Home Sweet Home

Without good lighting, the best bathroom will look uninviting — and may even be decidedly dangerous. It’s essential — and even illuminating — to choose the right lights! And if your bathroom gets good natural light, try to make the most of it.

Good lighting in the bathroom is essential not just because you look foolish if you apply your make-up like a clown but, more seriously, because you run the risk of misreading the directions on a bottle of medication. (more…)

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…)

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…)

The cozy book-lined study of past generations is rapidly changing into the home office of today. Even if you just want a little office space for family records and financial matters — it pays to organise it properly to suit the job at hand.

Although a ‘study‘ conjures up a very different image from that of a ‘home office‘, it is used for the same activities: paperwork, reading, study, peace and quiet, household accounts, correspondence, and so on. A home office, however, suggests something more streamlined and modern (and possibly even profitable!). (more…)

It’s taken a long time, but the smallest room in the house has at last grown up. Gone are the days when comfort was a dirty word in a place of austere cleanliness: today’s bathrooms are designed to be enjoyed, whether your fancy is for fragrant foamy baths, a work-out with the weights and a muscle- pummelling shower or a reenactment of the Armada with a fleet of plastic boats. (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…)

17 Cut off the two damaged ends of the lead, and then cut sufficient length off the wider lead to place around the semicircle defined by the cut panel. The lead is cut using a sharp lead knife, in a rocking motion. The other half of the perimeter is the last piece in the jigsaw to be fitted at the end.

18 Select the piece of glass for the starting point. On our circle it can just about be anywhere on the bottom perimeter, but where successive pieces can be installed easily. The best place would be in the middle. (more…)

Blinds have travelled a long way from their origins as the gauze window protectors of elaborate drapes and furnishings in grand houses. Modern blinds can be totally functional and unobtrusive, or unashamedly ornate and extravagant.

Roman Blinds

These blinds are tailored and neat looking, economical in their use of fabric and regarded as being quite simple to make. There is less sewing in this style of blind than, say, a festoon blind, and they lend themselves to stripes or evenly printed geometric fabrics very well. (more…)

Formal swag pelmets are draped pieces of fabric which, when attached to a pelmet support board, become a classic draped pelmet. They hang free of the curtain and usually add a classical, ornate appearance to windows.

Here are some rules to remember with swag trimmings: they look best on tall windows in rooms with high ceilings, so be sure that you don’t over-design your room; consider your fabric requirements (swag curtains can take up large amounts of fabric, and this can become a budget-breaker) — plain calico or home-spun fabric is one idea, as the old principle of using fabric generously applies well here. Generous amounts of inexpensive fabric look wonderful next to skimpy quantities of expensive fabric. (more…)