I look at the many House Tours that are featured on this site as a treasure trove of inspiration, and the holidays are no exception. Oftentimes when we shoot around the holidays, the spaces are decked out in Christmas decor and the homeowners personal style always shine through. Here are a few of my favorite examples: 1. Unique ornaments and a quirky owl tree topper make this tree stand out. From Natalie & Seth’s Organic Modern Home. 2. Pine cones and branches bring in texture and warmth.
Okay, so it’s the weekend and you’ve been busy — probably the last thing you feel like doing is cleaning and bringing in heavier bedding. We totally get it — but a clean bedroom and freshly layered bed create a domino effect whose benefits multiply. You’ll sleep better, and feel better getting up in the morning. All it takes is a little effort this weekend and you’ll be ready to reap the rewards. Go Clean Your Room!
Even if you clean up every time you cook, there will always be food bits and residue — think crumbs and grease — that are pesky pros at working their dirty ways into every crevice and cranny in your kitchen, not to mention clinging stubbornly to surfaces. Even if things look clean overall, there are certain spots that are easily forgotten in the day to day. Zero in on these three spots and choose one (or more) to tackle this weekend.
Fans of the colorful style of Bri Emery, we have great news. The Los Angeles-based creative director and founder of Designlovefest partnered with Target for a new travel collection, and it’s available right now. Emery has been teasing the collection on her Instagram for nearly a week now, giving glimpses of the pieces in action in her IG Stories.
We’ve raved about Tibet Almond Stick before — in fact, I first bought one after Maxwell posted about them in 2006. Until now though, I’ve always used mine on lighter wood, like oak. Yesterday, annoyed at all the scratches that have appeared on my dark finish coffee table, I decided to see if, as promised, the renowned stick could get them out, too . . .The Almond Stick is actually a cotton roll soaked in a “secret family formula.
Light fixtures can be changed. Colors can be painted over. Ugly floors can be covered. They’re not all easy projects for renters who’ve found themselves in apartments cramping their style. But they’re all do-able, and importantly, reversible. Just like this solution for covering ugly appliances with removable peel-and-stick wallpaper.To be clear, Peaches of DIY and Lifestyle Blog Aunt Peaches didn’t have an ugly fridge.
With the holidays creeping up, it’s easy to feel like life has gotten away from you. But you don’t have to wait until New Year’s resolutions to get a grip on the areas of your life that are bogging you down. In fact, making organization a priority here in the home stretch of 2017 will set you up for success next year, with a snowballing plan to get your life in order. Here’s how to get it started… What area of your life is feeling the most chaotic?
Streamline your home’s energy usage wherever you can? It’s a no brainer, for both your personal finances and for the common good. Simply unplug the vampire appliances sucking you dry, make little tweaks to your mindset, and get your home up to snuff. Just a few little improvements can really bring your numbers down and increase savings over time. Assess Your Home’s Situation: Get a handle on your home’s energy use, and identify what’s needlessly using up resources.
Insects get antsy this season, bugging out over the warmer weather, and emerge from their winter hideouts eager for spring. You’re more apt to share space as they move around and seek out new homes for the season. Instead of warily eyeing them (bracing yourself for a sting or bite), stake your claim and prevent creepy crawlies from winning your turf war.
Spring cleaning is just around the corner. Rather than rallying the mental and physical energy to gather tools and make cleaners right before you start the actual cleaning, get everything ready to go beforehand and stored in the smart and sensible place. Having your supplies organized feels great and makes one less hurdle for you to climb before getting started.
After my husband and I got married, we quickly started to think about the impending doom/joy (whichever way you want to call it) of “possibly” starting a family sometime in the future. To add to it, we both started to work from home: My project management position had recently gone mobile and my husband worked as a music producer in a home studio.
The stars aligned perfectly and you signed a lease on a coveted apartment or emerged victorious in a bidding war for your dream home. Congrats! Now, it’s time to unpack and get settled in. Sure, you don’t need a full-on horoscope to tell you where to start; but your zodiac sign might inspire you to prioritize one room, or space, above all others. To help, we asked astrologists which room you should unpack first—based on your sign.
