ing new book landed on my desk last week. Sim­ple Home by Mark and Sally Bai­ley (Ryland Peters & Small, $39.95) packs a load of inspi­ra­tion into its 160 pages. Although the British design duo has worked with such high-​​​​end fancy design­ers as Ralph Lau­ren and Donna Karan, their aes­thetic isn’t overly pol­ished at all; […]

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DIY

What to do with old Ikea furniture

Every time I’ve moved into a new home, I’ve pur­chased make-​​​​do Ikea fur­ni­ture “just until I get some­thing else.” I always tell myself that I’ll upgrade to some­thing more sub­stan­tial, an invest­ment piece, once I can afford it. But the only rea­son I’ve ever actu­ally upgraded (and even that has only hap­pened maybe…once) is when the Ikea “just for […]

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Green Cottage Living

Register Grates That Might Be Too Nice for the Floor

Reg­is­ter grates are one of those lit­tle details that most peo­ple don’t pay much atten­tion to when build­ing or ren­o­vat­ing a cot­tage. Util­i­tar­ian and inex­pen­sive tends to be the norm. And I never really gave them much thought until I saw these beauts from Iron Age Designs.

The grates are made from post-​​​​consumer recy­cled mate­r­ial and are 100 per […]

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Cooking & Eating

Nature-​​inspired goods

I’ve long loved Amenity for its bold and graphic yet soft and sub­tle bedding.

Bird­s­eye organic cot­ton duvet cover in fuch­sia, $330 US queen size, $385 US king size.
Cove organic cot­ton duvet cover in flax, $330 US queen size, $395 US king size.
Now the nature-​​​​inspired prints also adorn table linens.

Cove hemp-​​​​cotton place­mat in grey and espresso, $25 US.
And the newest […]

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Bookmarks

Bookmark: GreenCricket.ca

It’s get­ting eas­ier and eas­ier to find green prod­ucts, from house clean­ers to sham­poos and soaps to pet sup­plies. Among the retail­ers offer­ing eco-​​​​conscious buy­ing choices is Toronto-​​​​based e-​​​​tailer Green Cricket.

Find items like biodegrad­able dog waste bags, water fil­ters, stain­less steel water bot­tles, and insect repel­lent. Well-​​​​known brands include EcoEthic, Kiss My Face, Bambu, and […]

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