If you’re making your wallpaper border into a frame around a door or window, you’ll need to deal with some right angles. That means mitering your border so the corners look good. The key is to get your border nice and flat before you make your miter cuts. That way, the cut ends should meet perfectly.

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­You’ve been hanging around the lumber yards lately because you need wood for one of your do-it-yourself projects. You haven’t settled on one type of wood yet, but in talking to experts and other homeowners, something has stuck in your ear. OSB. You’ve heard this acronym around town. What is it, you ask? While it is a widely used acronym, specifically for ocean groups and religious organizations, for our purposes OSB stands for oriented strand board.

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Mary Saunder disliked the cabinets in her kitchen from the moment she moved into her Bowie, Maryland, home. “They were metal, the color of bronze,” Saunder says, “but my husband’s motto was ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’” When her husband passed away last February, Mary decided it was time to act. “I couldn’t stand it any more,” she says.

But rather than spend the $25,000 or $30,000 redoing the kitchen with new cabinets would have cost her, she settled on a simpler, cheaper and far less intrusive solution. Motivated by a newspaper ad for Sears’ kitchen-cabinet-refacing service, she scheduled an appointment and signed up. After two visits to take measurements and show her the new finish and hardware options she could choose from, Sears moved in. Two days and 29 cabinets later, Mary’s kitchen was transformed. “I’m 100 percent satisfied,” she says. Total cost: $9,100.

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So your kitchen needs a makeover but you aren’t prepared to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for new cabinets? Consider cabinet refacing: putting up new cabinet doors and drawer fronts and covering the exposed cabinet frames.

Refacing your cabinets usually costs less than half of what it costs to tear out your current cabinets and completely replace them. Refacing also eliminates plumbing or wiring work and makes your kitchen usable during the refacing process, which takes just days.

Cabinet Refacing Cost Depends on Size, Materials, Delivery Charges, and Labor
Although costs can vary drastically, kitchen cabinet refacing costs generally fall between $3,000 and $6,000, whereas comparable new cabinets may cost upwards of $9,000. The final cost of cabinet refacing depends mostly on four critical factors:

1.    Kitchen size. More doors and drawers = higher costs. However, you could save money by leaving some cabinet shelves open in the new modern style instead of putting doors on them all.
2.    Types of materials and extras. Will your doors and frame covers be RTF (“rigid thermofoil,” which is vinyl pressure-molded over wood), laminate, or wood? (There can be great cost differences between materials.) What type of door and drawer hardware will you choose? Are you adding extras such as decorative molding between the frame and the ceiling?
3.    Delivery charges and sales tax. Some suppliers offer free delivery for larger orders.
4.    Labor costs. Refacing your cabinets yourself eliminates contractor costs.

Regardless of the choices you make, refacing cabinets can help your renovation progress quickly toward a beautiful conclusion–and save you money.

Basic cabinet refacing is simple–replacing cabinet doors and drawer fronts and covering cabinet frames–but the possibilities are endless. Have some fun while staying within your budget by considering these cabinet refacing ideas.

Materials. The materials you use have the largest effect on the project’s look and cost.

• RTF (rigid thermofoil)–often the least expensive material–is a vinyl foil pressure-molded over MDF (medium-density fiberboard).
• Plastic laminates are slightly more expensive than RTF and come in a wide variety of wood grains and solid colors. Most laminate doors are flat and include no molding.
• Wood and wood veneer are the most popular options and also the priciest.

Hardware. Door and drawer hardware is usually considered a necessity rather than an add-on, except on very modern cabinets. Choose from a cornucopia of hardware shapes, materials, colors, and prices.

Extras and Add-ons. A cabinet refacing project can include large and small additional pieces, such as:

• Replacing the wood center glides on your drawers with side-mounted roller tracks–or completely replacing your drawer boxes
• Inserting clear or decorative glass in some or all of your cabinet doors
• Installing a new sink, flooring, countertops, or appliances
• Adding features such as wine racks, plate and stemware racks, and trash bins

Project size. The more new cabinet doors you hang, the more your project will cost. The modern trend of leaving doors off some cabinets can save money and create a stylish look.

Whatever your budget, exploring all cabinet refacing ideas can help you create the kitchen of your dreams for less than half the cost of a total renovation.

