Ideal Home

3 things that make open-plan kitchens feel unwelcoming – and pro-backed advice for avoiding a clinical space

If an open-plan kitchen acts as your main, if not sole, living space too then you need it to be as inviting as possible. Naturally, in a kitchen, practical surfaces and design choices tend to come ...
Ideal Home

Hot borders is the planting trend that will fill your garden with bold colour this summer – your garden will look sunny even when the sky is grey

‘Hot borders are set for a bit of a comeback,’ says Claire Mitchell, RHS qualified horticulturalist, known as the Garden Editor. ‘With last summer's heatwave in our memories, we are seeing increasing ...
Ideal Home

Move over, annuals – these perennials can be planted in March for flowers that come back every year

Perennials are those plants that stick around year after year, and they’re a brilliant investment for the garden. As luck would have it, there are plenty of perennials that you can plant in March.
Ideal Home

3 'unusable' bathroom layouts that actually work – I spoke to interior designers to discover the clever layout tips they've used in pokey bathrooms

'Downstairs loos are often some of the most awkward spaces to design as they’re typically compact, lacking natural light and ...
Ideal Home

Maximalist design brings this mini Cotswolds cottage roaring to life

They spotted the 18th-century cottage for sale and it instantly caught their attention, with its classic Cotswold stone ...
Ideal Home

How we test coffee machines – all of the details on our review process and the key benchmarks we're judging each machine by

In the last few years, we've tested dozens of coffee machines of every type, from filter products that you can fit a carafe ...
Ideal Home

I'm recommending this £1.50 IKEA garden essential to everyone this planting season – it's the most used tool in my small courtyard garden

As the owner of a small courtyard garden in London, there is one gardening tool I recommend above all others: a potting mat. Right now, IKEA is selling a striking version for £1.50 that I'm telling ...
Ideal Home

I was one of the first to try out the Shark EveryMess – this is the good, the bad, and the ugly you need to know before you buy

One thing many people forget is that you always need to clean the appliances that clean for you, and this is no different with the Shark EveryMess. Thankfully, Shark claims that the EveryMess is ‘Self ...
Ideal Home

John Lewis's new homeware range shows that florals can be groundbreaking for spring – these 9 designs prove it

Florals for spring? Well, it turns out they can be groundbreaking when you see the new John Lewis x Anine Cecilie Iversen ...
Ideal Home

Vogue Williams's new passion project - a brand new sofa collection with Sterling Home - is really rather good

The showstopper is easily the sumptuous, contemporary-styled pillowtop Howth sofa range. Named after the seaside peninsula in ...
Ideal Home

I’ve been saving up for cast iron, but this aluminium pan at Aldi has turned my head – it’s a lightweight, affordable alternative if you hate lifting heavy pans

For a long time, I’ve always thought of cast iron as the gold standard for cookware, but Aldi ’s new aluminium pans are seriously making me reconsider. Lightweight and affordable, they're an ideal ...
Ideal Home

B&M is selling some of the most affordable mini-greenhouses I’ve seen – they’re perfect for tiny gardens

With prices ranging between £12 and £35, B&M’s greenhouse options are so affordable that they even rival the prices of Lidl and Aldi greenhouses. With spring well within our grasp, now is the best ...