# Decorating and renovating a home

## Move furniture around

Consider where people go in the room:

- Where do people walk when they enter?
- How and where does everyone sit?
- What paths do they travel when other people are or aren't there?
- Imagine how one, two, three, and more people can interact in the area.

When assembling furniture:

1. When screwing in the pieces, leave all the screws loose
2. Finish the piece and place it where it will be.
3. Wiggle it so it sets into place.
4. Tighten all the bolts.

Watch the room's visual focus:

- All the "lines" will intersect in the room to a focus point.
- At the focus point, place a unique centerpiece or conversation topic starter.
- To encourage people to relax, add soft geometry to the room.
- Keep clutter away from where eyes will immediately travel.
- When moving furniture over hardwood or tile, spray glass cleaner where you're moving.
- On carpet, melt ice cubes over furniture indentations and vacuum.

To make the room feel safe and inviting, bring in more light:

- When possible, use bright colors to maximize the light.
- If the windows don't let in enough light, decorate with lamps.
- Things with holes, like colanders or graters, make unique lampshades.
- Make a starry lampshade:
  1. Draw lines on a piece of paper.
  2. Tape it to a dark lampshade.
  3. Push a pin through the paper along the lines.

## Accent your home with decorations

Set out potted plants:

- To keep soil from falling through the holes, place a coffee filter at the bottom.
- Some plants are easy to grow:
  - Norfolk Island Pine
  - Dracaena
  - Snake Plant
  - Aloe Vera
  - Peace Lily
- Try something exotic if you want more of a challenge:
  - Venus Fly Trap
  - Indoor Azalea
  - Dwarf Cavendish Banana Plant
  - Gardenia
  - Calathea Ornata

Position vases and other ornaments:

- To keep soil from falling through the holes, place a coffee filter at the bottom.
- Some plants are easy to grow:
  - Norfolk Island Pine
  - Dracaena
  - Snake Plant
  - Aloe Vera
  - Peace Lily
- Try something exotic if you want more of a challenge:
  - Venus Fly Trap
  - Indoor Azalea
  - Dwarf Cavendish Banana Plant
  - Gardenia
  - Calathea Ornata
- Add one of the following to a vase to make flowers last longer:
  - 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar
  - 7up
  - An aspirin dissolved in the water
- Once the flower has wilted, set the stems in hot water until the water cools, cut off the ends and place them back in cold water again.

To prevent vases from falling over, partly fill them with sand.

Convert a coffee pot into a fish aquarium.

Tissue paper:

- Attach an empty tissue box to a full one to allow a waste bin, then repeat with the now-empty one.
- If you store your tissue papers in the same cupboard as your tea, they'll smell like tea.

Place settings:

- Turn an old picture frame into a serving tray.
- Buy dollar-store plates, write on it with a Porcelain 150 pen and bake for 30 minutes to make it permanent.

## Make the room smell nice

Food-scented:

- Cook bacon to overpower any other smells.
- Bake two caps full of vanilla extract in an oven-safe coffee mug at 300 °F for an hour.
- Fill a small pan with water 1-2 inches high, add some vanilla extract and cinnamon, then bake in the oven at 300 °F for an hour to make the house smell like a bakery.
- Sprinkle 3 tablespoons cinnamon into the carpet before vacuuming for the vacuum to heat the cinnamon.
- Add cinnamon to a fireplace or wood stove.
- Place vanilla-scented tea lights in a bowl of coffee beans for French vanilla scented candles.

Fresh-scented:

- Place dryer sheets or a stick of deodorant on the back of a blowing fan or AC unit.
- Set bars of unopened soap inside drawers.

Potpourri:

- Mix dried leaves, dried petals, 15 drops sandalwood oil, 5 drops clove oil, 5 drops lavender oil, 5 drops citronella oil, and 5 drops mint oil in a bowl.

### Candles

Making:

- Add essential oils to any wax candle to scent it.
- Fill old light bulbs with butane, then jam a wick into the hole.
- Melt crayons and pour it into a glass container with a wick.
- Melt old or broken candles in the microwave, pour into greased cupcake tins and freeze to make candle tarts.

Decorating:

- Draw on wax paper with a permanent marker, wrap around a candle, and heat until the image transfers.
- Make a family photo luminary by placing a family photo around the inside of glass jars and placing lit tea candles inside.
- Set tea candles in holes cut into a branch.
- Make a bloody candle by melting red wax over a white candle.

Using:

- If you set candles in the freezer for a few hours before using them, they can burn longer and drip less.
- If the candle doesn't fit into the holder, hold the end of the candle in hot water until the wax softens.
- Use nonstick cooking spray in candle glasses (votive holders) to keep wax from sticking.

## Improving landscaping

Shape chicken wire and spray with glow-in-the-dark paint for holiday decorations.

Paint garden rocks with glow-in-the-dark paint.

Mix glow-in-the-dark pebbles with gravel to make it look like a starry night.

Make custom grills and smokers with existing materials you have available.

Clear unsightly debris and foliage:

- Pour salt on dirt or sidewalk cracks when you want nothing to grow.
- Remove trees you don't want:
  - Black walnut trees destroy the local flora.
  - Bradford pear trees are very top-heavy and will split in half.
  - Ash trees bring emerald ash borer larvae, which feed on the inner bark of other foliage.
  - Ginkgo trees produce a putrid, sticky fruit that can track indoors in fall.
  - Sweet gum trees generate spiny brown balls people can slip on or launch from a lawnmower that you can only clean up by picking them up by hand.
  - Palm trees spread tons of seeds everywhere, which increases your work.
- Removing a large stump:
  1. Drill holes into the top of the stump.
  2. Cut the bark from the side and drill more holes.
  3. Fill the stump with a mixture of Solignum wood preservative and salt.
     - Alternately, pour dry Epsom salt followed with water until moist.
  4. Repeat every three weeks until you can remove the stump.

Some plants are easy to grow, but make sure they naturally grow in your climate:

- Ruffled Velvet Siberian Iris
- Dicentra Spectabilis
- Prairie Splendor Purple Cornflower
- Elegant Candy Day Lily
- "Bright Eyes" Garden Phlox
- Hibiscus

Add a lawn to improve the overall look of the yard and provide a place to play:

- Mow the lawn to a consistent height.
  - Cutting the grass too short will prevent the grass from holding on to nutrients, but letting it grow too long will make it look poorly maintained.
- Water when the soil becomes dry and before the grass turns yellow or brown.
- Rake anything off the lawn that may kill the grass or cause mold to grow.
- Apply fertilizer the forecast calls for rain or the soil is moist.
  - Use a feeder to spread three pounds of Epsom salt per 1,250 square feet of plants.
  - When the weather is hot and dry, apply more fertilizer to compensate for the loss in nutrients.
- Sow new grass seeds into the lawn every year to compensate for others that die over the winter.
- Aerate the lawn in high-traffic areas with a garden fork to prevent drainage problems.

To make less work to yourself, make a low-irrigation landscape.