Design Sponge has an awesome story today of a d*s reader who had these designs silkscreened onto their cabinets. The idea absolutely energizes me- I'd love to do something similar with my own cabinets. There are so many things you could do with this.

I especially love the soothing colors and the silhouettes. It makes for a restful kitchen.

White vinegar has so many uses, it would take me days to list them all. However, here are some uses in the laundry that you may not have thought of.

Vinegar can prevent fading of new clothing. Add a half cup of vinegar during the rinse cycle. It also brightens clothes!

If you're really concerned about colors running, soak them in a vinegar bath for 10 minutes before washing. Vinegar sets colors- that's why we use it for easter egg dying.

Adding a half cup to your rinse cycle also loosens lint and pet hair from your clothing. It also helps reduce static cling. If you're like me and always forget the rinse cycle, you can use a Downy ball to put the vinegar in. Here's a link on how Downy balls work, in case you've ever wondered.

Vinegar's a great stain and smell remover. Double it up with baking soda to make a foamy super stain and smell killer!

Vinegar also can help get rid of hard water buildup in your steam iron. Just run a 50/50 vinegar/water mix through your iron.

I regularly add vinegar to my wash and have found it has great benefits. The biggest bonus is that it is quite inexpensive, saving money on fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Give it a try!

What, have a cool-looking fish tank and irritate my cats all at once? I'm so there. I grew up with a fish tank in my home, and I really miss watching the fish. The only problem is, my cats would consider a fish tank to be an all-you-can-eat buffet, so I don't have one.

When I ran across this fish tank, I about jumped with joy. My cats are rather talented, but cannot scale a wall. If I put this far enough away from any furniture, I think I could actually have a fish.

Alas, the only trouble is what the commenters at Amazon are saying- they say it is cruel to keep a fish in such a small tank. Other people say betas enjoy small spaces, so who knows what is really the truth. I still like the idea of being able to have a fish tank without my cats eating the fish. Being eaten by a cat would be truly cruel to the fish, no?

CraftZine pointed to this awesome idea today. Theoretically, it's more craft/DIY than home improvement, however, by crafting, you can usually come up with things to decorate with, so expect some crafting posts here at ShakHammer.

At any rate, the Craft Leftovers blog is selling monthly subscriptions to an awesome zine/leftover craft items package. Here's what you get:

+++A kit for a pattern from the previous month of Craft Leftovers
+++Reclaimed Craft Leftovers goodies (flat quarters of vintage fabric, buttons, iron on patches, etc)
+++Craft Leftovers Monthly - A 10 page zine filled with as much tips on leading a stress free crafty lifestyle, a Craft Leftovers Monthly only project, cutout bonus projects, and reclaimed leftovers sprinkled throughout as a 10 page zine can hold.
+++Little handmade goodies that go along with the zine’s content.

How awesome is that? Act fast if you want one, though, there are only 20 available. Neat stuff, to be sure. 

My husband, who runs a multi-million dollar kitchen, cannot seem to understand the concept of a laundry hamper. He will sit his dirty clothing beside the hamper every time. Needless to say, it's frustrating.

So when I saw this idea today on the Clutter control Freak Blog, I jumped for joy. Here's a way to break the cycle of men who have no idea how to use a hamper! Capitalizing on most boys' love of sports, tossing the laundry into the basketball hamper will certainly help to curb the laundry drama in my household.

I wonder how strange this would look in my own bedroom.

I've seen lots of neat things in the blogosphere over the past couple of days and wanted to share them all with you. Let's get started with the Orange Slice Table. It's filled with awesome and win, but the $2,900 price tag on it is a little more- okay, a lot more- than I would spend on a table, no matter how nifty. However, I think this could be fairly easily DIYed. It might not have the same finish on it that this table does, but it would look good just regularly painted.

