New York was buzzing last week with Design Week and ICFF taking place, but there were also a few other cool events happening around the city. Lowe’s was in town kicking off their Designer Challenge, which asked three designers to create an 11′ x 11′ space using elements from the retailer’s 2012 Outdoor Spring Collection.
The International Contemporary Furniture Fair is filled with amazing designs for the modern home, and not to be forgotten are the kids who also deserve beautifully designed furniture.
There were at least a few pieces on display at ICFF that speak to a child’s sense of wonder and playfulness without being juvenile.
Technology is permeating our domestic lives and “smart homes” are at the apex of this movement. Communications giant AT&T is launching Digital life, a connected home program in two parts. The first is a suite of web-enabled home products; the second is an intuitive platform for monitoring and managing those products—from any internet connection, be it laptop, mobile phone, or tablet computer.
Digital Life is being rolled out on a trial basis in Atlanta and Dallas. We assume that once they’ve worked out the kinks, the program will be made available nationwide.
Brushless motor technology has been around for a while, but only within the last couple years have power tool manufacturers actually incorporated brushless technology into cordless power tools.
Home sales are still recovering, but business is brisk when it comes to homeowners upgrading their outdoor spaces. Landscapes and lawns will always require maintenance, but more people are investing bigger dollars in adding outdoor kitchens, fire pits and seating areas.
Pennington Seed has been cultivating and improving lawn seed for more than 60 years, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit the company’s headquarters and lab in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
At one time or another most of us have considered remodeling the kitchen. It’s the one room in the house that sees the most use and abuse, the one that demands both efficiency and good looks. Because kitchens are used on a daily basis, however, finding the opportunity to remodel them can be hard. And unlike bathrooms, most homes don’t have a second kitchen to enlist, so when the countertops are ripped up or the cabinets pulled down—you’re stuck.
A new product from Rust-Oleum could solve the time and budget issue for at least one of your kitchen remodeling desires: countertop re-surfacing. The company’s new Countertop Transformations system is a do-it-yourself solution formulated to turn worn and old laminate kitchen countertops into durable, like-new surfaces. Rust-Oleum invited me to their launch event to “test drive” the new product and—over the course of a couple hours—I was able to transform a sample countertop in just five easy steps:
Wagner Double-Duty Paint Spray Gun from Northerntool.com
Are you tired of using a brush and messing with a tray whenever you paint? Consider investing in a paint spray gun. Some of the newer models are a great value and can save you time on your next paint job. But it does take a little practice to learn how to use these tools properly.
A spray gun works great for coating uneven surfaces like door frames and window shutters, but because properly cleaning one takes a considerable amount of time and effort, you might want to consider using a sprayer exclusively for bigger jobs.
Photo: Flickr
Those of us lucky enough to have a garage space in our home tend to take it for granted. This private and secure parking space can quickly become a ‘catch-all’ for myriad tools, products, and boxes of clothing—anything we just want out of sight. The problem is these items can also disappear from our mental inventory of possessions and, before you know it, become a garage full of stuff that you never use—or worse—forgot you ever had.
One of the problems with all this accumulated clutter is that the legit items that you need in your life, such as your tools or space for long-term storage, tend to get squeezed out or lost amid the mess. Here are some tips to help organize your garage to retain your sanity before you lose all hope.
I traveled to Milwaukee, WI, a couple weeks ago to visit the headquarters of the Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation and check out their latest product lineup, including some awesome new “top secret” introductions.
MILWAUKEE®, founded in 1924, definitely caters to the professional user–electricians, plumbers and contractors–but their cordless lineup of power tools continues to grow. They showed us some new tools that any homeowner-DIYer would covet, many of them “coming soon” to a Home Depot near you.
The M12 cordless platform is one of the fastest growing segments for the company and this year they will introduce a compact jigsaw (pictured above)—one of the first of its kind. Our on-site testing of the tool showed it to perform extremely well. We were able to cut puzzle pieces out of particleboard with ease.
