Refine Your Home

August 2011

INSPIRING IDEAS FOR INDOOR AND OUTDOOR LIVING

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Page 2 • August 18-20, 2011 •

Refine Your Home

Editor’s Note

The art of gardening Steve Bergerson believes that being a serious gardener is also about being an artist, and his Lake Minnetonka gardens, which he tends along with his wife Lois, are indeed works of art. As Kristin Holtz states in her story about the Bergersons’ gardens in this issue of Refine Your Home, walking among the gorgeous colors and landscapes might make you feel like you should be paying admission.

These gardens are a labor of love for Steve. As his daughter, Stacy Brown, comments in the story, the gardens bring him a lot of joy.

Beyond our stroll through the Bergersons’ gardens, we offer tips for revitalizing your home’s interiors. The best part: these are simple, practical and affordable ideas.

Plus, we help you tackle the challenges of de-cluttering your garage. Use these tips and you’ll surprise yourself by how organized your garage turns out. And, best of all: you’ll actually be able to park your car inside.

Angelo Gentile Editor, Refine Your Home

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Refine Your Home

• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 3

Table of Contents Refine Your Home Inspiring Ideas for Indoor and Outdoor Living Vol. 2

No. 3

August 2011

The Twin Cities Flooring Expert

Freshen your home

with a NEW FLOOR this fall

ON THE COVER: Steve and Lois Bergerson’s Lake Minnetonka gardens burst with color every summer, including these thick heads of hydrangeas that bloom multiple shades of purple.

Photo by Kristin Holtz

DESIGN & DÉCOR Revitalizing Interiors

Turn to nature for inspiration .......................................... 4

LAWNS & GARDENS An Artist at Work

Steve Bergerson creates artful landscapes ........................ 8

ORGANIZING De-clutter Your Garage

Try these tips.................................................................. 12

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Refine Your Home

Design & Décor

Revitalizing Interiors Turn to nature for inspiration when waking up tired interiors.

T

he colors are blooming outside and chances are you’re feeling inspired to add some color inside your home too—summer colors now as the season ends, and fall colors too, as autumn approaches. Using nature as your guide, there are some quick and easy ways to refresh your home’s interior.

“Brightening up your living space is one of the best ways to embrace the change of seasons,” says Rachel Skafidas, color and design specialist for Dutch Boy Paints. “In particular, the introduction of crisp, new paint color throughout your home can usher in an almost instantaneous feeling of renewal to your surroundings.”

Plus, adding revitalizing color doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.

Capture it with color “One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to give a room an entirely new appearance is with paint,” Skafidas notes. “For a few dollars and within a few hours, any space can take on a completely updated look and feel.”

Try colors that are nature-inspired. From the blue hues of sunny skies to the vibrant greens bursting outside your windows, you can effortlessly incorporate nature into your home, whether you’re painting walls, trim or looking for accent colors that pop.

“Rejuvenation reaches beyond painting walls,” Skafidas says. “Just

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Refine Your Home

• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 5

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Page 6 • August 18-20, 2011 •

Refine Your Home

Fall is coming and a great way to bring nature indoors is with the last of the flowers in the garden, suggests Betsy Kahler Sangrene, owner of Shakopee-based B. Kahler Designs. “Cut some mums, sunflowers, black-eyed susans and some cattails and put them in a vase on the island or on the coffee table,” Kahler Sangrene says. “Add rust, brown, orange and yellow hues with throws or pillows.”

Additionally, Kahler Sangrene says, the cold is not too far behind, so warm up your space in anticipation of it. Put some logs in the fireplace (clean it out first). If the fireplace is gas, put logs or pinecones in a bucket next to the fireplace—to bring in a natural look.

Don’t forget the bathroom Sangrene has suggestions for the bathroom, too. “Change out the towels and accents for warmer hues inspired by nature—browns, rusts and coral look great with the neutral tones of many bathrooms.” Plus, consider pulling out your old candles, picking up a few new scents and lighting them up. “As the temps cool down, create a warm and cozy environment to cocoon in for the fall and into winter.”

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Refine Your Home

• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 7

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Page 8 • August 18-20, 2011 •

Refine Your Home

Lawns & Gardens

An artist at work Steve Bergerson creates artful landscapes with his gardens

By Kristin Holtz

Stroll around Steve and Lois Bergerson’s Lake Minnetonka gardens, and you might feel like you should be paying admission to an exhibition.

“I totally think that being a serious gardener is being an artist,” Steve Bergerson says. “Artists paint landscapes; I create landscapes. That’s the way I see it.”

From front gate to hilly lakeside, the Bergersons’ gardens are a canvas of thick, leafy hostas; fragrant bee Baum; delicate astible; terraced pavers; bright, bold lilies; and commemorative statuary.

Bergerson, an attorney with Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis, has built his gorgeous gardens with a lot of love and even more hard work.

“It’s really a never-ending hobby,” says fellow attorney John Pickerill. “It’s not like he’s ever finished. He just starts fresh every year.”

Steve and Lois Bergerson have created a serene setting of beautiful, uncommon gardens surrounding their Lake Minnetonka home.

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Refine Your Home

• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 9

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Refine Your Home

Page 10 • August 18-20, 2011 •

He brought plants from his Minneapolis home, attended numerous garden tours and even spent two long days digging out hostas from a neighbor’s tennis court that was to be demolished.

Bergerson’s gardening started innocently.

Unable to grow anything under a large maple tree in their old Minneapolis Tangletown yard, the Bergersons had resorted to crushed rock. A neighbor offered them a snowon-the-mountain plant, promising it would grow under the shade canopy.

It did, and Bergerson was hooked.

