A Year's Worth of Smart Home Solutions

Tired of her old redwood picnic set, TOH reader Tarja Varis stuck it in a corner of her yard and forgot about it—until she needed a place to exercise her green thumb. "Stacked on the table, the benches looked like shelves," she says. To turn the pieces into a bona fide potting bench, she raised the table to a good working height with 2×4s. Then she used old fence boards to add support to the back and sides, and secured the entire structure with deck screws. After priming the bench, Tarja coated it with deck paint in pale yellow and installed hooks for hand tools. Total cost: $30!