The idea of building a patio was mooted by my dad earlier this year. We had an area outside our back door covered in gravel, which was just fine for garden furntiture, but not ideal for a toddler that saw small stones as an appealing snack. Creating a paved area would...
This post will take you through the steps of creating a strong load-bearing floating shelf. Our shelf is over 2 metres long and runs across the end wall of our kitchen. As you can see, it is solid enough to be an extremely useful storage space. I decided to use a...
The space where wall meets ceiling garnered a fair bit of attention back in the day, with elaborately moulded coving donning the upper reaches of many a Victorian Room. If you are lucky, your period home will already contain well-preserved original examples. If not,...
If you live in an old house you’ve probably faced an alcove decision or two – what to do with those tempting spaces either side of a chimney-breast. In this particular case we had ripped out a modern floor-to-ceiling cupboard in our dining room and wanted...
Take this to heart – when you move into your house, do yourself a favour and find out exactly where your mains water stopcock is. I cannot over-emphasise the stress this could save. This week we came within a gnat’s whisker of paying £180 for an emergency...
The Victorians took their food seriously – so much so that in larger houses there could be several rooms, each dedicated to a distinct stage of food storage, preparation and clean-up: a kitchen for cooking, storeroom for storing, larder for preparation, and scullery...
Victorian Terraces predate central heating, so when they were being designed no-one considered where a boiler might be discreetly installed (more of a 20th Century problem). If you are lucky, your boiler will be tucked away in an anonymous corner somewhere. On the...
We were determined to avoid going all IKEA crazy in our new house, and we have been more or less successful. But tight budgets, practical necessity and the discovery of ‘Ikea Hacking’ have caused some mission creep – so here are few examples of where Ikea has crept...
In the second half of the twentieth century an evil bug took hold of period terraces, spreading like wild fire from house to house, street to street. The bug’s name was Artex – an asbestos ridden monster that infected ceilings nationwide, causing eyesores that have...
This post will talk you through building a basic fitted bookshelf, one of my first builds in this house. We wanted a simple custom storage solution for recipe books and the abundance of bibs we now possess. The result is a quick, simple and solid storage space that...
