Home Sweet Home

For an area that is used several times a week and is always hard at work to keep you looking your best, the laundry is often sadly neglected. Pay it a little attention, too, and solve those washday blues at the same time.

To get the most space and ease out of your laundry, first consider its layout and be critical about its shortcomings. Many householders have no choice but to incorporate the laundry into the bathroom or kitchen, so the laundry basket, peg bag, sink unit, bucket, washing machine, dryer, detergents and all the rest of it has to be fitted in as unobtrusively as possible. Your laundry may even be positioned in a narrow passageway or back corner. Don’t despair — well-thoughtout planning doesn’t require a lot of space. (more…)

Ceramic tiles

If ever a product has stood the test of time, it is the ceramic tile. Popular since the days of the Romans, ceramic tiles are still the most versatile of the bathroom surfaces. They can be used for both floors and walls and are available in a huge variety of colours, shapes and prices.

When choosing tiles, select ones that are in scale with your bathroom. If you choose a fancy shape, such as the ogee or Moorish designs, keep the colours simple: too much variety looks over-fussy. (more…)

Once you have the plan in mind, you can turn your attention to the colour and style of your bathroom.

Your choices are almost unlimited and while your final selection boils down to personal taste, there are a few general guidelines.

To some extent, the bathroom is a place where you can indulge your decorative whims, but try to ensure that its decor — and the budget allocated — is in keeping with the rest of the house. (more…)

Flexibility is the key to successful storage in double-duty rooms and multipurpose areas. This need not result in makeshift mayhem. These stylish space-savers have been designed to make the most of in-between areas.

There are so many ways to keep things in order and easily accessible — be inventive and resourceful with every little space you have.

Entrances Storage

One area which needs to be flexible is the hallway, and as this is where visitors gain their first impressions, it is logical to give thought to its design and fittings. If possible, there should be at least one chair and a table large enough to take parcels, letters, magazines, a telephone, message pads and directories. (more…)

20 Work a maximum of 1 m at a time. If you do more, you run the risk of the adhesive skinning, and not adhering properly to the tiles.

21 Lay the first tile straight down without sliding it in place. Take great care in aligning it properly. All tiles should be laid without sliding them in place.

22 Lay the following tiles in the form of triangles towards the corner, butting each one against its neighbours.

23 When you reach a wall, tiles will need to be cut. (more…)

One of the simplest and most attractive floors is the polished timber-strip floor. In many a renovation or restoration, old floors of hard-to-get and well-seasoned timbers can be exposed, and brought to light in all their original glory by careful sanding and clear finishing.

For a new room, or when replacing a floor, there is nothing quite like a timber-strip floor. It’s not an easy project, but is well worth the effort – even if you hire a professional to do it. (more…)

These decorative elements have outgrown their stuffy and slightly old-fashioned image of the past. They can now, with clever choices and use of fabric, totally complement what is really a plain set of curtains, and transform a room into a well-thought-out home decorator’s triumph. (more…)

Bathrooms are common storage trouble spots that seem to get very messy, very quickly. These days there are lots of bright ideas for bathroom storage that utilize every bit of available space.

Building a vanity unit around a pedestal basin will help disguise any unsightly pipework while creating extra shelf and cupboard space. (more…)

Give the lid of the paint tin a good wipe before opening it to avoid getting dust and dirt in the paint. Mix the paint thoroughly and pour some paint into the tray. (Cover the tray with clingwrap or tinfoil beforehand to make cleaning afterwards easier.) Before using a new brush the first time, work its bristles back and forth over your hand to get rid of loose bristles and dust.

Don’t dip the entire bristle area into the paint; you’ll have major job cleaning it and get paint clogging at the base, eventually turning your paint job into a mess. No more than half the length of the bristles should be covered in paint.

The basic rule is work top down and outside in. This means you’ll start with the smaller brushes, do all the corners and edges and cover for roughly 5 cm into the larger areas so that you leave enough space when working with the roller. (more…)

Blended Fabrics

Fabrics made from a combination of several fibers, either natural (such as wool, cotton, linen, or silk), man-made (such as acrylics and polymers), or both, in contrast to fabrics made of only one type of fiber. The advantage of blends is twofold. (I) Blending several fibers can yield fabric with the virtues of each of the fibers used (color absorption, durability, wrinkle resistance, warmth, or washability), some of which would be missing in a fabric made from any single one of these fibers. For example, the addition of Dacron, an acrylic, to cotton has produced sheets that do not need ironing. (2) Fabrics made with several fibers often have new qualities (weights, textures) with decorative possibilities that no single- fiber fabric has. (more…)