Our carpet is a large part of our household, so when the carpet looks clean the rest of the house seems to sparkle just a little brighter. Unfortunately, the carpet is also where a lot of the spills and dirt seem to end up. The good news is that many of the stains you find on your carpet can be cleaned up in a jiffy with normal household products that we all generally have on hand. Before using any type of cleaner, even homemade carpet cleaners on your carpet, make sure you test for colorfastness on a small area of your carpet that is normally hidden from view. If you have the manufacturer’s instructions on how to care for your carpet, read these over as well before attacking any of your stains with homemade carpet cleaners. One of the biggest advantages to homemade carpet cleaners is that you know exactly what you are putting on your floor, unlike the chemical compounds you may encounter with commercial cleaners. And you might be surprised to learn that something as simple as white vinegar might be able to handle a tough job just as well as the commercial big boys, as long as you get to that stain quickly.

Homemade Carpet Cleaners You Probably Have On Hand
Two items that you can keep on hand that make effective homemade carpet cleaners are white vinegar and ammonia. Detergent is also essential for these cleaning services solutions, but if you wash clothing regularly, it should be a given that detergent is in your cleaning cabinet! A solution of one tablespoon of white vinegar to detergent solution will work wonders at removing alcohol, coffee, chewing gum or shoe polish. Scrape lightly at the excess with a dull knife, then spray the vinegar solution and work from the outside of the stain in. Make sure you blot the spot completely dry when you are finished. Another good homemade carpet cleaner is made with one teaspoon of ammonia to one cup of water. This solution is good for really stubborn stains, such as blood, chocolate or glue. You can follow up both of these procedures with a solution of 4 parts water to one part vinegar. Spray the spot where the stain was and continue blotting the spot with dry, clean white paper towel until the carpet is completely dry.

When using any homemade carpet cleaning solution, always remember to scrape up solid spills and blot up liquids. Never rub the stain since this can cause damage to your carpet fibers. And always, always make sure that your carpet is completely dry before leaving the stain alone. In the event that your homemade carpet cleaner does not take out the stain to your satisfaction, you will pave a smooth way for a professional to come in a finish the job by following these simple procedures.

Everyone that owns a home has at one time or another tried to find something that will fill space in the corners of the walls. For most people, the corner space is not well used.There is a lot of wasted spaces when something is put in a corner that wasn’t designed to be there.  Finally, cabinet makers have engineered and manufactured corner cabinets that can be put into any corner.  Imagine a TV cabinet that fits in the corner so it is at the right angle for everyone to see and doesn’t come out into the room. Or, maybe, a hutch in the dining area that goes into the corners because it was designed to.There are now corner cabinets that are good values and look great.

Wal-Mart sells corner custom made furniture cabinets that are nice looking but not overpriced.  The Homestyle corner buffet and hutch comes in white.  It is a very functional piece of furniture that also looks great.  They are usually in stock at most Wal-Mart’s and if they aren’t in stock, they can be ordered.  The cost of the Homestyle corner buffet and hutch is just over about two hundred dollars.  This is a nice piece of functional furniture for a fair price.

More Corner Cabinets
Another piece of furniture designed for the corner of walls is the Howard Miller curio cabinet 680-385 Wakefield.  This corner cabinet has a lot of display space and a large area for storage underneath.  It is a great looking piece that will fit in nicely into any corner.It is somewhat pricy at the approximate cost of $650 but it’s very well built and the finished product is magnificent.

LaFuente Import Company is a company that sells authentic Mexican furniture.  Made from pine and cactus, it is unlike any other kitchen cabinet that one will see.  There are different styles of the corner cabinets but they are all beautiful.  People can purchase these cabinets from LaFuente over the internet or in a showroom that offers this unique furniture.Expect to pay from $490 and up.  They are somewhat costly but worth every penny because of the construction process incorporating cactus wood into the cabinet.  These are truly unique cabinets.

There are many other companies that sell corner cabinets and they can be found on the internet or in showrooms across the country.  A person should take the proper time to look around until one is found that belongs in a person’s house.  There is no reason for people to not use this valuable corner space with amount of corner cabinet options that are available today.

Just as every room has a different function, every room has different storage needs. Sometimes pieces of furniture, such as the entertainment center in your living room, takes care of most of the storage, while other rooms, such as your kitchen, has many cabinets for storage. Every so often, though, what you already have in a room doesn’t provide sufficient storage, and that’s when it’s time to hunt down some other storage.