When the couple was searching for a Lake Minnetonka home in the early 1990s, gardening potential was a top criterion. “I wanted much more expansive gardens and now look what I ended up with, more than I bargained for,” Bergerson jokes.

While the one-acre West Upper Lake lot had some gardens, Bergerson completely reinvented the place (twice, actually). His English cottage gardens were destroyed when the house underwent a major renovation in 2000.

“Steve’s gardens are extraordinary works of art,” friend Jean Engebretson says. “One can focus on the smallest area and see unique plants and arrangements. Every detail is interesting and well thought-out.”

“He’s always thinking about his garden,” says his daughter Stacy Brown, who was married in her parents’ yard in 1997. “It just brings him a lot of joy.”

While the product might look like a work of art to an outsider, Bergerson always sees more to be done.

From spring through fall, he spends hours every day fertilizing, pruning and digging up and moving plants to where they will better thrive or be more visually attractive.

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Refine Your Home• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 11 Like an oil painting in which an artist continually paints over, Steve is constantly reimagining his gardens through color, texture, height and bloom time. “There’s not a plant in here that hasn’t been carefully placed,” he says.

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For example, Bergerson completely revamped the gardens along the front walk this spring, spending more than 15 hours pulling out a big Joe Pye, dug up and split hostas, and replanted ferns and spirea.

Hidden among the perennials are pots of annuals and a number of statues from Bergerson’s pig collection. Lois called her husband’s gardening therapeutic after a long day at his high-stress law practice.

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“His gardens are his creative palette,” agrees Pickerill, a selfdescribed novice gardener who’s gleaned invaluable advice and quite a few plants from Bergerson. “You can tell there’s creativity oozing out of him. It’s a great outlet for him.”

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• Don’t be intimidated. Be patient and don’t try to accomplish everything at once. One of his favorite garden plaques reads: As the gardens grow, so does the gardener.

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Page 12 • August 18-20, 2011 •

Organizing

De-Cluttering Your Garage Try these tips for cleaning and organizing your garage.

By Jim Bohen

M

any people scramble every fall to clear enough garage space so they can park a vehicle or two in winter. They might like to do more, but after surveying bikes, mowers, tools, equipment et al., they decide that real de-cluttering is too daunting a task. So they settle for their annual stopgap. Well, this year, make your garage more user-friendly — and safer, with help from www.organizingandcleaning.com, www.housecleaningtips. com, www.edmunds.com and Betsy Kahler Sangrene, owner of Shakopee-based B. Kahler Designs.

Take everything out, clean the inside “The best way [to clean your garage] is to start with a clean slate,” says Kahler Sangrene. “Get all the tools, toys, bikes and cars out and give it a good cleaning. Power wash the floor, clean the walls of cobwebs and dust and make sure all of the light bulbs are working or change them out.” Use cat litter to soak up fluid spills and other stains.

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Refine Your Home• August 18-20, 2011 • Page 13

It’s a Guy Thing Garages are great candidates for socalled man caves, places where guys can be guys. Places where guys can smoke cigars, drink beer, watch sports on giant TV screens and tinker with toys like vintage cars or tricked-out motorcycles.

Some of these garage/man caves can be fairly modest: maybe a single garage stall that has a dorm-size fridge along the side for beer. However, others can be dramatically elaborate and include items such as home theaters, pool tables, wet bars, humidors, hanging scoreboards, well, you get the idea.

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Additionally, if your garage is not sheet rocked and painted, this would be a great time to this, budget permitting, Kahler Sangrene suggests.

“Paint it a light color to make the space feel larger and brighter. If it is not in the budget, just make sure everything is clean before you start to put things back in.”

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Filling a portion of one’s garage with a fridge to hold some cold ones, a neon sign or two, and even a comfortable space where guys can watch a game doesn’t seem too unreasonable. But, when vehicles no longer fit inside, are we still talking garages?

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Refine Your Home

Page 14 • August 18-20, 2011 •

Put back what you’re keeping and organize it

Don’t Forget Safety

Use vertical space to get what you can off the floor. If there’s room under the roof, determine what fits there, either hanging from the ceiling or stored on high shelves. Bikes are good candidates (they can be raised/lowered on pulleys), as are items rarely accessed like holiday decorations, building materials and outdoor furniture cushions.

Cleaning and organizing makes garages safer, as do these tips gleaned from sources such as the Home Safety Council (www. homesafetycouncil.org):

• Keep chemicals in their original packaging. Be sure to store chemicals behind child-proof locks, away from bikes, toys.

• Take extra care with gasoline.

Build or buy some shelving, Kahler Sangrene advises.

Organize small things in buckets or bins with labels and stack them on shelving to keep them accessible. Rotate as to the season and use.

• Don’t store propane or pool chemicals in garages. The latter smokes when mixed with oily spills.

• Freezers and refrigerators need locks.

In addition, stackable plastic containers (with contents labeled) can also handle smaller items, while nails on the wall or wall strips are good for rakes, brooms, shovels, etc.

When support is necessary, attach items to wall studs.

• Sharp and electric tools should be behind locks or stored beyond kids’ reach.

• Keep circuit-breaker boxes clear of obstacles.

“Filing”

• Whenever you clean your garage, inspect appliances with

Many do it reluctantly, but putting things back where they belong means handling them less. So whenever you’re tempted to not properly “file” something in the garage, remember what de-cluttering involved and the chances grow that the item will find its designated spot.

pilot lights.

• If electric garage doors don’t rebound immediately from an obstacle, get them repaired.

• People with attached garages should consider installing

Jim Bohen is a St. Paul-based freelance writer.

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