Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Real Homes

November is the month for cosiness – soft blankets, fluffy socks and mugs of hot chocolate. As the dark and chilly nights draw in, staying in with friends becomes the new going out, and we appreciate our comfy homes even more. Speaking of friends, you may have noticed two new faces on here. Our most loyal readers might recognise that we, Amelia and Alison, have worked on Real Homes for a while now. And we’re so happy to be editing the magazine together going forward. With differing fields of expertise, we’re excited to pool our knowledge and share it with you all. I (Amelia) have been tracking down the latest interior design trends, researching colour psychology and sharing creative decorating ideas for several years, and you could say it’s a…

NINA ROBINSON, NINA BOMBINA DESIGNS Nothing transforms a room quicker than a fabulous piece of wall art. Easier, cheaper and quicker to put up than wallpaper – not to mention easy to swap when you fancy something different – graphic art prints in particular are a great way to inject instant colour and personality into your pad. Whether you rent or own your home, prints have the power to bring plain walls alive. And with a vast array of styles, colours and designs available from independent artists either directly or through platforms such as Etsy, shopping small for prints means you’re guaranteed to find something unusual, original and lovingly designed that speaks to you and reflects your personality. This month, we’re highlighting three of our favourite independent designers creating beautiful…

Plum is a deep and luxurious colour that’s a mixture of both purple and red. The spectrum of plum hues varies just as much as the varieties of the fruit. Some shades err on the side of a darker, blackish purple, while some are a more vibrant, hotter red. ‘I’m seeing more and more people use plum purple in their homes and I’m not surprised,’ says Tash Bradley, colour psychologist and Lick’s director of interior design (lick.com). ‘We saw purple have a moment in the spring this year, with people gravitating towards that soft lilac tone which is gentle and calming to be around. And now, as we step into the colder months, plum is having its time,’ As Tash points out, the nation’s purple shade of choice is a…

Need our help? Got a DIY dilemma? Want to settle a domestic style dispute? Send us your questions on social media or email us at rhsubmissions@futurenet.com At your service Meet the people ready to help with your dilemmas Alison The go-to for all things DIY, with tons of wisdom to impart Annie Our shopping expert will pick out the best bargains for your home Amelia Has her finger on the pulse of all things style, kitchen and bathroom Jenny Has loads of renovation tips – and her own doer-upper on the go Camille Has plenty of space-saving, wallet-friendly advice for renters Christina Loves the high street and finding statement pieces – she’s also our cleaning guru DECORATING ADVICE Q What colour should I paint my north-facing living room? A…

Keeping up with the evolving requirements and demands of your child is a skill every parent has to master, so when it comes to planning and decorating their bedrooms, (often a place for work, rest and play) then the specific requirements of these smaller humans really come into focus. Change; it happens gradually and yet comes around surprisingly fast. Where a cute cot once stood, in the space you carefully created even before your bundle of joy arrived, you now have a ‘big kid bed’, and those small cuddly toys have been replaced with board games, Lego scale models and a library of books. Forwardplanning the fundamentals of this room will ultimately save you money, so investing in some long-term thinking should mean you will buy once, not thrice. This…

Ellie and Oliver got lucky with the bathroom they inherited with their two-bed Victorian terrace. It was a large space, complete with double sinks and a roll-top bath. ‘It always felt like this space had potential – it was just very beige and a bit bare,’ says Ellie. ‘We wanted to do more with it.’ Central to the project was kitchen and bathroom designer Joel LaRosa, who the couple hired to help them find their feet. ‘This is our first house – we had a complete lack of experience and no DIY skills,’ says Ellie. ‘Joel project-managed the whole thing. He was good at listening to what we needed.’ The work took five weeks. Luckily, Ellie and Oliver had a downstairs loo they could use – ‘and our Spanish friend…

DESIGNER COLLAB TAP IN We love a designer collab – and we’re excited by the teaming up of interior and architectural design leaders Conran and Partners with bathroom suppliers Vado. The result is Arrondi, a modern twist on traditional brassware, offering a sculptural look to taps, mixers and showers. This form has function, and adds a touch of opulence to your daily wash. It costs from £225. Happy place Put a smile on your face, and in your kitchen, without leaving the comfort of your sofa. Smile Kitchens is a digital-first brand offering end-to-end kitchen design and supply. There’s a core collection of eight kitchens in 23 colours and finishes, presented on your screen in 3D so you can visualise how yours will look. And because everything’s done in the…

