How To Keep Your Upholstery Looking Good

By Becky Dietrich - Houzz Contributor

You wouldn't expect your car to maintain itself. Show your sofa and chairs the same courtesy with this 3-part strategy

 

“What do you mean I have to maintain my new sofa? I spent all this money on the thing and now it wants more of my time and attention?!”

I used to hear this all the time when I sold furniture for a living. As soon as I started to tell my clients how to care for their new upholstery, the rivers of resentment would flow. Let me share with you what I told them about why simple maintenance is not only necessary but worth the effort.

 

LORRAINE G VALE, Allied ASID

There’s your new sofa or chair reigning gloriously in your living room: the perfect shape, style and size, resplendent in the fabric that you agonized over for weeks. And yet all too often, a year later it looks as though it’s been through a bad episode of Survivor. The cushions are lumpy, the fabric is wrinkled and dingy, and everything looks crooked and unkempt.

What happened? Assuming you started with a quality piece, you didn’t remember to fluff, flip and fuss!

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

Fluff. Because cushions are not made of concrete, but of soft materials, they must be regularly fluffed to maintain their shape and comfort. By fluffed, I mean punched, prodded, poked and pushed around to refresh the shape and loft of the cushions … just like you do with your bed pillows when they flatten out.

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

Actually, fluffing can be therapeutic. When life gets frustrating, punching my cushions (rather than something less appropriate) has a positive effect, and I kill two birds with one stone!

Firmer cushions generally take less fluffing, and squishy ones filled with down take more, but any cushion that gets sat on should be fluffed at least every few days. I generally fluff mine every night just before I go to bed to keep them looking and feeling great. And it’s no big deal; it takes about two minutes.

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

Flip. About every two weeks, you should flip your upholstery cushions. This will ensure that they wear evenly and will help to maintain their shape. Both the seat and back cushions need this regular change to perform their best. 

 

bnl-interiordesign.com

If your chair or sofa has an attached back cushion, this will be a bit more difficult but can still be accomplished. Attached back cushions usually have a zipper opening at the bottom, and the cushion innards can be pulled out, turned over, and reinserted.

Given my druthers, I always choose detached back cushions. They’re not only easier to maintain, but since they have two sides, they last twice as long … providing I flip them regularly.

 

HALIFAX FINE FURNISHINGS

On a three-cushion sofa, people generally avoid the center cushion like the plague. Consequently, that cushion will get the least wear. If your sofa has T-cushions (meaning they wraps around the front of each arm, as in this example), you can’t move the center cushion to the end — you can only flip it over.

 

Room & Board

But if your sofa has cushions that are all the same size and shape, the center one can be regularly rotated to the ends, greatly extending your cushion life.

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

Fuss. I use this word for the sake of alliteration, but by fuss I mean regular vacuuming. It’s easy to see dust on a shiny tabletop, and you’re quickly motivated to get out the feather duster. But even though you usually can’t see it, the same amount of dust has settled on your upholstery.

In this case, “Out of sight, out of mind” results in a reduction of the fabric’s life. As we sit on a dusty cushion, the dust gets down into the fibers and acts like sandpaper, causing the material to wear much more quickly.

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

So every time you dust your wooden furniture, remember to be just as kind to your upholstery. Get out the vacuum and give the fabric a quick once-over. I find a little handheld vacuum to be very effective and convenient.

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

When I was a little kid, I would look at these “under penalty of law” tags and think the police would come haul me off if I dared remove them. Lots of other people must have thought the same thing, because when I would go to check out a client’s new sofa, there was often — in front of God and everybody — the ugly tag hanging from the upholstery.

Please do remove this tag, but do not throw it away. It contains a fount of valuable information about your new upholstery, like the body and cushion content, style and fabric numbers, and delivery date. Staple it to your invoice or warranty and file it safely away. Doing this will practically guarantee you will never need it.

 

Becky Dietrich, Interior Designer

Do not remove the manufacturer’s tag that is adhered to the deck of your furniture. It provides the provenance of your piece. Even if you eventually reupholster it, make sure the tag is reattached.

Direct sunlight is the bitter enemy of your new upholstery fabric. Ultraviolet rays are just as destructive to your piece as small children with permanent markers.

