June 1996

between friends

Shelve It

Don't settle for blank walls. Put them to work in a decorative-- and practical-- way. Let these shelving ideas add architectural interest and purpose to your backdrops.

Table Talk

With these affordable tables and our clever tablecloth tricks, you can make an accent table more than a surface to hold objects of beauty or bedside necessities-- the table and its dressings can actually help you pull a scheme together. Think of it as a decorative medallion that creates a focal point and elevates its contents way beyond tabletop height.

Why We Need Fathers

In 1960, 5.8 million American kids lived in single-parent families. I Today, that number has more than tripled, to an astonishing 18 million. Another figure is equally starding: nearly 40 percent of our children don't live in the same home as their bio logical father

BOOST RECYCLING: BUY RECYCLED

For recycling to be successful, consumers must make the process profitable for manufacturers by purchasing products made from recycled materials. Watch for labels that point out goods made with recycled contents, such as this variety of bins, knickknacks, and birds.

Choosing to Reuse

"Our Environment" (see page 92) features six products manufactured primarily from recycled materials. Each was specially selected for the readers of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Projects to Build for Kids

You can duplicate the three great projects shown in the "Just For Kids" feature (see pages 102-108) with our easy-to-use plans. The three professionally drawn blueprints are available only from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Each plan contains one or more photographs of the project, a complete list of materials to get you started, construction diagrams, and clearly written instructions to take you step-by-step through each project.

Skyline playground

IT'S PRACTICALLY a whole theme park, only you don't have to buy tons of tickets or stand in long lines to show your kids a good time. Our build-it-yourself backyard playground is actually six kinds of fun in one: clubhouse, swings, monkey bars, sandbox, merry-go-round, and slide. Whimsical touches spur the kids' penchant for play by mimicking a make-believe city complete with skyscrapers, streetscapes, and clouds.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Looking Good

So many moonbeams

Ponds and Cascades

A gratifying garden's flowers, foliages, and fruits bring us closer to nature in civilized settings. Yet even the best-laid landscape plans can lack luster without the energizing, soul-soothing sparkle and movement of water. As elemental to human experience as warming fire or sweetly scented earth and air, water gives gardens a look of life-affirming bounty and buoyancy. If your yard feels static and status quo, consider installing a pond-- you can set up many designs yourself in less than a day.

Outdoor rooms

Something about summer makes us all want to go outside and play. Feels good, doesn't it? To accompany your inner child out of doors, here is the annual Better Homes and Gardens Outdoor Living issue, a place to hear about garden rooms and retreats, perfect porches, at-home summer-camp style, inviting vacation houses, and a taste of the great outdoors. But, this being summer, this issue also gives you a chance just to sit a spell, put your feet up, and-- ahhh-- relax.

Plans to Build This Garden Arbor

garden retreat

A garden is many things to many people, and this means that sometimes a garden is all things to but one person. This is especially the case with the quiet garden. The private garden. The contemplative garden. This is the garden as sanctuary, as refuge, as retreat. Allan and Ellen Juhl fashioned sheltered nooks in their Seattle, Washington, yard to create just such a garden-- a place to enjoy a cup of coffee, an undisturbed read, even a dip in the hot tub. All this and not a single solitary act performed under the watchful eyes of passersby. So come take a look at the Juhls' garden. And see what their neighbors cannot.

perfect porches

Backyards aren't the only places to entertain alfresco or slip away to savor quiet moments with nature. A comfy front porch makes a great escape, too-- and the perfect spot to chat with friends and neighbors. Here are two easy-living porches, one for a house that's practically new, one for a lake cottage more than a century old. Each fits its house so perfectly that it's hard to imagine one without the other.

Above it all

Hold a seashell to your ear, and you'll be swept away by the same soothing sounds that surround Juliet and William Hunter (right) in their Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, home. With its second-story primary living space offering a crow's nest view of the Atlantic, the Hunters call this an "upside-down house."

Home Plans To Buy

summer camp Style

Leave your preconceptions about log houses at the friendly front door of the Shapiro place. No one here bunks with moose heads or fishing creels. In this Michigan home, log cabin decorating has grown up. Let it counsel you about a style that is simple but sophisticated, sincere but light-hearted, functional but downright fun.

nutrition information

NUTRITION FACTS WITH EVERY RECIPE With each recipe, you'll find the calorie count of each serving and the amount, in grams, of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, fiber, and protein. You can also check the levels of vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron in each serving. These are noted in percentages of the Daily Values.

Turn a New Leaf

your family car

Sales of sport-utility vehicles-- Jeep Cherokees, Chevy Blazers, and the like-- climbed to 1.5 million last year, double the level of 1990. They're popular with families for their all-weather capabilities, commanding view of the road, and go-anywhere image.

creature feature

Bugs are neat. So are frogs, snakes, and other creatures that crawl. Do you know what a bug sounds like? The project on page 251 will help you find out. Another, on page 250, lets you spy on a bug's secret life. Have fun!

the man next door

Most Students determine the success of the school year by their final grades, but not our 10-year-old Judy. She's convinced that a more reliable barometer is how many of her projects end up hanging on my office wall.