Month: February 2007

Feeling artsy?
Design your own stained glass—and plates, and clocks, and…

Back in the Dark Ages, people used to shop at retail stores, which bought their wares from wholesalers, who in turn had procured the goods from manufacturers. The future looks a whole lot simpler: You, the customer, buy directly from the factory. And while you’re at it, design the stuff you’re buying.

DIY stained-glass design as a computer image, above right, and finished piece. Home décor objects designed by the people who live with them are becoming more common.

That’s the idea behind businesses like locally-based Archiris, which sells stained glass that’s custom-designed by its customers. Download the company’s free design software from www.archiris.com, choose pre-existing images ranging from soccer balls to lighthouses, apply colors, then send off your finished design. (If you’re software-savvy, you can draw your own image in Illustrator. Or—easiest of all—send a digital photo and let Archiris’ artists create the design.) Six weeks and $75 per square foot later, the piece arrives in the mail.

Lots of companies allow you to upload your personal photos for decorating all kinds of home-decor objects. At www.cafepress.com, your favorite shot of the family reunion can bedeck a wall clock, pillow, magnet or coaster. Similar custom items are available at www.zazzle.com, where you can also buy products designed by other consumers—for example, peer-to-peer posters.

Ceramic tiles sporting the images of your choice are at www.artontiles.com. You have somewhat less control—but still more than at your average big-box dinosaur—at www.myfashionplates.com, where you choose among three designs and 64 colors for ceramic dinnerware.—Erika Howsare

Whip it good
Our Top 10 house-cleaning tunes
 
Just in case you haven’t been paying attention to the tabloids lately, dirt and pop music have a very symbiotic relationship. Make yourself a customized cleaning mix! This is my list when it’s time to wax-on, wax-off:

1. AC/DC, “Dirty Deeds” The classic. Rouse yourself into action with power chords.

2. The Bangles, “Walk Like an Egyptian” Have you ever actually done it? Looks a lot like scrubbing two counters at once.

3. Scissor Sisters, “Filthy Gorgeous” You need at least one song that makes you periodically point at an invisible but very sexy stranger.

4. Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Come On Eileen” Toor-a-loor-ay-yea!…

5. Blur, “Girls and Boys” Save this one for a high-energy task, like scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush.

6. Chuck Berry, “You Never Can Tell” Put floor rags under your feet and reenact the twist scene from Pulp Fiction.

“It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well”—just like Chuck Berry wishes you a cleaner floor!

7. The Pointer Sisters, “Jump (For My Love)” The Pointer Sisters would probably make Jabba the Hutt rise to the occasion. (Cleaning, that is.)

8. The Contours, “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)” I’m substituting “dust the bookshelf” for “mashed potato” until someone teaches me how to do it.

9. Young MC, “Bust A Move” So come on, fatso.

10. Talking Heads, “Burning Down the House” For extreme cases only.—Bird Cox

Today’s paper
Wallpapers are back! Here’s what’s hot

Lest you hear the word “wallpaper” and immediately think “grandmother,” Alana Woerpel begs to differ. Though papers did see a dip in popularity a few years ago, Woerpel says that in the last year and a half, “Sales of wallpaper have picked up a lot” in her home-design store on Second Street SE, Alana’s. “There’s a sense of people wanting to add more pattern to the walls,” she says. Woerpel attributes the ebb and flow of wallpaper love to the same fickle forces that govern hemlines. If you’re thinking of papering your palace, here’s how to avoid buyer’s regret when that tide inevitably shifts once again.

Wallpaper fusty? Puh-leeze. This design and the one below are both by Lee Jofa.

First of all, decide whether you’re feeling bold or subtle. In the former category, Woerpel likes Osborne & Little papers. And “Lee Jofa has a collec-tion of really great papers,” she says —“different takes on dam- ask and stripes.” Choose carefully, and even a bold paper will wear well. “What does go out of style are garish flowers,” Woerpel says. If it’s subtle you’re after, consider a paper with a “faux architectural effect, like blocks or paneling.”

Second, consider the size of the room in question. “If you do something like a large-pattern wallpaper in a small room,” Woerpel says, “it seems counterintuitive but it makes the room feel grander.”

Third, hedge your bets. “I find a lot of people put wallpaper right onto drywall and it’s stuck there forever,” says Woerpel. “Make sure the walls are primed properly, and removal later shouldn’t be a problem.”—E.H.

Colorless, odorless…
But carbon monoxide will ruin your day

If you feel less energetic in the winter, you’re not alone. But be sure your lassitude is due to good old-fashioned cold and dark, rather than sky-high carbon monoxide levels in your home. Among winter’s less appealing traits is the fact that CO poisoning is more common during that season than any other, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

It’s not the sexiest thing in the bedroom, but it could be the most important. Keep your CO detector humming.