Honestly, would you ever expect your shiny new car to maintain itself? Your new upholstery is just as needy.

10 Ways to Fight Pollen at Home

Keep sneezing and stuffiness to a minimum by making your house as pollen free as possible

 By Becky Harris - Houzz Contributor

Today as I noticed the soft pink blossoms of a cherry tree give way to soft new leaves, I wondered when my car would transform from yellowish-green back to its natural dark blue. I wondered when I’d be able to put my contact lenses back in, and when that stuffy feeling would leave my sinuses. I checked the pollen count — 2,722 for my hometown of Atlanta, which is high. In April, pollen season goes into full effect in the South and heads north soon after. While it’s tempting to enjoy open windows and fresh air this time of year, it’s best to keep the yellow stuff out. Here are some simple tips to keep your house a pollen-free zone. 

 

Johnsen Landscapes & Pools

Farrell Design Assoc Inc,

1. Keep the car in the garage. If you don’t have a garage, give it a quick rinse whenever you can. Every time you touch the car, shut the door or open the window, you’ll be spreading that pollen around in the car. Keep the windows shut. I stash sanitary wipes in my car so that after I touch a pollen-covered handle or window, I won’t spread it to my face.

 

Dehn Bloom Design

2. Wipe your feet on the mat, then take off your shoes and other outerwear as soon as you enter the house. Leave them there. Have a designated spot in the entry to leave shoes out. 

 

Divine Custom Homes

3. Decontaminate — think Silkwood. If you’ve been doing yard work or you walked by one of those incredibly annoying leaf blowers making clouds of pollen and dirt while blowing one leaf from one part of the yard to the other (can someone please ban leaf blowers from planet Earth for me? Thanks in advance), you’ll need to get the pollen off your body and your clothes. Otherwise you’ll spread pollen all over the house. Do not sit down; you need to strip. Go to the laundry room and put what you can right into the washer or hamper.

 

k YODER design, LLC

4. Wash that green right out of your hair. Your hair is a pollen magnet. If you don’t wash it out before bed, you’ll have pollen-covered pillows. This is not good. Wash your hair after your last trip outside before bed. If you want to prevent all of this hair washing, wear a hat, turban (think Little Edie) or bandana (don’t think Brett Michaels) when you’re outside and remove it as soon as you enter the house.

 

Kara Weik

5. Prevent your indoor-outdoor pets from bringing in the pollen. Give them a good brushing and wipe their paws off before they track it through the house. Immediately wash the brush and vacuum the area if you do it inside.

 

Nicholson Builders

6. Empty the vacuum outdoors. If you have a bagless vacuum like this Dyson, you should not empty it inside the house. Take it outside to dump its contents into a bag that will go straight into your rubbish barrel. 

 

FGY Architects

7. Keep the windows and doors closed. I know, this is the time of year when I’m really excited to let the fresh air in, but unfortunately, this lets the pollen in. Keep windows shut and turn on the A/C if need be. Be sure to change your HVAC filters; HEPA filters can help trap more pollen. Note: HEPA filters should be changed monthly. You and your sinuses will find the extra expense well worth it. 

 

Rizzoli New York

8. Be vigilant about dusting. Be vigilant about dusting everything twice as often as you usually would, and don’t ignore those hard-to-reach places like the ceiling fan blades. Buying an extender for your duster is well worth the cost.

 

The Anderson Studio of Architecture & Design

9. Keep porches clean or put off using them a lot until the season is over. I go through a lot of Swiffer dusters during the spring, because in spite of the pollen, I love to enjoy my screened-in porch. I also keep an old bedsheet over my outdoor sectional cushions and take it off when I have guests over. Once the green stuff is gone for the season, I take the cushions to be professionally cleaned (mine didn’t come with slipcovers). Then I have the whole porch power washed to get that pollen out of the screens, posts and flooring.

 

Wallace Landscape Associates

 

 

10. Don’t let the pollen get you down; it’s one of the most beautiful times of the year. The pollen does have a nice trade-off; sealed up in my yellowish-green car today, I couldn’t help but smile at the white dogwood blooms hovering over the street, with the stunning redbud trees providing a brilliant raspberry-pink contrast. Then I sneezed.

