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 !