Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Wayne de Wet is quite simply one of the nation’s finest decorators. He was the Grand Winner of the Dulux Select Decorator of the Year in 2011, and runner-up in 2008. He also hand picked a Team of Dulux Select decorators, and they painted show homes and room sets at the 2011 London Ideal Home Show (Swedish house open plan living) and 2012 (The Santiago Town House and Dulux Design Service room set) – the same team produced great results at London’s Exel Grand Designs Live 2012, decorating multiple room sets, and Kevin McCloud used one to open the show. read more »

Choosing paint for interior wood generally comes down to a decision based on brand reputation mixed with affordability, as it is normally the case that the big brands have the higher price tags, and you as a consumer end up thinking ‘Can I get away with using the cheaper stuff?’ The other main consideration you need to make is about the paint system you want to use on your wood, which is a subject that I cover in greater detail in my guide – ‘Which paint for wood’. read more »

Decorating fillers occupy row upon row of shelf space in most DIY outlets, which I always imagine provides a very confusing message to most experienced DIY enthusiasts, let alone some poor soul considering their first decorating project. I appreciate that there are different manufacturers, and different package sizes, but that aside, the overwhelming choice seems to encourage buying a different filler for every occasion, when in fact you can do every decorating job you’ll ever come across with a far, far smaller range requirement. read more »

Mythic Paint is a relatively new player in the UK market, and they offer a selection of water-based paints for both the interior and exterior of your home. Okay, nothing too exciting in that introduction, but where my interest certainly began to perk up was when I noticed that all their paints contains zero VOCs (nasty chemicals), zero carcinogens (very nasty chemicals), are completely non-toxic, and have literally no smell. Now, there are other ‘user-friendly’ paints around, but none that have stirred up this amount of interest in the ‘trade’ marketplace. read more »

Planning a kitchen really does need to be an operation of almost military precision because there are so many things to think about, and therefore so many things that can go wrong. However, the result of good kitchen planning is right up near the top of what I would call the ‘Home Improvement Project Gratification List’. read more »