Our home improvements: making use of a corridor space

There is a small corridor between the kitchen and the village/church hall side of the house that was a dead space. Until a few months back there was a staircase up to a room that used to be where the scouts and brownies met and probably things like Sunday school and parish meetings took place. It's now our bedroom so we knocked a door through from the main house landing and blocked this staircase off in order to make the room bigger.

It was decided that the blocked off staircase would make a useful cupboard space. 

So here we go from the kitchen...

BEFORE

The corridor has double side doors onto the road that was once used for people entering the church hall for functions I think, possibly a fire escape. We use this for loading up the car and Sweep's van, moving furniture in and out of the house, it's bolted up so not used unless planned. 

There was a scruffy little alcove that needed some attention too.

Sweep set about planning some useful storage space using recycled materials, so the old table tennis table was used as a back for the shelves. The space on top extends right back under the old staircase so we decided to buy plastic storage boxes for our huge collection of Halloween items, safely packed away and neatly out of the way.

 

AFTER

Sweep made a secret storage panel to cover the cubby hole where the Halloween items are stored. I was really organised and photographed each box so that I know where my spooky items are. We love Halloween! The panel can be unscrewed so the rest of the year it is a secure mini shelf section for small items. Below the shelves are deeper.

Sweep made a couple of shelves for the alcove, replastered and then painted the wall here which had crumbled away. We decided to keep the kitchen bin here as the beagle had worked out how to open the lid and was causing chaos. 

On the shelves I keep my 'to do' tray and a basket of admin - school letters, things to do with Little Bird's autism appointments, leaflets of places to visit, business receipts and that kind of thing. 

The cupboard space has become a mini pantry, we have a main pantry on the otherside of the kitchen but LB was sneaking in and eating too many sweet things and the beagle was ripping open bags of dog food so these are all stored in our mini pantry now - useful for the Christmas goodies and stockpiling dog food. 

The corridor has had a new coat of paint and the side doors have been made less draughty - Sweep made a little peepo cover for the old key hole - he loves making these quirky things.

I think I need some cute accessories for this area now, maybe a tin sign or two, a door sign or something to add some colour. But for now I'm glad the area is functional and looking smarter.

Stay Safe While You're Doing Those DIY Jobs

We all love doing DIY jobs around the house, but just because we're not professionals doesn't mean it's OK to approach them in a slap-dash way. The Health and Safety rules imposed on workplaces are there for good reason, and most of them are just as important when you're working around the house.


Health & Safety
Health and safety rules are often dismissed as bureaucratic interference, but they're essential for staying safe. The Health & Safety Executive's guidelines for small and medium businesses {http://www.hse.gov.uk/abc/} aren't all relevant at home, but any DIYer would do well to study their common causes of accidents.

Crucial to staying safe is having the right equipment and ensuring that it's kept in good working order. An example of what can happen if you ignore this is what happened to Colin, a keen but disorganised DIYer, who was using a faulty drill to put up shelves. Fortunately, it didn't electrocute him, but it heated up, and Colin hadn't bothered to wear protective gloves. That oversight resulted in a trip to A&E with burns to his hands.


Tether It
Abigail was repainting the outside of her first-floor windows and was standing on a ladder using a sander, when the tool slipped and fell from her hand. Her first thought was to hope it hadn't been damaged, but she was horrified to look down and see her three-year-old daughter standing right beside where it had landed. Just a little to the side, and it could have been a tragedy.

Tethering tools with lanyards, D shackles and many others types of tether, should be standard practice in a workplace, as explained by this health and safety website. Abigail's story shows it can also be crucial for DIY. A range of tethered tools are available at Enfield Safety, along with other safety equipment.


Ladder Safety
Although she failed on tethering her sander, Abigail was following the guidelines for using her ladder safely, as described by the Guardian. It's vital to use the right ladder for the job, making sure it's long enough and completely secure, resting on a flat surface and at a safe angle. A good rule of thumb is that the distance of the ladder's foot from the wall should be a quarter of its height.

