Before & After: Turning My Tired Balcony Into My Own Kitsch Rooftop Botanical Bar For Under £250

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When we moved into our current home last year, one of the great things about it was a balcony you accessed from the living room. As we live on a hill it has great views (especially on Fireworks night.) It is also a total suntrap, so I want to utilise it this summer.

Yet before it could become my evening wine drinking haven, this balcony needed some proper DIY love. Its decking was worn and faded, the paint on the balcony doors weathered, but the worst problem was something I couldn't do anything about - wood-rot and damage to the neighbours property that was clearly visible. The balcony needed a tart up, and I needed to cover the neighbours wall damage from view....

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Using Faux-Marble Contact Paper On My Drinks Trolley

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You can't move for brass drinks trolleys in interiors right now. They are all over interior magazines and the blogs. I decided that I would make like Zayn Malik (who apparently has his own pub in his garden) and have a drinks trolley as part of my balcony re-vamp (although, unlike Zayn, this was more to do with having a child and never getting out anymore, as opposed to being a millionaire popstar). I managed to win this gold number on Ebay (top tip: if you are also after a drinks cart, type in 'tea trolley' and you are more likely to get a bargain)...

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Summer DIY: How To Make These Geometric Hanging Planters With Plastic Straws, Garden Wire And Spray Paint

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I was window shopping in H&M Home recently when I saw the cute little hanging planter below. As I've previously mentioned, I'm currently doing up my balcony at home for the summer and initially thought this gold number would be a good addition. After contemplating it for a few minutes I decided this planter would not work for several reasons. Firstly it was made of glass, making it perfect for an inside terrarium, but a disaster waiting to happen as a hanging planter outside swinging against a brick wall. Secondly at £24.99 each they were far too expensive, especially as I wanted two of them..

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A Library Wall Ikea Hack In East London

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A couple of weeks ago I popped by my friend Rob and his lovely girlfriend Olivia's new home in Leytonstone. They had moved there just over a year ago and had to refurbish the whole house. After spending a lot of money on builders to remove walls and replaster all of downstairs (and investing in a super nice marble bathroom upstairs) they didn't have much money left over to spend on furnishings.

Rob told me that he had always loved the 'library look' that often frequents an expensive home or a Soho members club, but employing a carpenter to create bespoke shelving was out of the question as new home owners. That's when he had the idea to create the look with an ingenious 'Ikea Hack' with Ikea's Billy Bookcase's, decorative mouldings and some lightweight duropolymer coving from the DIY store.

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Summer DIY: How To Make A Gold And Grey Planter

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I'm currently re-vamping my tired looking balcony (full reveal coming in a few weeks!) Since the sun has been shining in the past week (even though it's now pouring as I write this) I decided to get out and get some Vitamin D and work on part of the project which was to build a tall planter trough ready for summer flowers. To build and paint the planter takes no longer than a day, so it is perfect for a sunny Sunday DIY project. First stop was to get some load-bearing wood. My top tip if you are going to build a planter like mine is first check if there is anyone in your area selling used scaffold boards. Building regulations state that builders scaffolding boards have to be changed regularly, so you often get scaffold and building companies selling off their old scaffold boards for cheap on Ebay and Gumtree.

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Before & After: How I Created This Wall Panelling Look For Under £35

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When we moved into our house last year there was a problem with some damp on the lower floor. We called in the damp proofing people but we had real trouble with one interior wall in the hallway. The damp guys came back 3 times to try and fix the issue, with the final result being that the damp was eradicated but the hallway wall was left a total mess. Most of the wall had been drilled away numerous times to inject anti-damp treatment and even though I used a range of plaster repair tools and fillers, when the wall got a new coat of paint it still looked shoddy. What made it worse was that this wall was by the back door so the light shined on it all day highlighting all its imperfections..

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How To DIY A Cheap As Chips Picture Ledge

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A favourite interiors trend of mine in recent years has been display shelving - shelves that are erected in the home not for functional use for storage (such as a book shelf) but for display. Often hashtagging online as a 'shelfie', shelves are used to support art, photos, magazine covers, ornamental objects etc, in a casual display.

Display shelves for photos and art cannot be your bog standard basic flat shelves - the shelves will need to be raised at the front to stop the propped-up artwork sliding down and falling off. You also do not want the shelves to protrude out too much, which would look peculiar when you are displaying thin items.

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DIY Bird Cage Lamp Shade

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If you are reading this post, chances are you've googled 'Graham & Green Bird Shade' after your jaw dropped seeing this quirky, brilliant shade in an interiors magazine or online.  Chances are that your jaw dropped even further when you saw the £375 price tag. For those of you who do not know about this shade feast your eyes on the original design here.

Obviously, as soon as I saw this shade, i wanted it BADLY! It's so original, a massive talking point and I'm a huge sucker for anything with birds on.  But £375 was just far too much for me to part with, especially for a 'shade' that doesn't actually have any functional use as it doesn't actually shade anything! I knew there must be a way to DIY this and so after some research I set about creating my own version. I have to say I have had this in my home now for a few years and visitors love it, more importantly, I love it, and it cost me around £40 in total to make...

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