GREEN IT: When shopping for a new toilet, faucet, sprinkler or professional to install a new sprinkling system, consumers soon (and easily) will be able to identify those products and services that offer superior water efficiency. Last June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched WaterSense, an ENERGY STAR-like testing and labeling program dedicated to water efficiency and conservation. Currently, the EPA is setting specifications for bathroom plumbing fixtures and landscape irrigation products. Training courses for landscape irrigation professionals already have been certified, and those courses are taking place across the country. Product-wise, the first toilets, followed by faucets and then irrigation products to be tested and certified with the WaterSense mark, will start showing up on store shelves in the spring. WaterSense-qualified products will be at least 20 percent more water efficient than similar ones in the marketplace. And like ENERGY STAR, this is a voluntary program. The goal is to encourage innovation and to bring more water efficient products and services to the marketplace. For more information, visit www.epa.gov/watersense.
–Karen Klages
HANG IT: Relax while adding life to any room, home or office by hanging an aquarium. That’s right, hanging an aquarium. The AquaVista 500 is a wall-mounted aquarium roughly the size of a flat screen television. Made to house freshwater fish, the aquarium hangs on a wall like a piece of art, creating a tranquil vision. It can be customized with 24 interchangeable frames, from classic to modern, and eight vivid marine backgrounds (coral reef, seaweed, etc.) Ordered online, it comes preassembled with everything but the fish and water. The embedded LCD programmable control panel allows owners to manage filtration, temperature, air pump and lighting. Only 4.5-inches thick, the top opens for feeding. Price is $299.99; order online at www.aquavistainc.com. (The aquarium comes with a frame and background; other options are extra; additional frames cost $40 to $60 each, backgrounds $20 each.) Call 888-627-8284 for more information.
–Mary Daniels
READ IT: After years of being out of style (and “plains” and “solids” being the buzzwords in decorating), pattern is back. Big pattern. Bold pattern that looks almost architectural. Dainty pattern. Pattern in upholstery fabric, in draperies, wallpaper, lampshades. It takes courage and a deft eye to mix pattern and color in a room. For those who want to give it a whirl (and imbue their rooms with a level of commotion/warmth that all-over solids don’t allow), “At Home With Pattern” ($27.50, Ryland Peters & Small, 144 pages) is your guidebook. Even if you don’t read any of the text (although freelance stylist and interior design consultant Sally Conran and writer Katherine Sorrell offer all sorts of tips on choosing the right patterns, in the right places and in the right colors) the pictures by photographer Claire Richardson do ample showing and telling on their own. Readers/viewers will find homes and rooms — ranging from modern and contemporary to vintage in feel — wearing florals and stripes and geometrics and swirls (and you get the picture) beautifully and to vastly different effects.
–K.K.
kklages@tribune.com, mdaniels@tribune.com
