SPRING 2011
Staying ahead of the game Advertising supplement to the Grand Forks Herald, Sunday April 24, 2011
Allison Comstock, owner of AllisoNicole’s Interior Design and Floral, thinks outside the box when it comes to interior design ■
By Ann Bailey
Herald Staff Writer
It’s easy to visualize decorating ideas at AllisoNicole’s Interior Design and Floral. From the sitting area in the front of the store, to the kitchen in the back, owner Allison Comstock’s store has the feel of a home. Just inside the store entrance, for example, are a sofa and chairs gathered cozily around a fireplace. Down the hall, the working kitchen features appliances, granite countertops and a tile floor. Even the men’s and women’s restrooms are decorated home-style with accessories that are for sale.
Art lover
Comstock has enjoyed decorating since she was a girl. “The majority of my life I’ve been an artsy person,” she said recalling that she used to help her parents decorate their family home. After she graduated from the Art
Institute in Pittsburgh, she returned to Grand Forks and worked as an interior designer at a local decorating store for a few years. In August 2010 she opened AllisoNicole’s Interior Design and Floral. She offers decorating consultations and sells furniture, accessories and flowers. She also sells daily lunch specials, which include a sandwich and soup and homemade desserts made in the store kitchen. “Basically, I try to create a one-stop shop,” she said.
Flexible
Comstock is available to do a variety of decorating jobs. “I’ve done spec homes. I’ve done remodels. I’ve done custom new homes,” she said. Although she has certain suppliers she likes to do business with, Comstock also will buy products from other businesses if that is what her customers prefer. “With the consulting,
we can work any way a client wants to work,” she said. Her flexibility includes offering decorating suggestions in a wide variety of price ranges to suit different budgets. She thrives on helping people turn their decorating ideas into reality. “I dream of it at night and I never get sick of it.” While it’s helpful when clients come to her store with definite ideas about how they want to decorate and photos of the rooms they’re planning to make over, it’s not necessary, she said. “Not every client who comes to me has a photo in their hand. They’re coming to me looking for information.” She talks with the client, asking them questions about their decorating tastes and lifestyles, then makes suggestions about how to achieve the look they’re seeking. Sometimes people describe themselves as having a certain decorating taste, but after consulting with Comstock, learn that what they thought was their style,
Submitted photo
Allison Comstock is owner of AllisoNicole’s Interior Design and Floral.
really wasn’t at all, Comstock said.
Customer-friendly
Although she has certain styles she likes more than others, she doesn’t try to influence her customers’ tastes, she said. “I can create whatever you are asking, whether
Gardening expert, Rebecca Kolls, says when it comes to container gardening there is no limit to what you can do
By Ann Bailey
Herald Staff Writer
No space for a garden? No problem, say gardening experts. Instead of planting vegetables in a traditional rectangular plot or flowers in conventional beds, gardeners can use containers. “If it can hold soil, it can hold a plant, it can grow things,” says Rebecca Kolls, a veteran Wisconsin gardener. Kolls, the author of gardening books and a gardening consultant for national television shows, was the speaker at Gardening Saturday an annual event sponsored by NDSU Extension Service-Grand Forks County and the Grand Forks Horticulture Society.
Containers
Containers don’t need to be expensive or fancy, Kolls said, noting that hardware and farm supply stores are good places to find them. Livestock watering tanks, which come in a variety of sizes, can hold either flowers or vegetables or a combination of the two. Terra cotta and plastic pots,
One-stop shopping
Rebecca Kolls is an author of gardening books and a gardening consultant for national television shows.
■
me an idea, and I go from there.” Being an interior decorator requires not only being on top, but ahead, of the game. “You have to be able to think outside the box and you have to be two steps ahead of everyone else.”
Container gardening 101 ■
File art
that is my particular taste or not,” she said. Some of her clients aren’t seeking to make over a whole room, but to make a statement with accessories. “People have been looking for one-of-a-kind accessories, for sure,” Comstock said. “They give
which also are available in varying sizes, can be grouped together to create a lovely flower display. “You can do a potted paradise on our deck,” Kolls said. Gardeners who use containers should make sure that the pots are the correct size for the plants, have drain holes and are fertilized and watered on schedule, she noted. Vegetables, as well as flowers, can be grown in pots, Kolls said. Six to 10-inch pots can grow a collection of plants that include parsley, green onions, herbs, lettuce and radishes, she suggested. Planting in containers gives vegetable gardeners a jump-start on spring planting because they can sew their seeds in pots a few weeks before their garden plots are dry enough to get into. “Right now I’ve got beets and carrots growing in my window boxes,” Kolls told the gardeners at Gardening Saturday on April 9.
More options
If production, not aesthetics, is the primary concern, gardeners can grow vegetables in a burlap bag filled with potting soil. Meanwhile, tomatoes, peppers and egg-
plants can grow in 6-gallon buckets. Strawberries, also are easy to grow in pots. If gardeners aren’t worried about aesthetics, they also can simply open the plastic bags of soil they’ve purchased and plant the vegetables in them, Kolls said. Besides hardware and farm supply stores, thrift stores are another good place to find containers. For example, angel food pans, which have a hole in the middle of them, are good containers to use for the top of a patio table that has an umbrella. Herbs, such as basil can be planted in the pan, said Darlene Shea, co-owner of Shea’s Nursery in Grand Forks. Cilantro, another herb, can be grown in a large coffee cup. Lettuce, meanwhile, will grow in a bucket, Shea said, noting that the bucket of lettuce she displayed at Gardening Saturday, could grown the entire season in that container. Beets, radishes and tomatoes also are good candidates for container gardening, Shea said. “You’re only limited by your imagination,” she said.
Simonson Lumber and Hardware’s Pro Install takes the hassle out of home improvement projects
By Ann Bailey
Herald Staff Writer
With one phone call to Simonson Lumber and Hardware, homeowners can find everyone they need to get their remodeling jobs done. Simonson’s Pro Install service locates for homeowners professionals who will do a variety of jobs from installing win-
dows and patio doors to roofing to bath, kitchen cabinets and remodels. “I take care of finding the contractors,” said Dayton Kornkven, who manages Pro Install at Simonson Lumber and Hardware in Grand Forks. “It’s none of this having to chase down a contractor.” Customers in a 50-mile-radius of Grand Forks have used Pro In-
stall, he said. “The main thing is to provide homeowners with one-stop-shopping,” Kornkven said. “I can basically general the whole job if that is what the homeowner wants.”
Services
Simonson Lumber and Hardware launched the Pro Install service sev-
eral years ago, first at its Fargo location, and then a few years later at its Grand Forks location, he said. The cost of the Pro Install service is included in the bill for the home improvement job. “I don’t care the size of the job,” Kornkven said. “It can be re-hanging a door, or (installing) shutPRO INSTALL: See Page 2
Ann Bailey, photo
Dayton Kornkven manages Pro Install at Simonson Lumber and Hardware in Grand Forks.