Spruce up your loo without heading to the loan office, by focusing on little details that make a difference

The bathroom is perhaps one of the most important rooms in the house, but it never seems to get the respect it deserves. We spatter it with mud after rainstorms and leave heaps of wet towels on its forgiving floor.

It’s time we give the bathroom a little TLC. Yet, with a fixed vanity and all the complications of plumbing, it can be hard to figure out how to spruce up your loo on a budget. With that in mind, here are four easy DIYs to make your bathroom sparkle.

Don’t start knocking down walls just yet … follow this checklist to make sure you’ve thought of everything

Creating an open-plan space that combines your living, kitchen and dining areas can not only turn your home into a welcoming and social place for family and friends, it can also add value when it comes time to sell.

Exactly how you open up these spaces will depend on several different factors – consider these questions before taking the leap. 

Aesthetically and functionally, bookcases and staircases are really in the same family. This bookcase in a Tuscany, Italy home renovated by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati puts them even closer together by making the staircase an actual physical extension of the bookcase.

Each stair is simply an elongated shelf that extends far into the room’s open space. This allows for access to the skylight at the top of the staircase and also provides a spectacularly clever form of storage. Books, keepsakes, decorative items, and household items can easily be stored on the bookshelf part of the built-in.

Larger items can be stored in the elongated stair segments. Seen as one large piece of furniture, the bookcase/staircase is an impressive specimen. It takes up an entire wall of the home but is more whimsical than imposing.

Plan early and be realistic to pull off a home construction project smoothly, using these strategies from a pro

The budget conversation — it’s sometimes awkward, often slightly uncomfortable and usually comes with a bit of anxiety. Because of the nature of construction, things often cost more than what homeowners think. There are endless debates on why that is, but the result is that we designers often have conversations with clients that end with an awkward silence. The silence usually means that certain aspects of their project might be out of their reach. And truth be told, we really don’t like being the messenger in these conversations. We want our clients to be satisfied with the process and get what they really want.

But the flip side of that conversation is that budget constraints can make a project better. Just hear me out. What we find is that financial considerations make our team and clients focus on what’s really important. That pressure helps edit down the myriad choices and allows a more coherent story to emerge. And it all comes back to sticking to that budget. Here’s how.