The walls will need to be clean and dry and, most importantly, oil free. The first thing you will need to do is lightly sand any imperfections that you see, but make sure that there is no lead paint on the wall. You don’t want to sand a wall and release any dust filled lead into your home.

Make any repairs necessary. Check to make sure there are no small cracks or missing plaster. Small holes and cracks can be easily filled in with a spackling compound that you can find at Home Depot or Lowes. It’s relatively inexpensive.

After you make any repairs that are needed, wipe the walls down with a clean, damp cloth to remove any debris. Let the walls dry thoroughly before starting your painting project. Paint will not adhere to dirty or oily walls, so make sure that they are clean.

Prepare your room by using a painter tape such as 3M blue tape. Tape all areas that you don’t want the paint to touch like the baseboards, window trim, etc. Remove all electrical outlet and light switch covers for a neater job. Cover all furniture and carpeting with a drop cloth or plastic to protect it.

Preparing the walls, furniture and carpeting can be a tiresome task, but it will make for a nicer, cleaner look when you finish painting.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Professional carpet installers like to get in and out of your house as quickly as they can. Installing a new carpet is a process better left for the professional, but removing the carpet isn’t quite as hard.

You will need to have a utility knife, a hammer and crowbar, a flathead screwdriver, sturdy scissors and a heavy pair of gloves. The first thing you will need to do is move all of the furniture to another room, someplace where it can stay for a few days.

The nail strips that hold the carpet in place are usually nailed into the floor, so you will need to use the flathead screwdriver and a hammer to pry up the strips. If the screwdriver doesn’t work, then you’ll need to use a crowbar.

Make sure you use gloves when handling these strips, since they have tiny tack in them and are very sharp. Use a screwdriver to help you lift the carpet and padding, starting at a corner. Rip the carpet up in large pieces. There may be a few spots where it sticks, you’ll need to use a utility knife to slice these spots.

Be sure to roll the strips of carpet and padding and tie them up for easy clean up. When you finish, all that should be left on the floor are a few tack that can be removed with a small pair of pliers.

This is one way to save money and do it yourself.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Most times the vinyl will pull off in a clean strip, but thin vinyl will rip, in that case try to pull off as much as possible before it tears. Continue to pull the thin vinyl off until the only thing left on the wall is the backing paper and glue. The backing paper is porous and will soak up the wallpaper stripper for an easy removal.

When you mix the wallpaper stripper, use warm or hot water in a regular compression sprayer. Put the water in first and then the stripper to prevent the mixture from foaming. Cover your floors with a drop cloth to protect them from the spray. Wallpaper stripper has been know to damage certain floors, so take the appropriate steps and be cautious.

Work with small, 3 or 4 foot sections, soaking the paper with the spray from the floor to the sealing. For heavily papered walls you may need to spray a second or third time. When you get all of the paper removed, you’ll need to go over the entire area with a clean rag and warm water to remove the excess paste that will be on the wall.

Once you have your walls cleaned, you can wash the baseboards and floor and you’ll be ready to repaper or paint.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Have an area rug at all entries to the room to catch any dirt or pebbles that may be tracked in. Place rugs or mats in areas where there are chances of spilled or splashed water, like in front of the kitchen sink.

Sweep your floors often with a good quality, fine bristle broom. Vacuum the floor once or twice a week using a soft brush attachment to minimize scratching. Use a soft mop, tightly wrung out, a few times a week to keep the debris to a minimum.

To treat an area of a wood floor that has a tough stain, use a professional wood floor cleaning product that is recommended by your manufacturer. Unrecommended cleaners can cause the finish to dull.

Use furniture pads under your table and chair legs and on the feet of dressers or bureaus. Be extra careful wearing heavy shoes or high heels, as they may cause dents in the floor.

Most surface sealed wood floors are sealed with urethane or polyurethane and are stain and water damage resistant so just sweep and mop and you are done.

Penetrating seal treated or oil treated floors soak into the wood grain and harden. This type of floor needs to be protected with liquid or wax paste.

If you are not sure what kind of finish you have, here is a quick way to find out. Rub your finger across the floor. If a smudge appears then the floor has been treated with a penetrating seal, oil finish or a varnish and then waxed. If no smudge appears then the floor is surface sealed

Take care. I’ll talk to you later.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

In the kitchen: A Boston fern placed in a wooden basket looks great on top of your refrigerator. You can start a small herb garden on your window sill above your sink.

In the bath: Place an African violet on the tank top of your commode. Hang a spider plant from a corner or in a window.

In the bedroom: placing a fragrant plant like an azalea or a rose plant on your night table will also give you pleasant dreams.

In the living room: Place an English ivy plant in a brass container and place it on the mantle or a curio cabinet. Placing plants on end or coffee tables in unusual containers such as baskets or an old Victorian shoe makes the room interesting and entertaining.

In the dining room: Shop around at some flea markets or garage sales for an old bird cage. Placing a trailing ivy plant in the cage looks beautiful.

Indoor plants need lots of TLC, so make sure to create a routine of watering and weeding dead leaves from the plant to keep it healthy. Feed your plants a multi-purpose plant food like Miracle-Gro every two weeks and watch them flourish and grow.

