Our Best Ideas for Your Outdoor Décor

Posted by: on May 16th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Spring is a great time to update your outdoor décor, and there are so many ways to improve your outdoor spaces, from creating a new shady spot for outdoor entertaining, repainting an old patio furniture set to finding a few simple ways to add a little color to your back porch.

Take a look at the best of the outdoor decorating ideas we’ve featured here on the Apron Blog.

When you’re looking to create an outdoor living room or backyard oasis, first consider how you’re going to define the space. A gazebo or canopy is an easy easy way to designate a corner of your outdoor area for an outdoor living or dining room.

Outdoor living room with cabana and grill from Centsational Girl

 

If your outdoor area is a porch or covered patio, consider sprucing it up with accessories, or adding a privacy screen to create a cozier space.

 

Update Your Patio with Accessories

 

It’s important to know your budget, and if you’re working within a smaller one, consider refinishing your old patio furniture with some sandpaper and spray paint. It’ll be a time-consuming project, but it’ll breathe new life into an old friend and keep pennies in your pocket. Did you know you can also spray paint your patio umbrella to match your furniture?

 

Refinished rusted outdoor dining table, using spray paint

And take a look at our Style Challenge series, in which we showed you how guest bloggers styled a Home Depot patio set and walked you through all the style choices they made. Katie Anderson of Modern Eve create a beautiful table setting for her outdoor dining room.

Outdoor Table Setting Ideas with Katie of Modern Eve

 

Kelly of Fabulous K took up the Style Challenge by designing a beautiful outdoor living area for her covered patio.

Shop all of our outdoor living items to find inspiration for your green space, including gazebos and canopies, pillows and throws, grillsoutdoor furniture, and more.

A Casual, Southwestern-Style Patio from Sara of The By & By

Posted by: on May 16th, 2012 | 3 Comments

Style Challenge with Sara from The By & By

In our Style Challenge series, we challenge some of our favorite bloggers from around the web to surprise us with their ideas for creating a stylish and functional space using a single Home Depot product as a starting point.

Sara Stoner from The By & By created a smart, yet casual Southwestern outdoor space to suit an Austin backyard. Working with the Morris 4-Piece Patio Seating Set, along with succulents, throw pillows, and quirky accents, Sara shows us how to make the most of a small outdoor space.

When the Home Depot reached out to The By & By to participate in the Style Challenge: Patio Edition, I jumped at the opportunity – momentarily overlooking the fact that I happen to live in an apartment and not a house with a yard. However, I did have a patio in mind that I tend to frequent more than my own street-facing porch… enter my very good friends Courtney and Ray (and their cat Kristo)!

Since they recently made the move from apartment living to renting a duplex with a yard, I figured that assisting with a backyard makeover would be the perfect house-warming gift for my favorite couple. Not to mention, hopefully ensure my invitation to backyard gatherings all summer long. OK, so my motives weren’t entirely selfless. What can I say? I’m a hopeless cook who loves homemade burgers. And great company, obviously.

 

Girl outdoors with a gray cat

 

Finding the perfect patio set was key to the makeover. However, since the backyard is really narrow and has a relatively small patio, choosing a large, traditional patio table wasn’t really an option. Instead, we set our sights on finding a set that came with separate pieces that would utilize the space more effectively.

The Martha Stewart Morris 4-Piece Patio Seating Set from The Home Depot turned out to be more than we could have hoped for. Complete with two cushy armchairs, settee, and a crazy-gorgeous slate coffee table, it has the perfect amount of seating for entertaining a small group (like, say, yours truly) and a casual, conversational feel. It’s kind of fabulous to say the least.

Read More

Inspired: The Polo Blue Braided Rug

Posted by: on May 15th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Living room inspiration board with nautical theme

Nautical-themed rooms have been popping up in magazines and design blogs for months now. While sailing kitsch might work well for a beach house, there are ways to create a room that feels preppy and sea-worthy without anchor prints, seashells, and sailboats. To create a living room that evokes the feeling of a Cape Cod cottage you can’t go wrong relying on a few traditional prints and a blue-and-white color scheme. This will give your living room a nautical feel without diving too far into one particular theme.

