Archive for February, 2010

Email Answer: Snap To It

Q: Do you guys have any tips for photographing your rooms? I’m actually listing my house for sale and thinking of snapping some photos (for memories and also to help with the flier) but I want them to look great. Any and all tricks, tips and suggestions are appreciated! – Leslie

A: We totally feel your pain. When we started our blog and were suddenly tasked with sharing photos we had no idea how to make rooms look their best (hence all the fugly pictures way back in our archives). But we did learn our fair share of simple tricks (mostly through trial and error) along the way- and we’re happy to share the goods. First of all, we’re definitely not professional photographers and we don’t have a fancy expensive camera. We snap every picture that you see on our blog (including all the “after” pictures on our House Tour page) with a Canon PowerShot SD1100-IS Digital Elph. It’s a small 8 megapixel camera that has great little features like a macro setting, an image stabilizer, and a manual setting (which we use 100% of the time so we can turn the flash off- pictures look so much better without it!).

So that’s tip #1: turn on all the lights and take your photos during the day without the flash. Opening up the blinds to let in the light stream in and turning on all the lamps during the day will create a soft glowing ambiance instead of blowing things out in the foreground while leaving everything dark in the background (which often happens when you use the flash). Sunny days are great for room photos so aim for those but try not to take pictures when the sun is shining directly into the room onto the rug or the furniture and casting harsh shadows (you might want to wait a few hours for it to shift slightly).

Now for tip #2: tweak the room first. Really look around the space and see what you can do to enhance the look of the room before picking up the camera and snapping away. Some seemingly obvious (but often forgotten) ideas would be lighting any and all candles, fluffing pillows, picking up dog or kid toys on the floor, and even making a fire in the fireplace (or lighting some large pillar candles in lieu of logs). Little flickering touches of light around the room are like jewelry- they’ll add a nice warm sparkle and a certain je ne sais quois that the same space wouldn’t have when they’re not lit. At the same token, small toys on the floor and flat mashed couch pillows take a little bit away from the polished image that you might be trying to capture. And it definitely saves you time to make these small changes before you take all of your photos and upload them only to notice a bunch of little things that you wish you had changed.

And now for tip #3: take a test shot. It just takes one picture to really “see” a room in a way that you can’t see it in person. By grabbing one shot in the beginning and looking at it critically, you might notice other details in a room that you’d like to change (instead of spotting them after snapping away for an hour). We’ve identified everything from wonky curtains (which were easily shifted on the rod to look more balanced) to the fact that we needed a shot of color in a bland corner (easily accomplished by switching out a throw pillow). This little test shot is a great “last look” before you really give your fingers a workout and snap your final room photos (and it really can make all the difference in your after pics). For example, after shooting a test shot of the kitchen below, we added the dishcloth draped over the sink and the cutting board with tomatoes on it for more interest (and to balance out the splash of red in the art to the right of the sink). Oh and on a side note, bowls of fresh fruit- we love real lemons and limes- make great (and cheap!) centerpieces in a dining room, eat-in kitchen, and even on a living room coffee table. Especially if you’re staging your house to sell.

This brings us to tip #4: work those angles. We take a lot of pictures just to get one that we love. And when I say a lot, I mean anywhere from 25-75 or more (especially when it comes to capturing “after” photos for a big reveal). Try standing on a chair to get an alternate angle or squatting down a bit to make the ceilings feel higher. Shooting from each corner of the room and the center of each wall will also help you evaluate which points of view look best. You can even put the camera on a tripod if your hands aren’t very steady (especially when you have the flash off, you’ll need to keep the camera still to get crisp delicious photos).

And now for tip #5: don’t forget to go tall instead of long. You’ll find a fair amount of vertical after photos on our House Tour page, which might seems strange since you can get a wider shot with more furniture by turning the camera and grabbing a horizontal pic. The key here is again to take a plethora of pictures, both horizontal and vertical. Sometimes the furniture layout just looks better (and the ceilings look higher) in the vertical photos. And sometimes the wide shots will win out for their overarching views. We’re consistently surprised how often we’re drawn to certain vertical shots though, so they’re definitely worth taking (they might just be your favs in the end).

Then there’s tip #6: think about zones and function. Sometimes your instinct will be to cram as much of the room into the shot as possible, but if you’re shooting a small office area that’s within a larger den, you might not want to capture half of the TV and the seating area when the focus should be on the desk. Try taking a few steps forward to spotlight that specific zone instead of capturing half of another area that could look disjointed and busy if it’s wedged into frame.

