Home Improvement/Decorating

When your heart's desire is to live the high life, all you need to do is hit the elevator button and zoom up – to the three floors that constitute the Penthouses at Capitol Park.

New products are always showing up on the shelves of garden centers and hardware stores. But do they do the things they claim? And are they worth the money? This week, The Bee's Leigh Grogan evaluates a product and lets you know what she thinks.

Vern Yip is HGTV's answer to Tim Gunn: When Vern shows up on a show, you know that everything is going to be just fine.

While looking through my travel magazines, I've noticed how wonderful the bathrooms are in some of the nicer hotels. How can I get that hotel experience for my own bathroom at home without blowing my budget?

Sometime during the fourth trip to Michaels craft store, I began to have doubts that this project was a good idea. But having sunk so much time and money into it, there was no turning back.

It began with a flowerpot – a few mosaic tiles around the edge and then she would quit. Next was a mirror. Then a picture frame and a few more flowerpots.

The beauty of Joan Leineke's new dream kitchen is that it's absolutely, totally functional.

Time: 14 hours active time

We want to remodel our kitchen and have collected estimates from remodeling contractors and a custom home builder who has turned from new home construction to remodeling.

Whether you're a new homeowner with only a few framed posters to your name or a veteran collector with scores of valuable pieces, how and where to hang artwork can be a daunting task.

Nearly 10 years ago I wrote about making a birdbath with upside-down clay pots. Of all the craft projects I've done over the years, this one has been my favorite.

The interior design scheme in the Curtis Park home of Kitty O'Neal and Kurt Spataro is "yours, mine and ours."
Audio Slideshow: Kitty O'Neal and Kurt Spataro talk about their home.

We need to remodel the master bathroom of our 27-year-old tract house, but we have a lot less equity to tap into than we did when we first started thinking about it a couple of years ago.

Matthew Piner's handsomely restored Victorian blends old-world charm and state-of-the-art energy efficiency. The 1903 home, which sits on Capitol Avenue among the so-called M Street mansions, has its original double-hung windows with subtle imperfections such as wavy glass, spirals and bull's-eyes. Instead of ripping out and replacing the windows, Piner weatherstripped them with bronze springs so they would seal tightly, boosting efficiency.

Wind chimes are rather addictive. Once you've made one, you begin looking around for all sorts of items that would work.

Water features add interest to a garden. To make the rock fountain shown here, you will need a base container, a flower pot, a fountain pump, tubing, a few stones and a little imagination.

We are sick and tired of our dark wood kitchen cabinets. Not only do they look worn out with dings and scratches, but no amount of cleaning or polish will remove the fingerprints embedded in the edges where we open them all the time.

Decoupage is an old craft that involves gluing paper images to an object, then adding coats of sealer until the paper image looks as though it was painted onto the surface.

At the Idea Factory, where the main office may be in midtown Sacramento but the production facilities span the region, the assembly line of creativity can take many forms.

Scott Shields lives inconspicuously, if not elegantly, on a quiet, tree-lined street in Land Park. Petals from an old camellia bush are splattered on his front steps.

With the springing of spring next week, sprucing up a room in your home with a fresh coat is the perfect antidote to the winter blahs.

I live in a small cottage home in a nice location, but my "blah" backyard has too much lawn and not enough privacy from my neighbors. I like my neighbors, but don't feel like saying "hello" every morning when I am in the yard with my coffee.

It's unsettling to see the dishes from your college home economics class on display at a vintage dish shop.

Q: We live in a 40-year-old home in an area we love, but our family is growing and it's just too small and out of date.