Most conventional advice recommends keeping work outside of the bedroom to boost calm and serenity within a sleeping space. But apparently most conventional advice givers have never had to make it all work with just 550 square feet. The bedroom-plus-office combo has always been a solid solution for tight quarters, and here’s one more tip to keep a dual duty bedroom comfortable. With space at a minimum, corners have to be cut — four of them to be exact.
As the season of inviting people to your home to gather during the holidays nears, now might be the right time to do a walk-through of your rooms with a more critical eye. Take your home from good to great by fixing these decor faux pas before the first holiday guest arrives! While knowing that your in-laws are going to be visiting your home this holiday season may have you wishing you could run out and buy new everything, don’t.
The world of design is a weird and a wonderful one, and in my line of work I see plenty of unique things. There’s plenty of really peculiar furniture out there, and I’ve written about a lot of it, but out of all of it, there a few pieces that stand out to me: things so unusual and yet so arresting that I can’t get them out of my head; things so bizarre and yet so lovely that I would gladly take them home, no matter how many friends were to ask me “What is that?
When we were kids, there were few places as exciting as the library. We spent hours wandering the stacks and discovering stories that stuck with us into adulthood. And the library at Philadelphia’s Henry H. Houston School has been providing that magical experience since the 1920s!The K-8 school has long been an inclusive and diverse place for students and their families, with a vibrant academic and social community.
Moving is expensive enough as it is, so nobody wants to get the bad news that they aren't getting their security deposit back due to a dirty apartment.
Have you ever been in a home that just feels right? One where chairs pull out easily from the dining table and conversation can be made without shouting across the living room? Well there are reasons for that, and they probably have a lot to do with the spacing and placement of furniture. Following a few simple guidelines on furniture placement will make a world of difference in the functionality of your home’s layout.
These actual homes — from lofts, to studio apartments, to houses — will illustrate how big 500 square feet is and what it feels like to live in such a small space.
If you’re exploring indoor trees for your home but aren’t sure where to begin, trust us when we say that the Pachira Aquatica is the tree you want. It is virtually kill-proof, relatively tidy, and grows as large (or as small) as you want. They are also pretty much immune to the most common cause of black thumbs: over-watering (hey, we’ve all been there).
Though a salary of 40 times the rent is ideal budgeting advice—and you should stick to it if you can—it's not the end of the world if it's not possible in your situation.
Cleaning and maintenance is an unavoidable part of life. You’ve to clean your body, you’ve got to clean your living space, and yes—you’ve got to clean your sex toys.
Although the idea of living without a dryer might sound itchy and scratchy — for many, it’s just a way of life. My husband and I don’t currently have a dryer in our home and aren’t big on drying things at the laundromat. Here are a few tips we’ve picked up along the way to end up with clothes that dry quickly and end up super soft! And guess what? Follow these suggestions, and your clothes can be hang dried and still soft, too!
In our previous apartment, the distance that we placed the sofa from the TV was essentially a nonissue — there was really only one spot where the placement of the screen worked, and it dictated the overall size of the TV. The sofa just went across from it, utilizing as much space as was available, no more and no less. But now, in our new place, everything is negotiable.
Whether by choice or by circumstance, living alone has a lot of advantages. But perhaps one of the most subtle yet saddest disadvantages is sometimes feeling lonely. And though occasional feelings of loneliness are natural, why feel lonely when you don’t have to? There are things you can do to create a home that repels loneliness when you live solo. This is the most important one in my opinion. I think you need to throw your curtains open every day. Let the light in.
Home chefs everywhere are loving how easy it is to use their iPads in the kitchen when they’re following recipes. But guys, I don’t have an iPad. Or a printer, for that matter. So my MacBook Pro comes with me to the kitchen in a dangerous display of hubris. And last night, it happened. I dripped water on the brick of the power cord. Luckily, I found there are some things to do if your power cord gets wet so that it can be saved (hopefully).