Nature’s Color Wisdom: Lessons on Red From the Great Outdoors

Dab some of Mother Nature’s rouge around the home for an eye-opening look

By Laura Gaskill - Houzz Contributor 

From blazing fires and sunsets to breathtaking rocks, fall foliage and flowers, red is the color of drama. Decorating with red, when done right, can bring a room to life like nothing else. Let’s have a look at this powerful hue through the lens of nature.

Richard Kramer

Red in Nature

Red in the natural world inspires awe. It’s dramatic red rock formations in the desert, the flash of a cardinal’s wing, the blaze of maple trees in the fall. Red is used to attract, as in juicy strawberries and vibrant red tulips — but also to warn, as in poisonous mushrooms and hot chili peppers. Thinking about this dual nature of red, it makes sense that people tend to either love it or hate it in their homes. Red can be cheerful and positive, like plump apples and rosy cheeks, or full of daring, like a red sunrise or the heart of a bonfire.

The particular red of fall leaves tends to be on the warm side, with a bit of orange. The contrast of red leaves against a sky — either brilliant blue or steely, overcast gray, makes the leaves even more vivid by comparison. Natural companion colors are yellow, orange and green; and later in the season, brown. Real red apples (not supermarket Red Delicious) that ripen in the early fall are also on the warm side, with hints of pink and green.

 

Natural Balance Home Builders

Using fall red in the home: A clear, warmish red, the color of sugar maple leaves, is a conversation-inducing color ideally suited to a sitting room or dining room.

 

Exteriorscapes llc

Red with blues and grays. One of the most striking mates for red in nature is blue. Consider red blooms beside a silvery gray succulent, scarlet leaves against a slate sky or a fiery sunset over an inky sea.

 

Rachel Reider Interiors

Using red and blue at home: Red and blue together can be quite dramatic, as in the living space shown here. Dark gray acts as a foil for vibrant blue and flashes of red — this is a look not for the color-shy!

 

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

In the dining room shown here, vivid red and blue are tempered by large swaths of white and plenty of natural wood, making for a dramatic yet livable space. Also note that the shade of the blue chairs is closer to turquoise, which reads as a cheerier color (the color of summer skies) than inky blue (the hue of a frothy sea).

 

Joel Snayd

Using red and gray at home: Red and gray are quite easy to work with, especially when the gray is a natural material (like slate tiles) and the red is a glossy accent, like the Tolix stools shown here. Think of the red as a fiery flash — the burst of a bonfire on a beach.

 

The New York Botanical Garden

Red and yellow in nature. Deeper reds and yellows appear together in fall, but if an autumnal look is not your cup of tea, you may still like red and yellow together in another way. Think of a fresh, bright summer garden, abundant with blooming roses — the reds are pure and sparkling; the yellows are creamy.

 

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

Using red and yellow at home: Cream and buttercup make inviting mates to red in this cheerful living room scheme. Plenty of crisp, spotless white keeps the red and yellow feeling current.

 

Bob Greenspan Photography

Red on exteriors. Red has a long history as an exterior color. Think of red barns, red doors and red temples. A bright, clear red trim can look splendid against weathered wood siding or shingles, or make a bold statement on a white house. To go with red as an allover exterior color, try a slightly dulled, warm cranberry; it tends to be more pleasing to the eye than a too-bright red.

 

Thomas Woolworth Photography

‘Red Sky in the Morning 03’ Artwork

12 Deadly Decorating Sins

By Kurt Cyr - Houzz Contributor

Are your room designs suffering from a few old habits? It may be time to change your ways

 

During my 25 years as a designer, I have compiled a list of habits I’ve observed in the decorating and design world. Habits that I believe need to be broken. Many of these may have begun as good intentions — but we all know where that path leads!

I’ve assembled 12 of those habits here. I’ve struggled with each and every one of them personally and feel I have come out on the other side a better designer for it. Although each lesson is valuable, in the hierarchy of habits to be broken, there is none more important than No. 12. 

 

Hugh Jefferson Randolph Architects

1. Foyer neglect. Mama always said you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And she was right. Don’t let your entry hall fall prey to lack of attention.

How to break this habit? Most of us with attached garages never use our foyers — and it shows. So use it. Showcase a favorite object that has a story behind it. This will immediately set a personal tone in your home.

