  
|

 |
Here are the latest month's daily tips from Right at Home Daily.
Hold a family hour so everybody can tackle their bedroom and is assigned one room where they change accessories and maybe move a piece of furniture. Celebrate afterward with a special meal.
If you have a guest bedroom, spend a night in it so you see it as your guests do. You'll quickly figure out what comforting items to keep handy, such as a fluffy robe, bedside lamp, magazines, potpourri and mints on the pillows.
Punch up your master bath by purchasing a new upscale fashionable bathroom scale. These scales offer both accuracy and design. Some even fold up like a laptop computer to be stored horizontally.
Pull out a kitchen appliance you haven't used in months or years. Make a delicious Dacquiri with that rarely used blender or prepare a creamy pumpkin-acorn squash soup with a food processor.
Start an annual entertaining tradition and decorating theme for a religious holiday, New Year's, Thanksgiving or open house because everyone will come to expect and look forward to it.
For a child's playroom or family room, give the walls some character with old movie posters, which you can frame yourself in matching frames. Ask the manager of your local movie theatre if he or she would be willing to give you their posters after a feature has been shown.
Buy an old-fashioned silver or silver plated toast rack and place it on a front hall table to keep notes, letters or mail.
To have a place to sit in a child's tiny bedroom, consider stacking stools with vinyl cushions. Also, instead of a bedspread, buy a duvet cover that can double as a sheet.
Buy a book on Feng Shui, and follow at least one piece of advice for harmonious living in your new home.
To freshen a room, repaint it a new color, just do the ceiling or do a border of wallpaper. Do it yourself or pay a teenager to help. With good equipment and paint, it's easy and fun.
In your kitchen, a little spice can make a memorable impact. A new sink and faucet or fresh paint cleans it up, while ceramic or glass tiles are inexpensive ways to enliven the backsplash.
Cut and piece together a geometric vinyl pattern on a kitchen or bathroom floor. Ask about sealing if you intend to lay the floor in a high-traffic area.
Paint the underside of a piece of large furniture such as a table or desk and create a Michelangelo look-alike. It will be your own private work of art.
Convert a family room into a music room with soundproof walls using wool felt on the walls that are padded to muffle the sound. A handsome complement in the room might be leather floor tiles and a comfy chair in which to listen to your favorite tunes.
Once you're settled, get a pet -- a dog, cat, fish, hamster, since any animal will add additional life and fun for your entire family.
If you have computer equipment in your home, dust and clean it regularly to keep machinery operating smoothly.
In a living room, swag the draperies to create the effect of an architectural colonnade or column. Doing so adds a focal point but doesn't block views beyond the windows.
Consider planting a fruit tree or two in your garden. Young children love to watch fruit grow.
To save space in a room, place a chest under a tall table. Items may be put on top of the table and in the drawers of the chest underneath.
Gel, a form of polyurethane, is a hot new furniture statement that takes the place of padding. The user just melts into the gel-like surface that comes in the shape of chairs and chaises in a variety of candy colors. Wiggly gel is the perfect medium for a
Use a laundry bag for your new kitchen linens made from vintage towels that can hang behind a cabinet door.
Set up a computer station in a central location in your home, like a corner of the kitchen, family room, or second floor loft. You'll be able to watch your children and help them with their homework.
Keep a notepad and pencil or pen by the phone in the kitchen for taking messages from all your new and old friends.
Plant fall flowers and spring bulbs that you've never tried, but be sure they'll work in your climate.
If you're not a curtain person, take down your living and dining room drapes and convert them into pillow coverings or even a special tablecloth.
Buy colored chalk and allow your children to doodle all over your driveway.
Buy scented candles in different shapes, sizes, colors and fragrances and put them in a few rooms. For your first fall in your new home, add some potpourri in pretty bowls.
Build and decorate a dollhouse that replicates favorites of your new real home, as an heirloom for your children or grandchildren.
Host a birthday party for your September birthday friends with one giant cake. It might spark a tradition.
Start another collection of something inexpensive but fun such as postcards or bottle caps, and find a place to display them. Stick to a theme or price range such as under $10, and tell friends and family members so they can help, too.
|
|
|