Don't forget the furniture when holiday housecleaning

It's hard to believe the holidays are upon us again. Football, food, family and guests are on everyone's minds. But what about your furniture? How does it look? Is it wobbly? Stained? Scratched?

As we prepare to entertain this season, here are some fixes for those furniture boo-boos and more.

Clean wooden furniture with a rag that's been dampened with mineral-spirits paint thinner. This will remove any airborne grease or oil that has settled on the surfaces. It also will remove a buildup of furniture polish that can accumulate over time.

Fill and cover scratches with stain or filler pens available at your hardware store or home center. These come in a variety of colors to match your finish. They are very easy to use and will help protect the wood.

Fill loose joints with wood glue. You can use a syringe to get the glue into tight spots. Use clamps to hold joints together while the glue sets up. Make sure to cover the “teeth” of the clamps with cloth or rubber to prevent scratches and marks on the wood.

Cover ugly tables with linens and runners.

You can cover upholstered seats with new fabric easily. Just remove old covered seats by loosening screws that hold them in the chair frame. Then cut fabric large enough to fold around edges to the back and staple it in place. Then reinstall the seat for a whole new chair.

Use protective trivets when setting hot or cold dishes on the surfaces.

Happy up your holidays!

Utilitarian sink

Those plastic utility sinks you can buy at the big-box stores are perfect for outdoor areas. They are easy to hook up to a standard garden hose for a water source and, because they are plastic, can be put just about anywhere outside. Use Krylon's Fusion paint for plastic to change the color to something nicer. Add a bar-type faucet and cutting board, and it becomes a nice wet bar for your patio. Or turn it into a super potting bench for your greenhouse. Put wheels on it, and you can take it anywhere.

Trivets are tops

You don't have to be a cook to know that setting a hot pan on a countertop or table is a no-no. It can ruin some surfaces and can be hard, if not impossible, to repair. Trivets are the answer. Just set the hot dish or pan on one of these stands to avoid the problem. You can buy fancy, expensive trivets or you can be a hero and make your own from an ordinary ceramic tile. Any size or color will work. Add some rubber feet to the bottom of the tile to prevent sliding, and you're finished. You can glue rubber washers on if you can't find the actual rubber feet.

Super hints

• You can hang your saw up on a hanger. The type of hanger used for dress pants that clamps the cuffs together is the perfect way to hang up your hand saw and protect it from damage.

• You can personalize your welcome mat by stenciling your name or initials onto a plain doormat. Your friends and family will love it. Hey, they might even use it before tracking mud into your home!

• I found the greatest dog bed at a garage sale recently. It was an old side table flipped upside down to look like a dog-size canopy bed. They had put a thick cushion in the base for the dog to lie on, and painted the whole thing white. It was adorable!

Q. I have a pink sink in my bathroom. I also have a pink bathtub and a pink toilet. Help! What can I do to make them look “normal”?

A. You can replace them. You can have them resurfaced, or you can try to draw attention away from them by painting the rest of the room a different color and perhaps replacing the flooring.

Q. We have a skylight in our den, and we painted the room last summer. I noticed that the shaft going up to the light was really hot and I checked it again this week and it's really cold now. I feel like it needs more insulation but don't know how to get to that, as we can't get into our attic?

A. There are only a few ways you can insulate from the inside of that area. You could add another layer of drywall. You can add insulation to the paint; check with your paint dealer for this. You also might be able to insulate the glass by adding an acrylic panel on the inside of the light or adding a layer of plastic to do the same thing.

Q. I got a nice rug from my grandmother that I want to use in my kitchen. I have a tile floor, and it is very cold and slick. The rug is slippery and wants to slide under my feet. I need to try to stabilize it somehow. What do you recommend?

A. You can buy a rubber rug base and set the rug on top of that. These are available at discount stores, hardware stores and bed and bath stores. You also can buy a spray-on rubber backing at some craft stores. Since it's a family heirloom, I would use the separate rubber backing.

Q. The corner of our lot is at the alley, and people drive over the grass a lot. We would like to find some way to prevent this or at least cut down on it some. What would you suggest?

A. Why don't you buy a large rock and have it placed in the corner of your yard. It will add some style to your yard and cause drivers to be a little more careful. If anything gets ruined, it probably won't be your grass. A lot of shopping centers and parks use this same method, and it works pretty well and doesn't detract from the looks of the yard.

Reader tips

• The trim around my home is all white. My wife cleaned it recently and scratched some of the paint off while cleaning. As the relatives are coming next week, she wanted to cover those spots with more white paint. I just went around with some white shoe polish and hit the spots. The damaged areas are all covered, and it looks just like paint. The sponge applicator really made it quick and easy.

• I bought some nice metal chairs for our patio and already have found rust on them. I cleaned them, but decided to drill a few holes in the seat so that any rain could drain through. I don't know why they didn't do this as part of the original design, but it's taken care of now. I did some sanding and touch-up paint on the rusty spots. I think this will take care of any future rust.

• My son is starting to play soccer and we have a good-size back yard, but I had trouble finding a net to use for a goal. I ended up making a simple one from PVC pipe that I cut and glued together. I bought a simple net to put over it, and my son is getting pretty good at the game. He even likes to have his friends over to play, too.

• Our brick fireplace was an ugly pink color. It matched the rest of the house but not the inside at all. So I painted it. I was afraid to do the whole surface so I used a sponge to dab on some gray paint to change the color a little bit tone it down. It really looks nice now and finally matches our interior decor. It actually only took about an hour and probably a dollar's worth of paint, too.

• The tiles my wife wanted to use on our backsplash were outrageously expensive and rather colorful a little too colorful for my taste and certainly more costly, too. I wanted something more plain (and less expensive), so we compromised. We used a plain tile on most of the surface, but ran a strip of the decorative tile about two-thirds of the way up the wall. We saved a bundle doing it that way, and it looks very nice. I'm glad we could both get what we wanted out of the project, and it's something we can live with for a while.

Shop talk

• Excessive dryer duct lengths or ducts that have elbows to them can be inefficient and even dangerous. Even a straight run can get clogged with lint and run less efficiently. Now you can add the Dryer Duct Booster fan to your ductwork and cut your dryer time in half as well as prevent lint accumulation and fire hazards. It works so well, it even has a no-clog, five-year guarantee. It's fairly simple to install and could solve some real problems for you. Call Tjernlund Products at (800) 255-4208 or go to www.tjernlund.com for more information and to find a local dealer.

• If you like the flexibility of a silicone caulk and the ease of an acrylic caulk, you'll love Groov by GE. It's not silicone or acrylic but a totally unique formula that has the good features of both. It's waterproof, shrinkproof and paintable. It's available in both indoor and outdoor formulas and you can find it at a wide variety of home centers and hardware stores. To find out more about Groov, go to www.caulkyourhome.com.

• Write to Al and Kelly Carrell in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or visit the Carrells' website at thesuperhandyman.com.

© 2010, Cowles Syndicate Inc.