Monthly Archive: May 2019

porcelain tiles in a beautiful kitchen

home improvement / Interiors

May 19, 2019

Top 10 reasons to consider porcelain tiles for the kitchen

Choosing kitchen flooring can be difficult as it needs to withstand a lot of heavy use as well as make a nice feature in your home, here are the reason why porcelain tiles are...

bathroom wall tiles

DIY / home improvement

May 18, 2019

Discover The Best Way to Layout Bathroom Wall Tiles

Sticking tile adhesive on the back of a tile and fixing it to the wall is a relatively easy task if you have prepared the surface properly and chosen the right adhesive but there’s...

colour in the bathroom

home improvement / Interiors

May 18, 2019

5 Ways to Bring a Pop of Colour into your Bathroom

If you want to update your bathroom without breaking the bank don’t despair because there are easy ways you can fake a makeover. The bathroom is traditionally a rather sparse room, free of clutter...

May 2, 2019

Shaker, Country or Something Else – What style kitchen should you consider?

When it comes to choosing a new kitchen, there are so many styles out there that it can seem somewhat overwhelming. This is undoubtedly one of the biggest purchases that you will ever make...

kitchen layout

home improvement

May 1, 2019

4 Ways to add additional space onto your home

When it comes to the space that we have in our homes most of us think that we could use a little more. Whether we want more space for storage or to accommodate a...

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 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, entrusting them to a removals company or even 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. And our pro tip about self storage if you do choose to use it for long-distance moves or simply to help with the logistics of the move is to use one that has a collection and delivery service. Whatever method of moving all your household possessions you choose to use don't forget to compare removals and storage prices and services from several different companies.

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

It seems that Brits are still obsessed with owning their own homes even though the level of home ownership is now at its lowest level since 1986. We Brits love updating and improving our homes and you can’t really do that in a rented property – the most you can do if your rent is add some cushions and new bed linen. It’s also one of the reasons why 97% of older people want to stay in their own home and have either homecare or live-in care rather than go into a care home. However, “Generation Rent” is growing as more and more people are being forced to rent privately because they cannot save the level of deposit required as a down payment on a home of their own.

The large deposits now required by banks and other lenders make it hard even for those on a good salary and with sound personal finances to buy a home. Since the desire to own our own homes is still strong many young people are turning to parents, according to financial experts at Solution Loans, who will often act as guarantors for guarantor loans to raise a deposit. Or they will lend the cash for a deposit in order to provide their offspring with the security of home ownership

When you're updating and improving your home remember to consider your own health and the health of our environment and planet. This is the expert advice from my pal Eric over at Eric Land Mentoring and he knows his stuff about all thing eco-friendly.
Factor in easy ways to recycle, for instance; have a large compost area in the garden and rig up a water butt for watering plants. Make living healthily and in an eco-friendly way esier for yourself. Maybe even grow some of your own fruit and vegetables if that rocks your boat (have to say that it's hard work but ça vaut la peine)
The vast majority of people want to create a home for life, if they can. That's why so many older people want to stay in their own home (see www.liveincarehub.co.uk)and not move into a care home. So think about the future when creating a happy, healthy home.