Hot Home & Garden Posts
How To: Turn birch bark into a handsome basket
Birch bark is plentiful in America, and was a popular construction material among many Native American tribes. In this video you'll learn how to carry on their proud tradition by making a birch bark basket for holding other pieces of wood and nicknacks.
How To: Use colors, mirrors, and light to make a small room appear bigger
Do you have a really small room? That sucks. All is not lost though, there are some easy, cheap ways to make small rooms seem bigger. Watch this video to learn how mirrors, wall paint, and furniture choices can all make your room look and feel bigger.
How To: Fix the sliding door on your closet
Over time, your sliding closet doors can start to wear down, have a hard time rolling on their track, sticky doors, and more. In this video you'll learn some simple solutions on how to fix your sliding closet door quickly and efficiently using a few things laying around the house.
How To: Lubricate garage door hinges, rollers, and tracks
Garage doors are important and noisy pieces of machinery. If you want your to work as quickly and quietly as possible you should lubricate it's tracks, rollers, and hinges once a year, and this video will show you just how to do it.
How To: Make a watering can out of a plastic bottle with a handle
The best way to recycle is to reuse trash items as new, useful ones in your own home. If you enjoy gardening, watch this video to learn how to turn an old plastic milk or juice bottle into a cute plastic watering can for your plants.
How To: Clean and polish antique brass
Brass is one of the oldest workable metals, and some have surpassed it in durability. It remains popular and beautiful, but needs regular cleaning and polishing to maintain it's shine. This video will show you everything you need to know to clean brass.
How To: Keep your granite countertops clean and shiny
Granite countertops are a beautiful addition to any kitchen or bathroom. Unfortunately it can stain, but you can prevent stains easily by following the instructions in this video. They will teach you everything you need to know about cleaning granite countertops.
How To: Get rid of dog urine yellow stains on your grass lawn
Any dog and lawn owner is familiar with the ugly yellow stains that come from your dog peeing on your grass. It's bad for the grass and for your state of mind, so watch this video to learn how you can get rid of those stains on your beautiful lawn.
How To: Put together a Zen garden
Zen gardens and gardening are serene places and activities. If you want to make your own Zen garden and add some harmony to your life, watch this video to learn some general guidelines for going about it. These tips are for full-size Zen gardens, not the desktop models.
How To: Use a color wheel to pick the right paint for walls
Color wheels are fantastic little tools that tell you whether colors are complementary or not. If you're designing a room and want to make sure your walls and other decorations work together, check this video out and learn how a color wheel can help you design a harmonious room.
How To: Apply fresh paint to a stone statue or fireplace
Stone statues and fireplaces are distinguished and classical. Are yours old, chipped, and dirty? Check this video out. It will show you how to paint stone so that it comes out smooth and beautiful, giving a colorful new look to your stone antiques.
News: When the Lazy Chair Falls Down, It Gets Right Back Up
UK designers Fresh West's "Lazy Chair" is a prototype designed to collapse by lever, and then slowly, automatically stand back up.
How To: Organize your closet by retail folding your clothes
Are your clothes messy and bulging out of your closet space? Then it's time to get organized, and step one to getting organized in the closet is knowing how to fold your clothes. Retail folding is the way to go, if you want to make room and keep up the neat appearance. Plus, it makes things easier to find!
How To: Create a cute DIY purse wall hanger on a budget
If you have an endless supply of purses and a limitless supply of wall empty wall space, it's about time you made some DIY purse racks. In this video, you'll see a very easy (and cheap) way to hang all of your purses (and please your boyfriend). For this DIY purse rack, you'll need some coat and hat hangers (hooks), feather boas, screwdriver and a tape measure.
News: For $1.6 Million, You Could Sleep on a Floating Hover Bed
If you've got $1.6 million in spare change, imagine this: you could be sleeping on a bonafide hovercraft. Designed by Dutchman Janjaap Ruijssenaars, the Floating Bed is the world's most expensive bed, employing "never weakening permanent magnetism" to hover above the ground.
How To: Wash men's dress shirts safely and without fading them
Men's dress shirts are arguably the most important part of their wardrobe, and washing them without shrinking, fading, or fraying is tough. This video will show you just how to do it, ensuring that you look sharp at work and formal events.
How To: Remove the anti-slip bathroom stickers in an old shower
Non-slip bathroom stickers in the images of flowers and other kitschy images were big in the 1970's. If you've moved into an old place that still has them and want to remove them, watch this video to learn how to do it.
How To: Figure out what's broken about your doorbell and fix it
Doorbells are pretty simple machines, but somehow they still break all the time. They are pretty easy to fix usually, and this video will teach you how to figure out what part of your doorbell is broken and then repair it yourself.
How To: Use basic Ikebana flower arranging techniques
Ikebana flower arranging might be the most sophisticated of the surprisingly diverse and deep flower-arranging arts, and takes a lifetime to master. If you want to use some of the basic principles to make your own flower arrangements look distinguished though, watch this video. It will show you the basics of beginners Ikebana
How To: Make a seashell craft beach-in-a-bottle and a clay pot decorated with shells
Seashells are beautiful and free, which makes them great for using in your craft projects. This video will teach you two quick, easy ones: making a beach in a bottle and a clay pot decorated with paint and seashells.
How To: Relight the pilot light on your water heater when it goes out
The most common thing that goes wrong with water heaters is the pilot light going out. If your hot water has stopped working, watch this video to learn how to check your pilot light and light it if it has gone out.
How To: Determine whether an antique is real when shopping for antique furniture
Buying authentic antique furniture requires a lot of furniture knowledge and keen eyes. If you need a little help in this department you've come to the right place. THis video will give you tips for authenticating the antique status of all kinds of antique furniture.
