As I wrote last year, we thought the Penofin Aquafin we used on our deck railings was great — easy to apply, easy to clean up, non-flammable, and much more environmentally friendly than regular stain. After a Seattle winter, however, parts of our project weren’t holding up like we’d hoped. The stain looked pretty good on anything that was vertical, but the horizonal portions of the railings did not fare well — there was some peeling and a lot of spots that weathered as if they hadn’t been stained at all. Two weeks ago, we went ahead and ordered several more gallons to reapply. We were staining newbies last year, so what do you think — was the weathering normal, is the stain not up to par, or did we do something wrong? My theories and more photos after the jump. –Mary T. (more…)

When we first moved to Seattle, we rented a 1947 house that had a laundry chute, and I cannot tell you how much I loved that thing. No hamper taking up space in the bathroom, no clothes overflowing onto the floor. Dirty linens just “disappeared” down a hatch built into our linens closet, and they were there waiting in the basement for us when it was time to do some laundry. It’s such an ingenious and simple device — just a trapdoor that opened into a small wooden chute in the basement — that I don’t get why I see them so infrequently in homes. Is it because people have laundry on the same floor as their living spaces? We plan to add a laundry chute when we upgrade our bathroom. Luckily, there are places online like This Old House, DIY Network, and eZine that will give us a step-by-step. –Mary T.

Photo via Pam at Retro Renovation, one of our favorite sites — the same vintage 1960s cubby that houses the laundry chute also has a built-in, fold-down bathroom scale!

I’m a huge fan of traditional webbed patio chairs, but they can be hard to find these days. The only stores I’ve seen them regularly in person are True Value Hardware stores, where I’ve also spotted re-webbing materials (Frost King seems to have the market cornered on those). I’ve also seen them at the DoItBest site. But here’s the rub: the new chairs are usually webbed in boring colors like brown or forest green. That’s why, for the past few years, I’ve found my own webbing online (searching for “chair webbing” or “re-web kit” on Google or eBay) and used it to re-web vintage or discarded webbed chairs I’ve found at yard sales or on the street. Re-webbing is easy — believe me, I wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t — though, like any DIY, it can be a little tedious. Click the link for the webbing how-to’s — I’ll keep things as simple as possible. –Mary T. (more…)

We’ve been noticing large-plank fiber cement siding on houses around our neighborhood and we just love it. It’s modern looking and, according to our sources, it will last forever. Sounds like quite a step up from what we have now: painted wooden boards that were allowed to blister and flake before we bought our house, greatly reducing their longevity. A friend snapped the photo of a house in progress above, which resembles the shape of our house somewhat. I realize the above might be a bit too industrial for some, but with plantings completed I think the look is rather cool. We can’t afford to make any big changes to our house right now, so for the time being we’ll just keep slapping paint on it. In the meantime, though, I asked two friends — Steve, an architect, and Bo, an interior designer — to tell me more. Here’s what they had to say. –Mary T.

PS I also want the metal roofing, but that’s a different post.

Click to get info from experts on fiber cement siding! (more…)

I admit it: I had a fruit fly problem. Fruit flies seem to go hand in hand with summertime, delicious ripe fruit, and a busy kitchen. This summer, though, I’ve taken control, and my fruit fly problem is now more like a minor annoyance. The first step is to remove the source of food. This means, for me, keeping my ripening nectarines and tomatoes wrapped securely in plastic bags until I’m ready to use them. My onions (apparently, they love onions) are now being stored in the fridge. Second step: sanitation. I clean my drains daily with baking soda and white vinegar — those pesky little buggers like to lay their eggs in the goop that resides in drains (barf). The third step — and this one’s the most rewarding — is to build a trap. I’ve tried funnels and plastic wrap over jars of overripe fruit, but I’ve found the best trap is plain old apple cider vinegar in a dish with a few drops of liquid dish soap. The soap apparently breaks the surface tension of the vinegar, causing the fruit flies to fall in and drown rather than sip and fly away. After a few days of changing the traps, you’ll notice the numbers dwindling. Does anyone else have more fruit fly solutions? — Megan B.

Remember the Color-Helper contest? We just heard back from one of our winners. You may recall that Carrie J. submitted her jumble of bad bathroom and guest room wallpaper, saying, “We need to repaint, lest our friends quit visiting us.” Well, Carrie put the Color-Helper to work, and her results are great! Thanks for sharing your photos with us, Carrie.

