This desk is made from two IKEA kitchen units and a counter-top that the customer found in Bargain Corner in the Belfast store. The unit had a small imperfection tht I was able to remove because I had to cut the counter-top to make it fit into the space that the customer had.
This desk is about 2.3m long and accommodates eveything that the customer needs to work from home. It cost less than any desk that the customer could buy in a store and was easily dismantled in about 15 minutes when the customer had to re-decorate this room and move to another room for a couple of weeks.
This fence was blown down in the January storms of 2024. To save money for the owner, I kept the original boards, dug out the old posts, which had broken, and replaced them with sturdier 150mm posts. I also replaced the rails. This fence is 14m long so keeping the original boards saved a lot of money. The fence is much stronger because the posts are stronger and painiting the old boards freshened the entire fence.
This must be the cheapest way to create an extra room in a small terraced property. If you have a yard, think about roofing it using clear polycarbonate panels to create a light-filled space for al fresco dining even if it rains, to provide extra storage, as a space to house a washing machine and tumble drier to allow you to use your kitchen space better, as a space to dry clothes or as an outdoor bar for parties. The wooden window sills aren’t expensive and create a finished look that makes outdoors look like indoors. They can also be used as a bar top.
This is a simple way to finish a very ordinary piece of plastic furniture to make it stronger, more useful and individual. This is a simple piece of pine screwed to the top of the IKEA Trones shoe box. The custmer uses the box to store bedroom essentials and the shelf to charge phones while they sleep. The shelf took five minutes to fit and cost less than £10. Oiling the surface of the pine was the most time-consumng job but I did it the night before at home so everythig was fitted in about fifteen minutes so there was minimal inconvenience to the customer.
Ten years ago, I built this fence with a conventional set of wooden gates for this property. Two years ago, a wider (3m/ 10′) entrance was required and it was decided that the swinging gates required cars to be parked too far back into the property, which would waste precious garden space. I dug out one gatepost and laid a new one to give a wider opening. I used the original timber from the swinging gates and added some strengthening batons to make a single rolling gate. The cost of the timber for this project was about £50, which includes £25 for the new 150mm gate post. Recycling really saves money and a lick of paint every year covers a multitude of sins.
The metal track is laid in concrete with a brushed finish and there is a very sturdy, good-quality mechanism that allows the door to roll. This door is not electrically driven so unlike his neighbours, the owner doesn’t have to pay for expensive repairs every few years. The gate is completely fabricated from timber and weighs about 70kg. It can be opened and closed by a seven-year-old child so the enormous expense and questionable reliability of an electrical mechanism seems hardly justifiable. The gate is very strong when it is fully closed and it had no trouble withstanding the storms during the winter of 2023-2024.
The biggest cost for this project was the rolling mechanism, which cost about £150.00. If you can wait until someone else also wants a rolling gate, I can probably negotiate a cheaper price and use the same delivery fee for two sets.
Simple design saves money in terms of initial cost and it is much easier to fix so it is cheaper in the long run.
The customer had an existing old shed that stretched along half of the side of the house. I removed this and erected a new shed that stretches the full length of the house, from front to back. The shed contains a long workbench and has simple timber hooks for hanging bicycles. The roof is box-section galvanised steel. The guttering is neatly connected to th downspout for the house. The customer also had me replace a fence and asked if I could use some of the old fence boards to clad the front and back of the shed. This saved money and gives the shed a lived-in look that we both like.
The customer required ventilation in the shed because it houses a tumble drier so the boards have slight gaps (2-4mm) between them to allow some air to flow throught the space. This is still waterproof in all but the worst storms, when a trickle of water enters the shed. This dries in a few hours. The more ventilation you have in a wooden structure, the less trouble will it give you. If the roof is watertight, you’ll never see a puddle.
If you want a completely watertight structure, this is also possible with timber. I prefer to use a hit-and-miss method for fixing boards, which gives you a watertight structure in the winter and allows a little ventilation between the boards in summer, so the wood can breathe. If you’re going to house a tumble drier in a wooden structure, you need ventilation all year so large vents are required. This customer is very happy with the ventilation that loosely fitted boards gives.
The old shed was wired for electricity so I used the existing connection and upgraded the cables to fit a double socket for a tumble drier and a bulkhead LED light with an isolation switch. The customer now has almost triple the storage and working capacity in a shed that is only double the length because I made simple storage solutions and constructed an uncluttered workbench that can be used for most jobs.
I laid this flooring four years ago and it is till tight and in very good condition, even after some pretty hard use and several spills.
When any floor is laid correctly on a decent base, it will last for years, if not decades. This flooring cost £7.99 per square metre. I laid the floor in the hall, kitchen and understairs storage area in a morning. The customer was on a budget because this was a first home. Four years later, she’s still happy with the look.
This is the main bedroom in a small, two-bedroom terraced house. It is a decent size but the customer did not like the cluttered feel of the room when it contained large wardrobes. These seemed to suck the light and space from the room.
The customer designed this open wardrobe that is made using scaffold bars and simple pine shelves that I made by joining standard widths of pine and mounting them on scaffold pole to create deep and strong shelves.
