What we’re reading: Fresh Home, Reader’s Digest’s DIY design magazine

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The second issue of Fresh Home, a quarterly magazine published by the Reader’s Digest Assn. that trumpets ‘Easy Ideas for Hands-On People,’ has landed at newsstands.

(How did I miss the debut, below, which featured catalog-model versions of Meredith Vieira and Anderson Cooper overcome with color choices, paint fumes and, apparently, each other?)

The summer edition, right, substitutes a faux Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson in what might be a bid for ReadyMade and Make readers. New magazines generally put all their best stuff into debut issues, and that could explain this somewhat lackluster sophomore effort. Some highs and lows:

1. Building projects -- rolling planters and potting benches with corny heart-shaped cutouts -- are basic, yet exhaustively detailed. For graduates of the tool academy, the DIY can be a bit D-U-H.

2. The decorating ideas and ‘favorite things’ product pages border on stale. There are five pages on painting a table three ways and a story called ‘Not Your Grandma’s Chandelier?’ (Yawn.) And one genuine head-scratcher: installing library-style bookshelves around a toilet?

3. In step with the times, the magazine emphasizes affordability over fabulosity. A story about using hardware store supplies to create clever garage storage lives up to its name.

4. Looking for more content online? Sorry, the website is still ‘currently under construction.’

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Fresh Home