 

KATE JOHNS AIA

2. Improper lighting. Lighting in a home is often too dim or too bright. It’s best to define the task at hand and light accordingly.

How to break this habit? Vary the levels and sources of lighting in a room, and by all means install dimmers. In this multiuse dining room, pendant lights are focused on the table. Whether highlighting food or books, the proper lighting makes this room a place you want to be in.

 

A Good Chick To Know

3. Built-in refrigerators. Does everyone need to play a professional chef at home? Walls of built-in refrigerators are better suited to the corporate world or an industrial kitchen.

Why break this habit? If it’s coziness you are looking for, a less sleek kitchen with free-standing appliances will give you that homey charm.

 

Tim Barber LTD Architecture & Interior Design

4. A matchy-matchy look. There is something slightly unnerving when everything matches. Perhaps it’s the lack of soul or just the lack of confidence shown.

Why break this habit? There is a charming insouciance when the carpet doesn’t match the drapes — or, in this case, when the slipcovers don’t match the wallpaper. This dining room exudes a casual, welcoming air.

 

Lucy Interior Design

5. All-white woodwork. Where is it written that all woodwork must be painted white?

Why break this habit? Because a bit of color is a good thing. It is surprising and unexpected. Frankly, it just adds interest and personality. Just notice how fantastic this tomato-red cabinet looks.

 

Mitch Wise Design,Inc.

6. Everything against a wall. It’s natural to want to shove all the furniture against the walls. Fight that urge.

Why break this habit? Floating pieces (placing them away from the walls) creates a more interesting room composition and places people closer together, which helps foster conversation. It also helps make a large room more intimate.

 

Enclosures Architects

7. The plague of beige. Since the overstuffed 1980s, beige has ruled supreme. Even the edgiest souls didn’t venture far from ecru and oatmeal.

Why break this habit? When was the last time you smiled when you saw beige? Life is too short to swaddle oneself in burlap. Color makes us happy. Decorate your way to happiness.

 

Schwartz and Architecture

8. Hoarding. Know your limits. Collecting can easily cross over into hoarding. Don’t let that happen to you.

How to break this habit? Set aside a space where your collection can be properly displayed and enjoyed, like the one shown here. Collect until the space is comfortably filled. Then stop or maintain a zero-growth collection policy: one item in, one item out.

 

Christopher Burns Interiors

9. A single-use dining room. Don’t get me wrong; I love dining rooms. But they need to work harder than just hosting Sunday dinners.

How to break this habit? Choose a complementary auxiliary use, such as a library. I consider dining with books to be the ultimate luxury. Whether talk turns to travel or philosophy, reference materials will be close at hand.

 

Scott Sanders LLC

10. Built-in wet bars. Wet bars with miles of mirror and a multitude of bottles have their place. It’s called Las Vegas.

Why break this habit? Hosting a cocktail party is not like running a drinking establishment. Your bar should be a personally edited version of you. So skip the liquor-warehouse look and impress your guests with a specially designed cocktail or a curated collection of alcohol.

 

LDa Architecture & Interiors

11. Coordinated sets. Suites of matching furniture hark back to the days when a glimpse of ankle was considered risqué.
Why break this habit? Showcase your personality by mixing together pieces that you truly love and want to live with, not just the items that a manufacturer says go together.

Reservoir

12. Lack of wit. This is, perhaps, the deadliest of all decorating sins. Taking oneself too seriously can end in decorating ruin.

How to break this habit? Lighten up. Take my advice: A house is not a home without a spot of leopard!

 

10 Easy Edibles for First-Time Gardeners

Focus on these beginner-friendly vegetables, herbs, beans and salad greens to start a home farm with little fuss

Marianne Lipanovich - Houzz Contributor

The idea of growing edibles is always tempting. Photos of edible gardens promise you lush landscapes filled with a tantalizing mix of vegetables, herbs and flowers that will make all passersby stop and stare. Getting started with an edible garden can seem daunting, though, especially if you’re new to gardening. Fortunately, most edibles are fairly tough.

So the main question is simply, what do you grow? The following 10 edibles are good choices if you’re just getting started. 

 

1. Radishes. Radishes may be one of the easiest edibles to grow. With some popular varieties, you can start eating the tops (as you thin out your plantings) within two weeks and start harvesting in three weeks. You can plant successively from early spring until summer approaches, then start planting again come fall.