Horror stories aside, DIY is both enjoyable and immensely rewarding — as long as you take it seriously. Have fun, but follow all the safety guidelines to make sure it stays fun.

Have Fun and Be Safe

*Collaborative post*

Why DIYers Need Safety Gear as Much as Professionals

These days if you see someone working on a house you can quickly tell whether he or she is the home owner or a professional builder or construction worker. All you need to do is to glance at them.
If they are wearing a hard hat and safety glasses, the chances are they are a professional, if they are not it is likely that they are the home owner. The thing is that DIYers tend not to wear safety gear, but professionals do.

Why professional builders use safety equipment
By law professional tradespeople have to use safety equipment. Health and safety laws mean that employers have to care for their employees and provide them with a safe working environment.
Part of doing that is making sure that workers are made aware of risks, shown how to avoid them and are supplied with, and made to use, safety equipment. Failure to do this can result in prosecution and fines.

If someone is seriously injured or killed because they have not been provided with the right safety gear and been trained how to use it the business owner can be prosecuted and actually go to jail. As a result, health and safety is taken very seriously in professional circles and the wearing of good quality safety gear is now the norm.

The level of DIY accidents in the UK
Unfortunately when people carry out similar work at home they rarely take the same level of precautions and some pay with their lives. Every year around 70 Brits die while carrying out DIY tasks. A further 250,000 end up having to see a doctor or go to hospital because they have hurt themselves while doing construction work at home. Goodness knows how many more hurt themselves but not badly enough to need professional medical attention.

Image source: DIY Safety Shutterstock

Feature Wall using Farrow & Ball paint

I've been planning my bedroom revamp for a few months as it has not been redecorated since just after I moved in and the furniture is certainly past its prime. I was planning on colours to keep it all light and airy and as it was feeling a little cluttered, some new furniture and storage solutions too. The woodwork had also aged and needing freshening up, hence my project started to come together and indeed is still in progress.

I had decided on having a feature wall, although nothing too heavy and the paint had to have a dreamy look for a relaxing feel so when my Farrow & Ball  paint arrived I was keen to get going. 

The colour for the wall I am using is a shade of pink- Estate Emulsion Pink Ground. A delicate pink colour, chalky and not overpowering. I wanted pink for a feminine feel without being too sugary and this shade was perfect and soft. For the woodwork as they were in such a yellowed state I have used Farrow & Ball Interior Wood Primer & Undercoat to get them back into a good state. 

The room before was looking quite shabby as you can see. The walls were so mucky from where the wardrobe used to be and woodwork discoloured. 

What I noticed using Farrow & Ball emulsion was just how well it transferred from roller to wall. Coverage was even and after two coats the look was perfect. Just the pink, chalky look I had wanted after looking though the colour charts and getting some inspiration from Pinterest. The high quality pigments in the paint give it that well know full of depth, rich, chalky look.
Follow Happy Homebird's board Pink Ground on Pinterest.

The paint also did not have a smell to it which was wonderful as my son stays in this room with me and I did not want paint fumes like I have experienced in the past using other brands of paint. It is good to know that Farrow & Ball paints are eco friendly and the VOC (volatile organic compounds) levels are low. The coats were dry after about 90 minutes and washing the rollers was easy enough as you just need warm soapy water.

It was then onto the woodwork and this really made the walls stand out once picture rails and skirting boards were bright white. I find this part of decorating a room so satisfying, it really makes the colour on the wall pop.

I am loving the new colour of the wall so much that I am also going to paint the wall opposite in the same colour and then hang my vintage map there that I won a few months back. Hopefully after this weekend I can show you. I love the pink against the Victorian cast iron fire place, a lovely contrast and in the evening with some tea lights in glass votives, it's so relaxing and just what I was looking for.

Also, instead of buying a new wardrobe for the alcove, I'm going to look for a white dressing table/desk as I think that will keep the room looking spacious. For home decor ideas see here. With some fairy lights and pretty storage boxes it will look lovely against my Farrow & Ball Pink Ground feature wall.

This is a collaboration with Farrow & Ball but words and opinions are my own honest viewpoint