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Design Shopper

Down and Out? Or Up? Don’t Move Improve

  Add value with an extension extension by Maya Vuska In the current climate there's no doubt that it's cheaper to improve than to move. Adding another room is usually the most reliable way  of adding value to a property so if you can combine the selling power of a fabulous new kitchen in a
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From £50 to £50,000 Update Your Home

If you've been putting off decorating because you think you can't afford it, or the house is feeling a bit cramped for a growing family but you don't really want to move, perhaps it's time to think about a small refurbishment. A little refreshing of the current decor. It's amazing what even a lick of
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How To Create The Perfect Bathroom

Bathing has been fashionable since the 3rd century and yet, for some reason, most modern bathrooms are squeezed into the tiniest spot available, often without even a window to relieve the gloom, and the ensuing mould. Househunters will regularly rule out a possible purchase because the bathroom was so grotty, although countless surveys have found
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Get Ready For Summer

It might still feel cold out there but it is, believe it or not, summertime and if you missed the spring cleaning, it’s time to think about how you can bring some sunshine inside – particularly when there's none outside. There are plenty of things you can do that cost little or no money and
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How To Spring Clean The Garden

It's the bank holiday and it's time to get out into the garden now. With any luck by the time of reading this, if not writing it, the sun will have poked its head through the clouds and decided to stay out. The snow will have vanished from Scotland and thoughts will have turned, if
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What Type Of Flooring?

Choosing the right flooring is one of the most expensive decorating decisions you will have to make. You need to think about maintenance, traffic and durability as well as both the look and feel, and how it will co-ordinate with everything else. Here are some pros and cons about the different types of flooring.  FLOORBOARDS
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The Art Of MIY: Make It Yourself

With the disposable income dwindling fast and the prospects of being able to afford a bigger house looking remote, the time has come to fall on your own resources to do up your house. It’s not all about putting up shelves and tangling with the plumbing though. Sometimes a little bit of MIY, or making
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Window Shopping

  It is a truth, universally acknowledged by your Granny, that you should never buy velvet curtains as they will never wear out and you will never have an excuse to buy new ones. I know this as I had to move house to get rid of my chocolate brown velvet curtains. Twice -  they
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Books Maketh The Room

“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house,” Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Thomas Jefferson declared that he could not live without books and managed to create three libraries in his lifetime. When the first burned down, he wrote to
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How to Hang Wallpaper

I love wallpaper. Always have. The bolder the better. In every house we have owned, and we are serial movers, there has always been at least one wall of the stuff. From big splashy flowers to flock or metallic and monochrome, wallpaper is the way to bring a room to life. It's not for everyone
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How To Make The Most Of Your Staircase

Most of us never think about the stairs beyond whether they are capable of getting us up to bed and back down again without collapsing. Usually dressed in a simple carpet that we hope won’t show the dirt, they are largely ignored in favour of the main rooms of the house despite being the principle
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