the times Saturday April 30 20222Weekend
How to change cupboard
door handles
One of the easiest ways to give your
kitchen an instant makeover is to change
the handles on the cupboard doors. You
can transform your space in an hour.
The quickest way to do this is to replace
like for like, so if you have a handle with
two screws at the back replace it with
the same style. That way you won’t have
to fill in any holes in the cupboard door.
If you do have to change from two-hole
to one-hole handles, make sure
you are prepared. You’ll need
some Polyfilla, a small
scraper tool and tester pot
of paint in the same shade
as your doors so you can fill
in the hole once you remove the old
handle. If you have a large kitchen
with many doors the cost can quickly
escalate, so when sourcing handles I
really recommend having a browse on
Facebook Marketplace or salvoweb.com,
as well as rummaging through your
favourite second-hand market.
Dunelm and Ikea have inexpensive
handles too. My top places with a
large selection of handles are Swarf
Hardware, Anthropologie, Etsy,
Notonthehighstreet, Chloe Alberry and
Zara Home.
Lucy Gough, interior designer
(@style_by_lucy; lucygoughstylist.com)How to change the fuse
in a plug
If an appliance isn’t working it could be
because the fuse in the plug has blown.
Before you do anything, make sure the
appliance isn’t damaged in any way as
that would mean there is a serious fault
and this is not a DIY job. Check for
water damage, very hot wires, a smell of
burning or an unpleasant odour.
Having done that, fully remove the
plug from the socket. There is normally a
single screw in the centre of the three
pins that can be loosened to reveal the
fuse. Loosen the screw, pop the old fuse
out and replace it with a new one. Make
sure it is replaced with one of the correct
rating (for example, a lamp will usually
only require a 3 amp fuse) — otherwise
it will just blow again.
Daniel Khanlarpour, central heating
company Gas Guru (checkatrade.com)T
here are certain expecta-
tions, my wife gently point-
ed out, that come with a
white kitchen shelf. Deli-
cately, so as not to hurt my
feelings, she praised the
competency of the paint job
— it was indeed, broadly speaking, white.
She also noted that the shelf was attached
to the kitchen wall, another traditional
prerequisite.
But, she said, there was just one thing.
Shelves, she pointed out, are almost always
flat. This shelf, the product of several even-
ings of my work and a fair bit of swearing,
very much was not. As a visual aid, she put
an orange on the shelf and we watched to-
gether as it dolefully rolled on to the floor.
It was early in our marriage and, Icarus-
like, I had tried to fly too close to the DIY
sun. It would be a while before I made the
same mistake again.
I always had an idea that, one day,
I would be able to do DIY. I, like other
male friends in my generation, looked to
my dad. When a plug needed wiring, a
central heating system needed fixing
or an entire wardrobe needed construct-
ing from scratch, he just went ahead and
did it.
My childhood was punctuated by mari-
tal arguments about why he shouldn’t
have a carburettor on the kitchen table, or
whether his “wood collection” — scraps of
offcuts stored in the cellar — needed to be
quite so extensive.
DIY seemed so effortless to him that I
assumed it would be something that just
came to you with age — like growing a
beard, no longer going to clothes shops
and wearing socks with sandals. Yet for me,
unlike being hairy and not caring about
fashion, it still hasn’t.
Gradually, though, with persistence —
and often with help from my dad — I have
picked up the basics. In doing so, I have
also been baffled as to why they are not
taught. At school we had lessons in wood-
work. I learnt how to make a dovetail joint,
but, oddly, that skill has never been re-
quired of me — or, I would wager, any of
the other 1,000 students who did that
course in my time at the school. We have
all needed to make Ikea flat packs though.
We learnt how to do technical drawings,
but not how to drill a screw into a brick
wall. We learnt how to place resistors on a
circuit board, but not how to change a fuse.