Oh and we can’t forget tip #7: it’s all in the details. We love using the “macro” setting on our camera if we’re doing a close up detail shot (like trying to capture the weave in our jute rug or the soft veining in our granite counters). This built-in camera setting makes things look extremely clear and crisp when they’re up close without any photographic skill required on your part (except for keeping the camera nice and still of course). While this might not be as applicable for snapping wide room pictures for listing your house, it’ll definitely come in handy if you’re taking any shots for memories (and have a particular detail or arrangement that you want to remember long after you move).

And now for tip #8: practice makes perfect. We’re still learning different angles and approaches to picture taking as we go. Don’t wait until you’re under pressure to snap a gorgeous picture (to sell your house or document your baby’s first birthday). Just pick up the camera and start clicking away so by the time something imperative pops up you’ll have more experience and more confidence with your cam. If you go back into our archives it’s obvious that we were terrrrrrrrible photographers when we started blogging back in 2007. But thankfully over the course of a few months we definitely started to hit our stride (heck, we’re still hoping to get better after more than two years of regularly clicking away).

So that’s our non-professional-learn-on-the-job approach to photography. Now we wanna hear what you guys do to get the shot. Any additional pointers for Leslie (and us). Do tell.

Psst- The link to our camera included above is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Reader Redesign: Door Decor

When one of our favorite super busy DIY moms (she gives me hope!) sent over some photos of her kitchen’s recent door makeover we couldn’t wait to share the goods. Here’s her letter:

Hi, guys! Sam and I just finished up our kitchen door project and I was wondering if you thought it might make a fun Reader Redesign. We only spent $35 on it, so I thought it was right up the YHL alley. Everyone can check out the step by step process here and here on my blog. Basically we just applied black chalkboard paint to our flat metal kitchen door and trimmed it out with some lightweight boards (which we had to screw into the door to hold them securely and keep them from buckling). We love that it mimics the look of an expensive solid wood paneled door. Hope you and the bean are feeling well, Sherry! -Jacci

Here’s what the basic metal door looked like before Jacci worked her magic:

Here it is in progress:

And here’s the very same door after spending just $35 to give it a whole new life:

Isn’t that amazingly industrious of Jacci and her husband Sam? Don’t forget to head over to her blog for more details (you can find those links in her letter above). We just love that she was inspired by the look of a solid wood paneled door and was able to work with what she had to totally transform it (and add lots of charm and function to her entire kitchen while she was at it). Thanks so much for sending the eye candy our way guys! Is anyone else out there thinking of tackling this little project now that they’ve seen Sam and Jacci’s brilliant door makeover?

Nursery Progress: Getting The Hang Of It

We’re back with our homemade nursery curtain panel how-to. Remember when we revealed our punchy patterned find during last week’s shopping post? Well here’s how we took it from one big bolt of rolled up fabric (which you can find here)…

… to three gorgeous floor-length curtains (two for the window and one for the doorless closet). And probably best of all: there’s no sewing machine required. In fact, here’s my short and sweet list of supplies: tape measure, scissors, iron on hem tape, and an iron of course. Plus we even added a few kid-safe features so stay tuned for those details…

But before we get into all the dirty curtain-makin’ details, we should mention that we hope our baby sleeps well. So in the interest of aiding our little one in that area, we decided that we also needed to grab some sort of 100% light-blocking blinds or shades. So we trolled the aisles of Home Depot and found some chic white faux-wood blinds. We loved them because they felt almost like substantial wood shutters when they were lowered (a lot more solid than those thin plastic or metal venetian blinds) and they definitely would block any and all light when in use (and could easily be pulled up and out of the way to let light stream in during the day).

But here’s the bummer. Of course they didn’t come in the exact measurements of our quirky old house’s window (39 1/4″ wide in case you’re wondering). Sadness. But we soon learned that Home Depot could actually cut them down to custom fit our window perfectly- and the cutting service is F-R-E-E. That turned our frown upside down. So we give the guy in the orange apron our window’s odd width and he had our custom-cut clean-lined faux wood blinds waiting for us about five minutes later. The blinds weren’t super cheap at $37, but they look convincingly like much pricier white wood blinds and we know the darkness that they’ll provide will be priceless when we’re dying for one more minute of sleep.

