Gotta share a great find for keeping your home smelling great – Hefty brand’s unscented odor block trash bags!

My idea of a beautiful home is one that looks, and smells, beautiful. Since we completed our kitchen remodel and started to use our built in trash can I have noticed that the trash kinda stinks. I think it’s because the trash is contained within the island and when we pull it out – yuck.

My husband will drop the used coffee grounds in the trash and his banana peels. It all ends up smelling pretty stinky. This past summer I noticed TV commercials for odor blocking trash bags, so about two weeks ago I bought Hefty’s odor blocking trash bags to see if they would help. I bought the smallest box I could, a count of 45, just in case they did not work.

Well, I cannot believe the difference in how our kitchen smells! The bags really seem to have eliminated stinky trash odors. I never want to pay more money than I have to and I’ve got to admit in this case, it’s worth the extra money – the odor seems to have disappeared!

Now my kitchen looks, and smells, devine!

It’s the bain of our DIY existence.

Finding the answer is like searching for the Holy Grail.

You search Google.
You talk to the experts at your local home improvement center.
You troll blogs in search of the answer.

Fabric softener isn’t the solution.

The PaperTiger is most definitely NOT the solution.

Steaming is so not a solution.

I am going to tell you THE SECRET, my secret, to stripping wallpaper.

Like most good recipes, this one has been passed along from a friend. Chris is a professional painter and wallpaper stripper. He’s gotten pretty good at removing wallpaper since it’s been on the down side of home decor popularity for the past several years.

Chris is my “Go To Guy” when clients need a referral for dirty work like stripping wallpaper from a two-story foyer. I called him when I couldn’t even get a finger nail under the seam of paper on the walls of our dining room at our Cottage In the Woods. {We had removed the wallpaper in the kitchen ourselves without a problem.}

I had an appointment so I left him to do the work. When I returned less than three hours later, he had removed ALL the paper! I was amazed and begged for his “secret recipe”.

Since then, I have passed it along to many, many clients. Most recently just a couple weeks back I gave the secret with a client who had torn up a wall in her kitchen trying to remove wallpaper. It was all pockmarked and in serious need of repair. She was at the end of her rope and desperate.  I told her the secret and a week later she called thrilled with how easy the rest of the paper had come down using the secret!

Here’s Chris’ recipe for easily removing wallpaper:

DO NOT score your wallpaper. Don’t use a PaperTiger or any other kind of scoring instrument. Scoring the wallpaper only results in it coming off in little tiny pieces.

1. Buy some DIF and a portable tank sprayer. Be sure to protect wood floors and have a few rags/sponges to wipe up drips.

2. Mix the DIF with VERY HOT water (look to DIF for proper ratio of H2O/DIF).

3. Now completely cover a 4-6 foot section of the wall with a fine spray of very hot DIF water and let it sit for five minutes.

4. Spray that same wall again and let it set another five minutes. W-A-I-T. Patience is key.

5. Move to the next 4-6 foot section and spray. You’re not drenching the walls but covering them in a fine spray that’s enough to penetrate the wallpaper.

6. Go back to the first swath and spray it a third time.  Spray the second section again and wait.

7. Now take a joint knife, scraper, trowel, spatula, etc. and peel up an edge of the first secion. If it comes up easily, you’re ready to strip.  Make sure you keep the walls moist – you only want to work a section or two per person at a time so you can maintain the wet surface.

That’s it. The secret to being a great stripper! Have fun.

{Oh yeh, one more thing – make sure to put the wallpaper you’ve removed immediately into a trash bag to avoid the “big mess” of clean up.}

I have some great news for you – Caromal Colour paints that are going to ROCK your DIY world!

For years I have consulted with clients who, in the process of updating their homes, need to make over their kitchen cabinets, TV armoires, bedroom dressers and night stangs, a tag sale treasures, etc. However, trying to figure out what colors to choose to get the look they want ON TOP OF all the prep work that goes into a job like painting kitchen cabinets is just overwhelming!

