Decorative storage boxes

1] Rent or buy an airless spray machine.[ Tips on decorative storage bins ] 2] Protect areas near the area that you are painting. 3] Spraying puts a lot of fine paint droplets into the air, so cover everything in the area that you don’t want to get paint on. 4] Seal the area if you're working inside. Do not use the sprayer outside on a windy day. 5] Pour paint in a bucket through a strainer to ensure that there are no lumps or any bits of non-paint material. 6] Thin the paint (if required) as per the manufacturer's instructions. 7] Cover yourself very well; wear long-sleeved shirts and gloves. 8] Start at a corner, work from the top down and keep your strokes steady and smooth. Remember that it is better to paint several light coats than one heavy one. 9] Do not to create "columns" of paint while spraying.                              Tips: There are basicall...

[ decorative storage boxes ] : There are times when you would find yourself in a scenario wherein the joint between the tub and the wall of your toilet has opened up. And there is leakage. Thus it's time to do the process of caulking around the bathtub. Firstly, remove all loose material from the bathtub area and clean the area with rubbing alcohol. Then, remove the old caulk, either by softening it with a heat gun or by scraping out the old caulk with a sharp putty knife. If that doesn’t work, then use a hammer and a chisel. You can also use a solvent called the ‘ Caulk Remover ’ from any local hardware store or home improvement store. Follow the supplied instructions. After a couple of hours, the loosened caulk can be removed with a putty knife.                                     I...

Note: If your wood floors are pre-finished, always consult the manufacturer for safety and other key tips before attempting any of these procedures.  1] Prepare the room  Move all your furniture and all wall decorations out of the room. Install a box fan or a standing fan within the room for ventilation and open all windows.  This is to blow away all the negative pressure and the dust out from the room. If some furniture is still near or in the room, then cover it with some drop cloths or old bed sheets.  2] Shield the floor  Install an abrasive pad on the rubberized wheel of a floor polisher. Practice a little bit in the center of the room until you are comfortable controlling the machine. Install a 100-grit abrasive screen on the polisher and sand the floor. Back and forth across the floor in overlapping passes from one end of the room to the other. Sweep and vacuum the floor. At this stage, the finish should be dull and wear pat...

      This list shows tools and materials that you may require for this work , depending on the nature and location. You may not require all this material, but it’s better to keep things handy, rather than have a last-moment rush to get it from the store.     Material Required: • Drywall (one foot wide by two feet long) • Handsaw • Pencil • Hammer • Finishing nails • Newspaper • Fine wire, about one foot long • Wire cutters • Tape measure or ruler • Work gloves • Putty knife • Utility knife • Construction adhesive • Joint compound • Fine sandpaper • A paint brush • Primer paint To fix a small hole: For a small hole or dent, less than an inch, just follow these easy steps to fix it: Stuff some newspaper into the hole to provide a backing. Fill the remaining hole with joint compound, which is basically gypsum-based mud.    Apply it with the putty knife, and smooth it down as best as you can. By the next day, the compound...

Decorating flowers is what we will make in this tutorial. DIY flower decorations are very easy to master. Just a few minutes is taken to make one. Materials needed for DIY flower decorations : Paper Handmade knife  How to make decorating flowers?  Step 1: make a cross : Cut four slips of paper with handmade knife. Fold them in half. Lay one slip vertically. Cross one slip below with one side covering the first one slip upside.  Cross the other one up with one side covering the first one slip downside. Slide the fourth one cross the second and the third slips. Tighten them to be a square.  Turn over the four sides respectively. Insert the last slip into a small square below to fix the pattern. Eight slips are Step 2: make the flower heart: Fold the left bottom to a triangle and insert it to the small square to be tight. Then insert it to the other small square. Do the same with another three slips. Step 3...

