March & April by Aubuchon Hardware

March/April

2015

The Aubuchon @Home Insider

Ramblings of a serial renovator

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Who won’t breath a sigh of relief when the roar of the snow plows is replaced with the sweet song of the returning birds, and wheels rolling across the selling floor. Yes, there will be barbecue grills everywhere. Spring at last. Thanks to the support of the executives and the marketing team at Aubuchon Hardware, starting here and now, you’re going to have another little birdie singing in your ear- Me! Arriving in stores at the same time the doors swing open to welcome the spring breeze, my intent is to turn The Aubuchon@ Home insider into an informational that is off the charts☺. Here, we all have an opportunity to exchange ideas, news, opinions, expertise and maybe even a little bit of gossip, as we share our day to day success stories. Rather than inundate you with a whole bunch of color & DIY tips month after month, if you’re willing to help, we can make The Aubuchon@Home insider a distinctive resource.

baby chicks

Scheduled as a bi-monthly, the lead-time on insider content will allow you to make suggestions whenever they come to mind. So if something fantastical is happening in your store, why not help to make it happen in all the stores? On the heels of one of the most oppressive winters ever, it’s a pretty safe bet that the surge of homeowners will be arriving at your store with very-very -very long to-do lists. I know you will all be cAraZy busy. But please try to find a minute to share some of your personal brand of expertise with me, because with your help, my aim is to turn this newsletter into an ourletter. We can all rest again next winter. xo-lu

delightful yellow

curbside story Sometimes I get confused. When is something a trend, and when is that something, just a thing everyone has always been doing, and I just wasn’t paying attention? This is my dilemma on dramatic front door colors. While I know nearly every single door in Dorset Vermont is black or Essex Green, I’m not feeling as confident proclaiming that more traditional front door colors are passé. What I have discovered is that wild, crazy over-the-top dramatic front door color is EVERYWHERE. Could it be the Internet, or all this photo sharing is fueling the front door color lust movement? Let’s not get ourselves in a dither about the trend/not a trend question and instead, let’s just sell those wild paint colors! I’ll be talking about this at the upcoming consumer seminars, and nothing would please me more than to have feedback from each and every store on this topic. So… what’s the wildest front door color you’ve sold lately??? What’s your favorite? What’s on your front door? What’s gonna be the next big color for doors? My picks are posted here, see if you can guess the order… :)

tie dye anything

amarillo 320

big buckets

brazilian blue 817 paradise valley 559 your majesty 1400

hardwarestore.com

easy houseplants

e 1 march april 2015 Issu

color confidential trending color + palettes that work OK paint specialists-set aside the color chips for the color palette I’ve suggested here, and give it the once over! I created this palette for a townhouse project just before the Benjamin Moore 2015 color of the year Guilford Green, HC-116 was announced. Isn’t Guilford Green ever so close to our NECC color, Dune Grass, 492. Both are mossy-toned greens. Dune Grass is paler, making it a good option for those who come looking for Guilford Green, but find it’s a tiny bit too much color. If you are challenged further, and Guilford and Dune Grass are thought to be a bit too drab, try suggesting the cleaner version of both, Van Alen Green HC-120. Not that this sort of exchange ever happens. :) This whole house palette was planned around Van Alen Green. Looking at the combination you’ll see how easily any of the greens I’ve noted will work together. It’s always easy to deviate a little when the colors are fabulous, and then, WOW-everything is beautiful! This is essentially a green and purple complimentary color scheme. I know all my paint specialist friends can see how very much on trend this combo is too. I’ll be happy to send anyone a link to the finished townhouse project, where I was able to use this entire collection of colors. Once up I decided it is, for sure, a winning palette. It’s a good one for dark or poor daylight situations, and rooms considered on the smaller side. Your builders and color hunters who are looking for a good resale color combination will love it; my project sold in a week. Have fun and let me hear how you made it better even at #AskLu.

VAN ALEN GREEN HC-120 DUNE GRASS 492 AFRICAN VIOLET 2116-50 PERSIAN VIOLET 1429 CAMEO WHITE 915 BLUE HAZE 1667 INNER BALANCE 1522

cool stuff To get a good jump on flowering displays, starting plants and planting projects for kids, unusual planter ideas are endless. I so love these boots, but who really has this many old Wellies hanging around? This could be old sneakers, or little galvanized pails? I see it as anything that can be hung in multiplessort of a window box kind of thing-but not! For those who linger in the flower department and lament they don’t like to bend, have little time to water, share a yard with animals or just plain wanna do something super creative in the garden, this is a cool thing worth talking about. For more cool garden ideas, check out my April yard + garden blog post at www.aubuchonathome.com and email me any brainstorms of your own.

