Discover the array of ideas to consider as you go about creating that bold feature wall

How to Create A BOLD FOCAL WALL

What can I say? Everyone needs one or two of these in a home. It is called a focal wall. These statement walls have come a long way from the days of floral burgundy and hunter green wallpaper. Focal walls are a simple way to turn a plain wall into a stunning feature and point of interest. Today, you can slap a bold colored paint on a wall as the easiest way to create interest. However, I would like to dive a little deeper into other creative ways to accomplish that unmistakable pop.

Board And Batten: One way to add dimension and warmth to your wall is by using thick wooden pieces of trim. You can create a pattern or go totally abstract, once the wood is securely attached to the wall, add a bold color of your choice which compliments the color palette of the room you are working with. This is such an inexpensive way to add a great deal of character to a room.

Patterned Wallpaper: These days there are so many patterned wallpapers to choose from. I love picking the largest wall and covering it in a bold print, from florals to herringbone the patterns are endless. Find a print that fits your style and space. I like to shop on society6.com to support Independent artists who create their own unique designs.

Art: Gallery walls can be a collection of showcased art, photos, and objects. It is the perfect way to create interest on a wall. Start with one focal piece in the middle, and work your way out with each additional object. If symmetry is your thing, be sure to keep the gallery well balanced. Adversely, an abstract arranged collection of photos, art, or objects can give an organic feel.

Tip: Nervous about hammering a bunch of nails in your wall? Tape out your gallery wall with blue painters tape to get the feel of what it will look like before committing! No time to plan out a gallery wall? Find an oversize piece which provides contrast against your wall color and draws attention the minute you walk into the room.

Modern Decals: Decals have come a long way from the days of ‘big head’ action figures. Today you can find large statement designs as pictured. Urbanwalls.com is a great resource and is always coming up with fresh new decals. I recently used large peonies in my client’s Tween bedroom to add a sense of whimsy to her space and give her room just the punch it needed.

There are numerous ways to upgrade that basic wall to a true focal statement which is certain to enhance the ambiance of a room. Adding distinctive declarations to your house is a sure way to make your space feel more like home. Happy Styling!

DESIGN ADVICE VIA SHANNON MCCONNEY For more stylish tips follow The Design Renegade. Find Shannon on Instagram @thedesignrenegade or at thedesignrenegade.co

are you celebrating your 65 th ?

Happy Birthday Boomer!

You are one of the 10,000 people in the United States turning 65 every day, and you shouldn’t take it lightly. You have some important decisions to make, including enrolling in Medicare.

If you are retired or were laid off from your job, don’t let COVID stop you from making important decisions. Passages Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program (HICAP) is open for business to help you understand and enroll in Medicare.

Put aside all those insurance marketing solicitations and sign up to attend the on-line ZOOM WELCOME TO MEDICARE workshop on Thursday, July 9, 10 am to noon. Registration is required by going to https:// www.eventbrite.com/e/welcome-to-medicaretickets-105044665422

Some questions that will be answered include:

How will my retiree plan work with Medicare?

Should I choose COBRA? • Do I have to sign up for Social Security Retirement to get Medicare?

• Can I delay enrolling into Medicare & not be penalized?

• Do I need a drug plan?

• Are there programs available to lower my Medicare health and prescription costs?

If you still have questions after the event, call HICAP at 800-434-0222 or locally at 898-6716 to set up a telephonic counseling appointment with one of our State registered counselors to discuss your personal situation. Inertia could cost you thousands of dollars.

Ronda Kramer, Program Director for Passages HICAP, warns that signing up with the wrong plan, or not doing anything may cost new Medicare recipients thousands of dollars, and they may not be able to make changes if enrollment deadlines are missed.

HICAP does not sell or endorse any insurance products. PASSAGES, a service of California State University, Chico, supports the lives of adults in the communities it serves. For more information about PASSAGES services go to www.passagescenter.org

ONE HUNDRED YEARS, FOUR GENERATIONS, A Lifetime of Good Night’s Sleep

Square Deal Mattress Factory is the only one hundred year old family run mattress producer in all of California. Their machinery has changed from the slate grey and gold Singer sewing machines of the 1920’s to the modern whirring Mauzer Spezial industrial sewing machines. The mattresses are no longer delivered by horse drawn buckboard carriage. One constant though remains the same, the family dedication to quality craftsmanship.