Cassa Sugar has a list of 10 things you can stop cleaning. I don't know that I can agree. As the Casa Sugar author points out, it leans fairly heavily on throwing things away, and that's not a good way to live- not for your wallet and not for the planet. One that I totally agree with is the grill gate. I have always cooked off the residue and then hosed it off. Then, prior to the next grilling, I just handwash the gate with soap to make sure there's no germs on it. Easy peasy.

Since I joined this site, I kept hearing about Life In A Venti Cup. For some unknown reason I assumed it was the same as Triple Venti. When someone recently asked me if I had heard of Life In A Venti Cup, I said, "Jay? Sure, I've been reading him for a long time." "Um, no," said my friend, "The blogger at Life In A Venti Cup's name is Franki, and she's a woman." Once I got all that sorted out, I added Life In A Venti Cup to my feed reader and I am so glad I did! Not only does she have one of the slickest site designs I have ever seen, but she wrote this post, "Lessons I've Learned From Ben Moore" that absolutely cracked me up. Go on over and read it, anybody who has ever struggled with painting will be able to totally relate.

Want a spa-like bathroom but can't pony up the cash for a total remodel? Wise Bread has tips for making your bathroom more spa-like on the cheap.

Finally, we'll wrap this up with a link to pictures of Ree's porch remodeling project. Ree at Confessions Of a Pioneer Woman has the most beautiful photojournaling skills, I can't wait to see how her porch remodel turns out!

Dear Big Chill,

I have lusted after many an appliance in my lifetime. I mean, Dysons are the most fab vacuum cleaner ever made, and I'd just love to have a nifty new front loading washing machine. However, I have never in my life experienced such lust as I have for your refrigerators and stoves.

Unfortunately, I'm a little cash strapped at this time. I don't suppose you would consider sending me some samples so I can review them for the blog? Our readers, I'm sure, would totally appreciate knowing if the appliances work as awesomely as they look.

What, you don't want to send over $7000 worth of stuff (including delivery, since I'll need it delivered, natch) to me? Especially since you were already mentioned on that juggernaut blog CasaSugar just today? Well, I understand. But I'll be right here if you ever change your mind and decide you want to be reviewed by the coolest blogger on the internet. No, not Brittney Gilbert, me. I want to review you.

Very Truly Yours,

BadBadIvy

Man, geek chic. It's everywhere, and it's about darn time! No longer are we geeks forced to give up our lunch money, we're taking yours, by making cool geeky toys and selling them to all you cool, hip people.

Case in point, this periodic table shower curtain by Simple Memory Art. Was it just me, or was it fun learning the periodic table? Okay, it was probably just me, but never fear. If you don't dig the periodic table, there's one for the weather nerds, one for the space nerds, one for the nature nerds, and one for the Jurassic nerds.

And if that isn't enough, there is all kinds of other niftiness at the site. Go check it out for yourself. And can I request a shower curtain for word nerds, like me? Muchas gracias, in advance. 

There are so many times I have found that functional home items, like coat hooks, or cabinets, or faucets, are just plain ugly. Lately the trend has been to make these functional items beautiful as well. We've seen lots of beautiful cabinets and faucets lately, but here is a coat hook that is just gorgeous:

Its simplicity in design is what makes it so awesome. It can be matched to any color, as shown, or you can use the standard silver.

The Bach Coat Hook is reasonably priced at $12.99 for one, $29.99 for a 3 pack, $49.99 for a 6 pack, or for those of you that have a whole lotta hanging to do, a 9 pack for the incredible bargain price of $63.00.

This is a stylish addition for anyone's home or office. To make the deal even sweeter, the fine folks at The Art Of Storage are offering a coupon deal: shak5 for $5 off a $29 purchase, or shak10 for $10 off a $49 purchase. Awesome deal!

My dad always said if you can't fix it with WD-40 and/or duct tape, then it can't be fixed. I largely agree. There's something very awesome about WD-40, the smell takes me back to my childhood, so not only does it have 2000 uses, but it also is useful for making me cheery.

