April 2002

From the editor

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Breakfast Delights

Live It Up: Redecorate

Unlock the Crock

Our 2002 Home Improvement Contest

Peaceful Porches

Adding a porch can transform the look of your home and provide a serene setting for everything from family meals to afternoon naps.

Embellishing Linens & More

Start at the store. Then go one step further by adding your own artful trims and designs to purchased bedding, pillows, and curtains.

Leafing

Tinkering with metal leaf has intrigued artists, crafters, and decorators for centuries. Now the process of adding silver and gold coatings to everyday objects has been simplified with products that help you show your true metal.

Slim, Trim, and Simple

Just a simple box

Pure lines, inspiring craftsmanship, and the inherent notion of a simpler time make Shaker boxes-- old or new-- beloved collectibles.

Now You See It... Now You Don't

Let's face reality: Glaring as the TV may be, it's a top focal point in the home. But even the most prominent placement can subtly tie in with your architecture. This maple peninsula-style cabinet is the first of two open-and-shut cases.

Oh là là

Call it French. Call it Glam. Even Kim Salmela's not sure what to call her style, which mixes Lucite tables with "Louis the Hotel" gilded chairs and crystal chandeliers with Chinese lanterns. "It's a global eclectic mix," she says. But you won't need a passport to bring home this ultra-feminine look. Follow Kim's advice, and our shopping tips, to chart your own exotic course.

Do-It-Yourself Decorating

Try your hand at adding a touch of silver (from "Leafing," pages 40-46) with our complete, easy-to-use Silver Leafing Kit. Assembled especially for readers of Better Homes and Gardens magazine by Houston Art, Inc., each kit contains: silver leafing material sufficient to cover 10 square feet, 2 ounces of bottled adhesive, 6 ounces of spray adhesive, 10 ounces of spray clear-coat sealer, 2 ounces of bottled sealer, a 1-inch sponge brush, a ½-inch natural bristle brush, and a how-to booklet called Authentic Metal Leafing: A Step-by-Step Guide

Try Color!

Decorating looks up

Ceilings are often the most forgotten element in a room's decor. But don't give your fifth wall the status of a fifth wheel. Use paint, moldings, and wallpaper borders to dress up ceilings in style.

Enamelware

Cooks in the 18th and 19th centuries were frustrated by their cookware options: Iron vessels were difficult to clean and rusted easily, and porcelain could not withstand high temperatures. Fortunately, someone thought to try enameling, a centuries-old technique that fuses a colorful glasslike coating to metal, to make iron and lighter sheet-metal vessels durable and attractive. Today, vintage "enamelware" brings charm to shelves in kitchens and baths.

Lofty Ambitions

We love the energy and the diversity [of the city] we're 1960s people, says Nita Fronk. Two and a half years ago, she and husband Mike sold their house in the suburbs of Minneapolis to move downtown. They bought a two-level unit in a converted woolen mill and turned it into a comfortable home that bucks the cold, austere stereotypes of industrial lofts.

Hiding Out Back

A screened-in sanctuary welcomes Karen and Don Drake into the woods just footsteps from the back door of their Atlanta residence. The idea for building the 23½x19½-foot structure started as a simple desire for an outdoor fire pit. However, the family's wish list grew with the addition of other amenities. "Mosquito-free" leaped to the list's top, followed by "a place to have a sit-down dinner and a big fireplace." Karen says, "It was a classic case of one thing leads to another."

Chef's Selection

Whether they have guests or not, cooking at the Von Kaenels' in St. Louis is a grand performance. Margaret (the baker) and Joe (the cook) enjoy sharing the limelight in their remodeled dual-chef kitchen. To claim a 20xl6-foot space, die couple removed a partition enclosing a desk area adjacent to the kitchen. Then they took out a wall, a closet, and a secondary staircase located to the right of the new island. A curvaceous granite counter now defines the chefs' stage and provides front-row seating for family and friends to join in on the action.

Fit to be tied

Breakfast Rooms

A breakfast room offers more than a place to rush through the first meal of the day. It's where we can focus and prepare ourselves for the day, or linger over coffee and enjoy the view. When a breakfast room is built with charm and comfort, it often becomes a space where everyone wants to be-- long after the dishes are cleared. Here's how three families created just such inspiring places.

