Artist Luis Eslava's stylish lampshades (above) prove that Velcro can make some pretty cool decor -- and that's only one of the many why-didn't-I-think-of-that? uses for Velcro. While you might not be up for re-creating Eslava's chic light fixture, I can promise you this: After reading this story, you'll have a whole new appreciation for the spikey-sticky stuff.

1. Make stress-free window treatments
Hanging window treatments is no picnic, but Velcro can make the job easier. Cindy Cummins of DIY Style blog uses Velcro to attach lightweight window treatments to high or odd-shaped windows. "Our design workshop, Creative Chicks, is in an older building with dormer windows and a window above the door," she says. "Velcro makes it easier to tack up a square panel of fabric or put up temporary valances for privacy."

2. Attach interior trim easily
Derrick Slowikowski, product manager at Velcro USA, said some homeowners use Velcro to attach decorative interior trim rather than nailing it in. You don't want your trim to stick out too far, so the best product to use is Ultra-Mate: A strong, low-profile hook-and-loop tape made especially for smooth surfaces. It should keep the trim flush with the wall.

3. Affix house numbers, potted plants and statues
Slowikowski says that Velcro's Extreme is especially made for attaching items to brick and concrete outdoors so the weather doesn't move anything around. He also says you can attach house numbers to the front of your house with this material, which has a special adhesion for rough and porous surfaces. However, Slowikowski warns against submerging Velcro products in water. "The Industrial Strength line is good for outdoor use, it can be splashed with water, but should not be used underwater," he says.


4. Easy on, easy off lattice panels
In my yard, we have a high deck that leads out to the pool and we've attached a panel of lattice beneath it. Thing is, we still need to get under the deck for things like laying gravel and pulling weeds. The perfect solution: We nail up almost all lattice panels around the deck, but leave one Velcro'ed on the top and bottom of the panel so we can quickly remove it to gain access to the area.

5. Create vertical storage in a closet
Try this clever idea from Organization Makes Sense: Get a roll of hook-and-loop tape -- one that does not have a sticky back. Cut a piece that's a few inches long and separate the hook part from the loop part. Attach the hook part of the tape to the back of the closet wall either with a staple gun or with nails (you'll want to position it about halfway up the wall). This storage trick comes in handy for stashing, say, rolls of gift wrap upright. Simply use the loop part of the tape to strap the rolls to the wall. You can use this also for umbrellas or loose table leaves.

6. Hang framed photos on tile backsplash
If your tiled kitchen backsplash needs a lift (or a cover-up), try a creative route and use hook-and-loop tape to display some lightweight framed photos? They'll look fresh and pretty and will be easy to remove for a quick wipe down.

7. Give your fridge a new look
Thrifty Decor Chick perked up the look of her fridge by attaching beadboard to the side it -- (before and after pics below!). The best part? She did it with Velcro. Let's say you simply want to hang things like report cards, photos or to-do lists on your refrigerator door and wait -- stainless steel doors aren't magnetic? Nope. Laura, from the blog, I'm An Organizing Junkie, attached a calendar to a refrigerator with 3M Command Hooks. You can do the same!

8. Instant bed canopy
I wish I'd used Velcro to install the tent-like canopy in my daughter's room like Centsational Girl did. If we were to do it again, I'd put a short strip of sticky backed Velcro on the ceiling and wrap a strip of Velcro around the fabric loop on the canopy, then attach above the bed.

9. Organize small items
Teachers often add pieces of adhesive hook-and-loop tape to a desk and to a writing instrument -- follow this school room trick in your own home office or kids' homework areas so no one ever has to search for a pen or pencil again. Use the same trick if you want to keep your television remotes handy, too.

10. Keep carpets and mats in place
A clever solution to a common problem: Velcro can keep a rug or runner in a high-traffic area its place. Light-duty Velcro that is especially made with removable adhesive is ideal for attaching to wood.

11. Key holder
The Metropolitan Museum of Art used to sell this item, the Clote Velcro Key Holder, which we uncovered on Uncrate, but no longer does. But, take a look at how you can turn this in to a DIY project. Velcro's Display Boards are ideal for this project. Make looped Velcro keychains for keys, and Voila! You have a stylish key holder.

