Fashionable Fakes There’s nothing quite like walking into a room and seeing a beautiful arrangement of flowers, but unfortunately most people can’t afford to have fresh flowers in the house every day of the week. Artificial flowers have been around...
Fibro Makeover – Tuscan effect Late last year Don and the Burke’s Backyard team transformed an ugly backyard into a spectacular, Tuscan inspired entertainment area. One of the problems they had to contend with was an old fibro garage with flaking, powdery...
French Riviera Carport Whether we like it or not, the automobile is an important part of our busy, everyday lives. When it comes to the problem of where to keep the car, we can either go for the traditional garage, or perhaps something a bit more stylish. Don looked...
Sydney graphic designer Elly Clark lives in a red brick block of flats with a rounded Art Deco influence. The building itself presents an interesting challenge, but Elly was really stumped when it came to her tiny, useless balcony. What could be done to make it look...
Cooking food outdoors on the barbecue is a great Aussie tradition, and nothing sums up the laid back, unpretentious nature of Australia better than the backyard barbie. Or does it? In recent years barbecues have moved upmarket and are now competing with the family car...
Tap Timers Watering is more complex than many people think. Standing out in the garden with a hose is really a very inefficient way of watering your plants. You’d cut down on garden maintenance, save time and waste less water if you installed an irrigation...
Why Timber Rots Don looked at a typical example of dry rot in the timbers of a house. Water had been sucked into the ends of the wood by capillary action, creating a wet zone which rotted as it dried out. This problem is less likely to occur if the ends of the timber...
Pictures and prints add cheer and colour to your home, but they don’t always have to be framed and hung on the walls. Rita Hill showed how to use découpage to turn a plain timber tabletop into a stunning work of art. You will need A small table, old or new...
Nindooinbah On a clear day you can stand on the verandah at Nindooinbah and see about 110km (60 miles) over the water and across the valley. Nindooinbah is a local Aboriginal word meaning ‘the place of ashes’. In times gone by the Aborigines used to camp...
Modern Courtyard Landscape designer Ian Barker was given a simple brief by his clients for the courtyard of their modern townhouse: they wanted something easy and something different. Features of the design Corrugated galvanized roofing iron was used on the exterior...