Ideas Blog
Choosing Towels – Which Fibre?
Snuggling into a huge, soft towel is one of life's pleasures. But it's not the only reason for using a towel - you might also want it to dry quickly when you wash it, be compact for travelling and more. Given the wide range of towels made from different fibres on the...
Renovation Value Adds – Lighting Part 2
Last time I looked at ways to renovate the lighting in your property yourself. This time around I'm stepping it up and covering some simple tasks you will need an electrician to help you with. The focus is still on cheap changes though! When I talked about changing...
Vignettes – Backgrounds
Although asking "What's Behind It?" sounds very conspiratorial, thinking about the background for your vignette is actually an important part of the design process.To get started, think about the look of the background. Is it a flat, single coloured wall? Or patterned...
Wardrobes that Work – Design
When it comes to wardrobes, there are plenty of "one size fits all" or "off the shelf" solutions. Okay, I'll stop with the bad puns now! Reality, though, is that we all have different wardrobe requirements, depending on the clothes we own. So although it's perfectly...
Renovation Value Adds – Lighting
One of the easiest ways to update your home is to replace old, outdated light fittings. Original light fittings are often one of the best indicators of the age of the home! There are two ways to renovate your house lighting, and in this article I'm going to stick with...
When To Replace Your Pillow
I'm really bad about replacing pillows. I take off the pillow cases, wash them, put them back on again... and pay very little attention to what condition the pillows are in. Which is definitely a mistake, as it's important to replace your pillows before they're too...
Laundry Storage Tips
I don't know about you, but I find the laundry has a bad habit of turning into a mysterious hidden kingdom in a house. Bits and pieces that can't find a place anywhere else vanish into its depths. Washing piles up to the point that it's impossible to tell what's been...
Colour and Interior Design – Brown
I almost feel sorry for the colour brown. I mean, how often do you hear someone declare their desire to have a brown colour scheme in their home? Pretty close to never, unless they're still stuck in the seventies. But there's a shift in the air, and brown is making a...
Vignettes – Start with an Anchor Piece
When you're creating a vignette, sometimes the hardest part is knowing where to start. That's where the concept of an "anchor" piece comes in. Basically, an anchor piece is one item you use as the centre of interest for your vignette. It's the "hero" of the group, and...
Controlling Kitchen Chaos Part 10 – Containers
For most people, opening the pantry door isn't a positive experience. It doesn't seem to matter how many times you tidy things up, over time everything ends up in a jumbled mess again. Realistically, the problem is that all the bits and pieces we buy are in different...
Size Matters – Making Your Bathroom Look Bigger!
Let's face it - we all spend at least some part of our day in the bathroom. Many people aren't exactly excited about that already, and that's only going to be made worse walking into a bathroom which feels cramped, dark and unwelcoming. So if you're building or...
What’s on Trend Right Now? Natural Materials
After the very minimalist and monochromatic trend of recent years, styling has now moved in a new direction. Perhaps in recognition of the slightly chill effect of this recent trend, people are now moving to embrace warmer, natural materials and colours in their...
Reimagining a Tired 1960s Unit
What do you do when you have a tired old 1 bedroom unit that desperately needs an overhaul? You renovate it and transform it into a sparkling, modern 2 bedroom unit of course! When the Property Reimagined team first looked at this unit, we immediately saw, as the...
Creating an Awesome Al Fresco Area Part 2 – Size Matters!
We've talked before about adding an al fresco area to your home, either as a renovation or during the design process. It's a great way to expand your living space in a way that brings the outdoors inside. So what else should you think about when adding an al fresco...
Styling Your Bed With a Small Throw
If you're styling your bed, there's a huge range of throws to choose from, including all kinds of colours and textures. But what if you have a particular piece of material that you'd like to have out on display as a throw that looks a little bit small when you put it...