DIY Ideas for your Kids’ Rooms - Black & Decker, India

We hope you liked our DIY ideas for the kitchen and living room spaces in your home. Do drop us a line if you tried any of them out already. Meanwhile, we continue the series with some lovely DIY ideas for your Kids’ Rooms.

Repurposing old furniture: From turning over an old stool to use as a storage cube, to going a bit more advanced and up-cycling an old crib, there is a lot to be done in this room without even needing to buy a whole lot of new stuff. Do check out some great crib recycle ideas at this Pinterest page. Most of these can be attempted easily even by an amateur if you have a good home utility kit.

Turning a wall into art space: The artistic among you can take over a wall, say the one by the side of the child’s bed and decorate it according to your child’s current interests. Cars, dinosaurs or just some lovely flowers can add a unique look to the room and your child will treasure the effort you put into it. One more way to do this are by using ready to stick items such as glowing stars or butterflies to provide colour.

Unleash your child’s creativity: Along with your kid helping you out in the above exercise, another great way to give them their own space would be to turn one portion of a wall into a blackboard area. You can do this very easily with blackboard paint that is available in all hardware stores, not to mention our very own Easy Roller product that will make you feel like a pro even on your first paint job.

Don’t you think these shelves would work well for cars as well? 

Photo courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/royluck/5479830952/

Shelves, shelves and more shelves: Storage space in a kids’ room is always an issue, with the toys and books just seeming to explode all over the space. If you can install even simple single shelves on the wall, this takes away a lot of the clutter from the floor, and helps keep the place a bit tidier. You can keep some of these at the child’s level and leave them in charge of organizing the lower ones too.

For getting to know our products that can help you with the above, please drop in at our website: http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

An Introduction to Metalworking - Black & Decker, India

Not all of us may want to try our hand at metalworking, but once immersed quite well into DIY it might start to sound appealing to us instead of calling the professionals for every small task. Here are some things to keep in mind before embarking on our first metalworking project:

Match the tool to your need: You will see a range of power tools available for metalworking – for example, Black & Decker offers you 5 types of Angle Grinders depending on the power and speed that you require for metal grinding, cutting and finishing. Some people might like to use angle grinders even for cutting rough edges off brick and mortar, and if you have such requirements, you must discuss this need with the store personnel before deciding on the model.

Safety gear: Especially in the field of metalworking, the efficiently of your safety equipment is nearly as important if not more than your metalworking tools. Protective eyeglasses, and a completely covered protective suit and gloves resistant to heat are an absolute necessity, as well as setting up a safe area such as a garage or shed for the actual working.

G720 800 Watts 100mm Small Angle Grinder

Training and Supervision: Before using metalworking gear on your own, try to spend some time training with a professional as well as a few supervised hours trying out simple operations. In this way, any basic handing errors will be corrected before you approach your own DIY project, and you will feel much more confident too.

Research and Information: “Metal” is a general term, and there are many different types like steel, aluminium, brass and bronze that react differently to heat and pressure – for e.g. aluminium is quite hard to cut. Try to gather information on some basic types of metal that you might be working with, and discuss your project with an experienced person to ensure you have a clear idea of the way you are going to deal with the chosen raw material.

Our ergonomically designed tools will definitely make the physical aspects of metalworking much easier for you. Please do check out our entire range at:

http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

DIY Ideas for your Living Room - Black & Decker, India

We hope you liked the DIY ideas for your kitchen that we wrote about in last week’s blog. Continuing the series on easy DIY ideas for your home, let us next move to the living room where we really can have more options than we can choose from. Here are some of them that even beginners can try out:

Paint a wall and use it as a focus: You can easily change the entire look of a room by painting just one wall in an accent colour. Try to plan it in such a way that natural light or a light fixture can be used on this wall to brighten it up further. Painting is now quite an easy task with tools such as the Easy Roller from Black & Decker.

