Author: News Room
Matching dining chairs can create a smart, coordinated look, but they certainly aren’t the only option. Mixing different dining chairs around the same table can give a dining room much more personality, making it feel collected and individual rather than as though everything was bought as a set. It’s also a practical approach. Perhaps you’ve inherited a couple of beautiful old chairs, found a vintage design you love or replaced your dining table without wanting to get rid of perfectly good seating. Mixing and matching allows you to bring different pieces together rather than starting again from scratch. The key…
Buying, inheriting, or living in a home that needs extensive work can quickly turn into a management problem. Structural repairs, outdated systems, damaged finishes, poor layouts, and deferred maintenance often overlap, making it difficult to know what should happen first. The solution is not to renovate everything at once. A heavily worn home needs to be treated as a phased project with priorities, cost controls, and clear stopping points. The goal is to make the property safe and functional before spending heavily on cosmetic upgrades. Assess the Condition Before Planning the Design Start with a complete condition assessment rather than…
Fresh Design Blog readers spend a lot of time thinking about the details that make a home feel finished, the right lighting fixture, a well-chosen paint color, a garden layout that makes the most of a generous plot. But none of that matters much if ants are marching across the kitchen counter or spiders have claimed the corners of your newly styled sitting room. Pests are the uninvited guests that undo good design, and they tend to show up right when you least expect them. That is why prevention deserves the same attention you give to a renovation project or…
By James Stalker, MCS-accredited heat pump installer and freelance NAPIT assessor, Exmouth, Devon Nobody has ever asked me about kilowatts on a first visit. They ask what the thing will look like sitting against a stone wall, whether the radiators will suddenly be twice the size, and whether the boiler cupboard is about to become someone’s least favourite room. Fair questions. Here’s what an oil-to-heat-pump conversion genuinely does to a period house, inside and out, with real jobs and real numbers rather than brochure claims. The unit outside The outdoor unit is roughly the size of a large chest freezer…
Finding beautiful bedding for a round bed can be surprisingly challenging. While the bed itself makes a stunning design statement, standard rectangular sheets simply aren’t designed to fit its unique shape. Fortunately, specialist manufacturers now offer a growing range of fitted sheets, flat sheets and complete bedding sets created specifically for circular mattresses. Whether you’ve recently invested in a luxury round bed or are considering buying one, choosing the right sheets will make a significant difference to both comfort and appearance. In this guide, we’ll explain the different types available, what to look for before buying, where to shop, and…
The right lighting is an essential ingredient in getting the look and feel of your room right. It also has to be practical – there’s no point having atmospheric mood lighting in a kitchen, if you can’t see to cook! We’re big fans of statement lighting such as desk and table lights, but sometimes only a ceiling light will do. Overhead lighting provides uniform illumination across the whole room, and gives an uncluttered feel. It can also be controlled by the use of a dimmer switch, so you can turn the lights up or down to suit. Even though it’s…
Choosing the right paint colour can completely transform a north-facing sitting room. These rooms are often unfairly labelled as cold, dark or difficult to decorate, but the reality is far more encouraging. North-facing rooms have a unique quality of light that, when paired with the right colours, can create elegant, calming and incredibly cosy interiors. The secret is understanding how natural light affects colour. North-facing rooms receive cool, indirect daylight for most of the day, meaning paint colours often look different from how they appear in the showroom or on a paint chart. A crisp white can suddenly look blue,…
Multigenerational living has quietly become one of the more interesting design briefs of the last several years. Families are combining households more often, whether that means an aging parent moving into an adult child’s home, an adult child moving back in to help care for a parent, or a household that was always designed to hold three generations under one roof. The design challenge is real: how do you create a home that genuinely works for a toddler, a working adult, and an aging grandparent without any of them feeling like the space was designed around someone else’s needs. Good…
If you are lucky enough to have a generous plot, you will know that a bigger garden brings a wonderful sense of possibility, along with a few design puzzles of its own. Wide open space can either feel like a blank canvas or, if it is left unplanned, a bit like an unused field. The trick is to break the area down into purposeful zones, so that every part of the garden earns its keep. Here are some ideas to help you make the most of a larger outdoor space. Zoning Your Space One of the biggest differences between designing…
When it comes to decorating kids rooms, designer children’s wallpaper is all the rage. If you have young children, chances are you’ll be spending almost as much time in their bedrooms as they are – reading stories, tidying up or wondering where on earth their pyjamas have got to. If so, you’ll be glad you put some thought into the decor! Using a good quality wallpaper in a child’s bedroom may seem extravagant, but they tend to be better quality, less prone to damage and need to be replaced less frequently. We’ve put together our top ten suggestions for designer children’s…