Create A Garden Room: It’s a Natural Choice

Create a garden room to provide space for tools and seeds, and to allow you to commune with nature from inside your home.

Garden room must-haves:
Sink: Keep it deep for rinsing slugs off garden vegetables or cleaning muddy trowels. A stand-alone stainless steel sink from a kitchen supply store is a workhorse ($250 to $1400), but a plastic tub ($80) will do, too.

Countertops: When you create a garden room, more countertop is better for repotting plants or pressing seeds into soil. Counter space next to the sink makes cleanup easier. Stainless steel is best because it won’t stain and you won’t care about scratches. Cost: $75/sq. ft. If your budget is tight, use an old wood table that a few more scars won’t hurt.

Storage: Throw up some cabinets in your new garden room; you can get deals at Habitat for Humanity ReStore resale outlets ($45 for a single cabinet), rescue school lockers from a yard sale, or stack and anchor inexpensive bins to a wall. A forged iron curtain rod with some large J hooks is a great place to hang baskets for less than $100.

Light: Your seedlings and hanging plants will love natural light. Replace wood doors with a swinging all-glass door. Rip down window treatments to maximize light.

Flooring: Choose a surface in your garden room that won’t show dirt and is easy to clean. Vinyl sheets ($8 to $10/sq. yd.), are best. Ceramic tile (typically $1 to $10/sq. ft.) is sturdy and can give a natural feel to your space. To hide dirt, use darker tiles and grout. Also, make sure you periodically reseal grout lines to keep out dirt.

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Seeing Red? It could help you sell your home.

Painting walls red—or any bold color—makes a definite statement, which you may want to take back someday. A tinted primer will cover your mistake.

Effort: Low 2 hours/coat for 10x15 rm
Investment: Low $20-$30/gal primer; $20-$70/gal paint

A rich red on the walls can make a large space feel more intimate. Painting walls red is an inexpensive way to add pizzazz to a room and bring a lush, romantic mood into your home. But red—and any bold color—is a bear to cover up when you suffer painter’s remorse. Here’s how to find the right red and how to cover your tracks when you decide to get rid of red.

Seeing red
Painting walls red is less forgiving than, say, painting walls Linen White. Make a mistake, and you’ll feel like you’re dining inside a tomato. Change your mind, and you’ll need at least two new coats of paint to cover your regrets. Here are tips on where and which red to choose.

Painting walls red can make large spaces feel more intimate, and small spaces look more interesting. Splash a little red in a powder room, or on just one wall in a den.
Bluish reds can be festive and a good choice for dining and living rooms.
Orange-hued reds are anxiety-producing colors—popular in casinos—so keep them out of the bedroom.

Paint your selection of a sheet of poster board—not on the walls—and place it in different parts of the room, at different times of the day, and in different sunlight conditions. At night, turn on lamps to see how your red reacts to artificial light.

Choose to re-chooseRed walls don’t play well with new colors: Whites turn pink, yellows become orange, and blues look purplish. You won’t be able to throw up a coat of crème and call it a day.

Here’s how to neutralize red:
Prime walls with water-based sealing primers, such as Benjamin Moore Color Foundations or Behr Premium Plus Interior Enamel Primer.
Tint primer to make it closely match your final color. Or, choose a grey or pink tint to help transition from red to a more neutral color.

Paint two coats of primer and let dry completely. Use fans to speed up the process.
After priming, choose a good quality paint and you’ll likely need only two coats. For a high-quality paint, look for 100% acrylic and stick to national brands.
Apply new color with a 3/8-in nap roller. The shorter the nap, the better the coverage, which is important when covering red colors.

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Repair and Replace Door Hardware to Update Rooms

Spruce up quickly (and cheaply):

Repair and replace door hardware that makes rooms look dingy and outdated. We’ll show you how door and cabinet pulls, knobs, and hinges can give your home new sparkle.


Repair and replace kitchen cabinet hardwareReplacing or repairing knobs and pulls on cabinets and drawers is a quick way to give your old kitchen a new look.

Cabinet hardware can be simple or ornate, and ranges from $1 a knob to $45 or more. Here’s your game plan:

Repair loose knobs and pulls by tightening holding screws, replacing stripped screws, or plugging gaps with wood filler applied with a putty knife.
Count the number of knobs or pulls you need before you head to the hardware store. Estimating will cost you time and money.

To replace pulls, which are attached to cabinets by a screw at each end, measure the distance between holes--not the length of pulls--to assure a perfect fit.
If you’re switching from a two-hole pull to a one-hole knob, choose hardware with back plates that cover door scratches and holes.

Tighten, polish, or replace door hardware
Nothing ages a room like a loose doorknob. You can tighten mortise-style doorknobs by simply tightening the setscrew on the side of the doorknob. For cylindrical doorknobs, you’ll need to take the doorknob apart.

Replace dated doorknobs with sleek door levers.
For easiest installation, choose a lever handle lockset made by the same manufacturer. Prices range from $20 to $160.

Spiff up with a bright new shine.
Buy a commercial polish, such as Wright’s or Weiman, to make brass doorknobs shine. Warm water and a little dish soap or a homemade paste of equal parts vinegar and baking soda will scrub off dirt and make stainless steel and glass doorknobs sparkle.

Clean or replace door hinges
Telltale paint on door hinges says someone did a sloppy job. To restore hinges, try these techniques.
Wash with sudsy hot water.
Scrub with a nylon brush or a toothbrush. A wire brush could damage the finish.
Brush on paint stripper that is safe for all surfaces.
Polish with beeswax furniture polish or brass polish.

Momma always said to put your best foot forward and that we never get a second chance to make a first impression. So, whether you are in the midst of marketing your home, thinking about putting your home on the market or just want to spiff up to put your best foot forward, follow these simple and fairly inexpensive tips and you're part way there.It's worth the effort.

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