homeaholic.net

Tag: DIY

  • Carpet Cleaning Hacks

    Carpets are amongst the most used things in our homes. Their elegant appearance adds a lot to the beauty of the house. But they need to be properly cleaned for good appearance and performance. Here are best carpet cleaning hacks that will help you to keep your carpet clean and also improve their lifetime.

    Carpet Cleaning Hacks

    Carpet Cleaning Hacks

    1.Remove Furniture Indentations or Holes with an Ice Cube

    You have surely noticed while reorganizing your furniture that some of the indentations and holes are left behind in the rugs or carpets. You can bring carpet back to life and you can also get rid of such kind of holes and indentations. Just place a single piece of an ice cube in a hole or indentations and let it melt.

    Remove Furniture Indentations or Holes with an Ice Cube

    When the ice cube melts, use your fingers to brush the fibers of the carpet. Don’t use a scrub brush as it can be extremely harmful, damaging and abrasive for your carpet. When the carpet is totally dry, then vacuum and clean the dry area. So, no need to worry about changing the spot of the furniture. Make sure not to drag your furniture across the carpet as it may cause ripples.

    2.Roll up Your Rug to Prevent Color Change

    You should be aware of the fact that if you are using a hardwood flooring so it is constantly going through the color transformation. The natural wood floor’s color will continually be changed if it is constantly exposed to air pollutants, ultraviolet rays, traffic and direct sunlight. Wood floors with darker colors will not show the change of the color as compared to the lighter wood floors. But the change of colors will happen in both kinds of colored natural wood floors.

    Roll up Your Rug to Prevent Color Change

    The colors of the hardwood floor are prevented from sunlight, air and ultraviolet rays when rugs or carpets are used to cover the wood floor. After some time, the color of the wood around the rug will be changed and after removing the rug or carpet,  the wood’s color will be nearer to the original color of the wood.  Thus, when you are away from your home, you can remove the rugs from that area in order to minimize and decrease the effect, for instance when you are going on holidays.

    Curtains and blinders of your room will remain open and you need to roll up the carpet or rug and place it away. In this way, air and light will reach that particular area of the wood floor and by this, the change of the wood color will be decreased and reduced. This idea will help you to keep your hardwood floor area evenly colored whenever you need to remove the rug completely or you want to change it.

    3.Turn Your Carpet or Rug to Avoid Traffic Patterns

    We mostly use the similar pathways to walk in our houses. For instance, most direct and the shortest path will be chosen by us to go from one point to another point and we normally use the hallway’s center to walk down. Thus, it is an obvious thing that there are some specific areas on our carpets or rugs on which we regularly and frequently walk and after some time we can easily see the signs of our footsteps.

    Turn Your Carpet or Rug to Avoid Traffic Patterns

    So, to avoid or reduce this thing, we need to spin our carpet around 180 degrees in every six months. You can also do the similar thing with the mattress. Rotating the carpet will help you to reduce and decrease your traffic paths across the carpet or rug.

    4.Buy Extra Carpet for Your Stairs

    Stairs are the basic point in all the homes with the highest traffic at all the times. Thus, it is obvious that the carpets on the stairs will age quickly than other area carpets and even you need to replace them. On the other hand, no one can guarantee that the new rug or carpet will last for at least five to ten years to match and resemble the remaining areas.

    Turn Your Carpet or Rug to Avoid Traffic Patterns

    Buy at least two rugs or carpets for your staircase and roll up. Reserve the second piece of rug or carpet in a dry and dark area. Buying another carpet for the stairs will not cost more as stairs cover less space and need a small length carpet. So, it will be easy to replace only the stair carpet if it became worn and damaged rather than replacing all the carpets in the home.

    5. Sprinkle Baking Soda to Remove Odors

    This tip is not new and many people be aware of it, but it needs to be mentioned as it is extremely effective. As it’s a common knowledge and we all know that odors or smells can be absorbed by baking soda.

    So, whenever you want to remove the smells or odors (from cooking, pets, and smoke etc.) from your carpet, just sprinkle or scatter a specific amount of the baking soda on the whole carpet. Then leave the carpet or rug for few hours. To remove the baking soda and odors you need to just vacuum the carpet or rug thoroughly.