Situated at 1354 Humboldt Avenue, Square Deal Mattress Factory stands exactly where Ennis Rife, known to his family as EV, founded it in 1920. Humboldt Avenue was the major East West supply route in Chico when John Bidwell built it in 1863 and offered EV an excellent location on the main thoroughfare through town. Ennis’s family moved here from Rocky Ford, Colorado when he was roughly eight years old. In those days, the whole family worked to support the household and everyone played a part. Ennis founded the factory at the age of 16 to help provide for his family. He attended business school during the evenings and ran the factory during the day. Six years later, he married Leotta Bigham. Together they saw their business and family through the difficult times of the Great Depression and WWII, when rationing of metal and gasoline challenged the business’s ability to endure. Ennis and Leotta met these challenges and continued to pass on the skills of the trade to their children. In the early days, the factory offered both upholstery services and mattress construction. Upholstery and mattress crafting went hand in hand in the early 1900s. The mattresses were more akin to cotton mats, quilted and stuffed with natural materials like palm fiber, cotton, horse hair, or kapok, a soft plant fiber also known as Jamaican silk. When the mattress was tired and worn, the owners would bring it to the factory and the cotton would be re-milled, fluffed and pushed back into a new upholstered pad which would then be compressed, tufted, and emerge as a refreshed sleeping pad. Now, four generations later, Ennis’s great grandchildren continue the use of his philosophy to carry on his trade. Jamie Anderson and her sister Jessica Lash comprise this fourth generation. They work alongside their father, Richard Lash, at the factory on Humboldt Avenue. When Richard took over in the 1980’s, he said, “It had all the ‘lookings’ of a 1950’s mattress factory and needed to be brought into the future.” He started replacing

machinery piece by piece. If he couldn’t afford it, he would buy a used model to rebuild and use until he could upgrade. The last forty years have been spent continuing to build the business while modernizing the machinery. Richard is proud of their progress and “Today, the machinery is state of the art; with lasers and air assist, and all up to date with today’s technology.” This includes the addition of a brand new quilter on the way from Atlanta.

The quilting is the top layer of the mattress and adds a thick soft layer of comfort on top of the underlying foam.

Another prize piece of equipment on the way is a special air-assisted tufting machine used to inner tuft their mattresses. Tufting occurs when the quilted top layer of the mattress is secured to the layers beneath it. This ensures that the comfy layers you feel while resting remain in place without shifting. The machine uses hydraulic cylinders to compress the mattress, not at all like before when it was Richard, himself, compressing the mattress! The new technology enables them to continue to use their well-known trade skills passed down from generation to generation while, at the same time, rising to the future of the industry.

In addition to changes in technology, the actual construction of mattresses has gone through many evolutions since the 1920’s. Moving from simple natural fibers inside an upholstered case to the addition of inner springs, and on to pocket coils. Then came the invention of two-sided mattresses, which has given way to the one-sided mattress, and now even simple foam beds in a box. Today’s Square Deal Mattress Factory specializes in double sided, hand crafted, high quality

mattresses. Richard states “there is no technology that has been developed to make a one sided bed last as long as a two sided one. They just took the same components and built a one sided bed and saved on all the cover and padding materials for the bottom of the mattress and are able to upcharge you because it’s a ‘no flip bed’. It’s a marketing gimmick major manufacturers developed years ago that saved them a lot on component cost.” Square Deal has “stayed the course” [with two sided mattresses]. This style of mattress features twice the comfort for deep sleep and doubles the life of the mattress providing outstanding value for [their] customers.”

Jessica Lash took us through the construction of one of their standard innerspring mattresses. It starts off with the inner springs, sourced from the well-respected 135-yearold bedding components company known as Legget and Platt. The springs range in firmness and can be selected based on the level of support required. Next, metal netting is laid over the coils to provide more surface area and protection for the layers to follow. After the netting, two insulator pads are put in place. These pads protect the foam from damage by the underlying wire netting and springs. The foam layer also ranges from firm to soft with various price ranges. Richard

elaborates, “We buy our foam directly from the pour plant in Los Angeles. We specify to the plant what we want and are able to maintain a higher quality in our foam component because it’s made to our specs.” The final fourth layer is the quilted cover which can be padded with various types of foam, wool, or other fire barriers. “We try to stick to a more natural story,” explains Richard, “we are required to put a fire barrier in our beds, but we put a more natural barrier than most, like wool.” Because they are a small factory, they can also construct a custom mattress without a fire barrier if the customer has a doctor’s note advising against it for health reasons. Once the pad is in place, you can then choose to add from assorted pillow tops to ‘cap’ it all off. Since they are two sided mattresses, you’ll get two pillow tops, one on each side.

All the components are then fastened together, one layer at a time, to the spring unit with mechanical fasteners, as opposed to gluing which a lot of manufacturers will do. Once assembled, it is then wrapped with the border and sewn shut. Square Deal sources a variety of their components from little companies they have discovered throughout their 100 years, such as a company in Minnesota that makes steel reinforced handles, originally designed for the care