Gardening Help

Youre unhappy with your kitchen, but you dont have the time or budget to do a full-scale remodeling job. Dont worry. There are many kitchen upgrades that are affordable and relatively easy that you can do to your kitchen that will give it a fresher look and improved functionality.Paint: Painting your kitchen is a great way to revitalize it. Kitchens can take a wide variety of colors depending on what kind of mood you want to set. If your kitchen feels small, think about lighter colors on the walls, but if you want it to be cozier, consider a warm, darker color. Walls arent the only things to paint either. You can completely change the feeling of your cabinets by painting them a new color or even decorating them with designs and stencils. Read more…

Its Friday (yippee!) – time for another Steal this Idea* feature – a tiny show of appreciation for a well executed tutorial.Today’s idea comes from the talented Rebekah of Wild Ink Press. (you might remember her from the a-may-zing bathroom renovation she shared a while back.)Rebekah took a simple child sized table and transformed into a subtle (so rare for childrens furniture) stylish homage to her beloved letterpress. She started with this:and transformed it into this:Isn’t it great? Read more…

A single, blaring overhead light fixture can be overwhelming and upsetting to a newborn or young child. For this reason, it is important to have proper lighting in a nursery room in your home. Fortunately, developing a lighting scheme for a nursery is easy once you’ve got a few tips and tricks in hand.

Tip 1: Illuminate, Not Focus

It’s no surprise that of course, the womb is not filled with light. Therefore, it’s not vital for your newborn baby to have tons and tons of focused light during the first few weeks after birth. However, you yourself cannot move around the room comfortably without a certain amount of light.

Therefore, it’s best to choose fixtures that illuminate rather than focus.

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The lovely ladies over at The Nest were kind enough to include my passport art project in their round up of 10 Personalized DIY art projects. Some really clever ideas in there – go check them out.

Question: I have an indoor brick and mortar chimney that goes from the floor to the cathedral ceiling in my great room. Mortar continually drops a fine dust or sand on the mantel. I thought applying a sealer would prevent this from occurring. Am I correct and what type of sealer would I use?Dave’s Answer: Ive experienced good luck with grout sealer. Clean the bricks and allow them to dry. Spray with grout sealer and again allow the bricks to dry. I would use a flat finish unless you want some sheen. If you do want some sheen, use a satin finish. The added benefit of the sealer is that it will reduce the amount of smoke that gets in the bricks. Is the chimney moving? There should be no reason for mortar to be falling out. Read more…