Top tip LOW-COST STYLE You can easily change the look of an existing radiator with paint. Clean thoroughly and sand before starting for best results. Use a specialist paint and apply when the radiator’s completely cold. If your room’s painted in a dark and dramatic shade and a white radiator is compromising the cocooning vibe, a simple coat of dark paint can make all the difference. Top tip LOCATION CONCERNS Traditionally, radiators were located under windows, and if your home is single glazed, it’s still a good idea. Got double or triple glazing? It definitely doesn’t have to be restricted to this position. Wherever a radiator goes, don’t cover it with curtains or a large piece of furniture – you’ll block the warmth. The overwhelming majority of UK homes are…

Check out more stylish black and white bathroom designs here…

Head over heels Looking for something to do this weekend? Why not get ahead in upstyling your home by trying this DIY headboard by Marisa (@oakappledecor). Not only will it create the perfect bedrooom focal point, it won’t break the bank in the process. You will need: ■ 18mm sheet plywood ■ Jigsaw ■ Spray adhesive ■ Foam cut to size ■ 2oz wadding ■ Fabric ■ Scissors ■ Staple gun and staples What to do: 1 First, measure your bed so you can work out the size your headboard needs to be. Then, draw your chosen shape onto the plywood and cut out with a jigsaw. 2 Spray the plywood with a layer of adhesive and attach the foam to the board. Once secure, cut off any excess and…

Calm & collected Designed to help you feel emotionally at ease in your home, create an energy and awaken the senses, Farrow & Ball has introduced 11 new shades to its colour card. The first change to its palette of 132 colours since 2018, this is BIG news. Beverly is a clean, mid green, named in honour of a member of the Farrow & Ball team. Charlotte Cosby, head of creative, says, ‘like its namesake, Beverly is reassuring, uncomplicated and full of depth. We used it here with Selvedge and I immediately wanted to move in.’ Emotional intelligence Supporting the UK’s leading youth mental health charity, Young Minds, Dunelm has launched a gender-neutral cotton bedding set featuring characters with different emotions. From ‘awkward’ to ‘silly’, ‘shocked’ to ‘excited’, its aim…

ELEANOR MORRIS, ELEANOR ISOBELLE ART @eleanorisobelleart ‘I create beautiful quality giclée prints for the home. I designed some to sell on Etsy as an experiment when I was furloughed from my job as creative lead for a marketing agency… and sold over 5,000 in the first few months! Since then, I’ve had pop-ups in John Lewis stores and collaborated with Look Fantastic to design one of their beauty boxes. Now Eleanor Isobelle Art is my business and my life. Sustainability’s important to me so I use giclée printing because the colours last. I’m inspired by almost everything – travel, restaurants, everyday objects and scenes. My new Fast Food designs feature cultural icons like a McDonald’s Happy Meal box and milkshake cup.’ Eleanorisobelleart.co.uk LORENA SIMINOVICH, ROOMYTOWN @Roomytown ‘My background is in…

Q I want to develop my DIY skills, where do I begin? If you want to save when renovating, tackling as many jobs yourself can be the answer. If you need a place to begin, learn the art of tiling. You can start small with a splashback and before you know it, you’ll be brave enough to retile the bathroom. The Real Homes team give their tips on getting that professional finish. A When you’re tiling a floor, a wall or kitchen splashback, it’s likely you’ll have some awkward gaps to fill along the way – mainly at the edges. You can still learn how to cut tiles without using wet saws and other electric tools. A manual cutter is used for straight cuts; they’re a cheaper alternative to power…

PROFILE THE OWNERS Jen Watkins, a sales director in the beauty industry and an artist, lives here with her three children, Rowan, and twins Arthur and Oscar, their dog Dottie and cat Saffy. THE PROPERTY A five-bedroom detached new-build in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. When Jen first moved into this house back in 2017, it was because she wanted a home that would grow with her family’s needs as they got older. She also loved that it offered lots of space, especially the open-plan layout downstairs and the walk-in wardrobe! ‘I work from home some days, so the house needed to offer enough rooms so that I could use one as an office and guest room, and be very versatile,’ says Jen. With a passion for interiors, and often finding inspiration through…

1 WINDOW DRESSING The nightly rituals of closing blinds and curtains then opening them all again the next day can be at an end with smart window dressings. Blinds and curtains can be operated remotely or via an app that links to a motor at the top. Smart operation makes it easy to adjust blinds in places that are hard to get to or on rooflights. You can set them to close with the sunset, or open with the sunrise for a gentler wake up in the morning. And they are a useful security device, giving the impression you’re home as their movements echo your normal routines. 2 Economical heating A smart electric heater is a useful way to create warmth just where you need it. You can precisely control…

