‘Home Book’ helps you tap into creativity

‘Home Book’ helps you tap into creativity

A beautiful home lives somewhere inside that mind of yours. And finding it shouldn’t be that difficult.

“The Home Book: Creating a Beautiful Home of Your Own” by House Beautiful magazine (Hearst Books; $40; hardcover) has 464 pages of design ideas and more than 500 color photos.

Divided into three sections — Understand Your Home, which examines a home’s architecture and layout; Elements of Design, which helps you create a decorating scheme based on color, texture and pattern that blends with your home’s structure; and Room by Room, which walks you through the details that complete the look in each room — the book offers advice and design examples from the pros.

Learn about selecting fabrics and patterns; purchasing large pieces of furniture that are proportionate; decorating lofts and indoor-outdoor spaces; and placing items in ways that maximize traffic flow.

Endust products can reduce allergens in home

If the mere presence of dust triggers your allergies, then dusting is only going to make them worse. But did you know that the chemicals used in cleaning sprays also can contribute to the problem?

Endust Free Dusting and Cleaning Spray is a fragrance-free, hypo-allergenic dusting and cleaning product that can reduce allergens on surfaces and in the air, preventing allergic reactions.

In addition to being perfume- and fragrance-free, Endust is made with less-irritating ingredients. Its dispensing system features a narrow-directed spray to reduce bothersome lingering mist and overspraying. A twist-and-lock cap prevents accidental spraying.

The packaging has an ergonomic shape and uses 14 percent less packaging for less waste.

Cost is $3.99.

For more information, visit Endust.com.

Holiday Gift-A-Rama offers tips on shopping

It’s wimpy to just give in and buy your friends the first thing a random salesperson suggests.

FineLiving.com’s Holiday Gift-A-Rama (fineliving.com/giftarama) has several features that might come in handy and perhaps even toughen you up.

Your ShopPersona: helps you discover your shopping personality, whether it be trendy, artistic, practical or eco-friendly. The tool narrows down gift choices by criteria that fit your style. If you don’t know your style, you can always take the quiz.

ShopTalk Blog: goes into everything and anything related to the holidays, with posts on top holiday gift ideas from bloggers who should know what they’re talking about, such as Jillian St. Charles, director of Fine Living online; Melanie Mannarino, deputy executive editor at Redbook magazine; and Elizabeth Tipton, of HGTV.com.

Gift Wars: tells which gifts are competing to be the best. Curious to know which is more popular, the “Silent Wine Refrigerator” or the “Engraved Multi Tool Pliers”? Your votes decide the winners, and the site saves a list of the gifts with the most votes.

While there, you can add your favorites to your personal wish list or click the “buy now” links.

Softening steel’s shine

You can soften the cold shine of stainless steel with granite and ceramic, says Karen Sciascia, designer for A Matter of Style in Cheshire, Conn. In a traditional or contemporary kitchen design, Sciascia favors cream-colored granite counters to offset the cold shine of stainless appliances.

“The mica in the stone really picks up the soft gray color in the stainless,” she says.

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