Forget the Open Floor Plan--It's Time to Bring Back Walls

  Do I Know What I Need to Store? The best way to begin any storage planning is by assessing the items you need to house. Allocate some time to declutter — recycle any empty bottles, use up almost-empty toiletries and donate towels, jars and accessories you don’t need anymore. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be left only with the essentials, and these will dictate the storage you plan. It’s so much easier to organize a space with only necessary items, and the storage you plan will then be useful for a long time and hopefully ensure you continue to keep just the things you need. WellCraft Kitchens, Inc. Have I Grouped My Items? Your essential bathroom kit can now be organized into groups, which will help you assess where to locate everything. How you group your items will depend on your own needs and lifestyle, but it makes sense to position things near where you’ll use them. Makeup, for instance, should be kept near the best-lit mirror in the room. It’s a good idea to create an every...

  How to remove dog smells from your home Once you've eliminated the possibility of a medical condition causing your  eau de dog  aroma, it's time to look at solutions that will have your home smelling great (or at least not like a kennel) again. The cost of these remedies ranges from peanuts to pricey, so depending on your budget and your desire to banish that scent with minimal effort, there's a product out there that will meet your needs. Cleaning expert and dog owner  Leslie Reichert , aka  The Green Cleaning Coach , shares her routine on how to get rid of dog smells in the home: Vacuum dog beds once a week. Wash dog beds every other week. Vacuum floors twice a week depending on the type of dog and its shedding pattern. Wash hard floors like tile and vinyl with a strong cleaning solution and very hot water. Use a cover on any furniture that dogs are allowed on and wash the cover weekly. Natural dog odor eliminators Liberally sprinkli...

1. The Right Storage Your kitchen cabinets make up the bulk of what you see in your kitchen, so your  choice of cabinet color and style is a major, consequential decision. But the components inside your cabinets are equally important, if not more. Your storage solutions determine how functional your kitchen is. When you’re at the peak of cooking a large meal, you care less about the look of your cabinets and more about the ease of grabbing the right tools, spices, pots and other supplies. A kitchen designer will often take an inventory of all the utensils, dishes, small appliances and pantry items in your kitchen to figure out the right storage components for you. P ullouts, rollouts and swing-outs will efficiently organize your stuff and make things easier to find and grab. “When budget allows, we always, always recommend drawers  or pullout shelves  on the lower cabinet level,” designer Lisa Janzen of  KC Interior Design  says. “There is nothing worse than hav...

  1. Size Your Sink to Your Kitchen  It may seem obvious, but if your kitchen is on the smaller side, consider installing a smaller-width sink. An oversize, triple-bowl model would have overwhelmed this charming but compact loft kitchen. The more modest-size, yet still deep, single-bowl apron-front sink is large enough to accommodate most kitchen tasks, but it isn’t a space hog. Countertop and base cabinet storage areas are likely to be at a premium in a smaller kitchen, so a smaller-width sink will improve overall function too. 2. Size Your Sink to the Window Above It  Homeowners often install a kitchen sink beneath a window, preferably a window with a nice view. But some homeowners overlook how these two elements work together. That’s not to say your sink and window need to match widths exactly, but it can look odd to have a super-wide sink set below a skinny window and vice versa. 3. Size Your Sink to Be a Focal Point  If you choose to go with an extra-wide sink, ...

  Get the Tree in Water Immediately Once you get your tree home, put it into water as soon as possible, within eight hours. If the trunk wasn’t freshly cut at the place where you bought the tree, then saw an inch or two off the bottom of the trunk and put it in a tree stand filled with fresh water. If you’re not ready to set it up, put it in a bucket of water in a cool place. The water temperature doesn’t matter. Design Shop Interiors Use the Right Stand It should comfortably fit the diameter of the trunk. Whittling the trunk down will only dry the tree out faster. The National Christmas Tree Association recommends that a tree stand should provide 1 quart of water per inch of stem diameter. Be sure the tree stand you choose has a large water reservoir. A tree can take up a gallon of water in its first few hours in the stand. Mary Prince Photography Water, Water, Water Big trees mean lots of  agua . Watch that the cut part of the trunk stays below the waterline. Adding aspirin,...