My fave use for WD-40 is definitely using it to remove gum from walls, floors, and anything else it might get onto. I have a three year old who likes to chew gum but hasn't figured out how to keep it in his mouth yet. WD-40 has not yet failed me in removing the gum from whatever places he might get the gum into.

What's your best WD-40 tip?

As a Realtor, I often walk into perfectly good homes that have sat on the market for far longer than they should because of obvious BAD WALLPAPER!

This trend of years past is so often the kiss of death in todays housing market. "Why can't the buyers see past it" I am often asked by sellers. "They can always take it down and paint" the seller goes on to suggest. But if YOU the sellers are not willing to deal with the hassles of wallpaper removal, why do you think the buyer will want to take on this task? Chances are, they won't.

Why has wallpaper removal gotten such a bad rap anyway? Mostly because people don't know the best methods for stripping it or the best methods of installing it to begin with. If a wall is properly treated before the placement of the wall covering, then removal is usually somewhat painless.

Here are a few of the tips from 11 Tips for Stripping Wallpaper: How to Get Rid of Ugly Wallpaper! a post by Jeanette J. Fisher from The DIY Blog. 

Use a clothes steamer if you don't rent a professional steamer
Use a "Paper Tiger" scoring tool across the damp section
Spray the section with fabric softener and hot water
Score the section with the paper tiger again
Steam again
Scrub w/ hot water, TSP, and a scratchy sponge

It can be such a dramatic transformation to rid yourself of dated styles of wall coverings (and not to mention the sponge painted or feather dusted rooms)! Hopefully these tips will help you "peel back" the years on your home and provide a new canvass for your decorative style of today.

Hanging art on your wall can be easy or a source of a whole lot of drama. You know how it goes, "The left side needs to be higher. No, MY left. Now the right side needs to be higher." Ugh.

I have a very easy method of hanging pictures on the wall. Essentially, you use lip gloss to mark the exact spot where you are going to hang the picture. This enables you to put the nails exactly where they need to be- no easy feat with some pictures.

When hanging your pictures, make sure the center of the picture is at eye level. This is the most common mistake novice decorators make when hanging art. I've made that mistake myself, it is quite easy to want to hang the pictures higher than they should be.

When hanging a group of pictures, think of them as one unit. This means the center of the grouping should be at eye level. Be careful grouping pictures that are different sizes, sometimes this works, usually it does not.

Think of your furniture size when picking pictures. For example, your picture should not be longer than your sofa. Additionally, you shouldn't pick a tiny little picture to hang over your piano.

When you hang a picture that hangs from a wire, use painter's tape to keep it from sliding all over the place. Just wrap the wire several times with painter's tape, and hang.

Be creative! You don't have to just hang your picture on the wall, you can lean them on a shelf or mantle, or hang pictures on a wire, like this.

Happy picture hanging!

The response to our Cool Tools Giveaway with Ryobi has been more than awesome! Thank you to everyone for your comments and commitment to doing it yourself. Unfortunately, even though everyone loves Ryobi tools only one can win.

Can you imagine being a handyman and winning all these really cool tools? Well, Ted Bergemann has gone and done it! Ted is the winner of our Super Cool Tools Giveaway with Ryobi.

Ted has won the Ryobi Super Combo Kit that includes a drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, and flashlight. This all comes in it's own handy dandy canvas bag for storage and transport.

Congratulations Ted! We sure hope this helps in your handyman business and let us know of any cool projects that you're working on and we'll post about it!

There is slightly less than 12 hours left on our Ryobi Cool Tools Givewaway. Hurry and get your comments in on this post in order to enter to win the tools! Deadline is midnight tonight.

Now is the time to be shopping to outfit your dorm room! Target and Bed Bath and Beyond both have entire college sections on their sites to help you get ready to outfit your dorm room.

The key to dorm living is to maximize space and minimize clutter. Storage is key. Also, keep in mind that you will usually be moving every semester, so it also needs to be easy to move.