Painting Ceilings

Home contest our 2002 improvement

There's no better time to give your home a fresh new look. Whether you're redecorating a bedroom or starting a major remodeling job, your home improvement project may win a top award. Plus, your home could be featured in Better Homes and Gardens® magazine.

Kitchens on the Side

1 A secondary kitchen takes a load off a home's main kitchen and saves lots of steps at munch time. This one-- squeezed into a triangular space in Nancy and Brian Ament's Canhy, Oregon, "bonus" room-- provides a place where the family can pop popcorn or blend fruity drinks using ingredients pulled from the compact refrigerator/freezer. Nancy and Brian's side kitchen is located so that snack-fixers and stool-perchers can keep an eye on the television across the room.

Handling Kids' Homework

Homework. Two positive-sounding syllables that often trigger anxiety and frustration for school-age children. Still, it's a task that, if done regularly and attentively, can pay multiple dividends for students.

Let kids have their Say

It was every parent's nightmare. Jim, a 40-year-old bank facilities manager, got a phone call one Friday evening. His 17-year-old daughter, Martha (their names have been changed to protect their privacy), had been out bowling with friends before a high school dance. She said she'd accepted a soft drink from a boy that she'd never met, but that one of her friends knew. "It tasted kind of funny," she said.

Most Likely to Succeed in Snow

Finding the Way Back Home

How an excursion into a pioneer past taught three families some lessons about our modern world.-- Part One of a Three-Part Series

Living Wreaths

For Deb Clark, living wreaths are an attractive way to showcase her collection of succulent plants. Succulents are tough, drought-tolerant plants with thick, waxy leaves-- "survivors that need no babying," as Deb puts it. Because her wreaths are composed of living plants, they change with the seasons as the plants grow and, in some cases, bloom. In the mild climate of Berkeley, California, where Deb lives, she leaves her wreaths outdoors year-round. In colder climates, succulent wreaths must be brought indoors to a sunny room for the winter.

Cottage casual

Carefree crab apples

There are no underwhelming crab apple trees. The simple fact of the matter is that any crab apple in bloom is a beautiful thing, usually breathtakingly so. Where things get dicey with crabs is later on in the season, say July, when many older varieties go through some rather wretched transformations, often losing all their leaves. We're not talking about a glorious fall here-- this is a premature defoliation, a pile o' diseased mess. But, thankfully, a new generation of crab apples (like this Prairifire, above) has been developed in the last couple of decades that eliminates just about all this unsightly muss and fuss. Plant a crab from this list (call them the Great Eight) and you and your landscape can enjoy four seasons of crab apple wonder-- with none of the crab apple woe.

Beds & borders

Designing a garden is not just a matter of figuring out what to plant. First you have to determine why you are planting. A Washington state designer has a few musings, a bit of philosophy, and a whole wheelbarrow full of advice.

Rooms that soothe

Susanne Caliendo grew up at her mother's side, helping Mom create a welcoming, comfortable family home. Now Susanne's the mom, and putting together a beautiful home-- a stage for her family's life-- is her ever-constant expression of love, comfort, and joy.

Sunny surprises

These may look like conventional additions from the outside. But on the inside they wow you with light-- proving that big windows aren't needed for big sun.

Just what is it?

Nutrition Information

With each recipe, we give important nutrition information. The calorie count of each serving and the amount, in grams, of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein will help you keep tabs on what you eat.

Women and Smoking

The number of lung cancer cases among women has jumped more than 600 percent since 1950. And behind every statistic is a story of love, loss, and remembering.

Humor helps

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

The Art of Forgiveness

Let go of your anger. Move on. Your heart may be healthier, and certainly less heavy.

Rainy day picnic

April showers can wash away your picnic plans. On dreary days, why not bring the outside in? Our rainy-day recipes and crafts will make your living room feel like a park!

Birding: A Breathtaking Experience

A bird is just a bird... until viewed through a good pair of binoculars. Then even the bird's simplest acts become a thing of beauty. Watch its little tongue attack a seed and then wipe its beak clean of the tiny specks. Somewhere in that moment, a lifelong bird-watcher is born.

The Shopper's Mart

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

The family next door