This story category covers home decor, home maintenance, garden design and garden maintenance.

Tips To Make Tiny Bathrooms Feel Larger

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Tips and tricks to make even the tiniest bathroom feel much larger.

IKEA Kitchen Uppers In the Bathroom - C. Rule

 

GAINING SPACE | How do you make a dinky five-foot-square powder room feel larger? Mirror is one obvious solution, which is why I installed a giant, counter-to-ceiling sheet of it in my recently renovated loo. Another is to replace a traditional, space-hogging vanity with shallow cabinets. I gained a valuable nine inches on the floor across the width of my tiny room by replacing the boxy 21-inch-deep vanity with five linear feet of plain-Jane IKEA kitchen wall cabinets that are a mere 12 inches deep. Not only did I maximize the amount of open floor area, but I gained infinitely more—and more useful—storage as well. Read more

Paper Lanterns - Kim Stuart

Great Sources For Perfect Paper Lanterns

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Light up your summer party with paper lanterns. Here’s where to find the best ones.

Paper Moons - C. Rule

 

SIMPLE & PERFECT | Yes, they’re only paper moons sailing over a concrete sea (my patio), but summer parties automatically feel more fun when I hang a few of these. Read more

Backyard chickens

Backyard Chickens Need A Moveable Coop

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If you’re planning to raise backyard chickens, it makes sense to have a moveable coop.

Backyard chickens

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | The 100 Mile Diet is becoming the 100 Foot Diet as increasing numbers of urbanites turn to growing and raising food in their backyards. Many of them will discover, however, that there’s a reason for leaving food production to farmers—it’s a serious amount of work. Read more

Stack Of Cloth Napkins shutte

Why You Need To Use Cloth Napkins Daily

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Here’s why you should use cloth napkins every day—and how (and where) to sew beautiful mitered-corner ones for yourself. (VIDEO)

Stack Of Cloth Napkins shutte

 

MONEY WELL SPENT | You should be using cloth napkins every day not only because doing so will save you money by cutting down on paper waste but also because you deserve nice things, and cloth napkins are nice all around: better next to the skin than paper ones, generally larger and more absorbent. Read more

Eurow Microfiber Kitchen Towels

Finally, Attractive Microfiber Dishtowels

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These microfiber dishtowels look stylish in the way that linen ones do—and function superbly, too.

Eurow Microfiber Kitchen Towels

 

GET THIS | I can’t help but think that if for some mysterious reason Fog Linen Work, a Japanese company that produces an exquisite line of linen products coveted by design devotees everywhere, were to suddenly go rogue and use microfiber rather than Lithuanian linen to make their kitchen towels, they might make a waffle-weave product like the one pictured here from the American company Eurow & O’Reilly. “Yes, aren’t these towels awesome,” my designer friend Margo concurred when I enthused about how attractive and effective hers were as we stood hand-drying dishes after dinner at her place awhile back. Read more

Crow finial

6 Fun Objects To Move Around The Garden

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Six objects—no chairs or pots among them—that can be relocated around the garden again and again to make it look revitalized.

Crow

 

SWITCH IT UP | Because so many elements of a garden’s design are fixed I sometimes like to shake things up by introducing objects that can be repositioned according to the season or to whim. In my own garden, I have three metal crows that travel from tabletop to fence top routinely, and two, old wooden obelisks that have at one time or another bunked in every quarter of my suburban lot. Read more

Beadboard wallpaper Graham & Brown

Get The Beadboard Look For Less

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How to get a fantastic beadboard look for your walls without hard labour or a super high price.

Beadboard wallpaper Graham & Brown

 

THE LOOK FOR LESS | As much as I try to squeeze it in, my sunny dream cottage by the sea just won’t fit my budget.  But the fresh, cottagelike look of a bright wainscoted room can be achieved without using high-end, labour-intensive classic tongue and groove boards. Read more

Glimma-tealights- IKEA

Which Tea Lights Burn Longest? Read This.

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When using tea lights to illuminate a special event, you need to know exactly how long they will burn. Here’s what we discovered.

Glimma-tealights- IKEA

 

BUY RIGHT | One thing I know for sure about tea lights is that the burn time listed on the package never lives up to its promise. I have only my own experience to back up this claim, but over the past few weeks, I have been testing tea light burn times for an upcoming wedding reception, and, without exception, every wee candle came up at least one hour short. It may be possible for tea lights to burn for as long as the manufacturers contend, though I can only imagine that to do so, they would need to be in a place where the air is still. Read more

Plant Props - H. Ross

How To Make This Curly Garden Stake

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Why settle for pedestrian plant supports when these fanciful ones are super easy to make.

Plant Props - H. Ross

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | This curlicue cousin of the commercially available metal plant stake is made with 12-gauge T-bar ceiling hanger wire, which comes in a bundle of precut lengths that are perfect for supporting garden smaller plants. Read more

Top Dressed Narcissus -Martin Tessler

How To Top Dress Floral Arrangements

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Turn ordinary potted plants into miniature landscapes by choosing a soil cover that matches their look. There are lots of toppings to choose from, including aquarium stones, beach glass and even rosebuds.

Top Dressed Narcissus -Martin Tessler

 

CREATIVE SOLUTION | Plants potted up for the house are more than just leaves, stems and blossoms. They’re landscapes in miniature, with every aspect of their situation—the pot, the soil cover, the setting—adding to or detracting from the presentation. When I want my indoor plants to look all of a piece, I start by making associations. Read more