Of course we also liked that they didn’t have those dangerous loopy pull cords (they were labeled as having “kid safe cords” that are actually separated instead of connected so they’re less of a strangulation hazard- no loop to get caught in). And of course we plan to keep them wound around one of those cord wrangling pieces of metal at the top right corner of the window far out of baby’s reach anyway, but we love the added loop-free design.

And since we love a before picture, here’s the window prior to our little curtain and blind fest:

John had the blinds up in about twenty minutes, but they definitely left a lot to be desired in the length department. They were actually a bit heavy to raise and lower, all due to the fact that they were at least two feet too long for our window, so there were a bunch of slats that just clumped together at the bottom of the blinds when they were in the “lowered” position. Luckily in the installation instructions they actually detailed how to shorten them to customize their length to fit any window. Nice.

So John just followed the included directions and popped out these little plastic pieces on the bottom and could easily remove as many slats as he’d like and trim the excess string. Then he just popped the bottom pieces back on and we had an even more customized nursery blind that was a lot less cumbersome to raise and lower without all those extra slats at the bottom. Then, like a finely tuned relay team, John tagged me and said “your turn” and I began working on the curtains.

First I measured the approximate height that I wanted the curtains to be (just shy of 8′ for an almost floor to ceiling look) and added an inch and a half on the top and bottom to accommodate the hem. It was actually a nice clean measurement in the end because I determined that cutting two eight foot long sections of fabric would do the trick perfectly (since I wanted them a bit shy of 8′ but with the added hem measurement it brought them right back up to 8′ exactly). Hurrah for no quarter of an inch calculations!

The other super convenient thing about measuring out my fabric was that we already happened to have our new 5 x 8′ rug on the floor… so to cut my 8′ long fabric sections, I simply rolled the bolt from one end of the rug to the other and cut a straight line using the edge of the rug as my guide. It doesn’t get much easier than that. And for the width I just left each panel as wise as the bolt allowed (so I didn’t need to trim those edges at all).

Then it was time for my trusty Heat N’ Bond iron on hem tape (I always grab the “ultra hold” variety). You may have seen us using it in this crib skirt tutorial from a while back and we’ve also used it to hem all the white Ikea curtains that we have hanging in the rest of the house. In short: I’m a hem tape black belt (the irony is that John does all the clothes-ironing in the house). Anyway it’s great stuff for leaving a polished and clean-looking edge (a lot more reliable then me with a sewing machine!) and it’s even washable and super cheap (we grab ours for a few bucks a roll at Michael’s). So I whipped out the ironing board, fired up the iron, laid out my big eight foot long fabric panel and had my scissors and hem tape on hand.

All it took was an easy-iron hem on each of the four sides of my fabric (for step by step hem tape instructions, just check out this post). Then I had a nice finished panel (without any rod loops or tabs) that I could clip up using my cheap-o oil-rubbed bronze curtain rings and rod from Target. Just look at how seamless and perfect that edge is! Much more even and less bunchy than anything I could sew…

Then I tagged John to get to work hanging the curtain rod with heavy duty anchors (so it’ll never come toppling down, even if over 100lbs of force is used) while I created a third curtain panel for the closet (this one only needed to be seven feet long). I also made a little rod pocket at the top of this panel (I just positioned hem tape about 4 inches below the edge of the fabric and ironed the fabric to that line of hem tape created a nice loop of fabric). Meanwhile John was already executing my let’s-cheat-our-off-centered-window-so-it-looks-more-balanced plan.

This angle gives you a better idea of what we were dealing with. See how the window is shifted a bit too much to the left? Well it’s nothing a curtain rod and some billowy floor length curtains can’t totally solve. I asked John to hang the left curtain rod support hook only about four inches wider than the trim on the left side of the window but requested that he hang the right curtain rod support hook about fifteen inches wider than the trim on the right side of the window.

This way, once we hung each of the curtain panels, we could cheat them both over to the right (blocking a bit of the window on the left side, but adding a ton of balance and polish to the room):

And we also mentioned in our shopping post that we snagged our simple oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod along with two packs of curtain rings on clearance at Target for less than $12 total. We love the height and the elegance that the shot of dark color brings to the wall, and love that it echoes everything from the mocha finish on the floor to a few of the darker wood accents that we’ll be bringing in to keep things from getting too sugary sweet and matchy-matchy.

