August 1999

Between friends

Stencil Outside the Lines

Stencils aren't just for borders anymore. Simple designs in single colors can be artfully arranged, making them the most eye-catching element in your room.

Stencils To Go

Here's everything you need to duplicate the ideas in our "Stencil Outside the Lines" feature (pages 19 to 32). All stencils are exclusive Better Homes and Gardens designs (not available in stores) and were produced for us by Designer Stencils.

Pressed-Posies Prints

Using nature to decorate your home is in vogue. One beautiful way to achieve an outdoors look is with pressed flowers-- but they can be expensive. Our set of ready-to-hang framed prints (right) replicates the look without the expense. Here we have hung the prints horizontally over a mantel and surrounded them with birdhouses and green plants, but you can choose any method of display you prefer.

Dining room makeovers

Even the smallest dining nook looks larger in the light. Shedding a cocoon of dark colors is an easy, inexpensive way to open up space. Deep hues like navy blue and red absorb light, so replace them with such light-reflective colors as periwinkle blue. Minimize color contrasts for maximum space stretching. And if the budget permits, exchange windows for French doors to truly let the sun shine in.

Planning a Window Seat

Just thinking about a window seat coaxes you to take a break, lie back, and crack open a good book. These cozy seats encourage you to nest in their embrace. And with thoughtful planning, even a brand-new built-in can surround you with down-home comfort.

Berry Special Prints

Memory Lane Kitchen

Overarching Entries

Signal the transition between the vast "out there" and the cozy "in here" with a garden arbor. When guests step under these structures, they'll know they've arrived.

English Cottage Potting Shed

The blooming vines and meandering pathways of English cottage landscapes have always held a place in the heart of garden designer Lynne Habig. So when Lynne moved to her Indianapolis home after living 30 years in rural Indiana, she brought her love of those country gardens with her. Because English cottage landscapes usually include an outbuilding, she decided to build a quaint, little potting shed as a centerpiece.

Would You Believe a Lincoln?

Priced at $31,450, the slim and trim Lincoln LS drives more like a BMW than its hefty Lincoln siblings.

Plan Now for College

Two simple words can spell success for young people with college aspirations: Plan ahead. Admission counselors say parents can give their children head starts by guiding choices of classes as early as junior high. Students should take the most academically rigorous classes their abilities allow.

Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet

You finally taught your elementary child to look both ways-- really look, not just quickly shake her head back and forth-- when crossing the street. You successfully explained the idea of strangers as a concept slightly more complex than "any man with a beard." Then, along comes the Internet: a window on the world that puts imaginable (and unimaginable) resources at your child's fingertips.

Take 'em to the cleaners

Steel Stud Update

GREEN GUIDE TO CARS AND TRUCKS

DO-IT-YOURSELF FIRST-AID KIT

No Space? No Time? No Problem

BH&G Bookmark

Got a Cut? Glue It

Asthma and kids

Asthma afflicts children today at an alarming rate. Here's how to manage-- and even avoid-- this unpredictable disease.

Food Safety: A Mixed Bag

Softball league is at seven, your spouse is late, and you have less than an hour to get home and put dinner on the table. The solution? Hit the store for a roasted chicken, a bag of salad greens, and precut veggies.

PERFECT PAIRS

EDITOR'S CHOICE

TEST GARDEN TIP

LOOKING GOOD

UPDATE

Twilight in the GARDEN

As the sun sets on another summer day, your garden goes through a subtle transformation. Flowers in pigment-rich hues that assert themselves in sunlight-- red, violet, and orange-- disappear into the dusk. Attention shifts to white flowers, such as the hybrid anemone Honorine Jobert (above), which take on a glow to rival the moon. Floral perfumes scent the evening air. Best of all, weeds become invisible, as do the reminders of other unfinished chores. Relax. Set down your trowel, and leave all that for tomorrow.

The new CALIFORNIA STYLE

With more than its share of sunshine, California practically invented breezy indoor-outdoor living. But these days, even Californians are searching for more solid design roots. Outdated sliding doors, faddish furnishings, and poured-concrete patios won't do. The new style yearns for earthy soul: rough-hewn wood, river rock, and a crisp simplicity that stands strong in the golden light. Here's one California ranch home that's striking a rich balance.

Now you see it now you don't

A two-career couple-- with two kids, two dogs, a cat, and a too-small house-- fights a daily battle against Barbie dolls, bills, and unruly collections. Sound familiar? It did to us too. So, Better Homes and Gardens editors decided to go on patrol at the home of one of our own to find solutions to some of our readers' most common clutter problems. At the risk of embarrassing their mothers, senior food editor Nancy Wall Hopkins and her husband, freelance photographer Bill Hopkins, welcomed us in on one of their worst days.

Exterior FACELIFTS

Personalities are shaped by time and circumstance, so that who we were in youth may not be obvious to those who get to know us come middle age. The same goes for houses. Prim, pretty home exteriors can fall into disrepair, requiring great effort to recover their original charm. But even painfully ordinary homes-- those that have never displayed much character at all-- could put on a fresh new face with a little fixing up. Here are five beautiful cases where families have revived period details in their home exteriors or thoughtfully infused a welcoming dose of curb appeal where there was none before.

Go under cover

You're on a mission to save the world from the bad guys. You'll need to be cunning, daring, and a master of disguises. Get started on your undercover projects by saying the password, BH&G Kids, and turning the page.

Health Resources

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