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Posts tagged “How To...”

How To: Hang Your Artwork and Not Screw It Up

A number of years ago a friend gave us a great tip that to this day has made picture hanging a simple, pleasurable task. The tip was to always hang your art at 57" on center. "On center" means that ...

How to: Track Junk Mail
Boston

Our mailman loves it when we get magazines in the mail. Not because he likes carrying them around, but because he gets a chuckle out of what our title is on the address label. Our Domino subscrip...

How To: Refurbish a Craigslist Find
Washington DC

You may remember we picked up two Bassett dressers over the Memorial Day weekend knowing they needed some TLC. We finally found the time to work on the one we plan to use as a credenza, and started ...

How To: Search on Craigslist
Boston

The other night we found ourselves sitting around after dinner with our dueling laptops, looking for unusual things for sale on Craigslist. We were having a contest seeing who could come up with th...

How To: Make Your Own Chalkboard Paint

Chalkboard paint is easily purchased at any hardware store. But it's only available in black or green. This recipe allows you to create the paint in any color you please: 3 teaspoons acrylic paint (c...

How To: Paint a Tree Mural

Graphic DIY. As with most painting tasks, it's all about prep. Reader Telmen from the Netherlands, sent us his own How To, documenting his approach to painting a tree on a wall of his home. After lo...

How To... Use Less Packaging

With my brother heading off for the Peace Corps, we're going to be sending more packages in the mail than usual over the next 27 months. We're going to do our best to keep the packaging in check, wi...

How To: Add Mosaics To Your Garden
Washington DC

Natural Home magazine offers suggestions for creating a magical and whimsical garden. The article "Finding Neverland" recommends adding soy candles and energy-efficient LED holiday strings to your o...

How To: Heads up!
Washington DC

On a recent visit to Stratford Hall Plantation in VA (General Robert E. Lee's boyhood home), we were inspired by the transom windows in the interior hallways. These windows had horizontal shutters ...

How to: Dispose of an Old Mattress
Washington DC

(Photo courtesy of soundfromwayout on Flickr) We took advantage of recent sales to purchase new twin mattresses to replace the old ones in our childhood bedroom. We decided to save on the delivery ...

Inspiration: Cheap Chair Rehab
The New York Times 6.5.08

How far can you stretch $40 and a do-it-yourself attitude? The New York Times shadowed experienced prop stylist and set designer Michele Spadaro as she rehabilitated an inexpensive, thrift store cha...

How To: Decorate to Reflect Your Pet
Boston

About a year after we brought our little white dog, Arlo, into our Jamaica Plain apartment, an unconscious shift to white décor began unfolding. We didn’t even notice it was happening until an ou...

How To... Display Family Photos from Real Simple

My parents' wall of family photos at their home is a mish mash of old and new, formal portraits and snapshots - all framed and squeezed onto one wall. The sight of it is probably only a pleasure to ...

How To: Hang a Cycloc
Boston

As national bike month comes to a close and more of us are out on the streets - braving the potholes, endless construction and Boston drivers - we need a place to rest our bikes when we return home....

How To: Open Your Kitchen Shelving and Not Screw it Up
Email from 5.14.08

Mat's S.S. Waverly kitchen from Small Cool 2008 Sara and I have been talking about taking the doors off our kitchen cabinets. I am for the idea and LIKE the idea of open shelving, but worry - as man...

How To: Recover a Lampshade
AT Washington DC

(Pic: ginamstudio) Looking for a simple project to spice up your Memorial Day weekend? Consider recovering a worn out lampshade to give your room a custom look. Though this post is all about recove...

How To: Hang a Quilt Artistically
Boston

The large expanse of white wall in our guest room bored us terribly, and we didn’t have any idle artwork lying around that we could use to jazz it up. Then it dawned on us - we have a fantastic N...

How To: Slipcover a Reading Chair

Time: 2 Weekends Cost: $120 This is one project that most (including ourselves) consider TOO HARD. Recovering a reading chair? Forget it. But NicoleMari's patient, smart, inspiring instructions ...

How To: Hang Art in Groups (Like Kate Spade)

Full disclosure: I think Kate is soooooo much cooler than Andy Spade (and, yes, I'm a guy). Hilary (woman) may lose, but Kate (woman) has won. Her style seems so much more grown up, fun and excit...

How To: Mirror a Dresser

AFTER Time: 2 weekends Cost: $400 Ever wanted a mirrored dresser and looked into how much they cost? Very fashionable in the last few years and VERY expensive, this is an awesome DIY project by Sha...

CB2 Presents: Blending Vintage & Modern

CB2, C&B's upstart child, was one of our first advertisers and daring enough to work with us when we were a lot smaller. Last month, they called us to see if we could try something a little bit diff...

Mirror DIY: How To Add Pop! to Your Dining Room

First, a disclaimer: There was an article in the NYTimes a few weeks ago about bloggers in poor health, In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop, and let me be the first to say i...

Big Storage Solutions Inspired by Little Rooms: Part Two

The editors of our site about homelife with children, Ohdeedoh, just wrapped up a contest all about a subject that is just as challenging for small spaces dwelle...

Do It Yourself: Ombre Craft Projects
Martha Stewart Living May.08

We've become a bit obsessed with ombre - the shading and fading of colors and tones. While we've looked at various ombre rugs from West Elm and Macy's, the May issue of Martha Stewart Living feature...

Do It Yourself: Big IKEA LAMPAN Lamps

We've featured various Do It Yourself projects from Instructables.com before: the DIY Book Lampshade and How To...Make Hungarian Shelves. We just stumbled across Instructables member Daniel Saake's ...

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