A frilled cushion cover is distinctly feminine, and adds a softening touch to a room.

The choice of fabrics affects the look of the cushion. A cover made in a crisp stripe with a striped frill has a restrained charm, while a rose-strewn chintz cover with a contrasting or lacy fill, and suggests pure frivolity and romance.

The easiest method of adding a frill to a cushion cover is to use a double frill, so called because it is made with a folding strip of fabric that looks the same on both sides. This type of frill gives the cushion a lovely plump appearance and a very neat finish, with the fold forming the outer edge and the raw edges enclosed in the seam.

Adding piping between the frill and the cushion gives definition to its shape.
For an extremely lavish finish, make two frills of slightly different depths in coordinating fabrics and layer them together.

To make square frilled cushion covers you will need:
Furnishing fabric
Square cushion pad
Tape measure
Sewing thread

1. Cutting out the cover: Measure the sides of the cushion pad. For the front panel, cut one piece of fabric to these measurements plus 5/8 inch (1.5cm) seam allowance all round. For the back panels, cut two rectangles of fabric the length of one side of the cushion pad, plus 1 inches (3cm), by half the adjacent side, plus 4 inches (10cm).

2. Cutting out the frill: Measure all round the cushion pad and double the measurement. Cut strips across the width of the fabric so that when joined they make up this length, by 8 inches (20cm) wide. For a fuller or deeper frill, add to the length or the width of the strip respectively.

3. Preparing the frill: Right sides together, join the frill strips into a circle. Press the seams open. With the wrong sides together, fold the fabric in half lengthways and pin raw edges together. Divide the frill in four and mark with pins.

4. Stitching the gathering: Run two rows of gathering stitches inch (1.2cm) and inch (2cm) in from the raw edges of the frill. Stop and start the stitching half way between the pin marks. This makes it easier for gathering up.

5. Attaching the frill: With the right sides together and raw edges even, pin the frill round the edge of the front cover panel, matching the section marks to the corners. Pull up gathering stitches to fit. Adjust the gathers so that they are even, allowing extra fabric at the corners.

6. Attaching the cushion back: On one long edge of each back panel turn under and machine stitch a 5/8 inch (1.5cm) double hem. With the right sides together and the raw edges even, place the two back panels on the front cover panel so that the hemmed edges overlap. Pin, tack and machine stitch a 5/8 inch (1.5cm) seam all round the outer edge, through all layers.

7. Finishing the cushion: Trim the seams and clip the corners to reduce bulk and turn the cover to the right side. Insert the cushion pad and hand stitch circles of Velcro fastening between the back panels of the cushion cover. This will allow for easier removal for washing.

To make round frilled cushion covers
1. For the cushion cover, cut one circle of fabric the size of the cushion pad plus a 5/8 inch (1.5cm) seam allowance all round. Use this circle as a template for cutting the two back panels as follows.

Fold the circle in half and then ease open folded edge to add an extra 4 inches (10cm) from the straight edge. Cut two pieces of fabric to this size, taking car to match directional patterns.

2. For positioning marks, fold the front circle of fabric into quarters and mark the edge of each fold with a pin.

3. To make up the round cover, follow steps 2-7 of square frilled cushion cover. When joining the frill to the front cover panel, match the sections at pin marks.

1. Repaint.
Of course, this only works if your otherwise beautiful wall has been painted to resemble the murky depths of a stagnant pond, or a mural of the French Riviera that went horribly wrong. Repainting assumes that, underneath a few ugly color choices, your wall is not inherently ugly. If this is the case, get a good primer and a pleasing shade of whatever color makes you happy, and go at that ugly wall. You can also paint over dated paneling, those fake ceramic tile boards, and wood, as long as you use a good quality primer made for the purpose. Some primers even claim to adhere well to ceramic tile itself.

2. Hide it behind fabric.
Similar to sweeping your pile of dirty clothes under the bed, you can stick that ugly wall behind something pleasant to look at, and no one will be the wiser. Tapestries are a good choice; no longer are they just for castles or hippies, but come in a wide variety of styles and colors. Quilts are another good way to cover up an ugly wall. Draperies, hung from ceiling to floor, can be used to cover up the wall. Theoretically, you could hang fabric over all the walls in a room; as long as your fabric was not too dark, the effect would be pleasing. Practically, though, this might make finding light switches and outlets difficult.

3. Repaper.
Depending on the condition of your wall, fresh wallpaper might be able to save it. If your wall is not smooth and flat, most wallpaper will be difficult to properly install, but there is a very heavy type of paintable wallpaper that is designed to cover up cracks and minor imperfections. This paper is available in simple textures, as well as more intricate patterns that can help to hide particularly uneven walls. After you apply it, you can paint it the same color as the rest of the room, which will help your ugly wall to blend in seamlessly with its surroundings. Just make sure to remove all loose or peeling material from the wall before applying, or your new wallpaper will also start to peel.

4. Hide it behind enormous furniture.
While a gigantic dresser might be difficult to obtain, there is plenty of floor to ceiling shelving available. Instead of your ugly wall, you could be surrounded by floor to ceiling books, collectible plates, antique dolls, or your great grandfather’s prized collection of seven hundred porcelain elephants.

