Renovation

Renovation

"Everything was blue underneath, from floor to ceiling," says vintage dealer Robert Ropertz. It's just the kind of surprise one encounters when scraping through layers of paint and wallpaper in an 1865 building. Then, there's the crooked floors, crumbling clay plaster, and leaky roofs, all of which illustrator Andrea Weber and Ropertz, who is also a painter and preservationist, took in stride.

I'll call him Bruce. He's any of the 3.1 million Australians living in a house with a pool or spa. Over my long career in hardware, listening to the woes of so many Bruces, I've discovered that owning a pool is not all fun and bubbles at cocktail hour. In the beginning, it wasn't so bad. On first viewing his bayside property, Bruce already believed the agent's claim that by far the most desirable addition to any home is a pool.

India's palaces and former colonial warehouses are witnessing a new kind of restoration, one that happens beneath the surface. From discreet steel supports tucked behind centuries-old masonry to digital sensors embedded in frescoed ceilings, technology is quietly reshaping how heritage buildings are protected for the future. These upgrades are more about subtle precision and less about spectacle; invisible engineering wonders.

The Barbican is a maze. A beautiful brutalist, multi-levelled maze of crisscrossing walkways in the sky - but still a maze. In a way, that's part of the cultural institution's charm, always leading visitors to discover surprising corners of the site. There are, however, a few downsides to the Barbican's labyrinthine layout. Sometimes you'll try to meet a friend before a show and find yourself at the opposite side to where you're meant to be (or worse, in the car park).

The First Unitarian Church of San Jose is one of the city's oldest and most picturesque houses of worship, with the Romanesque building overlooking St. James Park originally constructed in 1891. And today, after a $2 million renovation, the building is looking better than ever. The congregation and its church building have had a long and storied history in San Jose, with its members speaking out on social causes.

It's easy to achieve a sleek, polished look when you're working with chrome, and, thanks to its reflective nature, it can even help to brighten up your space and make it appear larger than it really is - particularly when combined with these modern lighting ideas. Pretty and practical, this durable finish is also long-lasting, making it a sensible option as well as an attractive one.

Cristobal Palma + 39 Architects: IDOM Area of this architecture project Area: 39592 m Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2025 Photographs:Cristobal Palma Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: ChileSeating Category: Stadiums, Renovation Architects Authors: Borja Gomez, Cesar Azcarate Collaborating Architects: Agostina Sambataro, Carmen Prada, Clara Guzman, Diego Rodriguez Segura, Felipe Vergara Galleguillos, Fernando Garrido, Jose Manuel Pando de Prado, Manuel Bouzas Barcala, Maria Francisca Navarro Valenzuela, Samuel Araneda, Simon Lucas Morgado, Tomas Santiago Perez.

Whenever you move into a new place, there are often unexpected little surprises in the home that you missed during your initial walk-through. That being said, Threads user @chrisxvargas probably didn't overlook this random nook. He is now asking people to help him figure out what to do with it:

In the current real estate landscape, outdoor living is no longer an optional upgrade; it's a required feature. Buyers are craving spaces where they can truly live and entertain, and few additions deliver that experience-and the corresponding increase in home value-quite like a well-designed outdoor cooking area. In fact, choosing to build a custom outdoor kitchen transforms a basic patio into a premium, functional extension of your home. It's an amenity that significantly elevates your property's standing, giving you a competitive edge when it's time

The deconstructed industrial kitchen is made from concrete blocks, larch plywood, and stainless steel and outfitted with an eclectic mix of Japanese kitchenware.

The Sol LeWitt piece was a gift from Beracasa Beckman's mother, Veronica Hearst. "It's a fantastic piece of art because, in reality, what you buy is a document with the IP, so you can take a paper document with instructions and execute it on a large wall in any space," she says. (Technically, the two cubic rectangles are a section of the complete 1989 LeWitt work, Wall Drawing 604H, which consists of five rectangles.) With a laugh, she adds, "It's really the easiest way to travel with very large art."

Practical and pretty: Tawashi brushes made from the fibers of the windmill palm have been used in Japan for centuries. For 70 years, Takada's artisans have been handcrafting tawashi brushes one at a time, using materials harvested from trees cultivated in Wakayama Prefecture, in southwestern Japan. "While scrubbing brushes are usually rough and thick and made of synthetic fibers," the company says, "tawashi brushes don't scratch the surface being washed.