While in some rooms you can add decorative shelves to increase storage, for some rooms it will simply be easier to add storage cabinets. By choosing custom made furniture storage cabinets that are appropriate to the function of the room you put it in, you will be able to keep clutter from accumulating. And by matching your storage cabinets to the room you will be putting it in, you won’t have anything that looks out of place. Here are some ideas to get you started on your cabinet hunt:

The Home Office
As your home office grows, so will your need for storage space. While a good computer desk might be sufficient at first, it may be wise to invest in some sort of storage space to store the office supplies that you will need. Because it’s not likely that you’ll have a separate storage room for your office supplies while at home, your best bet for storage cabinets are ones that look most like pieces of furniture, with wood stain.

By getting something that matches the rest of the furniture in your office, you avoid having anything overly industrial-looking in your work space. Don’t be afraid to get storage cabinets with glass doors, though; even though you’re just displaying office supplies, it does announce that your home office is a place for work!

The Basement Workshop
If you have a workspace in your basement for repairing things or for just relaxing while making items out of wood, you need a place to store nails, tools, and other items. In this case, some simple steel storage cabinets are just what you need. It’s simple and functional, but doesn’t need to look fancy. If you do tend to work with a lot of small items like screws and bolts, consider shelving that has plenty of small drawers to help keep you properly organized.

Industrial-style storage cabinets are great for other work areas, such as in the garage, or even in your storage shed, for storing out-of-season toys and small tools. So, for workspaces in areas inside your house, storage cabinets that match the furniture work best, while basements, garages and similar areas will do fine with steel storage cabinets. As long as you match your storage cabinets to the area you’re in, though, you’ll have functional storage that looks right.

The kitchen is the room used most often in just about every house. The type of cabinets that you select for your kitchen can really help to define the space. These days you have many options in terms of the styles of kitchen cabinets available. Some things you should keep in mind for any home remodeling project include style, cost, environmental impact, and function. To create a comfortable and aged look to your kitchen think about installing kitchen cabinets made from distressed wood. Distressed wood cabinets can create a comfortable rustic feel in your kitchen space. You can really make the space warm and welcoming. The distressed look can be at home is almost any room in your house.

Creating a distressed look
You can distress any species of wood. Distressed wood does not have to cost more than regular wood. There are a variety of techniques used to distress wood including hand scrapping, wire brushing, and the wear and tear that occurs during years of use. Antique wood will have been naturally distressed. With new wood you can give it an antique look with techniques such as wire brushing and hand scrapping. The result you get with these techniques will look just like smooth antique wood. Distressed cabinets often fit well with rustic or country home decorating themes. Your best choice may not be distressed kitchen cabinets if your home has a more contemporary look and feel.

Forest Stewardship Council wood
Wood that is either reclaimed (antique) or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified is the best bet for those looking for a green solution for home remodeling. You will get a warm and beautiful look from reclaimed wood. Wood that receives FSC certification is guaranteed to be grown and harvested in a sustainable fashion. You can create an environmentally friendly home by ensuring the products you buy are produced in a eco-friendly way.

The television is a common appliance found in most American houses; many have more than one. However, if you have a TV, you need a place to put it, and generally you have other pieces of an entertainment center to add, as well. What this amounts to is a need for decent storage for your tv and the components of your entertainment center. Television cabinets range from inexpensive models you put together yourself to solid, beautiful displays that are installed as part of your home. To decide which television cabinets are right for you, consider what your needs are and where the television will be.

The Guest Room Television
For televisions that are located in the guest room, one great option to try is television cabinets that hide the television when not in use. Because guests rooms aren’t generally used when you don’t have guests, these cabinets can help you to achieve a certain look, such as that of a rustic bedroom, while hiding the more modern things such as the television. With these cabinets, the television is usually located behind wooden cabinet doors that swing out when you’re ready to use the television. Such cabinets aren’t very useful for the living room, where you want to be able to just kick back and use your remote, but in rooms where the spare television sees seldom use, they’re great.

For The Living Room
Because many entertainment systems have many components, what you should look for in television cabinets for the living room is something with a lot of shelves located close to the place where your television will rest. Some components, like receivers, will be large and need decent-sized shelves, while others, such as your DVD player, may be compact and require less. Be sure to purchase something that can handle components of different sizes.

When choosing among television cabinets, you may be tempted to purchase something that houses your television right in the center, surrounded by shelves on all four sides. However, this particular design can be impractical, since you may someday buy a television that won’t fit in that little nook for your current TV. With the growing popularity of wide screen televisions these days, it’s best to purchase something that stores all your additional components below the television; or, purchase the television stand as a separate unit from the cabinets that house your components. So, whether you’re buying cabinets for the guest room television or for the one in your living room, look at the storage needs and at how often you’ll be using the television before searching out television cabinets that are right for you.