The kitchen's choppy floor plan left the room cramped, so Country Living Contributing Editor Randy Florke knocked down a wall and expanded the doorways. Too small for the room, the window next to the counter let in little light. Now enlarged to twice its size, it provides a view of the yard. Linoleum covered the floor until Randy ripped it up to reveal "picture perfect" maple hardwood underneath.

AFTER
Colorful  and functional  details, such as the swinging towel rack and countertop canisters, liven up the kitchen's neutral palette. Inexpensive terra-cotta pots and tin ceiling tiles add visual interest to the shelves above the oven.

Maybe you have a bedroom design that is immaculate, modern, and beautiful. But is it comfortable? It’s important that a room still feel like home, and an easy way to achieve this is by adding some creature comforts.

 Some personal bedroom decorations add individual character to a space and make it more relaxing. Here is another inspirational post from bedroom inspiration series.

The last post from this series was Bedroom Inspiration #4. Today I’ve selected 7 beautiful bedrooms, and I hope you like them. Enjoy !

Mitsubishi will be joining the rarefied ranks (in TV anyway) of Sony and Samsung in offering wireless television.

Wireless chipmaker Amimon is set to announce Thursday that Mitsubishi will use its technology to send high-definition TV signals to its latest LCD TV without wires. It will come in 40-inch and 46-inch sizes. The 40-inch model will cost 300,000 yen (or $2,731), and the 46-inch model will sell for 400,000 yen ($3,642).

Mitsubishi's TV will have the chips embedded in the TV, and will come with a separate receiver unit that can send and receive uncompressed HD video signals up to 100 feet away. That means you can keep the receiver in a room downstairs or in a cabinet--no line of sight necessary.

"As a child I spent a lot of time in Palm Beach," says the designer, who has created more than 200 pieces for Oprah Winfrey. "So I'm very inspired by the whole resort feel. I can appreciate Nantucket-style decor, but it's not me. I have friends who come over and make fun of me because the house doesn't look much like Nantucket."

Barbara K. Wade, kitchen designer for Custom Kitchens by Design, based here, needed to do all of this, plus incorporate lots of work space in the cooking area and provide a separate cleaning station.

Wade complied with the homeowner’s requests, using the kitchen’s 20’x18’ size to incorporate two separately functioning islands. The overall design of the space also took into account the design of the adjacent great room and breakfast nook.

The badminton venue (the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium) is shaped like a shuttlecock. The roof atop the table tennis gymnasium at Peking University resembles a ping pong ball; the shooting center's is like a rifle. The velodrome is configured like a bicycle wheel. There's a wonderfully Chinese sense of practicality (why shouldn't a building look like what's played inside of it?) and whimsy going on here and it's another reason why these Games are like none that have come before.

Flakes of lead paint from old homes often create a halo of contamination around houses that vegetables can take up. Remnants of leaded gasoline might also be in the soil, especially near busy roads. While the problem is pervasive in urban areas, suburban homes that were built on or near apple orchards are also at risk because lead arsenate was once used regularly as a pesticide. The heavy metal can remain in soil for hundreds of years.

While synchro may have seen its heyday on the silver screen in the 1950s, the U.S. synchronized-swimming team is poised to take center stage (or pool, rather) in Beijing on Aug. 22 as it goes for the gold against top-ranked teams like Russia and Spain.

Synchronized swimming today is a far cry from what it was in the '50s, though certain elements - like the waterproof makeup and perma-smiles - remain.

Originally used as a plumbing manufacturing plant, the downtown heritage structure is getting a completely unique hand-crafted makeover.For example, the factory's original double-hung wood sash windows have been carefully restored and reinstalled with new paint and smoother sliding mechanisms.The floors have been freshly poured with thrice-finished polished cement to keep the industrial feel intact.

Caren Hindle, parking services manager for Barrow Borough Council, believes the car park will combat the parking space shortage in that section of the town centre.She said: “The area of the town centre where the car park is located has been severely short of parking for a long time now.“There is always a shortage of parking at that end of the town, particularly on busy days like Saturdays.“It can make the roads much busier when there are no parking spots.