If you’re ready to dip into the green cleaning movement, try incorporating one or two of these sustainable swaps into your rotation. As you add more eco-friendly habits into your cleaning routine, notice the difference in your household waste, indoor air quality, and overall health of your home. Start with these simple strategies to see how easy it can be to go green with your cleaning routine. 1. Swap plastic bottles for glass....
1. Add a Colorful Tray A wood tray painted in a color that matches your throw pillows adds a cohesive finishing touch to a living room. When styling a tufted ottoman, a tray is essential if you plan to rest drinks or a vase of flowers on the ottoman. Stacked books and magazines and a colorful bouquet add texture and height to the display. 2. Tuck Under a Table A pair of ottomans in a lively print not only bring color and texture to a room but they also serve as extra seating when you have a house full of guests....
1. Evaluate your needs. Your lifestyle can and should play a part in any small-deck design ideas. Before you start planning construction, think about how you currently use your outdoor space and how you’d like to use it. For example, if you regularly gather family and friends for meals, then you’ll want to maximize the deck area for seating as well as include a spot for a grill. But if you have a large lawn for playing and relaxing, a deck might serve a different purpose in your daily life, such as a spot to read the paper....
The key to this concrete patio table DIY project is it’s built with powerhouse materials. Cedar’s natural resistance to the elements, including moisture, helps it withstand outdoor weather. We left this table base unfinished, but you can stain the wood to make it even more durable. This homemade base is 22×46 inches from the outside edge of each leg. For the tabletop, we used concrete. Concrete is a surprisingly manageable medium with an earthy look and unbeatable durability....
The starting point was simple: lightening walls and most of the trim with Benjamin Moore’s White Dove paint and contrasting it with high-gloss black. The treatment provided a crisp, blank slate and accentuated the woodwork. In the entry, for example, glossy black brought a mahogany banister back to life. “It disappeared before,” she says. The subdued color and grass-cloth finish of the console mellow the high-contrast entry, which also gets touches of whimsy from claw-foot stools and a peacock print....
Bonus: Oriental lilies produce a sweet fragrance. Related Video
“Every window and door was covered with heavy swags, jabots, draperies,” designer Corey Damen Jenkins says. “The house was overweight. So I put it on a diet.” Although this home was built in the 1990s, it celebrates Colonial Revival details, including eye-catching dormers and porch columns. The homeowners had visions of the miraculous transformation to come. Readers of Traditional Home, they had seen what Jenkins did with a house similar to theirs in Michigan, and they flew the Detroit-based designer to New Canaan to flex his decorative muscle....
If you like to regularly add new plants to your home or desk, Succulent Studios will send you two succulents every month for just $10. However, if you decide your indoor garden is large enough or want to focus on planting outdoors, you can skip a shipment without getting charged or canceling your subscription. The company is based in California, with a nursery in Fallbrook and a fulfillment center in Long Beach....
To help us (and you!) with summer party planning, we sat down with HGTV star Jasmine Roth to get her best tips for maximizing your outdoor space on a budget. Roth, who has starred on HGTV’s Hidden Potential, Help! I Wrecked My House, and Rock the Block recently refreshed her backyard space and is spilling all her best entertaining secrets to help you do the same. Roth shared seven expert tips to help you make your space entertaining-ready, no matter how much room you have....
1. Keep Safety in Mind “If we are attracting birds with food resources, it is important that we protect them when they show up,” says Becca Rodomsky-Bish, project leader of the Great Backyard Bird Count for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Because snow can make windows even more reflective, she suggests making sure your windows have screens, decals, or other forms of protection to break up reflections so birds don’t collide with them....
Before you can begin building a paver patio set in sand, be sure to take your site measurements with you when you’re ready to order the paving. Your dealer will help you convert those measurements to gravel, sand, and paving quantities. Remember to buy extra pavers to cover breakage and mistakes, and to store in case a paver or two needs replacing in the future. Take your site measurements when you’re ready to order the paving....
It’s not just hotels where bed bugs now lurk. Summer camps, college dorms, apartment complexes, theaters, and secondhand furnishings are just a few other hideouts. So with all this news, it’s no wonder you want to know how to avoid bed bugs. The best place to start is to learn how to identify bed bugs and where to look for them. How to Identify Bed Bugs IDs, please! Adult bed bugs look similar in size and appearance to an apple seed but are rusty red in color....
Best Banana Varieties to Grow Indoors You’re probably most familiar with the Cavendish variety, which is the type of banana sold in supermarkets across America. Its classic yellow fruit is what we use as a staple snack or smoothie mix-in. However, not all bananas have yellow skin. Blue Java bananas have a turquoise peel while red bananas have a deep burgundy colored peel. In the wild, a banana tree can easily reach anywhere from 20-40 feet high....
What Is a Bird of Paradise Plant? Bird of paradise is a common name that’s attributed to several plants in the Strelitzia genus. Of the 5 recognized species (S. reginae, S. juncea, S. nicolai, S. caudata, and S. alba), the first two are the most “easily grown as houseplants,” says Dan Pogust, co-founder of the Portland Botanical Gardens. All bird of paradise plants are native to tropical and subtropical areas of southeastern Africa....
Editor’s Tip: Consider using a sanding pole to avoid sanding on your hands and knees. A sanding pole tool looks like a floor duster, but it has sandpaper on the end of the pole and is easy to use. Apply a good amount of pressure to buff your linoleum floors until smooth. Once the primer is dry, brush on one or two coats of your paint. You might find it easier to use a hand brush for painting the edges of the room for better control)....
Aside from giving you pistachio nuts, the trees themselves are also attractive and fit well in the home landscape. With their wide, somewhat shiny leaves and ripening fruit taking on a pink tone, pistachios have a distinctive, almost tropical look to them. Unlike many fruit and nut trees, pistachio trees are either male or female, so you’ll need to plant both for proper pollination. Fortunately, only one male is necessary for upwards of eight female trees....
For this project, we stripped a wood dresser of a dull coat of paint, so its lustrous graining and elegant lines could shine. Next, we added painted hardware to lend the heirloom a contemporary twist. A coat of polyurethane will keep the newly refinished dresser looking gorgeous for years to come. Follow our instructions to learn how to work this magic. If a second coat of polyurethane is desired, or imperfections appear, lightly sand with very fine grit sandpaper, then wipe with a tack or cheesecloth....
Why is milkweed important to monarchs? Milkweed is a perennial flower native to North America that thrive in a wide array of ecosystems. This plant is essential to the life cycle of monarch butterflies because the insects need milkweed to lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch, milkweed is the only plant the white, black, and yellow striped caterpillars will eat. This makes it an essential element for helping the next generation of monarchs grow and hatch each season....
The designs are reminiscent of bathroom countertops, which were often covered in pastel tiles. But the idea has resurfaced, thanks to Danish furniture company Ikon København, which was founded in 2016 by sisters Amalie and Sarah Thorgaard. Their designs, which include cube side tables and rectangular consoles, feature minimalist shapes covered top-to-bottom in neutral or pastel-colored square tiles. Since the brand’s smallest items start at more than $1,000, savvy DIYers (and makers like the Melbourne, Australia-based P0ly Designs) have quickly learned how to recreate the look at a fraction of the price....
Tip: For year-round access, use thick cedar treads on the stairs that can handle occasional winter salt. Tip: Create a uniform look using the same materials throughout the space. Here, marble windowsills match the kitchen countertops. Tip: Add character and save money with DIY features. Each flower-shaped cabinet knob in the kitchen was handmade. Tip: Get a built-in look for less. The refrigerator is an inexpensive model with a faux-steel front tucked in a surround made of salvaged cypress....