These days, ten years after the shelf inci-
dent, I can do the basics with relative com-
petence. A year ago I even put up a kitchen
shelf — it is still standing, and is broadly
flat. I also, though, know my limits. Before
Christmas our washing machine stopped
working. If this had happened to my dad
he would have dealt with it himself; I called
a repair man.
So it was that, once again, the repair man
arrived and I opened the door with the
awkward sense of emasculation mixed
with stilted bonhomie that comes from in-
viting in workmen. He pulled out the dead
washing machine and confirmed it was
indeed not responding.
Then he plugged it into another socket
and — tada! — it did. “Your fuse has blown,
mate,” he said, already packing up his tools.
“Coffee?” I said.How to paint a feature
wall
One of the easiest ways to bring
personality into a room is by creating a
feature wall. I recommend a contrasting,
bold colour in a matt finish. Use your
furniture or a piece of artwork as
inspiration to find an accent colour
that you love. Paint the edges first —
follow the skirting board along the wall,
taking the paint up and around the door
frames too. Use a “cutting in” brush to
create a super-straight edge. If you
like, you can put masking tape
over the skirting boards —
I prefer to leave them white —
and adjoining walls to ensure a
sharp edge and no marks. Remove
the tape immediately after
painting to avoid peeling off
any of your handiwork! For
the rest of the wall use a
roller to achieve a flawless
finish.
A feature wall will
become the room’s focal
point, so make sure you choose
the wall that you want to draw the
most attention to, perhaps because
it’s behind your bed or sofa. It can
also help to make a fireplace really
stand out.
Natasha Bradley, head of colour
at LickI’m a big fan of the
boring-but-important jobs
around the home. If you
don’t look after your
infrastructure you’ll have
a damp patch or mould
before you know it. One
of the more tedious jobs is
clearing out gutters and
drains after the winter —
now is the time to do it.
You don’t need any
special tools for clearing
the gutters, just a gloved
hand, but make sure your
ladder is secure or
being held by
someone.
I recommend
an extendable
plumber’s probe
with a circular brush
head, available from most
DIY stores, to clean out
your downpipes. As for
drains, mix a 1kg packet of
soda crystals (around 80p
from any supermarket)
into a bucket of warm
water and tip that straight
down. It’ll deodorise as
well as unblock —
absolutely no toxic
ingredients required —
and the less noxious stuff
we add to our waterways,
the better.
Michelle Ogundehin,
head judge of Interior
Design Masters on BBC1How to
clear the
gutters
Admit it, you’re a DIY disaster —
Science editor Tom Whipple confesses he’s hopeless
around the house — so we asked the experts for their tips
COVER: DDP/CAMERA PRESS. BELOW: JOHN ANGERSON, ANDY PARSONS FOR THE TIMES; GETTY IMAGES; STEVE PESKETT/BBCHow to install wall
panelling
People think panelling walls is difficult,
but it’s an easy decorative addition to
any room. Pick which wall you want to
panel — it should be in good condition
and ideally straight — and decide
whether you want panelling on the
whole wall, or just half (very popular
now). Panelling is essentially an illusion:
you build the panels using bits of MDF.
Once you have the design you want —
Victorian style is a favourite — the
measurements of your wall and the
number of panels needed, your local
B&Q will cut MDF sheets to the exact
size you need. They are then ready to
attach to your walls — use a spirit level
to make sure your panels are straight.
Use either panel pins or no-nails glue
to attach them, as this causes less
damage to the MDF than screws. Attach
one horizontal strip of the MDF along
the whole width of your wall, directly
on top of your skirting board. Create
the panel effect with vertical pieces
of MDF placed at intervals. Place
your second horizontal strip above
the vertical ones. If you’re
panelling half the wall, finish with
a dado rail.
Then just prime your MDF,
sand any bumpy joins, and apply
your chosen topcoat of colour.
You can get any durable
topcoat to match your existing
walls, or use a completely
different colour to create a main
feature in your room.
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