In the inspiration board above, we were inspired by the Colonial Mills Allure Polo Blue Braided Area Rug. If the blue-and-white stripe pattern wasn’t enough to convince us, the name of the rug sure did! It perfectly references a casual Hamptons beach house.

TOP ROW (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT):

The Rockford Sofa in Natural Twill is quite modern in form, but the nickel-finished nailhead trim gives it a touch of traditional formality. This large piece perfectly anchors the space because of its light color and versatile look. It will match any look you’re going for in the future.

Read More

YouTube Tuesdays: Who’s Next? Are You Ready for a Career at The Home Depot?

Posted by: on May 15th, 2012 | Make A Comment

For many of our associates, working at The Home Depot is more than just a job. It’s being part of a family. Wearing the orange apron is a source of pride.

Do you have what it takes to be a part of the next generation of leaders at The Home Depot? If you’re ready to rise to the challenge, we may have an internship or career opportunity on our team that can help take you to the top.

Watch this video to find out what we mean. (It’s not your normal corporate video. It’s actually pretty fun to watch.) And ff this video speaks to you, visit our Who’s Next web page for more information on starting a career at The Home Depot.

 

Catch up with YouTube Tuesdays and Thursdays for more Home Depot videos on the Apron Blog. 

Eat Up: 5 Fruits and Vegetables To Grow On Your Wall

Posted by: on May 14th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Via JS on Wikipedia

The twin arts of gardening and cooking share many secrets in common, not least of all this: that the rewards are enhanced by the ritual of having done the work yourself. A meal that was made for you can bring with it feelings of gratitude, but a meal that was made by you is more alive to your senses, more vital. And how much more so when you’ve not only prepared the food but also raised the ingredients!

Fresh produce is one of the simplest, yet most significant rewards of gardening. In addition to the flavors we normally associate with each, an herb, vegetable or fruit that you have grown yourself tastes of achievement, peace-of-mind, and the deserved enjoyments of the fruits of your labor.

For many of us, the spaces we live in seem to put those rewards out of reach, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

If you live in an apartment, or don’t have room in your yard for a traditional garden, then you may have noted with interest the recent trend in vertical gardening. (See, for example, this very popular Spring Garden Project.) All it takes is a balcony or some other sunny corner to adapt the “living wall”-type flower display to growing produce.

Below are five fruits and vegetables ideal for vertical gardening. We’ve included some tips for growing them in narrow spaces, too.

Read More

First Look: Liberty Hardware’s Handmade Cabinet Knobs

Posted by: on May 13th, 2012 | Make A Comment

It’s not so common these days to find hand made products outside of specialty boutiques. But Home Depot is pleased to be carrying a line of exquisite hand crafted cabinet knobs, pulls and handles by Liberty Hardware. It’s Liberty’s HomeGrown Hardware line of unique cabinet hardware designed and made by three American artisans.

Watch this short video to see how Tammy Newhof of Windborne Studios produces her beautiful fused glass cabinet pulls.

 

In addition to the fused glass knobs by Tammy Newhof, Liberty’s HomeGrown Hardware series features beautiful handcrafted knobs, pulls and handles by potter Sue Salvaterra Hinz and metal worker Matt Waldrop. The series is sold exclusively by The Home Depot, available online and at select Home Depot stores.  Learn more about the series at Liberty Hardware.

 

Our First Look series gives Apron Blog readers an inside look by highlighting some of the videos our store associates watch to learn about the new products and services available at The Home Depot. 

Grill It: Charcoal Grill or Gas Grill, Which is Better?

Posted by: on May 12th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Food on a gas grill

Q: Charcoal or gas, which is better?

A: That is the subject of a raging debate that’s not likely to be decided anytime soon. But the two different types of grills certainly have their strong suits.

