Some reliable plants that are flowering right now!
May 7, 2020 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
April and May is the time where gardens start to burst into colour and so i thought i would show you photos of some plants that flower at this time of year that to date have always been reliable and reasonably easy to grow. The first photo shows an exceptional...
Wall & Deco - Inspiration for your bathrooms
Jul 1, 2019 - POSTED BY Monique Halloran - How To... , Market Trends
When designing a bathroom the options for unique and innovative wall coverings are endless, yet to make something practical as well as sensational to look at, it can be trickier than you think. When designing bathrooms for a winery recently we wanted the wall space to be viewed as a...
Landscapes in Art
Oct 19, 2017 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
A weekend walk to take in the beauty of the landscaped gardens at Blenheim Palace led me to a surprise hidden gem, The Oxfordshire Museum, which is situated in the heart of Woodstock. After an hour of drinking in the stunning, natural beauty created by Capability Brown at Blenheim Palace,...
Finally Finished
Oct 12, 2016 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
One of the most rewarding elements of my work is looking at your schemes once they are completed, seeing all of those design ideas in reality. That’s never truer then when it’s your own home. After writing first about our home in Oxford in 2014, we have this year put...
It’s Autumn and Time to Start Planting!
Sep 21, 2016 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
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Whilst shrubs and trees form the backbone of a good planting design, it’s the perennials that bring that ‘country garden’ feel to your borders. Perennials add glorious splashes of colour to your borders at different times of the year and because they die down in the winter, it is possible...
Inspirational Before and After Gardens
Aug 3, 2015 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice
Personally I love a blank canvas! And although some of these before photos look anything but blank, being choked full of weeds and overgrown shrubbery, they are the perfect starting point to let your imagination go. Your only restraints are the boundaries, the overall setting and the house itself. When...
A Quiet Garden in the City
Apr 20, 2015 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Gardens evoke thoughts of tranquil, green oases – places to relax in and unwind after a hard day’s work. But if you live in the city centre you are probably surrounded by constant noise and then some of that noise will intrude into your relaxation. I have recently had a...
Creating an Oasis in the Centre of Oxford
Nov 3, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Gardeners Choice , Whats Hot
Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees, but in this case I nearly couldn’t see the trees for the weeds! This small back garden in the centre of Oxford had been neglected for several years by previous owners, and then had to wait its turn till the house...
Oxford mess transformed into dream home
Aug 15, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Market Trends , Whats Hot
After buying our dream home only two months ago, turning it from a derelict mess into our dream home hasn’t been easy, but after some pretty frightening hiccups I couldn’t be happier with the result. Living and Dining Room The open plan living and dining room grew by a metre...
Plan, plan and plan some more
Jul 24, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
Winston Churchill wisely said ‘let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning’, a concept which I’ve clung to these past few weeks. Every project I try to turn worry and over thinking into planning, in the hope of avoiding any major slip ups. Inevitably each new development teaches me...
Week two - electrical first fit and plastering
Jun 27, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
The highs and the lows The first few weeks of any property development will give you more highs and lows then a night on the Las Vegas strip, but for us the first week definitely felt like we were on a losing streak. In the first three hours of being...
Week One - The Rip Out
Jun 18, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
The first on site activity of any property development is the ‘rip out’ stage. You need a mixture of muscle, structural knowledge and guts. Most of the problems of the entire project will come out during this stage, so you have to be prepared to make some difficult calls, change...
Turning your derelict pit into your dream home - How to Blog Day One
Jun 9, 2014 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
Day one of any new project can be daunting, but when that project contains ammunition, worms, rats, broken glass and most likely much worse, day one can make you want to run in the other direction. Luckily for me I love a challenge, so this morning stepping into my newly...
Stuck for ideas for your last minute presents?
Dec 20, 2013 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Whats Hot
Stuck for ideas for your last minute presents? Here are some high street steals from £4-£65. Idyll Home After Septembers’ issue of Elle Decoration, I wanted to source some affordable tie die grey cushions. This pair from Idyll home could be used in the bedroom or living room to add...
How to look at just the structural bones when searching for your perfect london pad
Oct 31, 2013 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Property Search , Whats Hot
Finding the perfect property is rare and so the trick is to find the most amount or potential square footage possible in the desired location, and to view the property as an open space with a few ‘structural‘ bones. It does help to have experience to draw on, but if...
Bathroom Conundrum
Jan 2, 2013 - POSTED BY Anna Halloran - How To... , Property Search , Whats Hot
As you can see from the existing floor plans below, the layout meant you had to walk through the second bathroom to gain access to the roof terrace! Not the most inviting way to usher guests on to your roof terrace for a candlelit dinner on a summer’s eve. We...