How To: Strip wood off of furniture or other wooden objects to restore their finish
Wood is a great construction material, but after time and weather it does become worn and old-looking. Restore it's original sheen by stripping it, or removing the outside of the wood to reveal new wood beneath, after watching this video.
How To: Build a legal DIY air conditioner / swamper for your dorm room
A swamp fan is an air conditioning substitute that blows air over cool water to cool a room. If you live in an AC-free dorm room, house, or apartment, it's not too hard to build one yourself, and this video will show you how to do it.
How To: Plant and care for a Dwarf Palm Tree
Dwarf palm trees allow people from all over the world to give their homes tropical flare without moving to the tropics. This video will teach you some tips for maintaining and taking care of your dwarf palm tree so it grows happy and healthy
News: Meet the World's Most Eco-Friendly Kitchen
Well suited for loft living, Studio Gorm's Flow Kitchen offers an extremely eco-friendly and efficient solution to all your daily actions in the kitchen. The Netherlands based design studio focuses on three major areas: Waste, Water and Energy. My favorite element? A cutting board that sits above a compost bin. Slide it forward, and sweep your scraps right into the (eco-friendly) trash.
How To: Use a rear attachment dethatcher for a lawnmower to dethatch a lawn
Thatch is the material that is left over after your mow your lawn, and this old dead material can build up and ruin your lawn's health. This video will show you how to use a rear-attachment dethatcher for a riding lawnmower to dethatch your lawn, leaving it the picture of health that you want in front of your home.
How To: Use a cordless drill and taper tap to cut a threaded hole in steel
Trapping a hole is the process by which you give them threads so that they can accommodate a screw, and doing it to a lot of holes quickly can be a major pain. Fortunately, you can actually do it with a cordless power drill much more quickly and easily than manually. This video will show you how to do it.
How To: Cut hardened steel with an angle grinder
Hardened steel is a very useful material, but working with it is tough because it is nearly impossible to cut with simple tools. What you really need is an angle grinder, and this video will show you how to use one of the powerful power tools to cut a hardened steel ring.
How To: Make a wooden toothpick holder with a clown that pops out
Toothpicks are an almost essential part of proper oral hygiene, and toothpick holders are a great way to make them available to your houseguest without sacrificing style. This video will show you how to make your own very cool wooden toothpick holder that features a jack-in-the-box-like clown that your grab to lift the toothpicks. It's not too hard, practical, and good-looking, and thus a great woodworking project for you to look into.
How To: Replace a broken belt on your vacuum cleaner
One of the most common problems that vacuum cleaners can have is the belt that drives their brush. They are actually pretty cheap and easy to fix yourself, and this video will show you everything you need to know to remove the old belt and install the new one quickly and easily.
How To: Paint straight accent lines on a wall with a wide-angle level and other tips
Painting straight, even accent lines on a wall (or racing stripes on a car for that matter) can be infuriating, but there are some tools and tricks that can make it much easier. This video will show you how to use a wide-angle level and one simple trick with paint tape to make sure your accent lines come out perfectly straight and without any smearing.
How To: Preform a continuity on an electrical circuit using a multi-meter
The continuity test is one of the least well-known but useful functions on a multi-meter. It allow you to determine whether a fuse works by touching the contacts to it, which allows you to diagnose all sorts of electrical problems. This video will show you how continuity tests work and give you some examples of using them to find problems in household devices like a lawnmower.
How To: Use stacked stones to reface an old fireplace
Are you tired of your fireplace? It's actually not too hard to give it a fresh new look by refacing it with stack stones. This video will show you exactly how to do it, whether you're starting from brick (easy) or not (harder). If you have brick, you don't even need to modify or remove the existing face!
How To: Clean baby stains like formula from their clothes the safe and natural way
Babies are pretty adorable, but the many disgusting fluids they intake and excrete make cleaning up after them a nightmare. If you're a new parent, watch this video. It will show you how to use all sorts of cleaning products to clean up different kinds of baby stains, from drool to baby formula to "mystery stains".
How To: Measure the DC voltage of a circuit with a multimeter
Measuring the voltage of a piece of electrical equipment is a somewhat dangerous and complicated but necessary process if you want to do any sort of DIY electrical projects. This video will show you how to use a multi-meter to read the DC voltage of a power drill battery, with an emphasis on what you need to do to complete this process safely.
How To: Install a beadboard wood ceiling in your home
Beadboard is a good-looking, tough, rustic material for ceilings, but it's actually pretty easy to install as far as ceilings go. This video will show you how to install a beadboard ceiling in a smallish room, giving it a whole new look that should last for many years.
How To: Measure, mark, and paint a diamond pattern on a hardwood floor
Painting a pattern on your hardwood floor can be a great way to give it some flair without ripping up the floor. This video will show you everything you need to know to measure out, mark, and paint a pretty diamond pattern on your hardwood floor yourself
How To: Measure the amps of an electrical circuit with a multi-meter
Measuring the amperage, or number of amps, in an electrical circuit requires a tool called a multi-meter. They are somewhat difficult to use, but fortunately for you this video explains in great detail how multi-meters work and what you need to do to ensure that they work. The creator tests the amperage of a power drill batter as an example.
How To: Choose the right type of wallpaper to install in your home
Wallpaper is a big investment. It's one of the most visible pars of your home decor, and you're probably going to be stuck looking at whatever you get for a long time. This video will give you some tips of choosing the right sort of wallpaper (vinyl, paper, prepasted, etc.) and how much you should pay for decent quality product.