Bathroom, before:

Bathroom, after:

Guest room, before:

Guest room, after:

Carrie writes:

Both rooms still have a little room for improvement — we need to hang a shelf above the toilet in the bathroom, and we need some artwork and a bookcase and a chair in the guest room — but they are leaps and bounds better than they used to be! You can see we also had a new vanity made for the bathroom (had to have it made because it is a much narrower space than pre-made cabinetry accommodates) — that alone was a huge improvement.

I used the Color-Helper to help me select a shade of white that matched the existing white trim we had in most of our upstairs (except for the bathroom). Not only did we use it to touch up trim in the guest room, we also used that color to paint out the wooden trim in the bathroom. The Color-Helper made it much, much easier to choose one of the thousands of shades of white!

I also used the Color-Helper to help me analyze all the shades of gray I considered. I used the feature where you can compare two shades, and the Color-Helper tells you that the second one is more yellow (or blue or red or purple or whatever) than the first. I wanted a very clean, true gray without beige or purple or yellow undertones, and the Color-Helper really helped me narrow my choices down.

Feeling inspired? Learn more about the Color-Helper here.

It’s no wonder we tend to put off the projects in our lives. As promised, we are indeed moving ahead on our modern shed project, but boy, is it going slowly. Case in point: it occurred to us that before we could tear down our current shed, we had to find a place to put the lawn mower, wheelbarrow, and other garden tools. The good news is, we found the solution at Earthwise, one of our local architectural salvage stores.

It’s no secret to anyone around me that I just love this place — it’s filled with items that are fascinating to poke through, even if we don’t personally have a use for them. I’ve seen metal doors that look like they came off an old school building, wooden lanes from a torn down bowling alley, and an entire grand wooden staircase fit for a house about ten times the size of mine. Another great thing about architectural salvage places is that you get the weird odds and ends that the folks taking down the building no longer want — the great old office chairs above, for instance.

Before we’d even entered the building, we were able to scratch two items off our list: the first was an old metal garden shed that we purchased for about 1/4 of what one would cost new. It’s a little rough (it will need some new paint and a new latch) but it has modern lines that will go nicely with the shed we’re building. I was also thrilled to find the very first item on the MD100 materials list — concrete piers that will form the shed’s foundation, for about half what we’d pay at the local hardware store.

Next up: finding a door for our shed. To maximize cool breezes, we’re going to go with a sliding glass door or French doors and rework the MD100 plans to match. I’ll keep you posted. –Mary T.

P.S. As several of our helpful readers pointed out, you can build along with us — the plans are available here.

A couple of years ago, we (and many other blogs) gushed about this lovely KULLA lamp from IKEA. It was brand new, available in a gorgeous blood red, and had this nifty “touch” on-off switch that even a cat could operate. We bought one for our cottage bedroom and have loved it and its three light levels — our habit was to leave it on the dimmest one when we put our daughter in her crib, then shut it off completely when we slinked into our bed hours later. Well, it seems to have lost its mind. It started turning itself on and off and cycling through its degrees of brightness all on its own. Constantly, never stopping. No amount of touching or banging or pleading would get it to stop. Chad took it apart to see if we could easily rewire, and that doesn’t seem to be the case. The entire thing is constructed around this “touch” mechanism. I’m so sad! Is there no way to save this lovely bedside companion? Has anyone else had similar experiences? — Angela M.

Reader Lisa Grober writes:

I’m hoping that you can help me find a sewing pattern for an IKEA TULLSTA Slipcover. I think the IKEA options are dreadful, and I’m not in love with any from Bemz since I’d like to avoid the skirt if at all possible. I’m excited to start this project. I’m just thinking it would be a lot less labor intensive if I had a pattern. I’m sure someone out there has one… Thanks.

Well, Lisa, we checked around, and it seems you’re not the first to ask this question — there’s a similar question with just one response at Yahoo. Casa Sugar had a very inspiring example of a DIYer who gave her own TULLSTA chair a terrific facelift — that’s the result in the above photo. It’s not exactly a pattern, but you can get the details of how she did it here.

What about you, readers? Any suggestions for Lisa?

We are cursed with a tiny bathroom. Well, not actually tiny, but terribly narrow — and it’s grating on my nerves more and more each day. To make things worse, the space is dwarfed by an ugly and not-too-functional vanity sink. I’m ready to rip it out and replace it with this lovely porcelain number: the NOVA by Cheviot. Not only is its imprint a tiny 24″x15″, but its little asymmetrical shelf makes for a gorgeous and brilliant use of the space — perfect for a pretty soap dish and a small vase of lilacs. I’m in love! Learn more here. Megan B.