Plus the clip-on curtain rings are actually something of a safety feature. Remember how we mentioned that someone could hang on those curtains without the rod coming down thanks to the use of some heavy duty anchors? Well we also realized that using clip-on curtain rings would allow for just the fabric panels to pull down if anyone got too rowdy and tried to swing from them (while the rings and the rod would most definitely stay put). We even tested them out by tugging on them a bit, and although it took pretty much all of my pregnant adult weight, sure enough the fabric was released from the rings and fluttered lightly to the floor while the rod and the rings stayed nice and securely in place on the wall.

And as someone who has never used curtain ring clips before I just have to sing their praises. Not only are they nice little secret safety features, they also create such perfect little “waves” in the panels which result in such an amazingly high end look (and best of all, there’s no rod-pocket required, so you can hang any panel of fabric without worrying about extra sewing or loop-making).

Oh and we can’t forget our tiny little blue closet (thanks to John’s cute idea to bring the aqua color from the ceiling into the mini enclave for fun). Doesn’t the curtain panel add some nice pattern and sweetness to a closet that was formerly pretty bleak looking?

Maybe we should refresh your memory with a before pic:

It’s looking better already, right? And of course we still have to add bins, baskets, and more hanging rods (along with some sort of storage piece on the floor of the closet).

As for how we swagged our curtain panel so it’s mostly out of the way, we just hung it on a $3 tension rod (one that screws into both sides of the molding for more reinforcement than those that rely only on tension). Then we added a regular old Ikea coat hook that we already had on the left side of the closet’s interior trim. Next I made a little strip of fabric (using my trusty hem tape to finish the edges) and used that to create a loop around the curtain panel. Note: it’s safety pinned in the back so it can easily be removed and readjusted.

Then it was as simple as slipping my loop of fabric onto the hook on the side of the closet to hold the curtain off to the side.

So that’s the story of how we made our off-centered window look more balanced, blocked out all the light for less sleepless nights (fingers crossed) and added a fun pop of pattern to both sides of the nursery in the form of breezy floor-length curtains (which make the ceilings feel about a foot higher). Plus we only spent about $35 a panel (with almost an entire yard of fabric leftover!). Oh and it always makes us smile at our fabric luck when we recall that it’s actually indoor/outdoor fabric, so it’s a lot more stain and fade resistant than the average bear (although still completely washable). Which is a good thing when it comes to sticky fingers and goey faces…

But what about you guys? Have you made your own curtains before? Do you have a closet with a panel of fabric on a tension rod in lieu of a door? Spill the sewing (or hem tape) beans.

Psst- Wanna see our nursery progress from the very beginning? Here’s our painting post, our big shopping spree, and our crib hunting rundown.

Fab Freebie: Easily Turned On

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries***

So you saw me install this puppy earlier today, and just as we promised we’re back to give you a shot at winning one of your own. The Delta Pilar kitchen faucet with Touch 2O Technology is pretty much any DIY-lover or enthusiastic chef’s best friend because, just as the commercial below demonstrates, you can wash paint, dirt, eggs, chicken goo or any other home-improvement or cooking related mess off of your hands without ever getting it on your purdy fixture.

We’ve actually had ours installed for a week now and I’ve found it extremely helpful even when doing simple tasks like the dishes (yes, I’m usually in charge of the dishes, but Sherry vacuums so it’s pretty fair around here). Rather than having to reach over to turn the handle on and off, I can interrupt the water by just quickly tapping the spout anywhere, and the technology’s even smart enough to know when you’re gripping the faucet to move it (as we do from basin to basin in our double sink) so it doesn’t interpret that maneuver as an on/off trigger. Consider us impressed.

For more info about how this baby works and how we got it installed, check out this morning’s post (and don’t forget to read through the comments where we address pretty much every detail that you can think of). And if you’re dying to get your grubby mitts on one of them, here’s how:

• PRIZE: A Delta Pilar Pull-Down faucet with Touch 2O Technology in the finish of your choice (chrome or stainless)
• TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “TOUCH ME” and…
• BONUS QUESTION: …spill the beans about some of your personal turn offs when it comes to the opposite sex. Poor hygiene? Too full of themselves? Obsessed with his or her chihuahua? Spill it -  but let’s try to keep things PG-ish if we can.
• GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, February 10th at 8pm EST
• NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
• PRIZE SHIPS: Anywhere in North America
• USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday. Good luck!

Find more freebie info on our Giveaway FAQs page. Pics courtesy of Delta Faucet.

Replacing A Kitchen Faucet

We have nothing bad to say about about the Price Pfister faucet that we purchased as part of our kitchen remodel back in 2007 (especially since we scored it for a mere $71 on eBay).