12. Decorate a child's room
Create affordable, 3-D art by hanging a lightweight toy on the wall in a child's room. Take any piece of fabric, basket, stuffed animal or toy and attach it to the wall with Velcro.


Ever wonder what you could do with baking soda? Check out our story on unusual uses for baking soda.

Home builders are trying to capitalize on why women are drawn to some houses -- and not others.

When Brandi Hach and her husband were looking for a new home, they swore that new home construction was not for them. She was eight months pregnant at the time and in no mood to deal with the frantic building process she saw her friends go through. Then the Hachs happened to drive by an open house held by Fargo, North Dakota-based Heritage Homes, and in they went. "I was blown away," says Hach. As soon as she walked through the front door, she was drawn to the enormous living area next to the kitchen, and then she spotted the rear entry lockers offering a counter and a place for everything.

Hach's response was exactly what Heritage Homes hoped for. They'd built the model house hoping to impress female buyers.

It's called woman-centric building, and some of today's savvy home builders are trying to woo more women by adding details that they think they'll appreciate. The increase in woman-centric home design has come about because more single women are buying houses, according to The Wall Street Journal. As a result, builders are aggressively adding more details and architectural features women will love, like "killer" walk-in closets (for obvious reasons) and gas fireplaces (easier to light and maintain).

Design Basics, a home plan design firm, is pioneering the movement. They work with sixty builders around the country who are designated Woman-Centric Matters members. More women seem to be signing on the dotted line: Heritage Homes, who opened their first woman-centric home in the fall of 2009, says that they are doing exceedingly well, even in an anemic housing market, thanks to the Woman-Centric Matters program.

The most popular feature of Heritage's Woman-Centric Matters homes seems to be the "drop zone" or rear foyer full of kid-friendly lockers. "Don't call it a mud room," says Paul Foresman, the mastermind behind the Woman-Centric Matters division of Design Basics. "Women don't like the perception of mud all over the home." And don't expect to see a living room in a Woman-Centric Matters' home -- just a nice big great room so women can interact with their families while they're in the kitchen.

"Men have always been more simple than women when it comes to wants and needs in a home," says Paula Miller, a seasoned realtor with Coldwell Banker in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and regional vice president of the National Association of Realtors. "Women always want the bells and whistles -- their own walk-in closet, granite counters, and newer homes that are maintenance free."

Now that she's all moved in to a Heritage woman-centric home, Hach says her favorite feature is the automatic light in the rear foyer. "How many times do moms have groceries in one hand and a child in the other, and we're walking into a dark house?" she says. "It may sound silly, but here we built this beautiful house and I'm in love with the simple features, such as the cookie sheet cabinet in the kitchen and the automatic pantry light." She also admits to loving the way the kitchen island faces the living area because in her old house Hach felt she was missing out on life when isolated in the kitchen.

It takes more than installing a light to attract women to a home. Design Basics' Woman-Centric Matters program is an extensively researched idea that launched in 2003. To reach home buyers -- 91 percent of which are women, according to Design Basics' research -- the program encourages participating builders to throw targeted events. "We recently had a Women's Day Out at one of our builder's homes in Columbus, Ohio," says Foresman. "We had wine, crab cakes, and more, and over 200 women came through the model home. Another hundred ladies came to a jewelry design party held in a Warwick, Rhode Island Woman-Centric Matters home and four contracts were written."

Anecdotal evidence suggests that women are drawn to these homes. Since adopting the program in 2008, Hugh Fisher, president of Deer Brook Development in Rhode Island, has increased the number of homes he's sold from an average of 20 per year to over 149 Woman-Centric Matters houses alone since 2008.


In fact, Heritage's business has gone up about 40 percent from where it was in 2009, thanks to the addition of the Woman-Centric Matters program. Though much of the advertising is word of mouth, Tyrone Leslie, president and chief operating officer of Heritage Homes, says that the local media has taken an interest and covered Woman-Centric Matters events. (For a clip, check out this CNBC feature.)

Now that Hach has lived in her woman-centric home for over a month, we had to ask: How does her husband feel about living in a home designed for a woman? "He loves the features," she says, "and he doesn't analyze the fact that it's a Woman-Centric Matters design."

How would a house built for a man differ? We'd venture a guess that there'd be much more attention paid to technology. Coldwell Banker's Miller says that men want to see lots of storage space for their tools.

