Category: home improvement

beautiful windows 0

home improvement / Interiors

4 Living Rooms With Beautiful Windows

Good light is one of the most important aspects of any home, which is why interior lighting schemes are a major part of any interior design project. The right light can completely change the ambience and bad lighting can detract from an otherwise well-designed space.

But just because we can create beautiful lighting artificially doesn’t mean we should neglect the natural light entering our homes and maximise it where we can. Here are some of my favourite room setting with wonderful windows that bring in as much natural light as possible. Even if the windows in your home are not as large and beautiful as these you can still improve the levels of natural light either with appropriate window dressings or by the more drastic measure of increasing the size of the window openings. These images might just inspire you to do that…

minimal interior - clutter free home 1

home improvement

A Clutter-Free Home is a Stress-Free Home

Many of us live and work in environments full of belongings that we no longer use or need but are reluctant to part with. There are some people who find it easy to clear out unused possessions and live a minimalist lifestyle but the majority of us cling to items for often, long-forgotten, sentimental reasons. We make excuses about how an item might one day come in useful, but, in truth, we just can’t bear to get rid of our “stuff”.

Not only do we want to hang on to old belongings but we are accumulating new things all the time and eventually the storage in our homes just will not cope any more. An important element for people buying new houses these days is how much storage there is. Built-in storage almost always features in new homes of all sizes and a buyer would expect there to be sufficient storage for their possessions, but just how much storage is sufficient? And even though moving home would seem to be an ideal opportunity to clear out all the old junk, this doesn’t always happen.

But can living amongst clutter really add stress to already busy lives and, more importantly, can clearing out that clutter reduce our stress?

sleek kitchen 0

home improvement

Frugal Home Décor Guidelines

When it comes down to the use of home décor a lot of people find out that their personal taste differs greatly from whatever the current trends may be. No matter the level of budget you’re going for, you will need to work on things in a way that takes your budget into consideration. If you are a first time buyer who has just managed to scrape together the money to buy your first place (no doubt with help from the Bank of Mum & Dad or a guarantor loan); or if you are well up the property ladder, moving house is still an expensive business. It always seems to cost more than we expect so watching your budget as you turn your new place into your home is essential.
As styles will change in time, you will need to adapt to the changing trends and what they have to offer, so make sure you work on a frugal solution if you want to keep things on the more reasonable side. The following examples and tips will give you more pointers

self storage units 0

home improvement

Using Self Storage When Renovating a Home

Self storage is very useful, flexible and good value, but it does come with a few rules that benefit everyone involved. Here are a few key do’s and don’ts to get the most from self storage when renovating a home.

Self storage is an amazing investment enabling you to keep your belongings safe when you are having work done on your home, at a minimal cost. However, there are specific do’s and don’t with self storage that should be adhered to, for the benefit of all involved with the storage unit, and the facility itself. Sometimes the do’s and don’ts relate to safety, and should absolutely never be ignored.

Here are some key do’s and don’ts to pay attention to with self storage:

rainbow colours available as wall paint 0

DIY / home improvement

The 5 Types of Wall Paint and How to Pick The Right One

Choosing the ideal colour for your walls is not the only thing you need to consider when deciding what paint to use. With such a wide variety of products out there, it can be confusing and difficult to pick the right one for your project. The type of paint is just as important as the colour and can have a huge impact on the character of the room. To avoid potentially time-consuming and expensive mistakes, read on to find out about each type of paint.

double glazed windows in period house 1

home improvement

Installing Double-Glazed Windows – A Guide

First of all, what are double-glazed windows? They are frames for windows that have two panes of glass instead of one. Usually, the glass panes are separated by an air pocket, which increases the window’s insulation, both in terms of temperature and sound.

hole in tile 3

DIY / home improvement

How to cut a hole in ceramic or porcelain tiles

Ceramic and porcelain tiles are widely used in our homes in kitchens, bathrooms, conservatories and other rooms, and the laying of these tiles on either floors or walls can often be tackled as a DIY job. Laying straight lines of tiles is a relatively easy job as is making straight cuts in the tiles, but rooms are rarely perfectly square around the edges and it is the finish around the edges that is the most difficult to get right.