See how to grow radishes

Laara Copley-Smith Garden & Landscape Design

2. Carrots. Long and orange may be the familiar look, but today’s carrots come in a range of colors, from white to purple, and a range of shapes, from long and narrow to short and plump. Like radishes, they give you almost instant gratification when it comes to harvesting, as you generally can start pulling them to eat in a month or so. More than most other edibles, they do require loose, clod- and stone-free soil to maintain their shape.

See how to grow carrots

Renee's Garden

3. Salad greens. Growing your own salad greens is remarkably easy, and these are among the few edibles that do best in partial shade when it’s warm. Lettuce especially can get bitter in hot weather, even if you grow the newer varieties that have been bred to resist bolting. Start with some of the loose-leafed varieties of lettuce and mix in other greens, such as arugula, chicory, chervil and spinach, for a home-grown salad mix.

See how to grow lettuce, spinach and other salad greens.

Aloe Designs

4. Herbs. Most of our favorite herbs are also the easiest edibles to grow. Some, like mint, are almost impossible not to grow — plant some in the ground and you’ll be pulling up mint all over your garden. Most herbs do best with full sun and little to regular water, and many, such as thyme, do double duty as ground covers. Plant them in a formal herb garden, mix with other edibles or grow in any type of planter or box.

See how to grow herbs

Sage Ecological Landscapes and Nursery

5. Strawberries. The taste of freshly picked strawberries is reason enough to grow them. Add to that their versatility in terms of varieties for almost all climates and their adaptability to any number of containers, including hanging ones, and you have a plant that can work for almost any gardener. Most gardeners treat them as short-lived perennials, meaning you’ll still have lush foliage after the fruiting season is over. While the list of possible problems might seem daunting, most gardeners find that strawberries are reliable and fairly trouble free (except for keeping birds out).

See how to grow strawberries

Lisa Nieschlag "Liz & Jewels"

 

6. Beans. Beans are an edible-garden staple, and snap beans are the most popular type of bean to grow. Choose from bush beans, which produce an earlier crop while staying lower to the ground, or vining beans, the familiar climbing varieties that will climb up almost anything they can wrap their tendrils around. Once you’ve mastered these, you can branch out to dry beans, lima beans, scarlet runner beans, fava beans and even soybeans.

See how to grow beans

Amy Renea

7. Tomatoes. For many gardeners it’s really not an edible garden without a tomato or two. Though you may hear all sorts of stories about possible problems, from whiteflies to scary-sounding diseases, the fact that tomatoes are probably the most popular edible to grow should encourage you. The key is to find the varieties that do well in your climate. The good news is that there are so many varieties now readily available, from heirlooms to disease-resistant hybrids, so you can easily find something that works for you.

See how to grow tomatoes

Sparrow Landscaping LLC

 

8. Chard. “Easy to grow” defines Swiss chard. It grows well from seed, prefers cooler weather (but can handle a fair amount of summer heat) and can be harvested approximately 60 days after the first seeds were planted while still continuing to produce, even through winter in warm-winter climates. Grow it separately or mix it with other edibles and even ornamentals, especially if you’re growing one of the colorful Bright Lights chards.

See how to grow chard

Steve Masley Consulting and Design

9. Peppers. Peppers of all types need a long, warm to hot growing season, but they’re worth the wait. Plant sweet peppers for milder flavor and a range of colors from yellow and red to green and purple, and sizes from tiny to large enough to stuff and bake. If your taste buds are more adventurous, give hot peppers a try. You’ll find everything from mildly spicy to so hot, you’ll need to taste with caution.

See how to grow peppers

Barbara Pintozzi

10. Zucchini. If you plant zucchinis, be prepared to start eating them a couple of months later and to continue consuming them throughout the summer.

The zucchini is legendary for how easy it is to grow and how much it produces, but the same can be said of almost any of the squashes, including pumpkins. They’re notorious for springing up where seeds have overwintered, including compost piles, and the resulting amount of fruit can be overwhelming. The space requirements can also be a little daunting, as most require a fair amount of room for sprawling. But if you have the space (or find a compact variety), zucchinis and other squashes are easy edibles to grow.

See how to grow zucchinis and other squashes
See more edible gardening tips