The Ins & Outs - Panelling, Rugs, Hedging & Evergreen Structure

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

In this episode, Jojo expertly navigates the intricacies of paneling, shares brilliant insights on creating the perfect living room setup, and unveils the transformative power of rugs in any space.Polly explores the art of hedging for both beauty and functionality, the magic of privacy trees, shade planting and how evergreen structures can breathe life into any landscape.This episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor B&Q, go and check them out on the link below!SponsorsB&Q - https://www.diy.com/InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green, the colour of true elation, pine on a summer's day, see I've been waiting for you, waiting for you, green. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Ins and Outs, sponsored by our very good friends at B&Q. I am Jojo Barr. And I am Polly Wilkinson. In this episode I'm going to be covering a little bit on panelling, one of my favourite subjects, long thin living rooms and how to place rugs and how to evict one of my least favourite things, orange pine. And I'm going to be talking about my favourite hedging, privacy trees, shade planting and all the evergreen structure you could need.

shade planting and all the evergreen structure you could need. Hello, my old girl. Look at you in your office. Hello, my love. How's that advent calendar working out for you? They've been opened and looked at and the girls have taken an absolute fascination to the box and they keep saying, can we open inside? And I said, no, no. They're probably a bit wasted on me at the moment, Paul. I have to tell you, I haven't really been in the right frame of mind.

Maybe I should be using them. Maybe that is what would put me in the right frame of mind. I've had a seriously stressful past few weeks and I'm very, very much... No, I'm on my hands and knees dragging myself to when the studio closes for Christmas. How are you, Paul? Back to you. I'm not being very... Sorry, I'm not being very enthusiastic. I feel like you've got far more

fun news. Oh, well, I'm sorry you're feeling, I think everyone's feeling a bit exhausted, aren't they? It's certainly my kids are. They're on their knees, bless their little coughing hearts. I'm feeling good. I had a spa day today. We were talking about self-care on the last episode is what's in. And so I booked myself a spa day, which felt like the biggest treat ever because I never take the day off. Did you have a massage? I did. Oh, did you? How lovely. It was a nice firm one as well.

I can't be doing with any of that strokey nonsense. I want to be punished. I want an elbow right in there. Yeah, I love that I like to just about just feel like I'm nodding off but really feel like I'm getting benefit from the massage I have also been very busy around the house and I have been spending a copious amount of time at B&Q and I know there are sponsors but no word of a lie I went there at the weekend and I was there for a solid hour and a half I did every aisle and I walked away with a bin for my new office Christmas lights obviously a saw because

I needed a saw and actually do you know how that was so fun picking a saw and then nails because I've just built a fence did I have a little dance in the aisles obviously I did I thought of you how good is how good is the music I told you you. The music is amazing in B&Q. Well, at the moment it's Christmas music, so it was driving home for Christmas and I was really getting my groove on. Now, Jojo, tell me, what have you asked for for Christmas?

I'm not really for material things. I love experiences. So on my Christmas wish list is a pottery course. I want to learn how to make pottery. Yes. Yes! I know. I love, I just...

Can I come? Yes. I'd love that. Genuinely, I've always wanted to do this. And actually there's somewhere not far from here, Marlow, and they do a pottery course. And I'm hoping that's what it's going to be. That sounds like such a joy.

I'm the exact same. I'm desperate for a kiln. And I want to turn my garage into some kind of pottery den there are lots of people doing pottery now I think it's a real craze here at the moment I feel like everybody is on the pottery bandwagon I can see you behind a wheel can I come and do it with you and I will be your Patrick Swayze and I will hold you gently yeah just caress me whilst I actually you introduced me to that rather sexy bloke on instagram who does his the pottery boy the potter and sometimes he does it with no top on god

and it's sort of to music and he spanks that he spanks that clay my friend he spanks the clay he always starts with a good old maybe that's maybe that's why maybe that's why i want to i mean i don't know what that's going to do to the pottery i don't think it's going to sort of i think it's just that's purely for our benefit smacking the clay is purely for our benefit not for the clay i was giving it a good old spank right what is it well that's put a smile on your face you old misery guts hasn't it we just needed to talk about some top man pottery yes should we just dive into the questions and just do it as a bumper question one do you know what because we are both going off for christmas we're not going to be doing an episode through the christmas period i think let's just make this a q a bumper