5. Posters.
We are not talking about your old college dorm, “101 Ways to Cure a Hangover” posters stuck in the wall with four mismatched thumbtacks. A group of posters, framed in cheap plexiglass frames and hung close together in a group, can be a great way to cover up an ugly wall and add some visual interest to a room. Posters that would have historically been posted on city walls or fences work best grouped so closely together: band posters, old advertisements, old movie posters, and theater bills all work well. Make sure the colors of the posters compliment each other and the room itself.

6. Work with the ugliness.
Hey, sometimes ugly can be cool. Just look at those interior decorators who spend hours making it look as though the plaster is crumbling off the wooden lath or brick beneath. And there you were, complaining that your plaster walls were showing the brick. Okay, maybe most of our ugly walls involve damaged drywall and peeling wallpaper, which are significantly less sexy than exposed brick. But you can still see if there is a way you can embrace the ugliness. Maybe stripes of paint or large flower shapes can make that plaid wallpaper attractive again. Maybe not, but it can be fun to find out. If your wall is horrifically ugly to begin with, what could you possibly do to make it worse?

7. Hang stuff on the wall.
Put up a bunch of wall hooks (assuming your wall is stable enough to accept hooks), and hang your coats, your hat collection, or a bunch of sparkly vintage dresses on the wall. Or put a few small shelves up and put some wildly trailing plants on them. Wall mirrors, old photos, framed flowers, your father’s collection of antique road signs; they can all cover up your ugly wall. Of course, now your room feels ten foot square and you are so overwhelmed by all the visual clutter that you want to cry, but at least you can’t see the wall behind all that stuff!

8. More joint compound!
If your walls are strong and stable, but suffer from someone’s attempt to create a stucco texture that does nothing but collect dust and scrape your elbows when you walk down the hallway, try scraping off the highest points and smoothing joint compound over the rest. You won’t end up with perfectly smooth walls, but you should be able to improve the texture significantly. Instead of sanding the walls when you are done, a slightly damp sponge can be used to smooth it out, creating much less mess.

If all else fails, there is always the sledgehammer and a trip to the home improvement store for new sheetrock. In most cases, though, you can make your walls a lot more attractive without resorting to wall-directed violence. And remember: a wall doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

Walk into most DIY or large hardware stores and you find a wonderful array of attractive strip molding. Simple to apply, wooden moldings can transform an uninteresting door, plain wall or inexpensive piece of furniture into something really special.

Molding for paneling standard-sized doors is also available in kit form. The pre-formed panels come in a choice of sizes and styles, for example, Georgian or Victoria. All you have to do is attach the pre-assemble panels to the door with self-adhesive fixing tape of pins and glue.

Look out for small panel kits too; the panels can be used singly, in pairs or in groups to create a paneled effect on interior walls, bath surrounds, kitchen units and cupboards. You can also find panel kits with curved top sections which look very stylish.

Add molding as an attractive trim to shelf edges, or make up your own creative finishing touches for plain wooden furniture, fireplace surrounds or stair strings. You can add character and interest to featureless surfaces such as flush modern doors or built-in wardrobes.

Strip moldings in a variety of widths and shapes are sold mainly by the meter, though hardwoods are usually available in pre-cut lengths. Various types of wood are used; the most common and the least expensive is pine, which is ideal for a painted finish.

Most moldings are left unfinished, giving you the choice of varnishing, staining or painting them. If you are going to paint them, any knots in the wood must be treated with knotting, availing from hardware stores. It is easier to pain or stain the molding before it is fixed in place, unless you are giving it the same treatment as the surrounding surface.

You can attach strip molding in one of three ways, depending on its size, weight and the surface to which it is being fixed.

Contact adhesive on its own is adequate for fixing short lengths of thin strip molding or where using pins or nails may be difficult, for example, on hollow hardboard covered doors. The bond is instant, so make sure you position accurately.

A pinning and gluing method is usually best for fixing molding to woodwork. Use PVA woodworking adhesive and panel pins, which won’t show when in place. Choose pins that are twice as long and the molding is thick. Position the pins over the thinnest part of the molding and use a nail punch to drive in the heads below the surface. Put the punch over the pin head and strike the punch lightly with a hammer.

Hardened steel wall pins or oval masonry nails are best for fixing molding to solid walls. On hollow walls, nail into the studs (the framework within the hollow wall); knock on the wall and listen for a less hollow tone to find the stud.

To prevent splits in the wood when hammering in pins or nails, start the hole with a bradawl.

If you’d like to do a lot of paneling, or you can’t find a kit in the panel size you want, making your own panels from decorative moldings is a simple and satisfying task. For the best effects on a wall, fix the top strip of a large panel at picture rail height and the lower strip at dado rail height (about waist height).

The key to professional looking paneling is mitering the strips to a neat 45 degree angle to make the corners. To help you do this, use a miter box which is especially designed for this purpose; it has pre-cut angled slots in its sides which guide the saw, ensuring that you get a perfectly angled cut. If your first attempts are less than perfect, you can always fill any gaps with wood filler.

