THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240103
SECTION: HOME & GARDEN PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Around the House
SOURCE: Mary Flachsenhaar, Special to Home and Garden
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
WEIGHING IN at 13 pounds, standing just 11 inches high, Black & Decker's new ShopBox Portable Project Center might be the ideal gift for the do-it-yourselfer who lives in an apartment. The center makes it possible to do big jobs in small places.
The combination workbench and tool box has a sturdy 18-by-12-inch work surface with wooden vise jaws for clamping items. This surface lifts open to a tool tray and, beneath that, additional storage space for tools. Small objects such as nuts, bolts and screws can be stored in a flip-top, pullout storage tray with bins on the front of the unit.
For really big jobs, ShopBox, whose work area supports up to 250 pounds, can be clamped to a stationary work surface.
ShopBox, catalog number SB200, sells for around $50 at Lowe's, Hechingers, K mart and some HQ stores. It will be more widely available at other local hardware stores in March. Cozy up when it's cold
Come winter, it may be dark and dreary outside, but there's no reason it can't be bright and cozy inside. In a recent issue of McCall's magazine, interior design columnist Alexandra Stoddard offers tips on how to add warm, friendly touches to rooms in the chilly months ahead.
Use pillows, quilts and extra fabrics to increase a room's ``cozy quotient.'' In each upholstered chair, place a baby pillow covered with fabric that picks up a room color. Rest a folded quilt on a hall bench or chair. Use a fabric-covered screen to warm up a room and hide clutter.
Intensify colors. For example, choose strong pastels for bath towels. Use vividly colored vases. Put family pictures in wooden frames stained blue, red, green and yellow. Hang a colorful apron from a hook in the kitchen.
Make the floors brighter and warmer. Place a braided rug inside the front door, a cotton rag rug under the kitchen table. Add a cheerful runner to a dark hallway. Group baskets under a table.
Turn up the lights. When possible, replace 60-watt frosted bulbs with 100-watt clear bulbs. When you turn the lights on in a room, also light a candle. Put a spotlight on a small table to draw the eye to a special painting or flowering plant.
Small pad stamps out odors
Stubborn odors, beware. A new product called Green Earth Odor Destroyer is out to get you.
Although it looks simply like a small piece of cardboard, the destroyer makes a mighty claim: When placed in an area plagued by an offensive odor, it will erase that odor for six months to a year.
Company officials won't reveal how the product is made, but they assure customers that it is non-toxic, hypoallergenic and environmentally safe. A child or pet could even chew on the wafer-thin pad without ill effect, they promise.
While similar products frequently use fragrances to mask odors, this one relies on an enzyme-like process to eat the odor, not just cover it up.
The pad can be used on pet stains, in a diaper pail, bird cage or litter box, in a refrigerator, bathroom, basement, even in a pair of foul-smelling shoes.
One pad should work efficiently in an area that measures up to 10-by-10 feet.
We tested the destroyer by placing it overnight on a fragrant spot left by Sam the beagle. Happily, by morning, the odor had was much less intense and Sam had refrained from eating the pad.
One Odor Destroyer costs $5.99. Three pads can be purchased for $16.50. To place an order, call the Green Earth Corp. in Palm Harbor, Fla., at (800) 9NO-ODOR. Payment can be made by check, Visa or MasterCard.
Inserts that make scents
Another tip that makes good scents comes from Heloise's column in the December issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. The perfumed advertising inserts that appear in magazines can be placed in the bottom of a bathroom wastebasket to keep that room smelling nice, suggested a reader. Heloise added that a scented page could also be inserted in a lingerie drawer, linen closet, stationery box or in an empty car ashtray, as long as it's removed before the ashtray is used. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Black & Decker's compact ShopBox...
by CNB