edition let's just go hard in on people's questions and answers what do you think paul i'm here for it let's have a q a palooza the palooza come on then let's give it some okay where do we start who who's got the q a's andy me i do bring it stand aside lady so our first question is from katherine who is an innie how do i choose paneling style for a new build should you pick a style and run with it or mix and match I think there's certain but I mean you know how I love me some paneling uh you'll see any of my projects are absolutely riddled with paneling I think you've got to be quite considerate of the paneling that you're using it's all very well to jump straight in and think I love that I love that love that but there's

there's sort of v-groove paneling tongue and groove paneling and I kind of put those in the same bracket and then you've obviously got quite sort of more ornate moulded panelling. Moulded is where it sort of sticks out. The moulded bit sort of protrudes. Ah, yeah. So I think there's a place for it depending on, she said it's a new build, didn't she? She did.

Does that matter? It does. Yes, it does. because I think if you unless you are literally putting all of that sort of ornate molding back in and you want to make that new build feel old then I think you'd probably stay away from molded paneling because I think it can feel a little odd walking through a door and suddenly in a modern house unless it's like a mock Georgian. When you're talking about moulded, do you mean the sort of,

do you mean the sort of rectangular? Exactly. Think of what, everyone knows what a day-day rail or a picture rail is, don't they? It's a sort of piece of timber that protrudes off the wall and it's in a different, lots of different shapes and sizes that you can get off them. That is a moulding. And essentially that same piece of moulding you can use to create sort of squares with and patterns within walls to create panels now that obviously suits older style properties um where it's a new build to bring in character but still if you really

like paneling then i would introduce v-groove paneling of which you can have many widths you don't need to stick to just one off the shelf width but then you can also bring in tongue and groove paneling which is where you've got two panels and in between you've got this lovely little bead that runs down the middle so slightly more traditional but the v-groove is is fantastic in more modern properties and you can also lower it and then put a dado on the top. So you can sort of when you come in your entrance hall, for instance, perfect place to have dado height V-groove panelling. And then say you might move into your living room and then you might do shaker style panelling. So shaker style panelling at dado height, because, again, that's something it's still a bit of character, but you're not adding that. The shaker is when it's sort of indents as opposed to the molding which comes out and shaker is a more contemporary version um and then you can

obviously start adding beads there's all sorts of i mean there's so many levels of of paneling but i would say can she mix and match i would say shaker style shaker style paneling v groove paneling and a bit of tongue and groove in maybe your bathrooms lovely together and you can change up the size the width the height that's great but i think don't then bring molded paneling in as well so don't start doing the sort of um almost look like frames on the wall that's how what i mean by molded paneling they look like great big sort of you know picture frames stuck on the wall don't yeah yeah doing that. Yes. There you go. Go for it.

That's better kept for period properties, is it? Yes. In my opinion, yes. So for you, Paul, this is an outie question from Katarina Sofia. When we first started planting our garden, we wanted to start slow. So we only bought half of the hedges. Fast forward three years and after three attempts to get the garden right still not right and struggling with it two garden designers and giving priority to other plants to fill in the

garden quicker big mistake we ended up with an explosion of flowers and no structure we're still left with no hedge on the left side and we can't stand looking at that fence anymore we have Portuguese laurel on the left side which is quite grown up now it's okay plant a different. Is it OK to plant a different hedge on the right? Or is it best to be consistent? We're thinking about this. Would it work? So my gut reaction is I would always rather it was the same hedge on both sides. And I particularly love Portuguese laurel as an option for the hedging.

It's one of my favourites. It's an evergreen hedge. It's got a pretty pink stem to it, but it's not a noticeable, you know, it's not going to be off-putting if you want a lovely green hedge. And it's pretty, it's got a good growing rate to it. It's not really rapid. It's not going to be as rapid as typical laurel, but it's also slightly less formal than yew, which would be my other favourite taxus or yew. So so from my perspective I would stick with the Portuguese laurel I don't know why you wouldn't I'm not a massive fan of any form of

conifer hedge um where they are good is when you desperately need a huge amount of privacy and height but I think they require a lot of taming and unless you're really on top of it they can get very big very quickly so my preference would always be to go with something like a Portuguese laurel over a conifer hedge. Brilliant thanks Paul. You are welcome. We've actually got one here for for both of us which is this is another Inean Outie question from Caroline. Hey Polly and Jojo I have a question about starting the new year is there one thing that is the top of the list that you absolutely get done in the home or garden before the new year starts and Polly you are not allowed to say plant your bulbs so Polly what's the first thing that you would do in the new year to kick off your new year in the garden this is a really really important time in the

