Amateur DIY on a budget
Summer’s nearly here (woohoo!) and with that, there are so many more reasons to hang out in the garden. If you don’t have an outdoor tap, it can be a real pain to clean in the garden, water plants, even fill pets’ water bowls. I fitted a garden tap yesterday. Before that I needed to attach a hose to the kitchen tap and run it out the window – not ideal! The outdoor tap took just half an hour to fit and is going to get so much use. Read on to follow the steps.
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Those of you who have read Turning a House into a Home before may recall the fireplace dog bed that I made for Ted. The original one was in the living room and it turned out to be really handy. One of the problems with having a big dog is all of the space that they take up! Ted also sheds like a b*tch so I have a strict no sofa rule. His fireplace dog bed gave him his own space where he could shed away to his heart’s content, and without the need for a big dog bed taking up loads of space in the living room.
Read on to find out how you can make one for yourself!
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Those of you who’ve been here before may know that I first posted Ted’s fireplace dog bed last year. But having made a few alterations and adding some lighting, I’ve now updated the blog post. Read on to find out how you can turn a crappy old fireplace into a dog bed fit for a furry king (or queen)!
WARNING: This post contains a lot of pictures of my dog because he looked way too cute to take any of them out!
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Until recently, my bathroom left a lot to be desired. It had really poorly-fitted vinyl flooring, two different types of mis-matched tiles on the walls, a leaking bath, a cold tap that was poured hot water… basically more wrong with it than right. Over the space of two weekends and on a tight budget, I completely revamped the bathroom from top to bottom. Read on to see how.
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I recently fitted vinyl flooring in my bathroom to give the room a new lease of life. When I’ve thought of vinyl flooring in the past, I’ve thought of 70s dated lino. However nowadays there’s such a huge range of vinyl, from wood effect to tile effect, that it’s difficult to tell some apart from the real thing. Vinyl is also a great choice for a bathroom because of the moisture in the room. I went for a white wood floor effect and personally think it’s a much better choice for a bathroom than real wood, which can cause issues when it comes into contact with water.
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You may have seen that I recently did a post on creating a feature wall with paste-the-wall wallpaper. Well this time I’m going to show you how you can do the same but with the other type of wallpaper: paste-the-paper wallpaper (what a mouthful!)
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If you’ve read my blog before, you may recall the dresser that I upcycled for my dining room. Although I liked it, it didn’t seem quite right for my dining room for a number of reasons. Firstly, it looked quite small against such a big wall. Secondly, it was painted quite a bright colour, which meant I couldn’t really paint the wall behind it. It also had wallpaper pasted in the back of it, which meant I couldn’t wallpaper the wall behind it. Thirdly, it was quite detailed and I decided I’d prefer something with cleaner lines.
I decided to take the plunge and sell it on eBay and buy a replacement. I did think I must be mad – I have so much to do in the house and I spent a weekend upcycling that cabinet, just to sell it and start again. But I’m so glad I did!
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Please note: This post is about how to use paste-the-wall wallpaper. For instructions on how to use paste-the-paper wallpaper, see this post.
Last weekend I created a feature wall in my dining room. I went for a large leafy print for contrast behind the big pink cabinet I knew I was going to put against that wall. A feature wallpapered wall can really turn a room around.
There are two types of wallpaper: one is the traditional paste-the-paper type, where you set up a pasting table. The other, and the one I’m going to show you how to do, is the paste-the-wall type.
When you buy wallpaper, it will say on the roll whether it’s paste-the-wall or paste-the-paper. Paste the wall is generally considered the easier of the who and is becoming the more popular option nowadays.
Read on for my tips when using this type of wallpaper. It may be easier to do than you think!
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The doors in my house are crap. I mean, they’re perfectly fine structurally, mostly solid wood, but they’re all different shades of wood, each with a different cheap handle than the next.
I’ve recently started making my way around the house painting each and every one so I like to think of myself as a bit of an expert at this stage. I’ve picked up a few hints and tips along the way that should save you a lot of time and effort should you need to give some old doors a new lease of life.
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I recently got the ultimate bargain on eBay: someone who was doing a house clearance sold 6 pairs of old brass doorknobs. I bought them for £30. Pretty great considering you can normally expect to pay about £20 for a pair. The only slight problem was they were old, stained and had paint on them. Luckily, I found an easy way of cleaning them up to make them look shiny and new again. Read on to find out how easy it is to clean dirty brass using things you probably already have at home.
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