Photo/Painting Wall: You can use the colour accented wall, or even a white one, and use it a canvas for displaying a set of photos or paintings of your choice. You can even hang the items in such a way that you can change to a different set from time to time and make the space even more dynamic. Drilling a hole for a nail is no longer a scary experience with the range of power drills that are available.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/megleo/2403414407/

Create a unique piece of Furniture: For the adventurous, this could mean buying wood and making something from scratch. If that feels like a lot, another way to go about it is to buy or use an old but good quality piece of furniture and make it look unique by polishing or painting in a different way. This can really be a conversation piece and something for you to be proud of for a long time.

Mirrors: A large mirror can be hung up on one wall and this really creates the feeling of space in the room. Make it even more interesting by creating a frame for the mirror using paint or beads and your guests will definitely be giving it a second look.

Reupholster chairs: We usually depend on carpenters or tailors to do this for us, but you would be surprised by how easy some dining chairs are to upholster once you start the process. Do give it a try.

Please drop in at our website and check out the tools that help you start your DIY projects. http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

DIY Ideas for your Kitchen - Black & Decker, India

Who says DIY is only for the men? Women too can try their hand at a variety of DIY projects, with the easy-to-handle tools now available. There are so many ideas for DIY all over our home, let us try to go room by room to see what all we can accomplish. This week, we’re looking at the kitchen space and all we can do there:

First step – Appliances: From citrus juicers to food processors to our microwaves and ovens, we tend to crowd our kitchens with gadgets and most of these are not always required for day-to-day use. Make simple stands for gadgets like ovens and microwaves to move them off your kitchen slab, and put away the rest into cupboards to take out when needed.

Check your walls: We often find that how much ever space we plan for in our kitchen slab, somewhere along the way it becomes a storehouse for all our pots and pans and cleaning apparatus as well. The simplest way to tackle this would be to put up rods and hooks or a similar arrangement on the free wall space so that many of our pans and spoons can be hung up and free up our space.

Image: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3436/3391356553_5dc594dae6.jpg

Use the ceiling space too: If you are lucky enough to have space for a kitchen island type of arrangement, then make sure to use the space above it for hanging your pans and other odds and ends too. This kind of frame can easily be made with DIY, or even scrounging the old furniture shops for a similar arrangement and then up-cycling it with some polishing can give lovely results.

Paint a wall: When painting our entire home, it gets tough to concentrate on specific areas and sometimes you may not be completely satisfied with the end result. It’s easy to remedy it using tools like the Black & Decker Rapid Roller that makes paint jobs so much less messy. You can give this task another twist by painting parts of your wall or cupboards in blackboard paint that gives you easy and reusable writing pads too.

The next time you enter your kitchen, do look over it with a critical eye and I’m sure you’ll get many more ideas too. Do check out our range of tools at Black & Decker that can support you well in this task:

http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

The Top 5 Germ Hotspots in your Home - Black & Decker, India

When young children start going to playschool, parents may be alarmed for the number of coughs and colds they seem to pick up on a regular basis. Although I wouldn’t advice a completely sanitized childhood as the occasional cold is necessary to build resistance as the children grow, it is a good idea to take some extra care at home so that colds don’t recur or spread among family members. Here are the top 5 germ hotspots in your home and surroundings that you might not know about:

Doorknobs and handles: Door handles are one of the most neglected spots for regular cleaning, and you would be surprised at the amount of germs that can lurk there. From being handled by someone having a cold to children who may not wash properly after using the restroom, it is definitely a major hotspot and a daily wipe can really make a difference.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jronaldlee/4321420148/

Food left outside: Food left uncovered can develop bacteria very quickly and must be handled with care. Ensure that food items are stored in the refrigerator as much as possible, or covered immediately after use.

In the bathroom: Taps that are handled regularly as well shower curtains can be sources of bacteria due to the humidity factor, so need regular cleaning and drying. The toilet seat can be an issue when someone has a bad stomach infection, in which case try to keep a separate bathroom for the individual or use toilet covers.