Introducing Caromal Colours – your answer for transforming family treasures and tag sale finds into pieces that pefectly fit into your home’s decor and style! These paints have been developed for us do-it-yourselfers by Carol Kemery, a professional faux painter.

NO PREP WORK REQUIRED! This paint requires no sanding or priming!!!!! LOVE IT! Just make sure the surface you’re painting is free of dust, dirt and grim. Then paint.

IT DOESN”T HAVE TO BE PERFECT.

Forget perfect brush strokes – these paints are designed to be “mushed and smushed” – they are a “textured” paint that gives character to the pieces you’re painting! The paint is thick – it has a pudding like consistency. It dries very quickly. You use a hand sander to give it a quick buff finish and then you can apply a toner (or not) to give it a bit of age. Wipe on a clear poly and you are DONE!

Look at this makeover on these twin headboards. The editors of Country Living magazine found these for just $5.00 each at a garage sale. Using the color Bayberry from Caromal Colours, they applied a basecoat to the headboards. Bayberry is a brighter green before it is toned and applying the toner is SO easy! Just brush it one and wipe it off. You can use either a dry rag or a wet one to control how much or little toner you leave on.

After they painted and toned the headboards, they made them into a wonderful daybed. Read all about this trash to treasure makeover at Country Living magazine.

The paints come in 11 of the most popular colors that Carol’s clients asked for over and over again: Black (called peppercorn); Brown (called chocolate); Colonial Blue, Bright Green (called bayberry); Sage (called cobblestone); Gray (called putty); red (called paprika); White (called wisteria); Cream (called parchment);  yellow (called mustard) and new for fall 2009 Pumpkin!

This line of paint is only available by ordering online or thru a rep like me. If you want to order online, I’m happy to pass along a discount on shipping costs, just use my code “DevineD”.  You can order kits which provide everything you need for your projects {even your paint brush} or you can order just pieces and parts.

*Shipping Discount* Remember to use my code “DevineD” in the coupon code box to receive a discount!

Check out this kitchen makeover I did with my sister on her kitchen using Caromal Colours.

If you have window and door screens at your house, you’re going to love this little find!

At my local Ace Hardware I was wandering the aisles and came across a sponge for cleaning screens. It’s something similar to this one I found online: Gonzo Sponge.

I was a bit skeptical, but I figured for around $4.00 I wouldn’t be wasting that much money if it didn’t work.

This picture to the left (above) is my newly-cleaned screen door. Below (right)  is the before photo taken just moments earlier. It’s cottonwood season here and our screens are filled with bits of what looks like a very find downy cotton. Of course, we also have dust, dust, dust!

This time of year turns screens into eye sores and before my discovery of this miracle sponge, hubby was getting out the hose and making a big mess trying to clean screens. In addition to our front screen door and window screens, we also have a screened porch. Cleaning those screens was a B-I-G pain!

The sponge is very easy to use. Wipe your screen with a dry sponge from top to bottom. You’ll see the dust fly and the cotton gathers into strings as you can see below.

One thing I have learned is to always work top to bottom. On our front door we have the large upper screen area and then two smaller screens below. As I clean the larger screen little bits fall and will get caught on the lower screens - so save those bottom screens for last.

It took me about five minutes to clean the front screen because of the three seperate areas (as opposed to one large one). There was no spraying water and then having to clean up that mess.

Here’s the remarkable difference – on the right side (in the picture below) is where I ran the sponge down the screen a couple of times. On the left you see the untreated screen.

Seriously, I am so thrilled with my screen-cleaning sponge. I am so happy at how easily it works!

So, if your screens are dusty and dirty, pick up one of these wonder sponges  and give your screens a “sponge bath”!

Where can we find beauty in our lives? This is the weekly question the Inspired Room asks.  It was easy for me to find beauty in my week because I was on vacation!

This week I have been enjoying the warmth and the sun of Florida.  It was a girls trip - my cousin, my sister and her two girls (ages four and nine) and me. We took the girls to the Magic Kingdom for what turned out to be quite a magical day.  It was easy to see the beauty – in them, the day and in the memories we were making.

