The First Thing We Do When Someone Dies Is Redecorate
There's a smell that follows bereavement into a house. It's not the smell of flowers or sympathy cards going soft…
Decorating DIY
The Freedom to Paint Your Own Walls
Walk into any DIY superstore on a Saturday morning and you will find the same scene: couples holding paint swatches…
The Shark Behind Your Sandpaper
Run your hand along a shark's skin from tail to head – against the grain, as it were – and…
The 1970s Room That Was Hiding Something
Walk into a 1970s front room and you are inside a very specific smell and a very specific lie. The…
The French Paper That Made Britain’s Walls British
There is wallpaper somewhere in a Georgian townhouse. It’s behind three layers of Victorian paint and a sheet of 1970s…
The Wallpaper Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
There's a recession on. You can't afford to move and a new sofa is out of the question. But on…
Britain Learned to DIY Out of Pure Desperation
In a British loft somewhere, there’s a half-used tube of Polyfilla, a set of tile spacers and a Black &…