  • How to Distress White Furniture

    Furniture makes your home looks good, it gives you comfort and keeps your home well organized. The only thing furniture demands from you in return is to take good care of it. Furniture is hard to take care of, every once in a month it needs polishing and repairs which cost a lot of money especially white furniture which requires a lot of maintenance. Do you know how to distress white furniture easily at home? Distressing white furniture can be a difficult job, it takes a lot of efforts and a little mishap can cost you a lot. Distressing means taking off the white paint on your furniture which seems an easy job but it can be difficult at times. You can do it yourself if you want to through some easy and less time-consuming ways.

    How to Distress White Furniture

    Paint Remover

    Paint Remover

    This technique helps if the furniture has been painted on before. Simply what you to do is apply the paint remover on the piece of furniture and wait according to the amount of time mentioned in the instruction manual than using the scrapper, scrap the paint off easily and keep doing this until you achieve the desired look.

    Brushing

    Brushing

    Dry brushing your furniture is probably the easiest way to distress your furniture. The best part is it takes the least amount of resources. Take a dry brush and start brushing your piece of furniture, then wipe off the remaining paint on the furniture with a hand towel. This may not be that effective, you probably would have to put some hard work and a large amount of time to get the desired result.

    Sand Paper

    Sand Paper

    Effective and simple, sandpaper can help you distress your furniture with little effort and time. All you have to do is rub sand paper over the piece of furniture until you get the desired look. It has an advantage over the other ways that it will give you an original look like the furniture has worn out over time by its own.

    Vaseline

    Vaseline

    Vaseline is usually available in your home and in addition to sand paper does wonder in distressing your furniture. Petroleum jelly can help expedite the process of sanding so just paint the piece of furniture with Vaseline and in the end use sandpaper to rub off the Vaseline, giving you an original looking distressed piece of furniture easily and with consuming less time than the other ways.

    Antiquing Glaze

    If you are looking for an easy way out then antiquing glaze would be the best product for you. Just paint over the desired piece of furniture and instant you would have a naturally aging paint job. If you are looking for originality then this is the quickest and easy way to do it.

    Chalk Paint

    Chalk Paint

    It’s the least troubling way to get your furniture distressed. It is a product that gives you that antique look in minutes and the incredible thing it that the more you make a mistake while applying it the better because it would give you an authentic look.

    Milk Paint

    Milk Paint

    It comes in a powder form. You need to add water to make a solution and apply over the furniture. This product gives you incredible results and the amazing thing it is that you can get as much creative with as much as you want.

    Wet Distressing

    This technique is useful when you are putting on a second coat of paint over your furniture over your piece of furniture. It is very easy to use, all you have to do is after you have put on the first coat and it has rested for a while then grab a wet towel and rub it over the piece of furniture, make sure you apply a little pressure to take the paint off.

    Vinegar

    Vinegar

    Vinegar can help you create that worn out look you want. All you have to it take a dry piece of cloth and fill up a spray bottle with vinegar. Just spray the vinegar onto the piece of furniture and wipe it off with the dry piece of cloth. It depends on the desired look you want and the number of coatings of paint applied over the piece of furniture. It is an amazingly cheap way to distress your furniture. Because vinegar is usually available in your daily kitchen so additional supplies are needed for this technique.

    The Summary

    In a nutshell, it is really a daunting task to take care of your furniture. But it offers you a lot so taking care of it is your job. Distressing your furniture means taking the paint off it. Usually, this technique is used to take the old paint off and put on a new coating. But if you purposely want to make your furniture look old for that antique look this can be achieved too. There are a lot of simple and easy ways to distress your furniture. The best thing is that most of them require minimal supplies and efforts.

    The Summary

    Paint removers are mostly used in some households to scrape the paint off their furniture. Then there is sandpaper which is a lot easier and less time-consuming. You just have to rub it over your piece of furniture to get the desired antique look you want. If you are looking for an instant way to do it then antiquing glaze, chalk paint and milk are best options. However, the cheapest way to do it is through vinegar. Just spray it on and wipe it off and you have distressed furniture in minutes.