CHICKEN COOPS? GARDEN FEATURES? RECYCLING PROJECTS? COOL! EMAIL ‘EM!!! LU@AUBUCHON.COM

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socially speaking Houzz is the website for

home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners and home professionals together in a uniquely visual community. Go online top get some great ideas for both yourself and your customers. HOUZZ.COM

Aubuchon At Home is our

own blog. It’s the place to go to get some great hardware and paint ideas. Find out what’s going on at Aubuchon Hardware and direct your customers to #AskLu any questions they might have. AUBUCHONATHOME.COM

This site, Favorite Paint Colors, is a compilation of paint colors from blogs that help give you inspiration for your next painting project and to make the “picking out” a little less stressful. They’ve categorized the paint by color and room to make it easier to find what you are looking for. FAVORITEPAINTCOLORS.COM

what do ya know! In 1933, The Bethlehem Steel Corporation shipped out 1.2 million steel rivets to the McClinticMarshall Construction Company. Four years and 83 thousand tons of steel later, two 746 foot towers soared above the Golden Gate Strait to make up the 4200 foot iconic expanse of glistening red steel we call today-drumroll please-The Golden Gate Bridge. Sand blasted and fire treated after construction to retard the accelerated corrosion its constant circumstance of fog cover might cause, the towers, the plazas, every cable, every inch of the steel, and all 1.2 million rivets, were then primed with red lead primer. Said to be inspired by the color of the red lead primer against the ocean, sky and hills of Marin, a whole new color, as envisioned and developed by project architect Irving F. Murrow, was born. Known today as International Orange, the muddy orangey-red Murrow developed, with the help of painters, sculptors, architects and engineers, today remains exactly the same as the final test color. American sculptor Beniamino Bufano proclaimed “...(the color) adds a colorful symphony to the hills”. Murrow agreed, and International Orange became an engineering and aerospace color standard. A truly beautiful feature paint color in the landscape. Mix it with confidence as Benjamin Moore’s Classic Color, Warm Earth 1274.

hot item

Rust-Oleum NeverWet

A superhydrophobic surface treatment is something I’d ordinarily consider a gadget. Who has some reviews to share on this invention for me? Surely I’m not the only person who occasionally leaves their bike, tractor, gardening boots and fabric chair cushions out in the rain. While the tech sheets on this product are detailed, something that will repel water, mud, ice and rain on fabric, metal, concrete, aluminum and masonry? I’m ALL in. Please send me your tips/updates for products you are loving and selling.

one more thing Have you signed up to receive painted color canvases of the Northeast Color Collection? Missed out on the PK show? I have a number of these arrays all ready to go, so if you have a good place to display the collection, email me your name, store number, and the measurements of the area where you will be placing the array. They work best on a space measuring approximately 7’x4’. I’ve seen some super creative display ideas to showcase the color collection that make quite a statement. Waterville and Tewksbury re-worked an old Benjamin Moore display. For the new Tupper Lake store, I set up paintbrushes dipped in the 45 colors; Sandwich has it on odd sized canvases.

to rely on the Northeast Color Collection, and have a challenging display situation or a super display idea of your own to share, send it, send it, send it! I’ll post pictures fo your fabulous displays on the Aubuchon Facebook page and you should too. I have all the colors, and I’ll get my people going on it for you. :) Short of a display, try to hang on to one Northeast Color Booklet for your in-store use, and lend it out as you would a fan deck I hear they disappear fast! BTW. The Northeast Colors are on our website at: http://www.hardwarestore.com/blog/ northeast-color-collection-2013-05/

I’m not likely to run out of ideas to get these colors out to you for your in-store use, and have recently taken to painting tiny dollhouse doors and wooden kitchen spoons. So if you have come

share your news! Upcoming Blog Posts upcycled picture frames (for Mom) vertical gardens get party ready

ur send me yo uestions q r o s t n e comm n.com email-lu@aubucho

sitting pretty (outdoor furniture fix ups) workbench favorites best colors for furniture fixes news from the garden

real design. real projects. real life.