Six renovation ideas to make your home and garden ready for a ‘stay vacation’ this summer
Why spend money on expensive flight tickets or a gas-guzzling road trip this summer to get away from the hustle and bustle? Instead you could invest that money into home renovations to make your home a retreat your whole family will enjoy. Here are a few great ideas from builders, designers and more to make your residential renovations as rewarding as a holiday escape.
1. Bathroom spa oasis
There’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars to stay at a spa for a little R & R. Vancouver interior designer Patricia Gray says there are simple design tricks to make your home bathroom or ensuite feel just like a hotel spa.
For starters, a steam shower inside a glass-enclosed space can be part of a relaxing spa escape at home. Metal spouts along the wall emit the steam and are set by a timer. “I also design a seat inside the shower,” Gray says, “so clients are comfortable and can spend longer periods taking in the steam.”
Spouts built along the ceiling of the shower give the effect of rain when turned on, she says, and spouts along the wall activate a body shower.
Gray says a deep soaker tub with Jacuzzi jets is also as popular as ever. “Heated tile or marble floors are another feature,” she says, “and not just in the outer area of the bathroom, but in the shower, too.” And don’t forget heated towel bars.
While relaxing in the tub or shower, consider music as part of the spa experience by installing speakers. “You can even connect your iPod to the speakers,” Gray says.
What’s music without the right lighting? Lighting can make the mood for relaxation or romance.
“I like to use several different light sources in a bathroom and have them on dimmers,” says Gray. “And, of course, include a supply of candles for creating atmosphere.”
For a little fun, Gray says she built a television into the mirror over the bathroom sink as part of a recent bathroom spa renovation she did. “The TV was built into the wall behind the mirror,” she says, “and when the client turns it on, he can watch a show from any angle of the room.”
There are lots of eco-friendly designs you can include in your bathroom reno, too, from low-flow toilets to the products you choose for floors, counters and walls. Gray says recycling glass was a green feature in one of her recent designs. “Glass was melted down and made into tile for the shower wall and floor.”
2. Media cave
Summer weather in Vancouver isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. On those grey days, kids (particularly boys and, let’s face it, dads) just want to stay home and watch movies or play video games. So why not design a home theatre in your rec room with a large screen, speakers and more?
Media rooms are popular for watching movies, listening to music, playing video games or even for karaoke sing-a-longs.
Gray says she works closely with audio visual specialists, like La Scala Home Cinema and Integrated Media, when she is designing a media room to incorporate the latest that technology has to offer from flat-screen TVs to customized keypads and touch screens. But there’s more to an at-home theatre experience than just technology.
“I may have a theme to a media room,” Gray says. “I’ll put up movie posters or give it a Tuscany-inspired effect.” Depending on the size of the room and the clients’ needs, Gray may design platforms so guests can better see the film screen if there is more than one row of seats.
Gray says she also likes to put in reclining chairs with drink holders in the arm rest. “A popcorn machine is also a must,” she adds, “as is an under-the-counter refrigerator for cold drinks.”
While movie theatre colours of black, gold and burgundy are obvious colour schemes, there’s no need to be restricted to this. Let mom have a say in the colour scheme so the room doesn’t become a strictly boy-zone!
3. Room to stretch
For yoga aficionadas, a dedicated yoga room is the perfect “at home” getaway room, whether engaging in deep mediation or practising yoga exercises.
Steve Riley, a Vancouver designer and planner, is including a meditation/yoga room in a custom home under construction on Salt Spring Island. He said his client wanted a space removed from the rest of the home for yoga.
“The isolation from everything else in the home is key,” Riley says. “The space remains peaceful, serene and quiet.”
“The space needed to be airy, light-filled, peaceful and preferably receive the morning sun for early morning yoga sessions,” his client told him. “The meditation space needed to be separate from even the exercise/yoga space, but adjoining it.”
The solution became a space over the three-car garage, with trees on one side of the yoga space, and trees completely surrounding the meditation room. “It gives you the feeling of being immersed in nature,” his client says. “We are also fortunate to have a view to the ocean, so the connection to the forest, sky and ocean are a blessing indeed.”
Riley says the sweeping view and large windows allow the “outside to come in and of course there is all that natural light.”
