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Home improvement guides
Practical, reviewed advice for planning repairs and projects, choosing the right pro and knowing what to ask before you hire.
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494 guides
- Guide
Trim & Moulding guide
Trim is the joinery that finishes a room rather than holds it up: architrave round the doors, a window board under the cill, dado and picture rails, panel moulding on a wall, plinth blocks, and the beads and stops that…
12 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Coving guide
Crown moulding is the American name for what a British decorator calls coving or, in its more elaborate forms, cornice.
12 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Carpenters guide
Carpenters and joiners handle most of the timber in a British home. The trade is usually described in two stages.
10 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Framing guide
Framing in British practice is not the North American platform-framing trade. It is carpentry first fix: the stud partitions that divide rooms, the sole plates and head plates they sit between, the noggins that will…
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Finish Carpentry guide
Finish carpentry, or second fix, is everything that goes on after the plasterer: doors hung and eased, architrave and skirting scribed and mitred, window boards, boxing to pipework and soil stacks, ironmongery, loft…
10 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Custom Cabinets guide
Custom cabinetmaking is what you commission when a room will not take a standard carcase: a chimney breast with unequal alcoves, a sloping ceiling under a roof, a utility room in a cupboard under the stairs, a boot room…
10 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Kitchen Cabinets guide
Replacing kitchen units is the part of a kitchen project that people picture, but it is rarely the part that decides the programme.
10 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Cabinet Refacing guide
Refacing keeps the carcases, the worktop and every service exactly where they are, and changes what you see: doors, drawer fronts, end panels, plinths and cornices, and sometimes the visible edges of the boxes…
9 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Cabinet Repair guide
Cabinet repair is the unglamorous work that keeps a kitchen, wardrobe or vanity unit going for another decade: a drawer that will not close, a door that fouls its neighbour, a hinge plate pulling out of chipboard, a…
9 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Custom Closets guide
Fitted wardrobes are the most common bespoke joinery job in British homes, because the typical bedroom is small, square-ish and short of storage, and a wall of wardrobes uses the full height that a freestanding unit…
9 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Built-Ins guide
Built-in joinery is furniture that becomes part of the building: alcove cupboards and shelving either side of a chimney breast, a window seat with storage beneath it, a bench and boot store in a hallway, a media wall, a…
10 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Custom Furniture guide
Bespoke furniture is the freestanding end of the joinery trade: a dining table sized to a room rather than to a catalogue, a bench for an awkward bay, a bed with storage under it, a desk, a sideboard, a headboard, a set…
9 min read21 September 2026
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