Home Hacks 2010 | Apartment Therapy

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How To Paint Kitchen Cabinets: Part 1
Home Hacks

We live in a great apartment — tons of space, reasonable rent, and a landlord who reimburses us for home improvements. This last bit is key because (a) we love to fix things up and (b) this apartment seriously needed it. Although its the first floor of an old Beacon Street brownstone, only the front half of the apartment looks like it. The back half — hall, kitchen, bath and bedroom — was an addition circa 1960 complete with dark wood paneling and cabinets everywhere.

How To Make Easy Applique Wall Art
Home Hacks

"Applique" is one of those intimidating crafting words. It's a lot less intimidating if you just think of it as "cutting out fun shapes and sewing them onto stuff." Let's walk you through how to make your own super-easy, ridiculously inexpensive hoop art in 30 minutes or less.

How To Fold a Cloth Napkin Pocket
Home Hacks

I'm not one for swans and fans and flowers folded into cloth napkins. The most I generally muster is simply folding the napkin in half. But to change it up with something "fancy", I like this versatile pocket fold. In fact, my family folded 120 of these for my wedding. Maybe you'll find it handy for a special Valentine's Day dinner:

How To Make a Felt Heart Garland
Home Hacks

I was going to post a tutorial on how to make a felt ball garland, but with Valentine's Day upon us I took it one step farther and needle felted the balls into hearts. This heartfelt (get it?!) garland is a lovely subtle addition to a home lacking in Valentine's Day decor. If you are interested in needle felting it would be a great beginner project.

How to Build a PC That Looks Like a Mac
Home Hacks

While it may sound absurd to fans on either side, we believe there's a population out there that happens to appreciate the strengths of both platforms - the Mac for its divine aesthetics and the PC for its limitless possibilities. That's all good in the hood since today, we'll be giving you the best of both worlds - by turning a PC into a Mac-look-a-like.

How To Prepare Artichoke Hearts
Home Hacks

Artichokes have spiny tips on their leaves and a gag-inducing inner choke. They require a bit of prep work!

Artichokes are not the most inviting of all vegetables. The spiny leaf tips prick our fingers and the downy interior choke can literally make us gag and cough if swallowed. But once you work past all that, artichoke hearts are one of the most delicious, tender, and even beautiful vegetables around! Here's how to get them ready to cook.

How To Make a Pirate Ship Sandwich
Home Hacks

Shiver me timbers!! Thar be a sandwich! Lunchtime is so much more fun when you play with your food. Make your sea-lovin' swabbie a piratical sailboat sandwich and inject some whimsy into your day.

How To Replace a Kitchen Faucet
Home Hacks

Earlier this week we asked you if you had ever considered replacing the faucet in a rental kitchen. We realized this could be a simple way to upgrade our kitchen, and this week we did it as our Kitchen Cure special project! It was remarkably easy and straightforward, and we can't believe we didn't do this sooner. Here's a look at the process of replacing a faucet; anyone can do it!

How To Make A Cute DIY Valentine
Home Hacks

We love the opportunity to make crafty little things with all of the materials we pick up along the way, so what better time than Valentine's Day!?! Here are is a fun little card we made with some test tubes we picked up.

How To Blanch Vegetables
Home Hacks

Blanching may be used to preserve color and texture, to prepare ingredients ahead of time, and to prepare vegetables for freezing.

Along with steaming, blanching vegetables is a basic technique every cook should know. Briefly boiled and then plunged into ice water, these bright and tender-crisp vegetables may be used in crudité platters, salads, sushi rolls, and stir fries, or refrigerated or frozen for later use. Just about any vegetable can be blanched. Here's how…

How To Set Up The Perfect Home Network
Home Hacks

Most homes use WiFi networks nowadays, in large part because they're easy to setup and convenient to use if you have more than one computer user in your home, which is a given with most families. While wireless networks are easy to setup it's common for people to underestimate what their new WiFi network can do. Without further ado, we present to you our perfect home network and how to set it up.
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Range Govindan

February 11, 2010 04:00 PM

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How To Insulate Outlets & Switches
Home Hacks

Outlet and switch plate seals are readily available at hardware stores and online. Mine came with a bonus pack of plastic outlet plugs.