But sometimes change is a good thing. Why? Because the kind folks at Delta faucets generously offered to let us take their new Pilar Pull-Down Faucet with Touch 2O Technology for a spin.

Psst- Want one too? Stay tuned for this week’s giveaway since we actually wrangled one for a lucky random winner as well!

The Pilar’s sleek brushed nickel finish is a perfect match for our kitch and the Touch 2O feature sounded right up our alley- especially with all the painting, sanding, caulking and general messiness that comes with the bevy of DIY projects that we’re always taking on. Basically, you can turn the water on and off by simply touching any part of the faucet or handle with your fingers, wrist, elbow or any other piece of skin that’s not covered in soap, paint, dirt, etc. Sounds like a DIYers dream, no?

So once we delicately broke the news to our old faucet, it came time for it to gather its stuff and move out (not to worry, we’re happily giving it a second life by donating it to The Habitat For Humanity ReStore). When it comes to faucet switcheroos, we’ve removed and installed about four or five bathroom faucets, but never a kitchen faucet (our granite and sink installer put in our last one) but I figured it’d be pretty straightforward. I just cleared out the under-sink cabinets, assembled my tools, turned off the water and readied my plumber’s crack (not pictured).

I actually resisted the urge to take pictures of the ol’ removal process, thinking it would be so simple that it didn’t warrant breaking out the camera- but I actually hit a small hurdle pretty much off the bat: I couldn’t figure out how to unscrew a certain piece. The solution? I just hunted down the instructions online (since a lot of manufacturers put PDFs of these things on their websites these days) and realized that I misunderstood the way the pieces connect (specifically I thought 8B and 8C were fused together, so I hadn’t even attempted to simply unscrew 8C from 8B). Problem solved.

From there it was only a few minutes before I had everything removed and boxed up to be donated to the Habitat ReStore (generally speaking, we just unscrewed things under the sink that held the fixtures in place above the sink). Then after some mild scrubbing, I was left with four clean holes in the countertop that begged to be plugged up with a new faucet. Now you might be wondering why we had four holes when that before picture only shows three fixtures. Well, we originally had the soap pump that came with the Price Pfister faucet installed, but we found that it leaked on the granite a lot (and got jammed up quite a bit) so it soon got the boot in favor of our beloved Cucina soap/lotion caddy (that never leaks AND easily covers the unused hole).

So with the sink just begging for a new faucet, the installation of our sparkly and high tech Delta model proved to be surprisingly easy (I assumed this would be harder than the former faucet removal but it was seamless and simple- especially since I already had the included-in-the-box instructions on hand to refer to). First came screwing on the gooseneck spout, which was just simply tightening a collection of washers and nuts on the underside of the granite while Sherry held the spout in place on the other side.

Then came doing something similar to the handle (i.e. valve). This required a special long tool (included) to tighten the nut over a super long bolt (similar to parts 8B and 8C that had proven confusing to remove on the old faucet). You can see how the nut fits into the top of a long plastic tube that then slides right over the long bolt.

Here you can see the tool in action after having tightened the nut into place. Pretty straightforward if you ask me, especially since so far all the tubes and wiring were already hooked up for me (yes, our fancy schmancy faucet actually came with wiring).

The next step was feeding the extension hose through the faucet. All that took was popping in a simple white nub to help the tube slide through with ease, and then just leaving enough still sticking out so it didn’t get lost inside the gooseneck. This is where we would later screw on the nozzle end, which makes it functions as both a standard faucet and a pull-down sprayer. Gotta love a multitasker like that.

Here’s where it starts to get high tech. After all, the Jetson’s-esque touch feature doesn’t just happen by magic. Enter the Solenoid. I don’t know how it  does what it does, but I do know that it came it one of those static-eliminating bags that I’m used to getting computer parts in. Like woah.

The Solenoid connects to the valve on the top side by snapping it into a plastic tube that already extends from the valve and using a metal clamp (the goldish thing below) to hold it in place. Then I snapped the spray hose (after removing the white plastic guide) into the bottom of the Solenoid and used a black plastic clamp to hold that in place. Our faucet was now one step closer to becoming a bona fide robot.

After that it was just up to me to connect a series of wires from the Solenoid to other parts of the fixture. For example I attached a metal clip to the bottom of the spout (sorry for the blurry pic – it’s dark under there!)…

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