Artificial lighting will include dimmers to maintain the mood of the room and wall colours will be muted, reflecting the natural aspects of the outdoors, Riley says.
Unlike yoga rooms in noisy city settings might, the island home does not require installation of soundscapes such as a water fountain or music. “The outdoors on Salt Spring provide a symphony of sounds,” Riley says. “The wind rustling through the trees, the gulls calling and even the far off sound of the BC Ferries’ diesel engine, provides calming, rhythmic sounds.”
4. Splash around
Building a pool is an obvious way to make your home a place you won’t want to leave. “But people want a games-oriented pool today,” says Ed Trasolini, whose firm has been building pools in the Lower Mainland since 1983. “The old-style pool with a shallow end and a deep end is no longer popular.”
Trasolini builds smaller, shallower pools so customers can play volleyball or shoot basketball hoops while staying cool in the water. “People also enjoy using a shallow pool for water aerobics,” he says.
Gone also are the days of strong-smelling chlorine to keep the water clean. “We suggest salt pools or ozone, which is a more natural purifier,” he says.
Another green feature of modern pools is in the water management. “We use cartridge filters so there is no back washing, saving gallons of water,” Trasolini says.
Customers are also concerned with safety more than ever these days. Trasolini offers an automated pool cover, which rolls out and attaches to the coping around the pool. “If you walked on the cover, it would have the feel of a waterbed,” Trasolini says about the highly secure cover. “It is energy-efficient, too, holding the heat in and keeping dirt out.
“We also offer an in-floor cleaning system, solar heating systems and efficient pumps, which use less electricity because the speed can be adjusted.”
5. Zen garden
You, too, can turn your garden into a Zen garden refuge, with a little planning and help from trained Japanese-style gardeners. Think Mr. Miyagi.
“We go in and take out the clutter first,” says Dorothy Kennedy, co-owner of Zen Gardens in Vancouver, which is among the dozen or so firms offering harmonious gardens created by trained Japanese gardeners following a tradition dating back to the eighth century. Kennedy says her husband and partner, Yoshihiro Kawasake, was trained in Kyoto, “the garden centre of Japan.”
Japanese-style gardens typically will have rocks, water, lots of evergreens and some perennial flowers. “The garden becomes serene, inviting, with an energy that is welcoming,” she says.
They can also have sand, moss and “stroll gardens” that contain streams, ponds and waterfalls, stones, bridges and pathways.
The landscaping firm also specializes in small spaces, including yards in the city’s increasing number of townhouses. “We just did a small space in New Westminster,” Kennedy says. “People want a refuge from their busy day.”
6 Court appeal
“It’s all about family fun,” says Ian Lintott, general manager and partner of Flex Court Canada. The company builds residential outdoor courts all across Canada and have offices in Vancouver and Kelowna. And it’s not just kids who are playing ball or slapping a hockey puck.
“We went back to one client a few weeks after a court was installed just to check on it,” Lintott says. “The son was playing basketball and we commented on how nice it was of his dad to install the court for him. His response was that his dad was playing on the court more than he was!”
The most popular is a backyard half court for basketball, says Lintott. “Second in popularity would be a multi-game court,” Lintott says. “While any of our courts can be used for multiple purposes, a multi-game court will have lines for more than one sport. “
Lintott says the 30 x 60 foot court is a commonly requested size and has lines for basketball, soft tennis, hockey and volleyball. He recommends clients choose lines designed for a maximum of three different sports. “For recreational fun, you do not always need the lines to play and have fun,” he adds.
“A customer told us about how great it is when her kids get home from school because they go outside and play basketball,” he says. “Only when they are tired, do they come in and play video games.”
You can find residential solutions for multi-game courts including roller hockey surfaces, classic clay tennis surfaces and volleyball courts.
As for the cost of building a court, Lintott says it’s not as unreasonable as you might expect. “A backyard court costs the same amount as a high end hot tub,” he says, “without the on-going maintenance expense.”
Greenspace Designs in Victoria has an even simpler approach to backyard sports. Landscape designer Erin Renwick says she recently completed a backyard with a rectangular-shaped lawn, used for badminton and volleyball. “It’s a modern design, using straight lines,” Renick says of the landscaping. “It looks sleek.”