One of my picks is the mirror set pictured here from Target, $29.99. Cute, and makes the room look larger. Just make sure you know the school's policy about putting holes in the wall for hanging them.

I was helping my dad put together a stand for my mom's Nefertiti bust she just bought. We were using brass screws, and he warned me not to go too fast with the drill, because the brass screws strip easily. Alas, I went too fast with the drill and stripped the screw. This is why my dad doesn't let me help him very often.

He wasn't very mad, though, like he usually would be. He told me to go over to his tool bench and get the Grabit drill bits. He then easily removed the screw and drilled a new screw right into place. If he had not had the Grabit screw remover, this could have taken a very long time.

So, if you have a tendency to strip screws like I do, check out the Grabit stripped screw removers. It would save you a ton of time!

My buddy ChrisJob over at Curbly has a great series going about power tools. It's a great primer for people wanting to learn more about power tools and what is the right tool for the job. For the novice, this is extremely important information and even for the expert, there are some tips you might not know about. Go on over to Curbly and check these posts out:

Power Sanders
Circular Saws
Cordless Drills
The right tool for the job

CasaSugar reports today on the trend of Tetris-inspired bookshelves. They add a great point of interest to any room, with the way the shelves are arranged. This particular bookshelf is also eco-friendly, being made of highly renewable bamboo. Bamboo is a type of grass and grows quickly, but can be used like wood. Bamboo is a perfect material to make things like bookshelves and flooring from, because it is sustainable and is very attractive.

There's this lamp you really love, but it needs rewiring. Don't throw it away, you can rewire it yourself! Tutorials.com has a great guide to rewiring your lamp. It seriously takes about 15 minutes or so to rewire a lamp, less time if you know what you're doing. The hardest part, to me, is scoring the sheathing without cutting or nicking the copper wire. Just make sure you have a very sharp knife so you don't have to work too hard at getting the sheathing off.

Have fun rewiring your vintage lamp!

What home improvement blogs are you reading? (Other than, of course, the best home improvement blog in the world, Shakhammer) Here's a few that I love:

Curbly- Okay, I have to read Curbly because I also write for them, but it's a fab blog with all sorts of home improvement/DIY stuff.

Casa Sugar- It's a little bit design, a little bit home improvement, a whole lot awesome.

House In Progress- A new one to my reading repertoire, House In Progress is the real deal, man.

Make: Blog- Okay, so it is more DIY than home improvement, but if I could marry a blog, this would be the one. It is just that fab.

Now that I've shared my faves, let's hear it from you readers! What's your favorite home improvement blogs?

The tools we are giving away are certainly necessities for any homeowner, but there are certain non-power tools you absolutely cannot live without. Here are 5 tools you had better have on hand, or else!

Hammer- Please, Hammer, don't hurt 'em! From nailing pictures to the wall to breaking geodes open with the kids, a hammer is an essential for homeowners and renters alike. You can even use your hammer to open stubborn jar lids- by tapping sharply on the lid, it will often break the seal. Just don't whack it too hard, you don't want to break the whole jar.

Screwdrivers- You'll need both flathead and Phillips head screwdrivers. Phillips tighten and loosen, well, everything. The flathead screwdrivers are good for prying up smaller nails and once in awhile you run across a screw that actually needs a flathead screwdriver, like outlet plates.

Tape measure- You're going to want to measure things. If you have kids, they're going to want to measure things. Rulers aren't long enough and yardsticks are unwieldy. What's a person to do? Get a tape measure, natch.

Duct tape- Let me tell you, internets. You need duct tape. If you can't fix it with duct tape, you can't fix it. But try using more duct tape before you give up on fixing the item. More duct tape is always a good idea.

Pliers- Needle nose, wire cutting, small slip joint, and locking. Yes, you need all 4 kinds. When I was a kid, I fell in love with needle nose pliers and have loved them ever since. I like the little "snap, snap, snap" noise they make when you are opening and closing them. And I love how they can get into tight areas where you need some plier-action. Ah, needle nose pliers. I heart you.