Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Door surrounds were traditionally made from plaster, and offer a more decorative or ornate option to wooden architrave. You can still buy traditional plaster surrounds or you can choose the modern, more lightweight alternatives – as shown below. Door surrounds are normally supplied in kit form, which you then cut to fit your door/entrance size. read more »

Traditional ceiling roses are made of plaster, but you can now buy lightweight resin and plastic varieties. The lighter weight options do make their fitting much easier, but some people will still prefer the look and feel of a plaster rose. read more »

Modern coving is mostly made from plastic, polystyrene, or plaster. The techniques for measuring and cutting remain the same for all, but the type of adhesive you use will need to vary accordingly. I’ve chosen to use plaster coving in the sequence below. The trickiest thing about fitting coving is dealing with the corners. You may either cut your own mitre joins for corners or use corner pieces supplied by the manufacturer. Both options are shown below. read more »

When painting a room, ventilation is vital, so have windows open to provide a good flow of fresh air. Before starting work, try to remove as much furniture from the room as possible. Anything that is left should be covered with dust sheets to protect from overspray, drips and dust. Surfaces should be well prepared before painting. Holes should be filled and all surfaces sanded and cleaned down. read more »

Small holes in hollow walls (stud walls) are tricky to fill as if you just use filler, it simply falls through into the void inside the wall. It is therefore necessary to provide some support for the filler, which is best achieved by using a small offcut of plasterboard. read more »