 How to fit a door handle : The second stage of hanging a new door is the fitting of the door handle, which is a job in itself! Firstly, the latch needs to be put in position at the middle of the door. Generally the bottom of the latch sits 1 metre above the floor. You will need : - Pencil - New door handle (latch, spindle and screws) - Drill and drill bits (including flat wood cutting bit) - Masking tape - Chisel Hold the latch in place at the 1m mark and at the centre of the edge of the door; mark its position with a pencil. Take your drill and flat wood cutting drill bit and place against the latch to measure the depth that you must go to whilst drilling. Use masking tape to mark this position and start drilling. Drill the hole into the side of the door and chisel out any debris. Next insert the latch, ensuring it is level, and mark around the entire latch. Use the chisel to scrape away the wood to create a shallow hole ...

 Once your decor has been finished, you may want to add some shelves to your walls to declutter your room further. Firstly decide on the position of your shelves and use a pencil to mark the shelf height onto your walls. You will need : - Pencil - Spirit level - Masonry drill bit - Drill - Wall plugs - Shelf kit (including fixings)  Make sure the mark is discreet and can be covered easily by the shelf; you don’t want to ruin your freshly painted or newly papered walls. Before you mark further, use a multi-purpose electronic tester to ensure that there are no pipes or electrics residing underneath the wall surface.  Once you are satisfied that it is safe to install a shelf in that position, you must ensure that you install the shelf level; use a spirit level to mark the positions of your brackets. Make sure that the brackets are positioned no more than 600mm apart, as this could lead to the shelf bowing, especially if you use it t...

This may sound like a simple feat but how many times have you hung pictures and a week or two later they’ve fallen down? With this fool-proof advice you can picture hang to perfection , after all it’s not as easy as banging in a few nails and hoping for the best. You will need : - Drill and drill bit - Wall plugs - Screws - Multi-purpose electronic tester How to hang a picture correctly depends on the type of wall you are working with, generally wall types fall into two categories – masonry and cavity walls. Masonry walls are made from solid stone or brick, whilst cavity walls are thinner and house electrics and pipe work.  When working with masonry walls drill a pilot hole into the wall first and insert a wall plug. Ensure that the wall plug fits into the drilled hole snugly and lies flat against the wall. You can then fix the screw into the wall plug as usual and hang your picture. Never drill above or below light switches or plug socke...

To complete the look of your decorated room, hang a new door to compliment your new interior. Start by removing your old door, remove the screws from the bottom hinge and then the top , ensuring that the door is properly supported throughout removal. You will need : - New door - Screwdriver - Pencil - Safety goggles - Dust mask - Panel saw or hand plane - Screws - Hinges - Mallet - Chisel - Wooden wedges Use the screwdriver to remove any paint that has dried over the hinges and screws. Next cut your new door to size, hold the door up to the frame and mark on the door where the wood needs to be trimmed with the pencil.  If your old door was a perfect fit, use this as a guide, lay the old door on top of the new door and mark where to cut. Make sure you take an equal amount from the top and bottom of the door so that finished product will be correctly balanced.  Now put on your goggles and dust mask – remember safety first. Use a p...

There are a number of ways you can fit a roller blind , you can either fit it directly onto your window frame, inside the recess of your window or on the outside of the recess, sitting on the wall in which your window is set back into. You will need : - Pencil - Ready-made roller blind kit (should include screws and brackets) - Drill and drill bit - Wood plugs - Metal tape measure - Spirit level - Hand saw - Scissors   A huge part of prep is deciding the most practical way to position your blind as to prevent damage to your walls, you need to get it right the first time.  Also, before you begin work decide which side you’d like the cord that controls the roller to sit on, again think about practicality. Once the fundamentals have been decided, take your pencil and mark where the first bracket should lie, read the manufacturer’s instructions to determine how many screws will be inserted and in which position. Based on this, hol...

