Interview special: Little House on the Corner

The interview

We chatted with them about their ongoing project, its challenges and triumphs and asked them for their DIY secrets…

1. How did you choose your little house on the corner?
For us, the most important factor was the location. We were really specific about where we wanted to live, which of course narrowed down the choice of properties dramatically. Sticking to our budget was of course really important, too.

2.Do you prefer working on your house or your blog?
One motivates the other so that they’re hard to separate. We love working on and improving our home, but we equally love to document the changes and share our progress with our readers.

3. What’s the toughest DIY challenge you’ve had so far?
We’re currently working on replacing our garage roof which is by far the most ambitious project we’ve attempted. It seems to be taking for ever and took a lot of planning, but it’s almost finished and looks great so far.

4. As paint supplier we’re always interested in people’s favourite finishes – what are yours?
We love to use a matt finish for almost everything. For us, it feels sleek and contemporary. We also always try to use water-based paints because we hate washing brushes and anything that involves spirits is just too much effort!

5. What’s the biggest achievement/breakthrough you’ve had doing up your home?
The project that has made the biggest change to our home is definitely removing the wall between our kitchen and dining room. It’s completely transformed the way we use our home! We hardly ever used to use the dining space, but now seem to spend most of our time there.

6. Any DIY disasters?
We’ve been lucky enough not to have any major DIY disasters. We’ve actually had more problems with trades people that let us down & do bad jobs. We once had a plasterer scheduled who, on the morning when he should have started work, texted that he wouldn’t be able to make it as he got too drunk the night before!

By doing things yourself, you often end up with a better finish than if you pay someone to do it, because you put in more attention as it’s your own home.

7. Do you have any tips for which paint colours work best inside a home?
Most colours in our home are subtitle greys & blues, with pops of colour and personality added through art and accessories. Go with what you like, it’s your home, only you have to like it.

8. Do you have any home improvement secrets that you’d care to share?
You can do more than you think! We had almost no experience when starting to renovate our home, but have learned a huge amount and have been able to achieve things we never thought possible.