Month: February 2019

A chair and desk that were not intended to go together may end up being problematic when you attempt to work with them. Chair arms banging against the front edge of the table can chip, scratch or dent the desk, leading to unsightly damage to the desk. Protect the desk edge with a specialty floor mat or with a border protector that fits above the edge of the desk. Chair Mat Solution A chair mat protects the ground from chair wheels or chair legs, but it can also shield the edge of the desk by preventing the chair from moving beyond a specific point. A lip on this type of floor mat breaks under the desk; when the chair is pushed in, the lip prevents it from pushing up completely contrary to the desk, which also prevents harm. Desk Edging Options Desk edging, made from plastic, polyurethane or metallic, protects…

Cutlery has a specific place at a dinner table, if you are using just a couple of pieces or the entire outfit: salad fork, butter knife and soup bowl. The easiest of settings involves only a knife and fork. The fork goes to the left of the plate, the knife on the right of the plate. Place-Setting Specifics Set the cutlery after you put a plate at each place setting; that way it is simpler to tell how many sets of cutlery are required. It also ensures the items wind up in their proper locations. The fork goes to the left of the plate. Set the knife into the right of the plate using the blade facing the plate. A napkin goes to the left of the fork or atop the dinner plate. A water or beverage glass rests just above the knife. These casual-setting basics apply to more formal…

Put the OxiClean down and step away from your java spill. If you don’t want that carpet or sofa permanently stained, then there are a few things that you should understand about fabrics and how they react to different liquids. “There are so many unique fabrics, so many unique alternatives and problems you can run into,” says Alec Houle, a carpet and upholstery cleaner in the Boston area who’s been eliminating stains for 50 years. “You will need a real strong background in chemistry to know it. If you don’t know it, you’re likely to get in hot water.” Andrea Schumacher Interiors Speaking of which, hot water is something which you don’t wish to place on a spill. In fact, apart from club pop, Houle does not suggest putting anything on a spill. Sure, vinegar alternatives and other all-natural cleansers do the task for smaller spots on rental carpets and…

Brick is more or less the earliest building material. Little, modular, easily produced from local materials, durable and requiring low maintenance, brick was a favored way to build for decades. Brick was used traditionally as a structural material. By creating walls and piers of brick, architects and builders were able to build large and tiny buildings, from the humble home to the cavernous Colosseum. Burns and Beyerl Architects But brick has always been a labor-intensive construction substance. As the price of labor increased, brick became more and more a substance reserved for higher-end houses. And as brick structure became more expensive, we started to use brick less as construction and much more as skin. The result has been the maturation of the brick veneer wall and the remedy of brick and a two-dimensional, decorative component. This is reasonable from a cost standpoint — but a brick veneer can harken back…