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DIY / home improvement

Professional vs DIY Bathroom Tiling

Whether you’re moving into a new home, renovating your current one, or you just think your bathroom tiling job needs a facelift, there is always the dilemma of whether you should knowledge-up and do it yourself, or hire a professional to complete the job for you. But unless you’re a qualified tiler or you’ve had some experience with tiling, you’re probably going to be out of your element. Choosing what tiles you want is the easy part; the hard part is installing those tiles if you want a finish like professionals can deliver. […]

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DIY / home improvement

Stress Free Bathroom Tiling

One of the most important factors in any tiling project is thorough planning. It is not usually a good idea to just start in the corner with a full tile and work up or across from that. This might leave you with a small and unsightly row at the top or side of the wall or floor. To avoid this problem, make yourself a gauge stick before you start. Take a length of 50mm x 12mm soft wood and lay a row of tiles along one edge of it. Use spacers as you would normally so that the tiles are spaced properly, then mark the position of each tile on the gauge stick. Before you begin tiling, you must ensure that the walls are clean, unbroken and dry. The surface should be as flat as possible so you’ll need to take off any wallpaper and paint over any flaking paint. Make sure you have your gauge stick ready. […]

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DIY / Gardens / home improvement

Laying Swimming Pool Tiles

If you have a swimming pool on your property you’ll find that laying tiles is a great improvement over a more standard pool lining material as well as improving its appearance. You can make a lovely swimming environment by installing colourful tiles or using mosaic tiles to create creative patterns. It doesn’t matter if you’re tiling just the walls or the entire pool though, make sure you use specialised swimming pool tiles and waterproof grout to ensure you get proper, long term coverage. […]

different tile thicknesses 0

DIY / home improvement

Top Tip – Different Thickness Tiles

As a professional tiler (or even a keen DIYer) you may in the past have come across the problem of trying to install border tiles that were thinner than the surrounding, large tiles. This can be a particular problem with mosaic borders or feature areas because due to the small size of mosaic tiles they are often thinner than standard tiles. But this problem needn’t be a problem anymore with the tile backerboard system from Dukkaboard […]

laying tiles 0

DIY / home improvement

Fixing Bathroom Tiles – Part 2

  So here I am – all my tools are ready, the right adhesive and grout bought on the advice of the experts to suit the stone-effect porcelain tiles I have chosen and packs...

preparing your home for tiling 1

DIY / home improvement

Fixing Bathroom Tiles – Part 1

I don’t know whether it was good fortune or bad fortune when I recently moved house and bought a 1960’s house with a turquoise bathroom – some might say, at least it wasn’t avocado...

plan-wall-tile-layout 1

DIY / home improvement

Measuring up for Bathroom Tiles

So you are planning some DIY home improvements in your new house and the first task is re-tiling the bathroom. But if you are tiling your bathroom yourself then you will need to accurately...

tile-saw 0

DIY / home improvement

Getting Ready To Tile Your Bathroom

Tiling a bathroom yourself is relatively easy for a competent DIY’er but if you find putting up shelves is just too difficult a task for you then you would probably be better off getting...

 

About Our Blog

I think you'll agree that we all love our homes and love to improve them as much as we can. While the percentage of people who regularly do DIY has fallen in recent years that doesn't mean we are not interested in how our homes look – we are just less keen on doing the hard work ourselves. But whether you are a DIY fan who can turn their hand to anything from laying porcelain tiles to re-tiling the roof or someone who prefers to sit back and let the decorator or interior designer work their magic we hope you will find some inspiration here.

If you are keen on colour or prefer neutrals, love natural beauty and texture, or super perfect finishes; whether you are an upcycler on a budget (I think that's many of us really) or able to splash out on designer items and beautiful unique art we are all drawn together by our love of all things in the home (and the garden too).

And if you are moving house we love to talk about that too – the excitement of a new place – new colours and finishes to choose, maybe some new furniture. And just the excitement of a new outlook from the windows, new plants sprouting in the garden (if you are lucky) and a new area to explore are reason enough to go through all the stress of the house buying process, packing up our things, shipping them off to self storage, and then unpacking all over again at the other end. But it is definitely worth it if you are fortunate enough to have found a better house for your needs and wants.

So why not read some of our posts and better still get involved by commenting and sharing…

More Interesting Stuff...

 Top Tip – Different Thickness Tiles
Wooden Flooring and Underfloor Heating – The Basics
Stress Free Bathroom Tiling
Marble Tiles for my Kitchen
Why Choose Porcelain Tiles?
Natural Stone Tiles are Eco-Friendly, Naturally
A New Natural Stone Patio
The Hassles of Moving House
Why Tiles Are Eco-Friendly
Installing Double-Glazed Windows – A Guide

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