Last week, I was getting ready for my mother to come for a visit. So naturally, I had to clean out my fridge! I used the method she taught me, and 20 minutes later, my fridge was mom-worthy clean. The inside of your fridge can be clean in no time, too, (and clutter-free) with these four easy steps. Ok—time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! This is also a great chance to toss older or forgotten food while you’re at it. You can do this all at once or in sections.
Almost everyone who has worked on a DIY or renovation project has applied too much torque and stripped a screw head clean. It can feel like a frustrating dead end, especially if you don’t have a specialized extractor kit on hand. But you might be able to remove a stripped screw using a very common household item probably already sitting in your desk or kitchen drawer.Ready to try your hand at removing that stripped screw? Here’s what you’ll need.
We’re willing to bet you won’t find more smiling faces anywhere in Houston than BenCheri’ Educational Center. Since 2014, this community hub has offered local youth tutoring, mentoring, and after-school programming. From elementary school to high school, ABCs to financial literacy, BenCheri’ supports students with the knowledge they need to succeed. But the organization offers so much more than education.
Home Hacks month has inspired us to undo all of the bad DIYs left in our home by previous inhabitants. For example, the 4-foot-long vintage mirror in the bathroom was callously splattered with paint when someone constructed a questionable homemade shelf next to it. Luckily, removing the paint was easy, non-toxic, and didn’t damage the glass at all.MaterialsWhite VinegarWaterEquipmentRagSaucepan1. Boil three tablespoons of white vinegar with three tablespoons of water.2.
It’s inevitable. If you have a pet and a nice wool rug, you will, at some point, have to clean your pet’s mess off said wool rug. You’ll get angry, you’ll assign a time out, then you’ll use this cleaning method to remove the funk, and all will be well. This is our go-to method for cleaning up pet messes on our rugs around the house. If caught quickly, it’s really the best possible, non-toxic way to clean pet stains from a rug.
Windowsills are usually nothing more than a space for plants or forgotten tchotchkes, but they provide plenty of opportunity, especially if you can find a way to make them larger. Windowsill extenders may sound like a funky contraption, but they enable you to make more out of the smallest ledges.This can be as simple as scooting a bench or shelf in front of a window or extending your space outside through the use of a window flower box.
We regularly share clever hacks and methods to make do with less. All that is well and good, but I keep returning to this one basic, everyday way to save hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars in the kitchen. And it’s so very simple. Clean Your Cookware: Help return your pots and pans to their former glory with these tips and techniques.
Years of use or neglect can make for one discolored and dingy tub or sink. Here are a few tips to keep the porcelain on your antique fixture looking next-to-new.
Soaking in a nice hot tub of bubbles at the end of the day is a small luxury that can make a big difference. If you make your own, you can choose what scents you want to soak in, and you have the advantage of knowing exactly what’s going on your skin. Also, it can a lot cheaper and just as luxurious as the fancy kinds. The key to a successful homemade bubble bath is to get a good mix of essential oils and the right amount of bubbles.
A new year, a new opportunity to start and master habits that will add to your overall well-being. One small, kind-of weird habit you could work on this month to master for this year? Not using your smart phone in certain spots in the home. We’ve seen in recent years a backlash on smart phone usage in certain public areas — whip your cell phone out and start Facebooking during a friendly dinner and you’ll probably get chastised.
There’s nothing quite like sitting down for a relaxing bath only to find water with floating black flecks, hair, and who-knows-what-else. Unfortunately, if you’re the owner of a jetted bathtub, this lament may seem all-too-common given that the crevices of the jets tend to collect gunk that is hard to clean by hand. But there are some simple ways to keep those jets clean using basic household ingredients. Fill the tub until the jets are covered by 2-3 inches of hot water.
Does your pot frequently runneth over? If you’re part of the regularly-sets-off-the-smoke-alarm-while-cooking-dinner club, chances are your stove burners are in desperate need of attention. To get a really good, deep-down, clean-clean, you’ll need to actually remove the burners from the stove and use some good old-fashioned elbow grease. While technically you can turn your burners all the way up and have the food burn off, this method is much more effective.
Hotel bed sleep is the greatest sleep, and it's not just because you can crank the AC without worrying about your electric bill. But what's the secret formula to a 5-star bed?