This small piece of furniture holds more than a large wardrobe and looks much brighter and more modern. It can be easily extended along the wall when the customer’s clothes collection expands.
These bedside shelves are made from the same pine as the open wardrobe. One is simply for storage and the other is used as a small dressing table. I made the little stool using the same wood. It was cheaper than many items in stores.
This bedroom is in a small terraced house. The customer is a fan of Japanese design and asked me to build a low (150mm) dais on which she could place two matresses. The dais is covered with very cheap laminate flooring and oiled plywood is used for shelves.
This room is timy and looked even more tiny when there were two single beds in it. Lowering the height of the matresses to below the window sill line makes the room look much larger and movement around the room is infinitely easier. Instead of feeling cluttered and chaotic, it now feels bright and spacious. The matresses are currently joined to make a double bed but when they are separated to make two singles, the room still feels much larger than it should.
Many Japanese houses are really small and the rooms are tiny so the Japanese have developed many elegant and simple design solutions to make small spaces seem larger and much more stylish than you would imagine.
This shelf is made using a carcassing frame (very cheap) and a 12mm plywood skin (also cheap) that is screwed onto the frame. Joining the to materials gives it great strength. An aeroplane structure is made in a similar way. The curtain rail is a simple scaffold bar and the fixings bolt on. A bulky wardrobe occupied this space before and held half of the clothes that can be hung on this simple rail. The shelf accommodates spare bedding and storage boxes easily. The overall effect is to increase the sense of light and space in this timy space.
The customer had an old piece of pine that I sanded and oiled for use as a mantlepiece for a disused fireplace. The wood is mounted as a floating shelf so no fixings are visible.
I also fitted the television to the wall and installed neat trunking through which the cables for the television and the Internet router travel. This is a neat solution and much cheaper and less messy than tracking the walls.
The customer wanted a herringbone floor throughout the living area of a small terraced house. The skirting boards were replaced and the floor was fitted around many corners. This took a long time but the customer was happy with the finished product.
This project was completed four years ago. As you can see, the floor boards have not separated and the floor is in excellent condition.
Curtain poles usually come with very long stanchions so a lot of light penetrates at the sides of the curtains and heat leaks out the same way. By shortening the stanchions, the curtains are brought closer to the wall and the room is. darker and warmer. This is a cheap and fast way to save on heating bills and to stop light from entering a room when it’s not wanted.
These stanchions were almost 100mm long but now they are 25mm so the curtain hugs the wall, so light stays out and heat stays in. This is a cheap option with no drawbacks. I can modify your existing curtain poles quickly so call me for a price for multiple poles.
These shoe storage cupboards are two standard Bissa cabinets. These are screwed together for strength and I then built a frame from offcuts of partitions that the custome had left over from a kitchen refit. The meter box is accessed by slipping one of the doors off and the meter can be read easily by loking between the second and third doors.
This area was dead space before the customer decided to install this capacious storage. The previous ugly cupboard in which the meter box sat is no longer an offence to the eyes.
This was a cheap, fast and effective way to convert useless space into a functional and pretty area of the hall. We were lucky with the measurements. These units cannot be cut to suit.
The customer used IKEA Trones storage bins for extra storage to utilise the vacant space where a bannister had once been at the head of the stairs. I made the frame and fitted the four Trones bins inside it. This space is now functional and is much more effectively utilised as a bannister and as a storage area.
This table was fabricated offsite and assembled in the bedroom. The kitchen worktop had a fault, which was easily hidden under a pen storage box from IKEA, so it was heavily discounted. The scaffold bar is 31mm and will not break the bank.
The table is 2.4m long and 600mm wide so there is lots of room for teenage clutter or to spread out work.
If this industrial chic look is your style, let me know what you’d like and I can make shelf mounts, clothes rails and other furniture and fittings from scaffold bars.
The customer asked me to lay dark laminated flooring (12mm thick) over the entire ground floor of her house. This involved levelling parts of the floor and making the floor continous over most of the ground floor. The kitchen floor had been laid the year before.
This dining room floor was laid two years ago. There is no separation and the boards do not creak.
The floor in the hall is cut to the renovated staircase ad the froont door.
This kitchen floor was laid almost three years ago. It is still intact after heavy use, the board are still tight and do not creak.
Sliding doors involve a bit more work for fitting and architrave isn’t really an option so the frame must be replaced, but this customer wanted the rooms to feel bigger so she had me fit these sliding doors to most of the doorframes on her property. I made MDF valances to hide the running gear for the doors and she supplied ironmongery.
The end effect is of greater space in the room when the door is open. It is also easier to fit furniture near the door because the door does not require floor space to swing.
Note that if you have an atic conversion, you won’t be able to fit these doors to any frame that is on the escape route from the attic (usually all bedrooms, bathroom and hall).
Jointed posts and perfect alignment with the light fence that the customer commissioned. This solid gate has sturdy 150mm for a chunky look and the boards are reclaimed from a fence that owner asked me to dismantle.
Note that the gate is aligned with the top of the posts, which are jointed with the fence. This is a simple detail that makes all the difference. There is a gate-closer and a sturdy latch for delivery drivers and flier distributors who can’t close a gate.
