Renewing your home for the new year

By Sarah Fishburne

It’s not too late to make a few new year’s resolutions, especially when it comes to changing, refreshing and renewing your home. Here are a few simple ideas to get you started:

Organize your pantry: Sort and stack food items using plastic storage containers and let color be your guide when creating labels to help easily find items in your pantry. Don’t forget to wipe down shelves – or install some to maximize your space.

Change out your hardware: Kitchen and bathroom drawer pulls and cabinet handles experience a lot of wear and tear during the year. Changing out your hardware with a new style or finish is a simple way to achieve a clean, fresh look.

Change your water filter: Whether you have a water filter on your faucet, in your refrigerator door or as part of a pitcher filtration system, regularly change out the filter to keep your drinking water free of contaminants.

Wash your shower liner: Freshen up your bathroom by either changing out your shower curtain liner or washing it in a combination of baking soda and vinegar.

Play with paint: If you have been stuck inside during the cold weather staring at a blank, boring wall consider painting the trim, ceiling, banister or interior doors. If you are feeling adventurous, try painting a piece of furniture or lamp. Adding paint is a quick way to combat the winter blues and wake up your walls and accessories. Bring the outdoors in: If the wintertime chill is causing you to have outdoor entertaining withdrawal, try decorating your interior with furniture meant for the outdoors. Think weatherproof pillows and indoor/outdoor rugs for high traffic areas. Adding live plants, like succulents and orchids, can also go a long way to bring life to a room without sacrificing style.

Make your home pop: Take a drive through the colorful neighborhoods of Inman Park or Old Fourth Ward to find some front entranceinspiration. If we experience a temporary warm spell, with temperatures above 50 degrees, break out your paint rollers and update your front door with a splash of color. Even a traditional house can be updated with a hint of lime green or deep pink. A small change can make a huge impact.

Sarah Fishburne is director of trend and design for The Home Depot where she is responsible for managing the company’s team of designers, developing products and identifying merchandising product trends. Sarah and her team travel both domestically and internationally to scout the lifestyle trends of the future, overseeing trends from inspiration to arrival in a Home Depot store.

HIDDEN GEMS: Little Free Libraries

By Han Vance

It’s a bit harder to enjoy all the activity Atlanta has to offer when the sun sets daily at 5:30 p.m. and the temperature dips. I try to spend much of my time during the relatively short Southern winter season inside sipping a warm cup of coffee, reading and writing, but I still take to the city streets enough to feel engaged.

Strolling from the Candler Park MARTA station toward Little Five Points for an afternoon diversion, I came across a Little Free Library on Candler Street. “Take A Book/Return A Book” read the sign above what appeared to be a miniature one-room schoolhouse.

I grabbed a book of letters the New York poet Ted Berrigan wrote to his newlywed wife, Sandy, while she was in an institution, sent there by her parents for being crazy enough to marry him. I vowed to read it and return it, with some other good books I will donate for the neighbors to read.

Todd Bol of Wisconsin created the first Little Free Library in Wisconsin in 2009, and it has quickly grown into an international organization. I discovered that the freestanding libraries have popped all over neighborhoods in Intown. It’s a great way to promote reading and the honor system. For more general information on Little Free Libraries and to find one near you or to order one for your block, visit littlefreelibrary.org.

Hidden Gems is a recurring series by culture writer Han Vance, a regular contributor to Atlanta INtown and other local and national publications. Visit him at hanvance.com.

Melody L. Harclerode