DIY Life

You love your new apartment. There's just one problem: Those bare walls! They're blank because your landlord made you sign on the dotted line, promising no drilling and no nail holes.

Relax. With a little creativity you can decorate your apartment's walls and make your new home look fabulous -- without breaking the terms of your lease.

Step One: The Tablescape

Identify the heaviest and/or largest pieces in your collection of wall decor. I'm talking framed posters, paintings and large framed photographs. Now position each one atop a piece of furniture and accent with smaller items. You are creating what interior decorators term tablescapes. Lucky you: tablescapes are totally fashionable right now.

Though I love a good wine, I'm not a wine snob. Part of the fun of choosing a wine at the store is looking at all the whimsical labels. Sure, a bottle's design doesn't tell you much about what's going on under the cork but if the wine turns out to be not-so-great, at least you have a nice label to look at, right?

I like to keep the labels from some wine bottles that are of particular amusement or sentimental value to me. Here are a couple of tricks I use to get the sticky little buggers off with out wrecking the paper or scraping it off with my fingernail.

When we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago, most of our stuff has stayed in boxes, packed away in our respective closets. One of the items still packed is my coaster set. Since the coasters happen to be in a bottom box, that is where they will stay, at least until we move into a bigger home.

I am getting tired of water rings on my furniture, so I am happy to find instructions on how to make decoupage coffee mug coasters. Instructables user morCadillac used four cork coasters, a patterned table napkin, a pair of scissors, white paint, and decoupage adhesive to create the coasters. A little patience is required, but you'll have some awesome looking coasters when all is said and done.

Check out your local thrift stores first for the cork coasters and napkins. My local thrift stores carry them for 25 cents each. At that rate you can make a bunch to give as gifts. If you need other ideas for cool coasters, check out these scrabble tile coasters, and these magazine coasters.

Got no tools? Need somewhere to hang your photos, notes, calendar, etc.? Not allowed or unwilling to put holes in your wall with push pins? Don't fret because I've got a fast, slick way to make your own magnetic, wall-mounted bulletin board using no tools!

Ingredients:

- Thin sheet steel purchased from the local home center's duct work aisle (for larger pieces) or roofing aisle (Ask for tin shingles- they are not actually tin nor are they shingles, but then a monkey wrench has nothing to do with fixing simians either).

- Spray adhesive- Choose wisely here. 3M makes 3 commonly stocked strengths 45, 77, and 90. 45 is the lightest strength and the best chance of being able to be pulled off the wall with little to no damage. Use 90 and removal will require a wrecking ball.

-Spray paint- Get a primer for metal and a top coat. I recommend using product labeled as "appliance" enamel. This stuff can take a beating without showing it, but the colors are limited. Choose which ever color you need/ want, but make sure it is a semi gloss or hi gloss as the finish on these is more durable than matte finishes.

- Molding- This is an optional extra, but can really put a polish to the project.

Is there a role-playing game geek in your life? Surely they are familiar with the mighty 12-sided die. I bet they'd like a similar 12-sided desk calendar that can be built from a paper print-out in a few minutes. And if you live in a brain-space containing neither dungeons nor dragons, you may still be relieved to find a free desk calendar for 2008.

Although this project has been around for a while, it's always good to remind people about it sometime around the New Year, as desirable calendars begin to become scarce in retail outlets. The site allows you to create a calendar for any year, choose one of a long list of languages (some eccentric: I chose Latin), decide whether the calendar's week should start on Sunday or Monday, and select a format for downloading and printing.

It's not difficult, but if you've never done this kind of paper-craft before, you might appreciate a nudge in the right direction. We have some basic tool and assembly suggestions for you after the break!

The rust-colored circa 1981 tile in the half bath is finally removed, all of your hard work chipping, yanking and pulling finally showing results. Now for the easy part -- laying your new tile, right?

Wrong. Just when you thought the hard part was over. You can't put down new tile when all that old adhesive is still clinging for dear life to the subfloor. It will be an uneven mess, and your new grout will not stand the test of time.

Well, fine. It can't be that hard to remove the adhesive. Just a quick scrape and the subfloor will be as good as new.

Wrong again. When something has been stuck to plywood for twenty-five years, it is going to be a challenge to get off. Sure, you could go to your local hardware store and grab a can of the super-smelly toxic goo that eats away at the adhesive, making a big gummy mess to be scraped away. And after your brain cells recover, you may even be able to admire your work.

Why not try your hair dryer instead? Really! The heat from the hair dryer helps to release the adhesive, making it much easier to scrape away from the subfloor. The result will be the smooth, even surface you want for laying the mortar or adhesive for the stylin' new tile you have picked out.

Getting started on making a scrapbook is probably the most difficult part of the project. You may have all the photos, but you probably are not sure what to do with them, right? You may have the desire to be a scrapbooker but entering the scrapbook aisle at the craft store or walking into a scrapbooking specialty store can make you feel lost and unsure of where to start or how to find basic items you need to begin.

Considering that there are thousands of ideas out there, knowing what you want to accomplish or even how to organize, design your layout, create and actually finish the scrapbook can be a difficult task. Spend some time just thinking about what you might want your scrapbook and its pages to look like.

Did you ever buy a used car from someone and then wonder how to get that, "My kid is an honor student..." bumper sticker off the rear bumper? I have found that a hair dryer will assist in removing almost any sticker from any surface. The trick is to heat the area slowly and thoroughly before attempting removal and without over heating the material you are removing the sticker from.

Start out by warming the entire area of the sticker and warm a little of the surrounding area also. Once the sticker is warm to the touch, then beginning at one corner, carefully focus the heat on that area while attempting to peel back the corner of the sticker. Work slowly by keeping light tension on the sticker while heating the area in front of where you are pulling. What you are doing is softening the adhesive which holds the sticker in place. The newer the sticker is, the better the process works but I have successfully removed very old stickers and I have even successfully removed mailing labels from old magazines using this method.

If any adhesive remains after your sticker is removed, there's a product called Goo Gone which works nicely on hard, colorfast surfaces. If you are unsure about how your newly sticker free surface will react to a cleaning agent, you may want to consider alternatives such as good hot water or even a little clean dish water. Alternatively, you may simply continue to heat the cleared area and remove as much adhesive as possible by blotting very lightly with a lint free cloth.