Air infiltration is one of the worst culprits of heat loss and energy consumption. Have you ever put your hand by an outlet on an exterior wall? If it wasn't well insulated it was probably blowing in a significant amount of cold air and leaking out all your warm air! Well, insulating outlets and switch plates is just about one of the easiest and relatively cheap things you can do to eliminate heat loss without having to re-insulate your entire home.
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Rachel Wray

February 11, 2010 04:00 PM

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How To Keep Your Shower Caddy Still
Home Hacks

The hanging shower caddy: a slippery slope.

If you are like me and have moved several times, chances are you have lost the plastic piece that comes with new shower caddies to keep them in place. Replacing the shower head pipe with a longer pipe is one option, but a far easier option is to use a rubber band to create friction between the two pieces of chrome.
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Tanya Lacourse

February 11, 2010 03:00 PM

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How To Build a Backyard Chicken Coop
Home Hacks Guest Post from Erik Knutzen of Homegrown Evolution

Architect meet your client: the chicken. You're about to become a coop buildin' Frank Gehry. Keeping chickens is mostly about figuring out their housing arrangement. The rest is easy—chickens are a lot less trouble than a dog. Now I wish I could offer a one-size-fits-all chicken coop plan, but living situations and climates vary. Instead, I'll offer what the gifted architect Christopher Alexander calls a "pattern language," a set of general guidelines you can use to get starting building your coop.
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Guest

February 11, 2010 02:30 PM

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How To Stain a Wood Door
Home Hacks

I'm not a fan of all this snow, but at least being trapped indoors has its advantages. Unfinished projects! We decided to tackle our basement, a massive undertaking since it housed just about everything during renovations. With my boyfriend working on painting the walls, it was time for me to figure out what to do with all the bare wood. After much debating, I decided to give staining a try.
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Kimber Watson

February 11, 2010 01:30 PM

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How To Make a Fruit Fly Trap
Home Hacks

With just four simple items, you can make a non-toxic and highly effective fruit fly trap.

Most of the time, we manage to prevent fruit flies by keeping our counter tops free of tempting produce, but all it takes is one infested fruit to cause an invasion. Whenever this has happened over the years, we have tried using different homemade traps, and this is the one we now swear by.
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Emily Ho

February 11, 2010 01:00 PM

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How To Make Light And Fluffy Pancakes
Home Hacks

We've survived this week's blizzard without a single snow day, but we almost wish we were stuck at home with a fresh batch of homemade pancakes right about now. We'll just have to wait for the weekend. For this recipe, we're keeping it simple â€“ no unusual ingredients or fancy add-ins. Just the basics for a fool-proof stack of light and fluffy pancakes.
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Joanna Miller

February 11, 2010 11:00 AM

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How To Make Moss Graffiti
Home Hacks

Our inspiration was the work of Anna Garforth

Since seeing Anna Garforth's use of moss as graffiti we've been keen to try this at home. Turns out it's a very simple process and we had the perfect wall in the backyard so we gave it a go. Cheap, easy and interesting garden decorations, we'd recommend this to anyone who has the space.
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Jenny Butler

February 11, 2010 08:15 AM

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How to Cut a Pineapple
Home Hacks

We love the sweet-sour taste of pineapple just about anytime, but it has particular appeal during the dog days of winter. You can buy pre-cut pineapple from the store, but it's fresher and more economical to buy a whole one and cut it yourself. Here's how!
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Emma Christensen

February 11, 2010 08:00 AM

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How To Extend the Life of Your Cut Flowers
Home Hacks

Double the life of your finished arrangement with these tips!

