Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2003

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

DECORATING DILEMMAS:

When a home decorating 'emergency' strikes

By ROBIN DALY

Dear Robin,

Q: Things are fine at my house right now, but I was wondering if you had any suggestions about who I should call when things go wrong. Instead of waiting until the emergency strikes, I thought I'd try building a referral sheet right now.

Also, I am thinking about replacing my living room carpet. Any color or shopping suggestions? My house faces the west, and I don't want anything that will fade too fast.

A: First of all, congratulations for being smart and thinking ahead! Don't we all wish our house would automatically fix itself, or at least come equipped with it's own personal handyman? For those of us who don't have that special someone who thinks "This Old House" is the epitome of interesting television, there is a great organization you might want to learn about.

It's called the Home Owner's Club. They've been helping Seattleites for over 40 years on everything from cleaning gutters to full scale remodeling. They even handle emergencies 24 hours a day.

Using a service like this can really take the fear away from simply opening up the yellow pages and hoping you choose a good provider, just by looking at their ad. I have done that before, and learned my lesson the hard way. Ouch. Your home can be an expensive object to make a poor or cheap choice with and finding reliable, quality resources is priceless.

Everything in this world comes with a price, and the way Home Owners Club works is via annual dues. All billing is centralized, so you pay the club, not the individual contractor. By doing this, the Club makes sure the work is accomplished at the agreed upon price and completed to the member's satisfaction. You can reach the Homeowner's Club at (206) 622-3500.

Now, if you are the other sort, the kind who LOVES hanging out in the aisles of Ace Hardware, then make sure you check out the Phinney Neighborhood Center's Well Home Program. Roger Faris runs the program, and he is a wealth of knowledge on everything from winterizing your home to earthquake retrofitting your foundation.

The Well Home Program is unique, not only do they offer classes, but there is a tool book library and lending program. I've known Roger for years, and he is a local treasure. You can learn more about bringing our your inner tool spirit by contacting the Well Home Program at (206) 789-4993.

Speaking of resources, whenever I have flooring questions, I call my friends at Pitcher Brothers Carpet in the University District. When I asked Gloria at Pitcher Brothers what to do about your west facing home, she pointed out that the main mistake people tend to make is choosing a carpet that is too light. Even though is seems counter-intuitive, it's better to choose a deeper color, because it will help absorb the intense light streaming into the room thus giving a warmer, richer feeling to the space.

We often try and find the right carpet color by looking at a small square on the sample board. This changes our perception of what the final effect will look like. Carpet will actually lighten up a whole shade or two in the room, because it covers such a large surface. Since a west facing room has strong light, keep this in mind.

Current manufacturing has improved color retention over the last five years, and Gloria recommends you look at a name-brand carpet to get the latest technical developments.

Also keep in mind that some colors to tend to wear better than others. For a sunny room, you should avoid the deeper reds, blues, and greens. Stick to warmer, neutral tones.

From a designer's perspective, I think this is also good advice, because then your floor color is flexible with any decorating scheme you might use. Plus flooring is a large expense, so by choosing a neutral tone, you are adding years to the style life by not locking yourself into a color, which will fade from fashion before the sun can get to it. Think of that mauve carpet we used to see all over the place! The color wore out before the carpet did.

Seattle is filled with great resources. I'm interested to learn of any you have found along with your experiences with them, so call or write, and we can share them with The Seattle Sun readers over the next few months.

* * *

Robin Daly is a third generation co-owner of Daly's Paint and Decorating, located in Fremont. You can reach her at 633-4200 or e-mail her at news@theseattlesun.com. She loves to hear from you and answer your decorating dilemmas.