When you decorate your home with live plants the benefits can be plentiful.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

I have a friend who has started a project of removing some tiles from her floor. I’m sure she wishes that she hadn’t started this since it is turning out to involve much more than she anticipated.

sxc.hu

If you are removing vinyl or stick on floor tiles it is easier to use heat to help loosen them. Home improvement stores sell the heat guns and they are relatively inexpensive.  They are similar to a hair dryer, but the heat is much hotter and the blower is more powerful.

You will also need a large scrapper, or you might want to invest in a long handled chisel so that you can scrape while standing. That is a little bit easier on the back.  A flat bladed garden shovel will also do the job. You can buy a floor scraper at just about any hardware store. Remember, you will need the most durable scraper you can find and one with a sharp edge.

After loosening the tiles you will then need to go back over the floor with the scraper. If you have a problem getting the floor tiles up with the scraper, try using the heat gun again. There may be a few patches of tile and clump, use a putty knife on those spots to loosen.

You may not have to use adhesives when you put the tiles down, but you will deal with the adhesives when removing the tiles. If heating the adhesive isn’t working, you may need to purchase a commercial vinyl tile and flooring adhesive remover. If you get to this point, you will need to make sure the area is well ventilated and use a face mask or respirator while applying the remover.

As you can see, this project can go from a simple task of removing the tiles to using adhesive removers and dealing with chemicals that you may be breathing into you lungs. So, know your limits. Know when you need to call in a professional.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Changing your curtains or getting a new window treatment can completely change the look of a room. It doesn’t matter whether you choose sheer curtains, heavy draperies or a sheer curtain with an over drape. Window treatments express your style and also provide privacy. You can choose anything from a simple linen curtain to a faux silk drape for a stunning effect.

For the kitchen, you don’t have to go to a lot of expense. I did a makeover on my kitchen and it cost me next to nothing. Throw some paint on the walls to brighten and freshen them and change your drawer pulls. My kitchen theme is apples so I looked around and found small apple knobs and I replaced my old drawer pulls with those. Go to a linen outlet and choose a few colorful, seasonal dish towels, hand towels and dish cloths. They will definitely make your kitchen bright.

Living rooms were made for candles. Arrange a couple of pillar candles, different sizes, around the room to give it a rich look. Around this time of year you can get seasonal paper plates in all sizes to set the candles on to give them a festive charm.  If your sofa is looking a little shabby, try a new slip cover or better yet arrange a favorite quilt or afghan, corner facing down towards the cushions, across the top of the couch. This will give your living room a warm and inviting look. Remember to keep you living room lamp and coffee tables free of clutter.

Always make sure that your entry way, at the front door, is free of clutter. When the path is clear, your home will feel more welcoming.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Kathy Zengolewicz

Hang a quilt on the wall behind your headboard. It’s a simple step that looks great. You don’t have to match the quilt with your bedspread, but do keep the same color scheme.

Mix and match some pillows to brighten up the room. Your décor should express your personality so find a favorite print and use a dollar store picture frame and you have instant art for your bedroom walls.

Not a print kind of person? Take pictures of your children or other loved ones, yes that does include you pets, and frame those photos. Make a collage of those pics. I like that kind of art!

Redecorate or replace your lampshades to correspond with your new décor, or better yet, install wall lamps. That will keep some of the clutter off of your bedside or night table.

Change the position of your bed. Placing your bed on an angle, where the corner of the room is in the middle of your headboard, that gives a unique semblance to the room.

If you’re a snuggler, top your bed with a soft down comforter. If you just want to inject some color into the room do it with a few accessories like a new lampshade or knick knacks.

You can add a homey look to your space by draping your quilt or comforter over the headboard or footboard using your bed as a quilt stand.

So, you see there are many easy and inexpensive ways to change a room using your imagination. Have fun trying some of these suggestions.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Seasonal centerpiece – Turn a large pumpkin or squash into a bowl.  Fill it with ornamental gourds and small pumpkins.

Autumn chandelier – Suspend burnished miniature pumpkins and gilded maple leaves from a chandelier with thread.

Curvaceous container – Turn a narrow-necked gourd into a vase by sawing off the gourd’s tip.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

My husband and I chose to paint our living room oatmeal.  We had looked at so many paint swatches and we knew we wanted the living room to be sort of a taupe color.  We were so glad to be rid of the cold white walls and to bring some warmth into our home with the inexpensive new look of paint.

We gave one side of the room a first and second coat and then went on to other walls.  We were on our last wall when we had to open another container of paint.  That was the “whoops” moment.  Although we had both containers mixed at the same time, the second container was just a touch off from the first one.  Thankfully, it wasn’t so badly off that we would repaint the whole room, but it was noticeable to me. 

Lesson learned.  From that moment on, we decided that when we buy more than one gallon of paint, we will mix the gallons together before using them.  We now have an extra bucket and lid in the shed that we use before we paint a room.  No more mismatched paint.

Has this sort of paint mix-up happened to you?

image (c) Karen Weideman

Post from: Keeping the Castle