5 Ways to get your home ready for winter

*Contains Affiliate links If you haven't already heard the news that the UK is apparently going to have the coldest Winter for 30yrs this year! Yes, apparently we are going to be hit with another Beast from the East around January time according to a long-range weather forecast. While we can't really depend on such long-term predictions and if you live in the UK you will know that the weather changes pretty much on the hour but regardless our winters do seem to be getting colder year on year and now is the time to start getting your home ready for the deep freeze. Getting your home ready is all about putting preventatives in place so that you save money, not spend it and you don't have to be a DIY guru either, just some elbow grease and common sense is key when it comes to home maintenance. Here is a list of essentials you really need to find time before the winter season starts. 1. Clear your gutters and drains - not the most exciting or favourite of chores to......

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Highways and Homes: How to block out the noise

You've picked out the perfect new home everything is looking up, but there's one problem. That home is sat right beside a busy motorway, road or like us a small but busy street with limited parking and as we all know, this is the recipe for possible noise and disruption. Unfortunately, there is no way to eradicate each and every nuisance that arises because of situations like this. The motorways and roads aren't going to move, but at the same time you don't have to either. You can take advantage of several useful tips to at least minimize the effects and live without those dreaded disruptions. As you've probably gathered by the title, the bulk of these suggestions relate to your windows. It's here where most noise is allowed to penetrate into your house, so it stands to reason that this is the first area you attempt to rectify. Most of the solutions we'll cipher over are inexpensive to say the least, but we'll quickly go over one of the ......

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Don't throw money out the window!

We try and be as economical and frugal as possible (especially after Christmas and the dreaded tax return) and we are always looking at ways to save, especially in the home and are certainly not the only ones, I mean no one likes throwing money away. What I found out during my research is that a staggering 50% of domestic heat is lost through windows which is shocking and upon hearing this I wondered what the best was to prevent this loss as I don't know about you but heating bills are so expensive so anyway to reduce them is a good thing in my eyes. The solution is pretty simple actually - for one it's best to have double glazing and secondly make sure you have the right type of blinds or thick curtains to increase efficiency. Duette® is a good place to start as they have a range of blinds for the home with the purpose of saving you money as soon as you put them up and have been proven to reduce heat loss by up to 46% which in turn can reduce your heating bill by up to 2......

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Hello Stripes

I love this striped rug ( image ) We are really trying to bring more texture, patterns and colour into the house and it popped in my head the other day how much I love stripes and as long as you plan your room right and don't go over the top it can be a real statement pattern in any room in the house, such as this amazing rug in a kitchen. By keeping the kitchen simple and neutral in colour it means that is does not look over cluttered or too busy with the stripes and intact they add to the beauty of the room. This technique can also be followed through into a hallway and I love how the colourful stripy rug really adds to the room and brings in an elegant but fun element to the space. A more personal way of adding stripes and colour into a room is by painting a key piece of furniture such as the chest of drawers above, the main thing to remember is only do one piece of furniture otherwise it just won't work and don't clash colours, keep things simple and it can bec......

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Blinding inspiration

As some of you may already know we are currently revamping our house in gear for putting it on the market next year. When we purchased it as the end of last year we did it in mind of being a smaller project than the one before (total renovation) and a few things have been left by the last owners that are well really not us and do nothing for the house. One of them being the dull and dreary blinds in the living room, main bedroom and ghastly pink ones in the kitchen and it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think interior design but it's pretty important to get it right as windows are key to bringing in light and lifting a whole room. Our living room before we change the blinds As you can see from our living room above we want something a little bit more stylish, up to date and  allowed the light to flow better than these old dark wooden blinds and in our search from something a bit more chic we came across the window blinds from Thomas Sande......

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Let in the light and Pin to win

As you may know we are in the middle of houses at the moment, having sold our old house just before Christmas and we are now renting a little cottage just outside of Cardiff, and are currently on the lookout for our next "home". I am dreamer when it comes to these things, I mean why not aspire to live somewhere inspiring! Perhaps this is because the flat I lived in with a friend in Cape Town had the most amazing view of the mountain and city with a large balcony and windows that would let in the light, and it rarely failed to take my breath away every morning. I am in love with floor to ceiling windows and would love to live in a Victorian bay fronted house or an old warehouse or parisian apartment. I like rooms to have little nooks and crannies but also to be bright and airy and I love the idea of the outside coming in and the warmth of natural light. However I am not a huge fan or early morning sun every morning (anything before 7am is a bit of a no no) so I would hang......

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