Under stairs cupboard,cloakroom shoe storage

With the floor insulated and now painted in Farrow & Ball Hardwick White floor paint the new under stairs cupboard is pretty much finished. I built a low bench with storage for all our shoes and then two rows of shaker pegs. the interior woodwork is painted in Farrow & Ball All White estate eggshell a colour we are using for most of the woodwork throughout the house. 

We use Farrow and Ball estate eggshell on  most of the kitchens I make, I have found it to be the best finish out of all the water based paints , its very hard wearing, sometimes it does need more coats but finish is very flat and a good low sheen to it. On the other hand the F&B emulsion wall paint I'm not so keen on, seems very watery meaning you have to use a lot coats, for this reason we are going with a trade Dulux vinyl mat. 

Simple fire place surround design

This is a fireplace surround that I helped make for my brothers house on the Isle of Wight . Its based on an original fireplace at my aunts house. Its a simple design that I plan to use again on our own house (the skirting at the bottom is still to be finished). The alcove cupboards either side are also made in the workshop which we then fitted and finished on site.

Hallway insulation going in

We have decided to keep the original boards in the hallway and paint them. To stop drafts and keep as much warmth in possible and because of lack of access have opted to insulate them with a double foil bubble insulation. I managed to lever the boards up without much damage and hoovered out the space, re-lagged the heating pipes, I then stapled the foil with roughly a 50mm gap below the boards to provide a bit of air movement. Using the foil has meant that I have not needed to take up all the boards and have been able to thread it under and staple it neatly right across the width . I will post images when complete and also see how it feels with winter coming ! 

 

My 'Chuck box' for the ongoing VW T5 camper project

This is my take on an American style camping box for the van. After a Google search for design idea's I came up with this design , based on several I had seen called 'chuck boxes' which I gather comes from chuck wagons, horse pulled carts which where used to carry all the food and supplies for journeys out to the wild west to make a new life or used by cowboys on  long cattle drives. he idea of the modern version is to basically house all your gear for camping and be able to get it out of your van or SUV! to set up camp. 

 It has the stove in, washing bowl, plates cutlery etc everything you need and I have made it so you can set it up in the van or take it out. The lid comes off and doubles up as the table top , using a Reimo swivel leg from Camperworks, I can then rotate the front seats around (another great gadget from Kiavans)  and we can all eat together or play chess ( hence the checker pattern)