FRESH IDEAS FOR SPRING
Home + Garden Show sows seeds of inspiration
It’s the stuff home and garden dreams are made of — the biggest gathering of home renovation experts, designers, landscape artists and home design experts of the year.
March 2 to 5, The Calgary Home and Garden Show brings together more than 650 exhibitors, a main stage chock full of inspiring speakers, and even a high-stakes landscaping competition called Backyard Wars. From new deck plans to all-natural gardening, from Danish-inspired interiors to the perfect outdoor entertaining area, it’s all here.
“We are really excited,” says Jodi Vereshagin, exhibit sales consultant for Marketplace Events, which produces the Calgary Home and Garden Show. “I think this year’s show is going to be bigger and better, and with the economy on an upturn we have a lot of new exhibitors coming in.”
Celebrity headliners on the main stage include the Masters of Flip, Canadian born Dave and Kortney Wilson, known for their bold transformations of rundown properties in Nashville, Tenn., and Carson Arthur, landscape artist and host of HGTV’s Critical Listing, Green Force, Room to Grow and Home To Win (2016).
The main stage will also see a wide range of more local speakers on topics ranging from colour trends to beekeeping, and from renovating for resale to all-natural gardening.
The Backyard Wars feature has been hugely popular at the Edmonton Home and Garden Show, for the past couple of years. Four landscapers will square off, each creating a 200-square-foot dreamscape — and the public gets to vote for the winner.
Vereshagin is confident that Calgary show- goers will appreciate the chance to compare four completely
different, life-sized backyards.
“I think it’s exciting because it’s a feature that kind of differentiates each landscaper,” she says.
“So there may be a zen landscaper, there may be one more focused on floral landscaping, there may be one more focused on your backyard as gathering place. The four backyards were totally different.”
Show-goers will get a pretty good idea of “what they could do or what they could hire a contractor to do,” Vereshagin says. “It’s a visual of what you can get for ‘this much’ money.”
On the main stage, gardening expert Chelsie Anderson of Chelsie’s Gardens Soil-utions will be taking an all-natural approach. She plans to let attendees know that you can expect fewer weeds and fewer pests if you encourage natural systems.
“You want to feed the soil, not the plants,” she says. “You feed the soil, and then the soil does the work — and your plants are going to grow really well.”
Anderson also says a bit of dirt under your nails can be as good for you as it is for your garden.
“It just makes you really happy, it makes you feel good to be outside. You’re getting the vitamin D, you’re touching the soil,” she says. “What’s good for the soil is good for the soul.”
You can nurture your soul inside the home as well, with a little dash of hygge, the Danish concept of celebrating cosiness and life’s small pleasures.
Designer Krista Hermanson of Krista Hermanson Design takes to the main stage Sunday for a talk called Trends & Colours for 2017 — With a Dash of Hygge.
“Hygge is about cosy time, it’s about quiet conversation, it’s about lighting candles, simple pleasures, creating intimacy in your space,” Hermanson says. “I think it’s a reaction to our very high-tech, plugged-in lives.
“People want to go home, unplug, snuggle up in a cosy space, in a smaller gathering with their family or a couple of friends, and es- sentially slow right down. It’s something that everyone needs. The faster our lives are and the more hyperconnected we are, the more critical it is for us to carve out specific times to enjoy hygge.”
So, chilling out is a trend we can all embrace. What about colours? And how can we use the 2017 design trends to create current yet relaxing spaces for ourselves?
Start with white, Hermanson says. “White will continue to be very strong in the coming year, including white kitchens,” she says. “White equals simplicity and calm for people.”
Hermanson gave us a sneak peek at her trends for the coming year.
“We have surfaces that are becoming a little more futuristic and slick, definitely engineered, clean lined and simplified, as well as on the other end of the spectrum we’re seeing more use of raw, handmade unfinished kinds of materials. So, woven textiles, lots of raw wood, very nubbly cosy throws.”
“Earth tones are coming back in for the fall, often mixed with shots of black for grounding. Raw wood is continuing to be strong.”
Both Jodi Vereshagin and her colleague Dustin Smith of Marketplace Events promise more variety, more new exhibitors and more great ideas at this year’s show.
“It’s that time of year people want to get out, kind of get over winter and get into spring,” Smith says. “It’s one of those shows that’s big enough that it has not only the contractors for the projects in mind, but different things to help them just enjoy the day.”
Some of Calgary’s top food trucks will be parked at the show to create a food truck court. There’s also a beer garden, the Floform Lounge for taking a seat and a 1,000 square foot model home tricked out with Revolve furnishings.