Still, Hach is impressed with how comfortable she is in her new home. She's even had to deflect envy from female friends who come to visit, especially when they walk through the back foyer and spot the nifty automatic light.

Want more "womanly" homes? See some of our favorites.
10 Fashion Designer Hotels and Interiors
Meg Ryan Rents Out Her Bel Air Mansion -- Only $40,000 a Month!
A Woman-Shaped Vase!
...and some news about designing women: The Kardashians are working on a home line.

As the temperature outside climbs, one writer's rant heats up.

I hate to sweat, really. But I'd rather sit on the couch with a cold compress draped around the back of my neck than turn on one of the four perfectly fine air conditioners in my house. My friends think I'm a martyr. My kids can't understand why everyone except us has the air conditioners running when it's 75 degrees outside.

That's a cold spell to me.

The truth is that I hate the artificial feeling and stale smell of air-conditioned air. I'm always chilled to the bone, even when air conditioning is on its lowest setting. It also makes me feel closed off from the world -- I like hearing the birds chirping and a breeze rustling through the trees. And let's not forget how much money air conditioning costs to run. You might have guessed -- I'm a frugal Yankee. (If you'd like to see how much wattage per hour a typical central air unit uses, log onto "Ask Mr. Electricity" for a shocker.)

Geography has no doubt affected my anti-air conditioning stance. I grew up in the Northeast and lived in mostly older, drafty New England houses without central air or window units. Instead, my mother, like most of my friends' mothers, insisted on opening the windows for cross ventilation in the summer. To this day, I still think that there is nothing more refreshing than a cool breeze coming through an open window as I sleep under a slightly sticky top sheet on a humid night. Had I grown up in, say, Arizona, things might be different.

There was a time, however, that I relied on air conditioning. When I lived in New York City, where summer air is stale and still, I turned on an outdated unit to stay cool. When I finally moved out of the city to my first house, I slept with the air conditioning on in the bedroom to drown out the ongoing traffic noise from the nearby highway. But I froze every night and had a perpetual headache from the din of the air conditioner. To this day, I associate the sound of a running air conditioner with the Long Island Expressway, which isn't a pleasant memory. All I wanted was peace and quiet and cross ventilation.

Now that I have my own slightly drafty New England home, I'm still not interested in air conditioning. We never installed central air -- and I keep those windows open all summer long. I only put on the window units when I absolutely have to, those few nights in the summer when the air is so thick that it's hard to breathe. Or maybe I'll turn it on if I need to drown out the noise of a neighbor's outdoor party. If I need to get dressed up on a hot and humid day, I simply dress in front of a fan. Luckily, my husband feels the same. And we're not alone in our sentiments. There's even a fledgling Facebook group called "I HATE Air Conditioning." There, you will meet over a hundred other anti-air conditioning activists who gripe about air-conditioning induced chills.

To those who cannot live without air conditioning, my husband and I are extremists. One friend, who cranks her air on 80-degree days, scolded me for not putting on mine -- but it was May! While visiting family in Texas, my husband and I insisted on reading the paper outside in 100-degree heat on the otherwise unused patio, much to the horror of everyone watching us from inside the house. They were trying to escape the heat, but for us it felt good to escape the cold of the indoors.

My kids have tried to turn on the air conditioning without me knowing. I make it difficult for them, however, by keeping wall units in their rooms that might be considered antiques. The control knobs on the units are so dated that they're confusing and my kids will ultimately give up and turn to their easy-to-use trusty fan boxes. If they complain, I tell them to lay still to reduce the heat created by friction on the sheets. (Try it! Even my kids admit that it really does work. But yes, we do turn the air on during extremely humid nights, of course. We are really just trying to teach the kids not to be so overly dependent on air conditioning. Trust me, no one is suffering in our house!)

This is how we survive summer: We eat cold fruits and salads on our screened-in porch. I throw my humidity-touched hair into a bun. And when I need to cool off, I do it the old-fashioned way: a dip in our pool, a cool shower, a walk on the beach, relaxing in a shady spot. I'll drink an ice cold glass of lemonade, avoid baking in August and, yes, apply an ice pack to my neck.

I look forward to summer all year long -- Why would I hide from it once it arrives?