December 3, 2010

Easy Seasonal Accents

Products

Each new season calls for a change of scene inside, too. Consider switching out wool carpets and velvet pillows for a woven jute rug and some zippy woodblock-printed, indigo-dyed and embroidered pillows from John Robshaw. The designer describes the pillow making technique like this: “You touch a woodblock to wet clay and then to the fabric. After the clay dries, you dip the cloth into the indigo vat and the clay stays on. One dip gives the fabric a sky-blue color, two dips and it deepens to cobalt, three dips and its a saturated midnight blue. Then the fabric is laid out to dry in the … Read Post

November 30, 2010

Easy Holiday Decorating Idea

Projects & Tips

Want to brighten a table for the holiday season? Consider making a zesty runner like this one, produced by stylist Ingrid Leess. All you need to do is cut a long piece of felt about 13-15 inches wide, then cut and glue random strips of felt in alternating colors across the main strip. You can choose colors to complement your decor, like Ingrid did, or opt for hues that tie in with a theme like Christmas or Hanukkah. It’s a great low-cost way to dress up a coffee table during the holidays. Or you could use the technique to make fun pillows to give … Read Post

November 23, 2010

How to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances, Plus Easy Delicious Holiday Recipes

Projects & Tips

If you’ll be hosting a Thanksgiving day celebration, then the last thing you’ll want are greasy fingerprints all over your stainless steel appliances, messing up the look of your kitchen, where everyone will surely be hanging out. Kitchen designer, Dave Burcher, design director of New York’s Inhouse Kitchen Bath Home, knows everything there is to know about kitchens. So we asked him his secret for keeping stainless steel appliances clean. Here’s his formula: Mix equal parts water and alcohol in a spray bottle, spray it over the surface of the appliance, then wipe it clean with a microfiber cloth. Follow … Read Post

November 19, 2010

Eco-Friendly Tile

Kitchens

When planning a kitchen renovation, why not make it as eco-friendly as possible? This one includes sustainable materials and energy-efficient fixtures and appliances throughout. The tiles for the floor and the backsplash are from Country Floors’ new collection called Hamptons and they are cut and textured to look like planks of wood in a range of colors, including the charcoal gray hue shown here called Gun Metal. They’re the first tile made that qualifies for points from the U.S.Green Building Council’s LEED certification program (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is generally considered the gold standard for judging eco-friendly design in the … Read Post

November 9, 2010

Easy Holiday Decorating Idea

Projects & Tips

Looking for an easy way to spiff up your kitchen for the holidays? Then consider brightening the inside of your cabinets with a pretty colorful paper backing like our friends Saverio Mancina and Ray Ehscheid did. Even if you don’t have glass-fronted cabinets like theirs, you could still do this treatment—and open a door to the surprise of color and pattern! Here’s their explanation of how they did it: “To bring a color pop into an otherwise elegant, but simple kitchen, we found some lovely, hand-printed Japanese washi paper online thru Paper Source, and selected several sheets that were slightly … Read Post

November 5, 2010

Dream Kitchen Done

Kitchens

This compact kitchen is packed with eco-friendly features, including flooring tiles made from recycled content, engineered stone counters, cabinets made in locally in America, energy-efficient appliances, and a low-flow faucet.

November 3, 2010

A Fresh Take on the Ancient Practice of Vastu

Projects & Tips

Diwali, an Indian holiday also known as the festival of lights, is celebrated over several days and marks the beginning of the Hindu new year—and this year the big celebration for this holiday is happening this coming Friday. Lakshmi, the goddess of material and spiritual wealth is honored on this holiday. And, especially at this time, various incarnations of the goddess are often acknowledged by people who follow vastu, an ancient Indian system of building design attuned to nature. Mayank Barjatya, an architect with a master’s degree in ecology and environment and a vastu consultant in India has studied the … Read Post

October 27, 2010

Tell Your Ghost Story and Win a Prize

Projects & Tips

Ever been in a haunted house with a ghost story to tell? If so, you might want to share it with OldHouseWeb.com, a how-to site for old house enthusiasts, which recently launched a contest inviting DIYers and home renovators to share their ghost stories for the chance to win a $100 gift card to Lowe’s Home Improvement. OldHouseWeb.com is giving one $100 gift card away each week to the person who shares the best ghosty tale until November 11. If you have photos to share, all the better. For anyone who misses out on winning a weekly prize, you’ll have … Read Post

October 25, 2010

How to Make Yard Work Easy and Fun

Projects & Tips

It’s a thrill to watch leaves call attention to themselves in autumn by turning rich red, fiery orange or glowing gold and gently fluttering down to earth to blanket the ground? But clearing them off the lawn once they land isn’t so exciting. To make the job easier consider the Leaf Rake from Fiskars, which transforms a raking project into a fast, efficient and satisfying effort. It’s got flexible, durable, extra-wide resin tines that transport leaves without trapping them, a 24-inch rake head sized for moving a high volume of leaves with minimal effort, a sturdy light-weight, easy-to-maneuver aluminum handle, … Read Post

October 8, 2010

Easy Ways to Get Organized and Change Your Life

Projects & Tips

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a charming little book that helped me fulfill a third wish on my home improvement Wish List—coming up with a comprehensive organization and speed-cleaning plan. It’s called 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home (Trade Paper Press) by Tisha Morris, a feng shui consultant, life coach and interior designer, and its helpful tips on getting organized are so pleasantly written that I actually had fun clearing out some excess stuff in anticipation of the arrival of a few new organizing systems that I’d ordered from Ikea. The book opens with a Chinese … Read Post