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…)

Step by Step

Don’t try to do too much in one day and make sure you arrange alternative washing and toilet facilities with a neighbour if necessary.

Preparing the floor The most suitable surface for laying ceramic tiles is concrete. However this must be wood-float finished (rough textured) — if it is a mirror-smooth or steel- trowel finish, it will first need to be scratched, roughened with a chisel or acid-etched. (more…)

Step by Step Sewing Handbag

1 With right sides facing, stitch front and back print fabric panels together along top short edges. Press seam open. Repeat for plain fabric (lining) panels.

2 With right sides facing, stitch print and plain fabric panels together down long sides. Turn to right side. Press.

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This very simple box with its hinged-top lid panels is ideal for storing items such as copier or computer paper, old job files and children’s artistic endeavours.

The box used here is 2.4 m long to suit the standard length of MDF board, but could be shorter. The completed box can be positioned under a window and finished off with cushions, or placed anywhere in your office or study, depending on layout, so that it doubles as a piece of furniture. (more…)

Finding the ideal Bathroom Styles

Keep your scale drawings as the master plans and use scale cut-outs of fixtures and tracing paper overlays to experiment with different bathroom layouts.

Obviously, the fewer major changes you make, the cheaper your improvements will be. You don’t want to spoil the grand plan but if you can leave just one existing fitting in place, you will save yourself money. While it’s sometimes hard to determine what constitutes a major change, when you’re an amateur playing with plans, remember that if you have timber floors which give easy access to the pipes beneath, alterations to plumbing are much cheaper than with, say, a concrete slab, when even a small change may require the floor to be broken up. Removing a load-bearing wall or relocating a window is also a major upheaval; installing or shifting a partition wall is comparatively simple. (more…)

This neat fold-away sewing centre has ample storage for not only a sewing machine, but also an overlocker, shelves of patterns, sewing accessories and other odds and ends.

This clever cupboard idea is based on a simple upright cabinet that takes no more room than a bookcase, and folds away in one or two easy steps.

The overall cupboard is 1070 mm wide as built (to fit in a corner) by 2070 mm high, and is a total of only about 350 mm deep with the doors shut. When open it reveals seven shelves for storage, and a sewing table 1220 mm x 600 mm. (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…)

12 The insides of the drawers can be fitted with dividers if desired. The cassette drawer will hold three cassettes across with a little extra space for head cleaning or other equipment. The CD drawer also holds three CDs across.

13 The table top to cover all three units is made of the same veneered particle (chip) board, but in this case is edged with 25 mm x 25 mm dressed (planed) timber of the same species. Apply the edging to the front edge and sides, and mitre it to the corners. This involves accurately cutting a 45° angle at the two front corners so that when assembled, the timberwill show no end grain. (more…)

Alcoves offer the perfect opportunity to make the most of otherwise small and cramped spaces.

This particular project is in a bedroom, where a solitary alcove originally made the room appear strangely offset. The space was used as additional hanging space for good clothes on two levels, as well as shoe and dress jewellery storage. The top hanging level is for seasonal or infrequently used clothes, and the lower provides ready access for more popular items. The idea was also to use two standard off-the‑shelf doors to enclose the area. (more…)

SCREWS

Drilling screw holes

All screws must have pilot holes made before they can be driven home. For screws smaller than No. 6 gauge (3.5 mm) into softwood, make these with a bradawl. Drive it into the wood with its chisel point across the grain, to avoid splitting.

Screws larger than No. 6 gauge into hardwood and screws into softwood need two holes -one for the thread (the pilot hole) and one for the shank (the clearance hole). These must be made with a drill and bit.

When drilling pilot holes, mark the required depth on the drill bit with a piece of masking tape. This will tell you when to stop and cannot damage the workpiece should you overdrill. (more…)