Local Refresh
NoMi products and services to instantly change your life (or at least your home)
With spring on the horizon, Northern Express is looking for all the tips and tools to make cleaning, household projects, and life itself a little easier. (Because let’s be honest, what we really want is to go outside and play in this nearly-warm weather.)
The good news is, you can become a pro at everything from replacing your backsplash to monitoring the water quality of your favorite lake…all without leaving northern Michigan. Here, we dive into six projects perfect for rain or shine that require minimal expertise but offer a major improvement for your day-to-day life.
PROJECTS FOR A RAINY DAY
A No-Sew Update for Upholstery
Unless you’ve been sniffing oil-based paint, you’ve likely heard of chalk paint—a thick, water-based paint for wood furniture and cabinetry that applies easily, dries quickly, and boasts a matte, vintage-looking finish. But did you know you can use chalk paint to change the color of upholstery too? True story. A thin coat of chalk paint applied with a brush or wet rag to a low-pile fabric—think cotton, linen, velvet, etc.—will dry to a soft texture, with no cracking or color rubbing off on anyone’s bum. Head into Red Dresser to get advice from Deb Hepner, the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist, on your particular project and check out the multitude of colors available for less than $43 a liter (larger than a quart), which covers roughly 175 feet of fabric. thereddressertc.com
Clean That Rug
Renting a carpet cleaner/steamer is a fine idea. We’ve lugged many a weighty and awkward machine in and out of our car and spent many a Saturday sucking the crud out of every rug in our home. These machines do a solid job, but once you add up the cost of the rental, required cleaning solution (not included), and time spent, the expense and effort don’t always seem worth it—especially if you’re left with still-damp rugs on your hardwood floors. Rather than waste a sunny spring day to do the job on your deck, we suggest rolling up those dirty area rugs once, sliding them in your car, and dropping them at Grand Traverse Carpet Cleaners, home to the North’s largest cleaning facility for area rugs. While you head off for a hike, certified techs hand-clean your rugs then send them to a climate-controlled space that dries them fast—and fully. Bonus: Until the end of March, they’re offering a 2-for-1 deal on area rug cleaning, no appointment necessary. Bonus No. 2: If you don’t want to DIY and deliver your rugs to their TC location, they’ll DI4U: Just make an appointment, and they’ll pick your rugs up and deliver them back to you. gtcleaners.com
Insta-Tile Improvement
Want to update your kitchen in a weekend? If you can wait until a weekend in 2024, you might find a contractor who’s available, but you can do it yourself in a few hours with peel and stick tile. Trust us, they’ve come a long way in the last six years, with brands like Smart Tiles, Tic Tac, and Art3d dominating the market for their range of style and texture, ease of application, and durability over time. While the brand you choose will ultimately be determined by its look and planned placement—choose peel and sticks made specifically for backsplashes if you’re “tiling” a wall near a sink or stove, for instance—you’ll find dozens of options in products made of textured vinyl or faced with a thin sliver of natural material, like wood, stone, or glass. Those comprised of vinyl are generally cheaper and easier to install—just use scissors—while those using real material often require a tile knife or tin snip to cut. We love Smart Tiles’ Blok Chevron. Each piece, $18.41, measures just over 22.5 inches wide by 11.5 high. You can find Smart Tiles as low as $6.98 per section at Lowe’s.
Barnin’ Down the House
For those of us who don’t own a century-old barn but desperately want the look of those sturdy old beams and planks in our homes, there is an alternative to being arrested for stealing some: Lake Ann Barnwood. They do all the hard (and legal) work of finding and deconstructing old barns and creating custom pieces from those well-seasoned pieces. They will install too, but there’s a lot you can do with old barn wood yourself. Members of our editorial team have DIYed an old barn beam into a fireplace mantle, bolted a rectangle of old (well-sanded) planks to a ’30s-era desk to make a kitchen island, and—after seeing some photos on Lake Ann Barnwood’s homepage—now plan to add a little bit of texture to an otherwise dull accent wall this spring. Tell owner Joe Harrison what you’re dreaming of, and he’ll make it happen: lakeannbarnwood@gmail.com.
PROJECTS FOR A SUNNY DAY
Boom! You’re a Water Quality Guru
Lake-home owners (and lake lovers): a critical step in protecting the inland lake you love is monitoring what’s happening under that water. The easiest way we know to do that is to become a Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program volunteer. By watching the online or recorded version of this year’s annual CLMP volunteer training—scheduled May 10, 2022—you can become a volunteer and begin actively monitoring your favorite lake’s transparency, aquatic invasives, phosphorus and chlorophyll concentrations, and other factors that can impact its health. The CLMP, one of the oldest volunteer monitoring programs for lakes in the entire country, will help you access the right equipment, sampling methods, tech support, and laboratory assistance so you can detect early warning signs of poor water quality and, ideally, act before it’s too late. Learn more and enroll at micorps.net/lake-monitoring.
Get Back to Nature
The native plant movement is here to stay, and for good reason. Butterfly milkweed keeps our monarch visitors happy; oak trees keep the squirrels happy; and wild strawberries keep the humans happy. If your yard is ready for an upgrade—or you just want to learn more about Michigan flora—now is the time. First, check out the resources MSU Extension has on native plants at canr.msu.edu/nativeplants, where you can find the best plants for your region, soil, and sun. Then, if you want to start cultivating early, catch the native seedling sale running now through March 31 at the Grand Traverse Conservation District. Shop the available seedlings online (natureiscalling.org/native-seedling-sale) to place your order for pick-up in April. Otherwise, wait until May for their annual native plant sale when your leafy new friends can go straight into the ground. (Their “plant-by-number” flats are especially great for beginners and provide customers with a perfectly mapped out 4x10-foot garden.) Other conservation districts—like Charlevoix, Leelanau, and Missaukee—will have similar opportunities later this spring.