June 1999

Between friends

Fabric Headboards

With just one extra sheet, you can wake up a weary headboard or make a brand-new one. Creating a custom bed is doable with our low-sew and no-sew techniques.

Woven Furniture

You don't need a front porch to give your home a breezy, laid-back feeling. Once used primarily outdoors, wicker-- which includes rattan and other woven furniture-- has moved inside. Here's what you need to know before you buy.

Stitch an Heirloom

Chimes of Summer

Fences, gates & arbors

Imaginative garden structures can provide distinct transitions, define lot lines, or bring romantic touches to an otherwise uninteresting yard. Here's a sample of our favorites that make the outdoors great.

Home tweet home

Welcome to a flock of tweet retreats, designed to delight people as well as our feathered friends. Each weaves whimsy into its setting-- and shelters little neighbors you can watch and listen to all summer long.

Making Room Outdoors

A room with a view. When Sheri and John Wahgren landscaped their new home in Oregon, they created a hill where they could look down on the Tualatin River just below the house. They wanted to put a gazebo on their hill, but didn't like any of the stock plans they saw.

Proving its mettle

A painted finish that resembles hammered metal turns an ordinary door and two sawhorses into a stylish and inexpensive dining table. It's a fashion-forward table that couldn't be more effortless to make.

First Roses of Summer

Sittin' by the ... bay

Any room lucky enough to boast a bay window deserves a window dressing that makes the most of this architectural asset. The winning formula: Soften the frame and let in the light.

Creating a Cookout Corner

Today, backyard grilling involves much more than broiling burgers over the fire. Entire meals-- from tuna steak to tomatoes-- are cooked on the grill. But who wants to run spices and utensils back and forth to the house, not to mention balancing a large platter on a lawn chair or a small barbecue shelf?

Home Landscaping--Big and Small

Home Landscaping: Plants, Projects, and Ideas for Your Yard is a 288-page hardcover tide from the editors of Better Homes and Gardens Books. It is designed to help you transform your yard into a beautiful landscape that reflects your personal style, performs a variety of functions, and adds value to your property (a bonus, should you sell). This lavishly illustrated book takes you on an idea tour of the front, back, and side yards.

Facelift for a 1960s Ranch

No-Stress Contracting

Remodeling a home ranks right up there among life's most stressful events. But it shouldn't have to. With advance planning, you can help direct your project along a painless course. Sure, it's wise to read up on the best way to hire a contractor and deal with the paperwork, but don't forget about commonsense matters either.

Small-Haul Moves Made Easy

Whether you're hauling an antique armoire a couple of blocks or a household of furnishings across town, moving takes more than a pickup truck and some muscle. Even a short haul requires smart loading and transporting strategies. How do the pros handle such moves?

Online Improvements

Sheer Magnetism

Tabletop Florals

Putting the Cook Center Stage

Entertainers don't perform in the wings-- they take center stage. The same concept directed the design of this Denver, Colorado, kitchen. A granite-lined niche for a professional range is the center of attention.

Down to size

Carving out small seating areas within a large family room makes the most of your casual living space.

Plug-and-Play Home Automation

Home automation systems aren't just for gadget geeks. Today's setups are easier to use than ever.

What's New in Garage Doors

The typical garage door wouldn't pick up many votes in a beauty contest. But newer door styles are putting on quite a show, and the ones drawing the most attention are those with a distinctive architectural style.

Backyard Projects You Can Build

You can build several of the projects shown in this issue with our Better Homes and Gardens Project Plans. These professionally drawn woodworker's blueprints are available only from the magazine and are not sold in retail stores.

Technology Skills

Students need to know where and how to get information, and how to think about that information. Today, that means parents need to make sure their children have access to the Internet.

Right Responses to Wrong Behaviors

As your child moves beyond cooing and begins to communicate with words, you may be tempted to think life will become a little easier. After all, your child can now tell you what he needs, express her concerns, and, best of all, tell you how much he loves you and appreciates your care.

Ford's movable feat: Power pedals

Vertically challenged drivers will love the power-adjustable brake and accelerator pedals on Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators, two full-size sport utility vehicles. But even people endowed with long legs soon discover that being able to move the pedals with the touch of a button makes it easier to find a comfortable position behind the wheel of these hot-selling big rigs. The pedals move in tandem, enabling short drivers to sit farther from the steering wheel-- thus, farther from the air bag, which is less dangerous when it deploys with you sitting at least 10 inches away.

The Phantom Knows

Of Sprouting Concern

Alfalfa sprouts have a decades-old reputation as a health food. But all is not perfect in the world of sprouts. Alfalfa sprouts are now being associated with something far from healthy-- foodborne illness.

Compare and Contrast

Tiny Grass on the Cutting Edge

A Shade Plant in So Many Shades

No More Staid Shade; Use Coleus for Color

More Plants Please

Support your local tomatoes

Tomatoes want to please a bit too much for their own good. The plants bear so many fruits that even the sturdiest stems topple from the weight. What's the best way to keep the harvest off the ground? Make a tomato cage and anchor it well. Here's how.

One small garden, 10 Big ideas

Like most yards in postcard-perfect Carmel, California, this oak-shaded postage stamp was tiny-- really tiny. But one thing Kathy and Peter Henney's little garden did have room for was improvement. And when the couple finished placing the last flower and brick, their landscape was really something to write home about.

Porch escapes

Porches provide so much more than a place to wipe your feet. They welcome neighbors over for a chat or offer a private spot for unwinding at the end of the day. With porches as pretty and relaxed as these, the possibilities are as endless as summer itself.

Summer style

As their getaway cottage shaped up, Kay and Jack McKallagat and their two daughters made a family pact: Easy does it on the decorating. Bright white backdrops, breezy fabrics, and "Nana's attic" furnishings make their rooms as relaxing as a day at the beach. "It's casualness. It's ease. It's like wearing flip-flops," says Kay. Come inside to see how a light design touch and a comfort-first vision can translate into a forever-summer house for you.

Backyard living

Summer is the time to trade in many of the comforts you enjoy the rest of the year. Turn off the hot oven and fire up the grill. Exchange that steamy cup of tea for a fresh, fruity drink. And enjoy a favorite read by the light of the lingering sun-- instead of the lamp. All the while, drink in the season's beauty: its blossoms, its lightning bugs, its breezes. There's no better place to experience this delight than on a backyard deck, patio, or sunroom.

Nutrition Information

SummerWear

When it's hot, it's time to get cool. We've got the projects that will help you chill out, from water hats, sunglasses, and fans to stylish beach bags, bracelets, and bug-eyed laces.

The Shopper's Mart

Discover the ease and pleasure of shopping by mail. Order with comfort and convenience from your own home.

The man next door