What makes these months the gassiest? There are a number of cold-weather mistakes people make, all easy to avoid:
•    Improperly using a generator during a power outage to heat the house. (Using the oven or grill as an emergency heater is also verboten.)
•    Not opening the flue on the fireplace.
•    Warming up vehicles in the garage. (Even with the door open, this is a no-no. Pull your ride outside!)
•    Not clearing snow from the vents for fireplaces, dryers, furnace or stove.
•    The biggest mistake of all? Not having a carbon monoxide detector present and functioning in your home. There should be one for each area of the house where people sleep, and you need to test detectors once a month.

We know, we know: It’s a boring, nerdy task. But there’s nothing cool about carbon monoxide poisoning, kids. Now think spring!—E.H.

The new frame-up
Fresh ideas for your photo stash

On your way to Michael’s for another boring black photo frame? Stop where you are. There’s probably something far more interesting, not to mention cheap, hanging out around the house. Here are some fresh ideas for alternative displays.

For the quick fix: To make a versatile space for multiple photos, try the clothesline. Insert two eye-screws level into the wall near the corners, stretch wire or fishing line taut between them, and hang photos (matted or not) with clothespins or decorative clips. (Advantage: You can switch out your pics in seconds.) Found objects also cut fine figures on the wall—glue photo corners to a shapely piece of wood, panes of an old window, or some metallic wonder from the scrapyard at Coiner’s on Meade Avenue. 

Photos can make a room, even without the gilt frame that costs even more than it weighs. A simple clothespin will do nicely.

For the Sunday project: If you’re handy with a needle, cover a box top, frame or embroidery hoop in fabric, secure it tightly, and stitch your photo onto it with colorful yarn or thread. You can also gear up on your morning walk—branches add a natural aesthetic to your wall and can be bound together easily with twine to form angular frames. Glue your favorite paper on as a backdrop, add photo corners, and presto! Buh-bye, square art.—B.C.

You can’t get away without cleaning your house. (Well, you can hire someone to do it for you, but if you’re reading this we bet you fall just outside that particular category.) And no amount of supermarket-style perkiness can disguise the, well, down-and-dirty nature of the chore. You’re on your knees, you’re up to your elbows in bacteria, and you’re making things clean. It might not be fun, but it sure can be satisfying. Herein, ABODE’s take on one of the only things all houses have in common. We’ve got a discussion of the disgusting (read: germs), a test of your housekeeping smarts, a guide to eleventh-hour sprucing-up for company, and some tips on how to clean without dirtying up the planet. Please note: Latex gloves are highly recommended for readers of this article.

Why we fight

When you boil it down, we clean for two reasons: ourselves, and other people. It’s certainly nice to feel righteous when Girl Scouts show up at the door with their nosy parents (Entryway spic’n’span? Check!), but it matters not a whit if you’re not comfortable in your abode. And the category “comfortable” definitely includes “healthy.” Cleaning isn’t just about aesthetics, after all: It’s about not getting sick.

Office germs is serious business. The Virginia Health Department’s David Easton says to scrub first, then disinfect. And we say to cackle maliciously while doing so.

So there you stand, mop in hand. You’re determined to rid your pad of all nasty creepy crawlies that could give you the flu or your kids a new allergy or two. Where to begin?

First of all, let’s talk about bugs. Not cockroaches—though banishing those guys is certainly a must for any self-respecting housecleaner—but the bugs you can’t see, the ones that cause infections. They hang out on anything that’s been touched, sneezed on, breathed on, or otherwise anointed by human or animal bodies. (You get the idea.) Same goes for objects in your kitchen that have come in contact with uncooked meat. How do you disinfect these spots? David Easton, an industrial hygienist with the Virginia Department of Health, says to scrub first, then kill the buggies. If you just go right in with the bleach on a bloodstain or fingerprinty faucet, he says, “The organic material binds with the bleach and eliminates its killing power. Wash the surface first, then disinfect.”

Fair enough. What exactly should you wash? Easton referred to several well-known studies by Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona who investigates the places in our homes and offices that are most disgustingly germ-infested. His findings are surprising in that “How did I make it this far in life without getting botulism?” kind of way.

In order of squeamitude, according to Gerba, the germiest areas of the house are these: kitchen sponge, kitchen sink, bathroom sink, cutting board, kitchen floor, bathroom floor, bathroom counter. That’s right: the toilet’s not even in the top seven. So if you’re only going to clean a couple of areas, make them the sinks—and don’t use that stanky sponge.

More wisdom from Gerba that may inspire you, next time you’re chilling at home, to don a biohazard suit instead of your robe and slippies: A toilet flushed with the lid up sends a fine plume of contaminated water into the air, which then lands on everything in the room. (Including—the truth is so painful—your toothbrush.) The lesson here should be obvious: Put the bloody lid down! Also, Gerber found that when washing several loads of laundry, contaminants from the first load will wind up in the last load. The take-away: Put your skivvies through last.

It’s not just bacteria and viruses that can make us sick. Upper respiratory disease is another hazard of living in a house. The big reason to be vigilant about dusting and vacuuming—other than avoiding that monochromatic, Miss-Havisham’s-house-in-Great Expectations look—is to defend against dust mites. Mites are tiny arachnids whose droppings can trigger severe allergies. According to Easton, even if you don’t think you have a sensitivity to mites, you can develop one with enough exposure to them. (If they showed up to your Super Bowl party, that qualifies as “enough.”)