Ordering curtains and blinds needs precision when it comes to measuring, there is nothing worse than getting home and realising those blinds or curtains that you love (and that were on sale) are too wide or too long. You will need - Step ladder - Metal measuring tape - Pen - Paper When measuring for either blinds or curtains use a metal tape measure for accuracy and measure in centimetres to the nearest ½ cm.  The golden rule when measuring for curtains and blinds is to always double check the measurements; after all it’s easy to misread a measurement by a centimetre or two and that extra centimetre can make all the different between a perfect finish and a not-so-perfect one.With curtains, two measurements must be taken – width and drop. To measure the width for a pole affix the curtain, measure in between the decorative fixtures placed at either end. Whilst for track fixtures, measure the entire length of the track.  Before you me...

Laying any flooring, from laminate and wooden floors to tiles and carpets, can be a tricky job but it really doesn’t have to be left to the experts. Let’s start off with how to lay wooden flooring, that to say  it is an engineered or laminate product you are searching to fit... Wooden Floors Wooden floors expand due to the humidity of the room so it is essential that you allow time for your flooring to acclimatise to the room’s atmosphere. Move your flooring into the room, open the pack and lay in sunlight for the flooring to get the full impact of the room’s temperature.  Leave the flooring for 24 hours before you start installation. Remove skirting boards with a crow bar, these are refitted during the last steps of laying a wooden floor. Vacuum the floor then fit the underlay; use a utility knife to cut the underlay to size and secure by taping around the edges. The tape will also ensure that any moisture residing underneath the underlay doesn’t rise and damage yo...

When laying carpet or installing tiles , you need to ensure that the surface you are laying them on is completely level. You may not notice a slope at first but you will become aware of a slight slope as time goes by, creating a very annoying and rather disappointing result. You will need : - Spirit level - Hammer - Try square - Punch tool - Hardboard sheets - Bucket of clean water - Paint brush - Saw - Straight edge - Diamond-headed panel pins Take a spirit level and use this to check the slope of your floor before tile or carpet laying commences. If your floor does have a slope, this can be easily corrected using hardboard sheets. Before you begin, remove your skirting boards, these will be fixed on again after you have levelled the floor. Also, check the ventilation of your floorboards by looking for the room’s airbrick.  If you cannot find the airbrick and your flooring does not have sufficient ventilation, install an airbrick and look for ...

There is nothing more traumatic and annoying then noticing a squeaky floorboard , but unbeknown to many this problem can be fixed easily and hours of wincing at the noise a loose floorboard creates can be averted in an instant.   You will need : - Talc - Pencil - Drill and drill bit - Screwdriver - Screws (60mm) - Cold chisel - Hammer - Timber batten So why do we get squeaky floorboards ? Over time floorboards swell due to the heat and moisture in the room, the board becomes distorted and expands causing the edges of the boards to collide and rub together to create a squeaking noise. Other squeaks are caused by loose boards and unsupported board ends. Before you reach for the tools, you may be able to solve your creaky problem without even touching a drill, screwdriver or cold chisel. Firstly however, you must do some detective work and track down which floor board is the creaky culprit. Lift and remove the floor covering in the room...

Broken floor or wall tiles can ruin the entire look of a tiled room, but damage that can be easily caused can be amended just as quickly without having to replace the entire set of tiles. All you need is a steady hand and the equipment shown above.  You will need : - Goggles - Carbide-tipped scoring tool - Painter’s tape - Drill with ceramic bit - Hammer - Cold chisel - Wide-bladed chisel - Adhesive - Grout spreader - Sponge - Bucket of clean water - Grout - Cloth Put on your goggles to protect your eyes from flying debris and dust, now use the carbide-tipped scoring tool to chip away at the grout surrounding the broken tile. Be careful not to slip and damage any neighboring tiles. Once the grout has been removed from around the tile, apply painter’s tape on the edge of the grout line, this will prevent surrounding tiles from getting chipped whilst you are removing the damaged tile. Next drill a hole into each section of broken tile, this will lo...

