Stains? Kill 'em

Stains? Kill 'em
Q. I have one wall in my room that is damaged, and even when I paint it, it still looks awful. It's crooked, and a weird stain keeps coming through the top. I don't know how to make it look good. -- Bethany Anne, Kentucky
A. Crooked walls are tough, and ones that keep getting stained are even worse.
Here are a few suggestions that might help you out. First, there is something called Kilz that usually covers every stain, even moldy water damage. But that is just the first part of it. Your wall is crooked, so you have to do a few things to detract attention from the surface. One thing you might try is painting the wall with stripes that are about 8 inches wide. Paint your wall a lighter color first, then tape out your stripes. Paint over the tape with the lighter color again, and when that dries, put on your darker color. The stripes will detract from the shape of the wall. Another thing you might try is to fill your wall with a ton of framed photographs -- so many that you don't notice the wall underneath. If you put your bed in front of that striped wall and do the photographs, you won't notice the wall at all.
Bracket the problem
Q. My parents put this huge wall unit in my room, and I hate it. It's falling apart and wobbling from side to side, and if I put any more stuff on it, it's going to fall apart. The problem is that I do need it for my things! How can I make it pretty and sturdy? -- Carmen A., North Dakota
A. Well, this is going to take some work.
You are going to need some Elmer's Wood Glue, several L- brackets and enough 1/2- to 3/4-inch long screws (depending on how thick the wood is on your unit) for the brackets.
First you have to remove everything from the unit. Before you stand it up perfectly straight, you need to put wood glue in all of the areas that are separating, such as the sides of the shelves, the back and every edge that you can squeeze in some glue. Make sure that you are neat about it, too! If you have bowed shelves, you might want to try flipping them over first before you tackle this project.
Now stand it up perfectly straight and let it dry. Next, take some L-brackets and attach them in areas that are bending. Each corner is a good place to start. Connecting the sides to the back will also help. If you can hide the brackets on the inside of the unit where your items will cover them, even better.
Now with a drill, carefully screw in the brackets. You might ask a parent to help you with this. Give the unit a coat of paint, and you have a brand-new shelf.
If you need even more shelves in the unit, you can add them by having the wood cut to size and using the L-brackets to attach them. Extra shelves will help keep the unit more sturdy, too.
Carefully tack some Christmas-tree lights around the edges or even some fake flower vines, and your new shelf will be a winning addition to your room. Your parents might even want it back!
XNeed help with your room? E-mail your question to markmontanonyc@aol.com. Mark Montano can be seen on TLC's "While You Were Out." Check local listings for times. Mark also writes "Cool Room," a monthly room-makeover column in CosmoGirl magazine. For more information about Mark and his work, check out www.markmontano.com.