Beds and bedding: Although most germs may not be able to survive on non-living organisms and the chance of catching a cold or an infection from just using the same bedding is minimal, it is a good idea to change your sheets after a bad bout of cold or the flu, just to minimize the risk.

The floor: All parents would have cautioned their kids at one time or the other to not pick up food that has fallen on the floor, so we do have an idea of how unclean it can be. A gadget like the Steam Mop from Black & Decker can be of great help to eliminate germs and bacteria without using chemicals, and this is especially useful to parents with young babies and toddlers.

Do check out the Steam Mop and other products from Black & Decker at our website:

http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

How to ensure safety during DIY? - Black & Decker, India

Many of us are just entering the realm of DIY and may wonder how safe it all is, especially if we get into using power tools at home. There are a lot of measures taken by companies who manufacture the tools to ensure that the tools are safe for use, but we need to also ensure that any other precautions needed at our end are in place. Here are a few of them to set us thinking:

Learn about the device: When buying something unfamiliar to you, ensure that you see a demo of the device before buying it. There would also be someone to help out with understanding the correct grip and position for using power tools so that you can ensure that they are used effectively and in a safe manner.

Safety Goggles: In most DIY projects involving woodwork or metalworking, the use of safety goggles is a must. Even with the best tools, some projectile objects are to be expected, and it is always better to keep sensitive areas like the eyes covered up.

http://www.goodwoodinc.com/blog/wp content/uploads/2012/11/power_tool_safety_goggles.jpg

Gloves: Your hands need to always be protected, in any activity from gardening to carpentry to other more intensive projects like metalworking. A good pair of thick protective gloves should be available in most good hardware stores and any places selling power tool equipment will also be able to guide you in procuring the same.

Protective clothing: In the case of metalworking, you might need a full set of protective gear which covers all your clothing as well as your head and face. This may be more relevant for those in the professional sphere but it cannot miss a mention here.

Cleaning up: From the time you start working even on craftwork projects with your children, clearing up the space at the end of an activity is an essential learning. Pins or scissors lying around can be a danger to younger children and toddlers, and similarly wood chips or other tools must be cleared up and put away immediately as well.

If you think something has been missed out in the above list, do leave us a comment and we will update accordingly. Do have a look at our website for our world class tools that can aid you to safely embark on the DIY journey.

http://www.blackanddeckerindia.in

DIY Ideas for Valentine’s Day - Black & Decker, India

The next big day on the calendar is the much talked about Valentine’s Day that has turned into a day of celebration not just for couples in love, but for families too. It can indeed be a great way of expressing love, and nothing says it better than a handmade gift for the occasion. Here are some ideas:

Cards: These may now be considered a bit old school, but the charm of a handwritten and handcrafted card cannot be matched by most other gifts. All it needs are simple ingredients like chart paper, colouring agents like paints or crayons, and something interesting like dried flowers or quilled papers for a unique addition.

Special Meal: Look up a few new recipes and surprise your partner or family with a home-prepared meal. The availability of exotic ingredients and the wealth of information online, make it a much easier task than it used to be even a few years back. Even an amateur cook can come up with a well thought out and lovely meal.

Cookies: Whether it be the predictable but always favourite heart shaped ones or something a bit more unusual, something for the sweet tooth is always a good idea for Valentine’s Day. You don’t need to be a seasoned baker for cookies, and you will easily find approachable recipes online such as these.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccun934/6867936569

Keepsakes: You could choose to print or stitch a pattern on a t-shirt for the entire family or make a heart-shaped piece of furniture especially for the occasion, and whichever the gift, it is sure to bring back memories of the day for your loved ones. You can consider this as a great chance to start using that home utility kit and make a beginning to that tough DIY project you always thought about.

Kids’ special: A great way to introduce the significance of Valentine’s Day to your kids is to involve them in a project to make gifts for the family. Putting the finished product into a frame will also give you something to cherish for many years.

I hope you can pick up a couple of ideas from here to make your Valentine’s Day extra special. We can provide you all the tools you might need at Black & Decker, do drop in at our website to have a look:

http://www.blackanddecker.in