It was sooooo wonderful to get away from the cold of the North Coast. We enjoyed warm sunny days in the 70s and it was terrific to see, feel and smell the change of season. That was another opportunity for finding beauty. The wonderful scent of spring, warm sunshine, flowers.  It . . . was . . . amazing.

The scents reminded me the importance of the sense of smell when it comes to our homes.  Scent is an important, but often overlooked, element of design. Our homes should smell as good as they look.  In my own home, my favorite scent is citrus. I’m not sure why but it always reminds me of warm weather and I love the clean aroma. 

One way I keep the house smelling fresh is by using Italian Citrus Vacuum Beads from The Good Home Company. I pop about 25 in my vaccum bag and they lightly scent the air as I vacuum.  It makes the work much more enjoyable.

These beads can also help you sell your home. There’s an addage in the staging business that goes,  “If you can smell it, you can’t sell it.”  The smell we refer to are odors like tobacco, mold & mildew, the fish you had last night, pets, stinky diapers, in-home hot tubs, etc.

You need to fight these odors on a number of different levels. One weapon in your aresenal can be these fragrant little beads.  They last until your bag is full and needs to be emptied (about 8 uses). There are 12-14 uses in each bottle which runs about $15.00.

So whether you are designing your house to dwell or sell, as we make the transition from winter to spring, infuse a little fresh scent into your decor!

Sad news for anyone in my area – Charlie Fabrics will be closing. ( We had precious  few places to get fabric as it was in our area. With Charlie’s closing we’ll only have Calico Corners  & Jo-Ann Fabrics. Keep in mind that both places offer special order fabrics – at Jo-Anns it goes on sale fairly often.

Charlie’s is in Cleveland Heights on Noble Road. The owner, Pat Novak, has been in business 33 years. She’ll be closing the store this spring. Hours are Sunday Noon – 5:oopm and Monday – Sat. 10:00 – 5:30pm. 216-291-2739.

I was recently talking to our painter and she told us we were not storing our paint correctly. She said it should be stored someplace where you have a relatively steady, moderate temperature.  Our paint is in the garage on the shelves the previous owners set it up.

Because our garage isn’t insulated, it gets extremely hot and cold. She said the changes in temperature will breakdown the latex in the paint and ruin it.

Instead of storing paint in the garage, she suggests  storing it in an area like our basement where the temperature stays relatively steady and moderate.

She loved that  my husband put labels on each can which tells us in which room or area of the hose we used it.  This will make it easy for touch ups when needed.

So, take a tip from a pro and store your paint in the right conditions to keep it in perfect paint condition!

Chunky black candlesticks are “must haves” to make a house a home.  Regardless of your personal style, these accessories are a classic, timeless addition to any room in any season.  One of my designer tricks is to always use black in a room. Even if I’m doing an all white design, I’ll have black somewhere in the room to “anchor” it – to visually ground the space. These candlesticks are a terrific way to accomplish this.

Whether they have a polish and shine like these above from Frontgate (BTW, these are ON SALE for just $19.00 for the pair – regularly $69.00!) or are wooden like this pair below, chunky pillar candle sticks  are a MUST on the 100 top accessories to help transform a house into a home.

Chunky black candlesticks are at the top of my list because they’re just so darn versatile!  Of course, you can put pillar candles on them but get creative. In the fall I typically place medium-sized pumpkins atop my candlesticks. During the Christmas season, secure super large bulbs to them using museum putty.  And candles are not just for dining room tables anymore! These look fabulous in book cases, on fireplace mantels, side tables, kitchens, bathrooms, etc.  I like to buy one slightly shorter and one a bit taller which gives you immediate “movement” and dynamic in your design.

Placing your two candlesticks next to each other and then nestling in one other item with them helps to create a wonderful little “vignette” or grouping that helps draw the eye to an area.  Try placing a photo of you and your man with these or a simple vase of flowers!

What’s on YOUR list of must haves for making a house into a home? I want to know.