Allergies are a worry with molds and mildews, too. There’s great info about dealing with these moisture-loving organisms on page 13. Besides that, use a dehumidifier to keep your relative humidity below 50 percent, and follow Easton’s rule of thumb if you do notice a moldy patch: “If you have less than 10 square feet of the stuff, you can clean it yourself.” Otherwise, “It’s a good idea to look into professional cleaning.”

Finally—toilet plumes and nastilicious sponges aside—remember the maxim that Easton, along with every other public health official on the planet, repeats like a mantra: Wash your hands!

Well, now you’ve done it. You’re throwing a dinner party in one hour. The soufflé is in the oven and well on its way to greatness, well-chosen wines are chilling or breathing according to their needs, and oh-so-tasteful music is cued up on the stereo. And your house is a frigging mess.

Here’s how to deal.

59 minutes left: Wrestle six-month stack of newspapers off the fifth dining room chair and into the mudroom.

57 minutes: Remove vase of desiccated roses, which were so lovely when you received them last Valentine’s Day, from the dining room table.

56 minutes: Hey, you left a trail of dried petals when you walked those out to the back porch. Sweep it up.

55 minutes: Throw a sheet over rolltop desk in hall—the one that can’t be closed because it’s full of junk mail—and drape attractively with white Christmas lights.

52 minutes: Put up a poster over the bloodstain on the wall. We won’t even ask.

50 minutes: Vacuum all cobwebs from ceiling fixtures and corners.

42 minutes: Realize you won’t have time to clean the bedrooms. Close all bedroom doors.

40 minutes: Since you can’t throw guests’ coats on your guest room bed, assign an easy chair in the living room to hold them. Put a throw pillow over that special pet memory on the arm of the chair.

38 minutes: Your houseplants should have been watered, like, six weeks ago, so dousing them now won’t help. Move them to the plant hospice, formerly known as the basement.

34 minutes: Use a credit card to scrape up hardened candle wax from the tabletop. Curse yourself for not using this same card to hire a cleaning service earlier in the week.

32 minutes: Dig good tablecloth and napkins out of the closet. Note intricate wrinkle patterns: Like snowflakes, no two are alike.

31 minutes: Plug in the iron.

30 minutes: Turn your attention to the bathroom. Start with what feels manageable—for example, pulling the shower curtain shut.

28 minutes: Attack sink and toilet. No, not with a blunt object—with spray cleaner and sponge.

25 minutes: Clean off the mirror, then rig the medicine cabinet so any prying guest will be exposed by the sound of bottles clattering into the sink.

22 minutes: Take your still-slightly-damp bath towel off the rack and replace with something on which decent people can dry their hands.

20 minutes: Get busy sweeping floors, for the love of godliness!

14 minutes: Faced with the enormity of the task of sweeping, adjust your floor-cleanliness standards downward. Dim lights in rooms you won’t have time to sweep.

11 minutes: Smell smoke coming from the direction of the iron.

10 minutes: Put out fire.

8 minutes: Silence smoke alarms. Change out of smoke-infested clothes. Open back door to air out entire first floor of house. Splash water on face.

5 minutes: Iron the tablecloth and napkins.

2 minutes: Toss mud-caked welcome mat over side of front stoop into bushes.

1 minute: Put the tablecloth on the table, shut the back door, and tell yourself that the eclectic look is big this year in wine glasses. Was that the doorbell?

Yes, disinfecting is important (see above). And no, you can’t do it with your Superman laser-gaze. But that doesn’t mean you need bleach. “People think there’s nothing else that can disinfect, but it’s just not true,” says Elizabeth Dance, owner of local earth-friendly cleaning service Eco Clean. Dance uses hydrogen peroxide instead, which lacks bleach’s potentially harmful effects on you and the environment. And she has a slew of other low-tech, time-tested tricks up her sleeve.

Just say no to bleach. Elizabeth Dance’s Eco Clean Service delivers the elbow grease.

For one, she uses pumice stone—commonly found in the beauty section at the drugstore—to remove gunk on ceramic toilets, sinks and tubs without scratching the finish. She’s also fond of this formula for sparkling up bathroom fixtures: half a cup of borax, a gallon of hot water, and a few drops of fresh lemon juice. “It’s really amazing,” she says of the shine this method produces. “You can’t even get it with [harsher] chemicals, and there’s just no residue.”

There’s more. Rubbing alcohol will take away streaks on a mirror. White distilled vinegar will clean floors (among many other areas in the house) and its odor can be counteracted with essential oil of lavendar, pine or whatever your nose prefers. Baking soda and vinegar will take care of mildew. Two cups of olive oil plus the juice of one lemon will polish your furniture.

If you’d rather clean with official cleaning products, Dance recommends these brands: Ecover, Bi-O-Kleen, Mildew Stain Away, Seventh Generation, and Soy Lube (an alternative to WD-40).