Gas is generally more convenient. The fuel, either from a propane tank or natural gas line, is less of a hassle than charcoal nuggets for most outdoor cooks. Gas grills also heat up faster, so they may be suitable for spur-of-the-moment throw-downs or entertaining larger groups in a hurry. They’re also easier to fire up and to clean up than charcoal varieties.

The controls on gas offer the griller more precision in manipulating the heat, though learning to “read” the heat on charcoal is certainly a bragging right of its own. At the end of a session, the gas grill can be cranked up for cleaning, which isn’t the case with charcoal.

Charcoal lovers counter that gas just can’t compare. For starters, it doesn’t get as hot. Charcoal converts also swear by the flavor, saying that the unique smokiness is not replicable on gas, period. Charcoal grills also tend to be less expensive, so they’re more accessible for the everyday consumer.

[Editor's Note: Grilling Tips is for all you grill fanatics out there. Whether you swear by propane, charcoal or gas, our BBQ tips have you covered. If you're in need of an upgrade - shop Grills at homedepot.com.]

Lawn Care: Are You Drowning Your Lawn?

Posted by: on May 12th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Getting to have it both ways is a rare luxury. When it comes to your yard, though, taking steps toward a healthier lawn can also contribute to the health of your community.

According to Gary Grabow, an extension specialist at North Carolina State University, “There’s anecdotal evidence that people put 50 to 100 percent too much water on their lawns.” That excess irrigation damages lawns in the process. Over-watered grass may develop shallower roots – or worse, disease.

sprinkler on lush, green lawn

Know when to say when

 

That’s good to know, not just for the health of your lawn, but also for the good of the local environment. In recent years, many states and urban areas have faced rapidly decreasing water supplies. A 2005 study using data compiled from NASA and Landsat satellites estimates that Americans devote three times as much land to lawns as to the production of corn. Considering that as much as half of the average household water consumption goes toward outdoor irrigation, all that lawn-space adds up to a veritable deluge during the spring and summer lawn season, with much of it simply going to waste. And runoff from over-watered lawn spills into nearby bodies of water, sometimes spreading disease to local wildlife.

It may, however, by possible to stem that tide. Watering efficiently means not only lower bills and a better yard for you, but also a more ready supply of water for the rest of us.

If you’ve already kicked off your annual routine, start by gauging how much water you’re applying to your yard each time you water it. Before you turn on your sprinklers, strategically place open-mouthed containers with straight sides around the yard to catch a portion of the water. Very few lawn irrigation systems dispense water evenly across a landscape, so it’s important to get samples from different areas in the yard.

Read More

Spring Garden Project: How to Make Compost

Posted by: on May 11th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Compost bin with kitchen scraps

 

The secret to a healthy garden is right in your trash. Composting your organic waste keeps it out of your local landfill, and it creates a nutrient-rich humus that boosts the fertility of your soil naturally. Composting is easy, too. If you’ve never had a compost bin before, you might be surprised at how much gratification you’ll get from seeing vegetable scraps and lawn clippings turn into wonderful, fertile and sweet smelling humus. And wait ’til you see how it helps make your vegetable garden and flowers thrive.

So, let’s get started creating compost.

 

Products needed to create a compost bin

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

Compost bin

Pitchfork

Manure or compost maker

Lawn debris and plant clippings

Kitchen scraps

A paint bucket and lid (optional)

Read More

Building a Tree Swing

Posted by: on May 11th, 2012 | Make A Comment

Photo by pennuja

 

Being on a swing is always one of the most cherished memories of childhood play. Who can forget that feeling of freedom with the sun in your face and wind in your hair as you swing your legs to try and go higher and higher? Home Depot Community member Elsamurai94 wants to relive those memories and he turned to The Home Depot Forums for assistance. Forum associate Newf had some good advice on how to build a tree swing:

Elsamurai94:  My friend and I want to build a tire swing this summer after we are finished using the tires for agility training.  What should I used to make the swing? Nails? Rope? Chain?

Read More