Fresh flowers are a fleeting pleasure no matter how you slice it, but we think they bring so much life and color to a room that they're absolutely worth the effort and expense. A few simple tricks borrowed from the pros will help you keep flowers around a good long while. So go ahead, buy yourself a Valentine bouquet!
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Susie Nadler

February 10, 2010 10:15 PM

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How To Hang a Snowboard
Home Hacks

Our good friend Timothy Dahl, founder of Charles and Hudson, was inspired by all the Home Hacks he's seen here on Apartment Therapy and thus sent in his own project illustrating how to hang snowboards against the wall, keeping them clean and out of the way (very appropriate, considering the snow should be excellent after the recent storms here in LA).
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Gregory Han

February 10, 2010 09:45 PM

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How To Make an Overwhelming Paint Color Work for You

When we toured artist Jen French's house, we were in awe of her wonderful wall paintings, and here's another sample of her handiwork. Though she liked the color of the olive green wall in her family room, Jen wasn't crazy about how dark it was so she incorporated the color into a pattern, using the green for the lines of the interlocking boxes. Here's how she did it.
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Sarah Rainwater

February 10, 2010 09:00 PM

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How To Dye Textiles With Coffee & Tea
Home Hacks

Staining or dying textiles with natural products, such as coffee and tea, is nothing new. But for us home hacks it is an inexpensive, non-toxic and extremely easy method for altering cloth. Staining fabric is perfect if youâ€™d like to create a vintage look or if youâ€™d like to change a bright-white background to an off-white color.
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Anne Reagan

February 10, 2010 07:15 PM

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How To Steam Vegetables
Home Hacks

Clean and slice vegetables into uniform sizes to ensure even cooking.

While it doesn't take much effort, steaming vegetables may seem intimidating, especially if you've been scarred by overcooked carrots or bland broccoli. These simple instructions will help you steam perfectly textured and flavorful (and healthy!) vegetables every time…
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Emily Ho

February 10, 2010 04:30 PM

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How To Hide Routers and Modems Under a Tea Cart
Home Hack

Having a home office makes working from home a pleasure, but not when you have to live with (and look at) a stack of modems, routers, ethernet cables, power cords, external hard drives, and the like it can make you wonder if you'd be better off with a commute. A few years ago, I decided to tackle the mess under my desk by installing (almost) everything beneath the last shelf of a teacart. Here's how I did it.
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Sonia Zjawinski

February 10, 2010 03:30 PM

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Designer DIY Tools
Roundup

What to people who make great designs design with? From styled for function to just plain stylish, here's a Roundup of the hottest tools around that will help make any how-to project look good.
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Geoff Bentz

February 10, 2010 03:15 PM

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How to Care for Wood Countertops
Home Hacks

Applying the Oil.

Wood countertops are beautiful, relatively affordable, and more sustainable than other options. The biggest catch is they require regular care. Follow these simple steps to keeping your wood counters looking their best for years to come.
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Trent Johnson

February 10, 2010 03:00 PM

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How To Remove DVD Scratches With a Banana
Home Hacks

Scratches on discs happen. After one of our favorite DVDs started to skip after receiving a few too many scratches we started to look for a solution to salvage it. Sure there are DVD scratch removal devices that you can buy, but why waste money when there is a solution to be found right in our own homes? Using toothpaste, a banana, a rag and window cleaner we will show you how to remove scratches from a DVD and with any luck the unplayable will become playable.
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Joelle Alcaidinho

February 10, 2010 03:00 PM

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How To Build an Interior Window
Home Hacks

Finished kitchen

Contemporary homes are built with open floor plans, great rooms, and high ceilings — a result of current tastes, as well as programmatic and structural changes in residential architecture. Unlike homes from the mid-century and prior, the contemporary home incorporates the previously private kitchen into the public living space and capitalizes on longer span beams to create rooms that flow together.
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Julia Brooke Hustwit

February 10, 2010 02:30 PM

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How to Make a Solar System Art Project
Home Hacks

Often the lines of art and science intersect, and it is at that intersection wonderful things are possible. One afternoon, my son and I were reading a book about the solar system when it occurred to me that he'd probably learn more about the solar system if we threw ourselves into it, rather than just read from a book.
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Alejandra Valera

February 10, 2010 02:00 PM

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