You will need:
Metal rule
Large sheet of paper
Pencil, scissors, masking tape
Plumb line and spirit level
Strip molding
Miter box and tenon saw
Flat piece of scrap wood
Sandpaper
Paint or other finish for molding
Fixing materials

1. Marking the position. Draw the precise panel shape you want on to paper. Cut out and tape it in place, using a plumb line and spirit level for accurate positioning. Stand back to gauge the effect before marking the position.

2. Calculating amounts. Measure all round the panel shape and add extra for wastage. If you are buying molding in pre-cut lengths, check that the joins will not occur in the middle of a panel piece. If necessary buy extra.

3. Measuring and marking. Measure one side of the panel and mark measurements on to the external edges of molding. Anchor miter box on a flat surface and lay scrap wood in the base. Put the molding flat side down on the scrap wood, lining up the mark with one of the slots in the miter box, making sure that the cut is angled in the right direction.

4. Cutting the first miter. Line up marking against the right hand slot of the miter box. With the molding held securely in place, saw firmly through the molding into the scrap wood beneath.

5. Cutting the second miter. Line up the marking against the left hand slot on the miter box and saw cleanly.

6. Making up the panel. Paint, stain or varnish the panel and leave to dry. Butting mitered corners closely, fix molding in place. If necessary use a little wood filler at corners.

If you don’t have a miter box and still want to put up a decorative panel made for strips of molding, look in hardware stores for decorative wooden blocks. Position the blocks at the corners, and butt the straight-cut lengths of molding against the edges. Look out for decorative carved molding to compliment the corner blocks.

For a relatively new house, building plans (if available) may show interior bearing walls. However, as-built framing construction should always be verified visually before a wall is removed.

For many existing houses with rectangular floor plans, interior bearing walls can often be located by visual inspection. Tools such as stud-finders may be useful to obtain more information about direction of floor joists. However, ceiling finish must usually be removed to determine with certainty if an interior wall is in fact a bearing wall.

For older houses, built before 1950, and for houses with irregular floor plans, ceiling finish should always be removed to verify bearing wall conditions.

A bearing wall supports other parts (elements) of the house.Floor joists (such as 2×8s or 2×10s) or roof framing members (rafters or joists) are perpendicular to the bearing wall and are on top of (bear on) the wall.

For the vast majority of houses built since 1950, a ceiling is up against (attached to) the bottom edges of floor joists, even though some may describe the joists as ceiling joists. For older houses, separate ceiling joists are sometimes found (below floor joists).

Exterior walls that support floor joists (including attic floor joists) are bearing walls. However, even if an exterior wall does not support floor joists, it can still be a bearing wall if it supports roof framing (rafters or joists). Identification of such condition requires careful evaluation when floor joists and roof rafters run in opposite directions for a two-story house. The exterior wall below the second floor is a bearing wall if the rafters are perpendicular to the wall, even if second floor joists are parallel to the wall.

Installation of a “header beam” or “floor beam” is required to support floor or roof framing when a bearing wall is to be removed. For a short header (up to about 4 feet), double 2×10s or 2×12s are usually adequate. However, for a longer floor beam, proper design is essential to ensure safety and to minimize movement.

Accurate information about upper framing to be supported must be obtained to allow for proper design of a new header or floor beam.

Evaluation of vertical deflection limit is an important aspect of design that is often overlooked. Limiting deflection is critical when ceramic tile floor finish or other movement sensitive elements must be supported by the new beam.

Manufactured wood such as Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) and Parallel Strand Lumber (PSL) are often the most cost effective type of beam. LVL and PSL beams can be “built-up” using multiple pieces, allowing for easy installation. However, the separate pieces must be connected together to act as one unified beam, especially if the beam must support concentrated load from another floor beam.

For long beams (15 feet or more), and especially when deflection is critical, steel beams are often necessary. Design to minimize weight becomes important.

Support at ends of a new floor beam must be provided by columns (posts), which can usually be “built-up” using multiple 2×4 studs nailed together. Careful evaluation of how each column must be supported below is essential. Lower floor framing may have to be reinforced to provide adequate support.

In some cases, especially for long floor beams, new steel columns and footings must be installed in a basement to provide adequate support for a column that will support one end of a new floor beam.

Floor beams can be installed under floor framing. However, when protrusion below a ceiling is not desired, a “flush” beam must be installed. Design and construction of a flush beam is more complex and costly since floor joists must be cut back to allow for installation of the beam. To match depth (height) of existing floor joists, a heavier floor beam is often required (compared to low beam under floor joists).

For any beam that is over 5 feet, and especially when relatively heavy loads must be supported, drawings should be prepared to show requirements. Consultation with a qualified professional engineer (licensed in your state) is highly recommended.

Before removing a bearing wall, temporary support (shoring) must be installed to support floor or roof framing that is currently supported by the bearing wall. Temporary shoring typically consists of a wood-stud wall, on each side of the bearing wall. Top of the temporary wall must be tight against wood framing members (not ceiling finish that can crush).

Although a qualified contractor can often install temporary shoring without engineered design, consideration should be given to effects on lower floor framing, due to shifting of loads from the bearing wall (to be removed) to the temporary support walls.