Tiling doesn’t need to be left to the professionals, with the right know-how you can take tiling in your stride. As with any decorating , the perfect finish begins with the perfect start so ensure you prep your surfaces before you commence work.  You will need : - Plaster filler - Plaster stabilising solution (for powdery surfaces) - Tape measure - Pencil - Plumb line - Timber batten - Waterproof adhesive - Grout spreader - Spirit level - Tile spacers - Tile cutting jig or freehand cutter - Tile saw Any large holes should be repaired using plaster filler, help to dry before you start tiling. If the surface dries unstably and powdery, use a plaster stabilising solution that will steady the surface for when you add your adhesive and tiles. Now comes the fun part – plan where your tiles will lie with the timber batten, plumb line and tape measure.  utilize  the batten as a guide to mark horizontal lines on the wall, move u...

Finish and maintain your new decor by cleaning your painted walls or wallpaper to perfection. During the decorating process and over time, walls become plagued with smudges, smears and fingerprints, which cause damage in the long run and produce a tired, unkempt appearance.  You will need : - Duster - Cloths - Natural sponge - Bucket of cleaning solution (read on to find out how to mix cleaning solution) - Bucket of clean water Before you start the cleanup, protect your room. Cleaning your walls and wallpaper can be a very messy job, use a canvas drop cloth or dust sheet to cover your floor and furniture. The cloth will absorb any soapy spillages.  Now mix your cleaning solution – for light cleaning, mix warm water and some washing up liquid to create a cleaning solution. For heavily soiled walls, use a mixture of warm water, clear ammonia, white vinegar and Borax powder. This will provide a gentle yet powerful solution to tackle the most...

Painting is one of the most common home improvement projects taken on by DIY enthusiasts all year round. You don’t have to paint like a pro to be able to successfully paint a room, but it helps to have a few techniques up your sleeve to ensure a high quality finish, after all a poor paint job is easy to spot. You will need : - Overalls and other protective gear - Angled brush - Your chosen paint - Roller - Tray   Amazon.com Widgets After you have prepared your room by protecting your furniture and smoothing walls (see page 3 to find out ‘how to prepare your walls’ and ‘how to protect your furniture’ on page 4), you can then begin by cutting in. Ensure the room is well-ventilated before you commence. Cutting in is a well-known painting technique used by professionals and amateurs alike. Use an angled brush to cut around the edges of your skirting, corners and cornices, also cut around radiators and doorways.  Dip your brush in...

Please note you must consult a licensed asbestos specialist before removing artex. Artex is essentially a homeowner’s nightmare! The textured coating was all the rage in the 1970’s and 1980’s but has plighted generations since by being very difficult to remove and earlier artex can be health risk too. You will need - Dust sheets or polythene sheeting - Protective gear (goggles, mask and hard hat) - Chisel - Hammer - Steamer or steam stripper Before the mid-1980’s artex was made using a high level of white asbestos in order to strengthen the mixture but as many people now know asbestos is a dangerous substance that can cause respiratory problems if the harmful fibres and dust are inhaled. If you don’t know whether your artex coating was applied before the mid-eighties, you must get it tested by a local asbestos specialist.  If it is found to be made with asbestos, your artex should be removed by a licensed contractor, who wil...

Redecorating is a common task taken on by many homeowners an with painting a room, there is always a risk of spilling paint on your floors and furnishings. You will need : - Paper towels - Turpentine, mineral spirits or glycerin (depending on the type of paint you’re using) - Rubbing alcohol or nail varnish remover (varies based on paint type) - Solution of mild detergent and clean water - Dry towel - WD40 for dried in stains   Even if you protect your room well, paint often finds its way underneath polythene and dust sheets and onto your carpet. The key to removing paint that gets split on your carpet is to act fast! If the paint has time to dry fully, then you could be left with a permanent stain.  How paint is removed largely depends on the type of paint you are using. Start however by containing the spillage or else you could be removing paint from a larger area than you anticipated. Surround the spillage with dry paper towels, which will so...