BEST FOR SEAMLESS STYLE Corian is a man-made composite that’ll give a streamlined finish to your kitchen, as it can be heated and bent into a specific shape through thermoforming, to create rounded edges and corners. It looks even more seamless when paired with a Corian sink. Non porous and easy to maintain, it’s also hygienic. This versatile material comes in a variety of colours and finishes, and is inspired by natural surfaces, such as marble. It can chip but is repairable, and can be refabricated if you alter your kitchen and want to keep the surface. Corian Solid Surface in Artista Canvas, starting from £705 per square metre excl. VAT, CDUK BEST FOR AN INDUSTRIAL EDGE Choosing a ceramic clay worktop in a mineral shade creates the industrial look…

DeWALT DCM572 FlexVolt blower We’ve voted this DeWALT model as the best leaf blower on the market. A top of the range blower for efficient leaf carpet clearance, it is more than good enough for those with an average-sized back garden – and, depending on how efficient your leaf blowing skills are, could clear bigger gardens as well. It runs on powerful batteries that are interchangeable with other smaller power tools in the DeWALT range, and the 195 km/h speed motor should enable you to do some ample leaf shifting in a short space of time. One of the lighter weight models, it is easy on the arms, and thanks to the electric motor, shouldn’t be too strenuous on the ears, either. SPECIFICATIONS Best for: Efficiency Cordless: Yes Weight: 3.33kg…

PROFILE THE OWNERS Katie and Stuart Thorner, of Summer House Interiors (summerhouse-interiors.com), live here with their daughters, Annie and Pippa, and cats Walter and Lily THE PROPERTY Five-bedroom house in Telford, Shropshire PROJECT COST £220,000 Buying a home with a 37-year-old heating system that was only able to reach a maximum temperature of 12 degrees in the winter might seem a bad idea. But when Katie and Stuart saw this two-bedroom period property, they were drawn to the character and the potential for it to become a stunning family home. They’d just needed to rip out a few gas fireplaces, add a double-storey extension and sort out the garden all while expecting their second child and organising a wedding (or two)! The 1930s property had high ceilings and beautiful period…

BOLD RENOVATION PROFILE THE OWNERS Leila Davidson (@zephs_house), an HR advisor, and her partner, Joe Peddie, a civil and structural engineer, live here with cats Zephyr and Laszlo THE PROPERTY A three-bedroom period townhouse, built around 1904, in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire PROJECT COST £20,474 Having viewed several properties within a mile radius of Grimsby town centre, first-time buyers Leila and Joe fell for the cheapest and most dated house of all. ‘We rented on and off for years and got travelling out of our systems, so we were ready to buy our first home,’ says Leila. ‘Our previous house was on the rural outskirts, and we wanted to be more central.’ As Leila had always loved her aunty’s spacious London terrace and Joe had grown up in a period…

Elevate your home for the cosy season with a beautiful budget buy. Whether it’s an accessory update, piece of furniture or lick of paint, these easy changes punch above their price tag…

As a nation, we seem obsessed with ‘getting on the property ladder’; in fact, helping Generation Rent was one of the many promises made by our new prime minister, Liz Truss. This is nothing new – such ambitions can be traced back to Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ schemes, which allowed council tenants discounts so they could buy their own homes from the late 1970s to the 1990s. But is the rental landscape changing? While intense competition, absent landlords, unsafe or damp properties, spiralling deposits, and renting through necessity due to property prices, might be the stories we see shared on the news and social media, there are also those who are happy renting, very much like many of our European neighbours, while the build-to-rent sector is growing rapidly, with…

Spacious family bathroom, neat en suite or downstairs utility washroom, chances are you have a shower in one or more of these spaces in your home. The power of the shower is evident; they provide us with easy, speedy cleaning. What’s not to love about this refreshing, pick-me-up option? Many of us are choosing to ditch the idea of a traditional bathroom with a tub, altogether. Available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, finishes and configurations, showers are a truly flexible option that allows you to get creative with your design. Being able to fit into almost any space, no matter how small, is something a bathtub can’t always do. What’s more, with a multitude of options available for brassware and fixings, they can work within any décor scheme…

Want to know more? Read our reviews of the best blenders…

Enjoy a breakfast brew with an alarm clock & coffee maker…