The Studio Museum in Harlem reopens after seven years on 15 November. Its new home was created from the ground up on the museum's former footprint at 144 West 125th Street. The first purpose-built space in its 57-year history, the 82,000-sq.-ft building was designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson as executive architect-the two teams also collaborated on the recently opened new Princeton University Art Museum. The Studio Museum's $300m price tag-fully fundraised, almost a quarter from public sources-includes construction, operating costs during closure and a $50m endowment (the institution's first).

When we renovated and extended our house, around 10 years ago now, we were on a tight budget and, given that we had no option but to stay living in the property with two children under four, wanted to get it done and dusted as quickly as possible. Having said that, building an extension while living on site with limited means meant that the whole thing still took around four years from start to finish - you'd have thought that would mean that we got everything we wanted from all our efforts, particularly given that we did most of the work ourselves. Not so.

Ahead this weekend? A dreamy, easy guest room; DIYs for the autumn table; and our undying love for both stationary shops and garden clogs. Read on: Above: Rest your eye here. Photograph by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen courtesy of Norm Architects. Styling by Pernille Vest from Guest House No.16 in Denmark: Norm Architects' Seaside Retreat Inspired by Hammershi Paintings. Alison Roman's First Bloom popup: now open in New York City.

Their speciality came about thanks to a convergence of talents and interests: Remco worked for his uncle's camper business and has carpentry skills, and Naomi, a graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven is an experienced product and interior designer. They have three young kids and like to roam the Dutch countryside themselves in a tricked-out van. Which is how they started designing their own and offering their services.

When the Breuer Building on 75th and Madison reopens on Saturday in its new life as an auction house for Sotheby's, return visitors will notice that the lobby is much as they left it. The room is a rare interior landmark, a designation that encompasses what seemed like furniture: slabs of seating and tables that are cemented in. But Sotheby's still managed to make some tweaks.

Originally Springmount came with a cottage attached to its grounds as well as an outdoor dairy,

In their new shared weekend retreat, they rolled up their sleeves and brought the outdoors in, incorporating rocks from the property into kitchen cabinet hardware and recreating natural motifs with the finishes. "We went very literal with the design of a 'house in the woods.' It's almost a caricature of what a city person's view of the country is," Van Dusen says. Cheeky faux finishes played a big part in realizing that vision, as did cheerful color washing.

With an exterior coated in Pepto Bismol and an interior tailored to the tastes of a wealthy matron, she was stately but a little tired. A sweet bed and breakfast, to be sure, but one that never quite reached its potential. A stay in a ryokan in Hakone, Japan, in a region famed for its natural onsen, set the mansion on a new path.

After painting, Rosaline incorporated lots of artwork on the walls. When it comes to creating a gallery wall, she says there's lots of trial and error involved. "I use a lot of Command strips and let things sit for a day or two before I know whether I'm happy." Her other advice? Vary up size and texture. Rosaline loves mixing sculpture with painting and prints.

Igniting fireworks from the same spot repeatedly can seriously singe your lawn, which might end up needing replacing after just one night of fun. Although lawn itself might be relatively inexpensive, when you factor in the turf, labour and installation costs, this could end up costing you 15 per square metre. So for a UK average garden size of 50 square metres, you can expect to be set back by 750 in total.

Hard-wearing inventions of the 19th century, Lincrusta and Anaglypta could be made to resemble leather, plaster, and other materials. Home decoration was all the rage in the late 19th century. With the Industrial Revolution in England and America in full swing, a growing middle class on both sides of the Atlantic had spending money and wanted to have the look of the expensive decor of the rich, as seen in shops and described in newspapers and magazines.

I renovated my primary bathroom about seven years ago, but I've been battling one problem ever since: the space under my sink. During the remodel, my contractor tossed the shelf that was supposed to be installed inside the vanity (he didn't want to bother cutting around the plumbing), which left me with an oddly shaped, shelf-less cave to figure out on my own.

With textured wall finishes on the rise, more and more people are wondering how to limewash their walls - and whether it's really possible to achieve a professional look by doing it yourself. While it does require a fair amount of prep to avoid streakiness and around four coats to achieve full coverage, the good news is that limewash paint is relatively easy to apply and can produce fantastic results.

Once cold weather hits outside, blinds and curtains prevent heat loss inside by forming a layer of air between the room and the window. This insulating pocket helps to stop warm air escaping from the room as well as blocking draughts from getting in. The thicker the material you choose for your window coverings and the more snugly it is fitted around the window, the better.