Long-life smoke alarm batteries

Kidde's Worry-Free smoke alarms eliminate the semiannual chore of changing your smoke detector batteries.

The alarms have a long-life lithium battery that lasts 10 years, the lifetime of an alarm.

Four models are available: one designed for living areas; one for bedrooms, with a talking voice alarm to better wake occupants; one for hallways, with LED lights to illuminate the escape route; and one for kitchens, with a sensor designed to reduce nuisance alarms. The kitchen alarm also incorporates a carbon monoxide detector.

Each alarm has an end-of-life signal that chirps when the device needs replacing.

Suggested retail prices for Worry-Free alarms range from $25 to $50. They're sold at some home-improvement stores, hardware stores, discount department stores, drugstores and other retailers.

Choosing paint colors

Q: My kitchen has been white for seven years. I would very much like to paint it, but I'm scared. Please help me.

A: Choosing paint colors can be daunting, but remember that paint is fairly inexpensive. If you paint your kitchen and don't like it, painting over it won't break the bank. Just knowing that may ease your fear of making a mistake.

Decorating magazines, books, blogs and social media sites such as Pinterest are great sources of ideas, but if you're really paralyzed about choosing colors, you would probably benefit from a professional's advice. Ask paint stores near you whether they have decorators on staff who offer color consultations, or call some interior decorators or designers and ask how much they would charge to come to your home and help you choose a color scheme.

Some Sherwin-Williams stores offer a free in-home color consultation if you buy a $75 gift card, which you can then use to buy your paint. Not all stores offer the deal, though, so call first to ask.

Once you've narrowed your color choices, buy small quantities of paint in the colors you're considering and try them out in the room. You can either paint patches right on your walls or paint pieces of poster board or foam core.

Be sure to try out the paint in different parts of the room and look at it at different times of the day. Light affects how color is perceived, so a paint color will probably look different in your kitchen than it does in the store.

Akron Beacon Journal