garden and it's the time where interestingly people care the least about it and I do understand it's miserable outside and it's dark and no one wants to get cold and wet but now is the time for you to be looking at the garden and looking at your structure if you are looking out at bare muddy bound borders with nothing in them then that's telling you something and that's that you have nowhere near enough structure and so many people make this mistake of focusing on what their garden looks like in the summer and forgetting that now is the time when you need that evergreen structure which could be in the form of evergreen shrubs or it could be something more formal and clipped like yew balls or pittosporum or flowering shrubs one of my absolute favorites for this time of, and I recommend everyone plant it near their front or back door,

is Sarkacocka Confuser. Try and say that quickly. Or I think it's called Winter Sweetbox. Sarkacocka Confuser. Sarkacocka. Sarkacocka Confuser. That's a bigger pardon. Sarkacocka what?

Sarkacocka. I said a what? Did you say what I think you said? Is it really i did psychococca psychococca psychococca okay s-a-r-c-o-c-c-a or i think it's called winter sweet i can never remember colloquial name sweet box winter sweet and it's something which will stop you in your tracks in january it smells so incredible so we always try and put it on pathways that you're going to use in winter, like somewhere, you know, back doors or by the front door. Not a particularly exciting looking shrub. It's just green, but it's, I think people take for granted that you need lumps of green in your garden to carry you through the rest of the season. So I would say January is an amazing time to make those plans. And then you would look to order them, given it's bare root season or root ball season now, to plant in February, March.

How about you? What about indoors? Indoors for me is all about decluttering. Get rid. If there's anything you don't like, I would say just get rid of it. I think it's all about out with the old, in with the new. People start making New Year's resolutions, don't we? Are you on your new year's resolutions paul well look pal i've moved house twice in the past year and gone through a divorce so i think just maybe quite a steady year would be nice steady would be good okay but steady eddie

um but i genuinely in in the house i just think start the new year with a fresh clean slate i think if there's something in the house that you don't like, it's a really, it's actually a perfect opportunity because you're chucking out all your Christmas decorations, not chucking them out, but you know, you're sort of dragging out the dead tree and bits of holly

or whatever you've got lying around. With it, just start taking all the bits out that you just don't like. You know, start again. Start fresh. Right, I've got something for you, Jojo. This is an in any question from maya

i would love some rug advice oh i have an awkward long thin living room with three entry exits to the room plus a fireplace yes so i'm not able to rearrange the sofa and armchair there are two options for a rug in this room either an area rug in the middle which does not go under any furniture other than a coffee table that sounds like some sort of cardinal sin but i'm sure you'll answer yeah or a bigger rug but could only get one leg of a sofa and one leg of an armchair on it oh that's i know it's an interior design oh okay hold on she's not finished oh sorry sorry i know it's an interior design oh okay hold on she's not finished oh sorry sorry i know it's an interior design sin to have sofas armchairs off the rug no but i just can't make it

work well in the room what do i do well so are there any rules about rug placement in terms of under under the legs or does it have to be under all how does it work no teach us it really doesn't it's quite a visual thing with a rug. A rug is a brilliant way to create a zone in a room. So your furniture does want to sit on the rug. But do not for a second think that all four legs have to sit on the rug. Because they do not. No, they don't.

Essentially the two front legs want to sit on the rug always. And you want to try and centralise your rug on your main sofa. But it doesn't matter if they're sort of 20 centimetres back from the front legs. Totally fine. You don't really want to be too mean. But no, absolutely, you do not need to have all four legs on the rug. Yes. What about if nothing but the coffee table which is she mentioned is that

it doesn't it sounds a bit odd with it in the middle of the room i think you want to just make sure you create because of the long and we get this a lot with these rooms where you sort of walk in a door and then there's an area on the right and there's sort of an area on the left you really got to almost treat that as two separate areas two zones where the one needs to be like a little library area with two little chairs and then the other area is your proper sitting area and that's where you want to put your rug and then maybe have a smaller rug over the other side but I would focus that rug on the area where you have your sofa definitely so if you've got two sofas or sofa and two armchairs as you said you base the rug on your primary sofa like the the

biggest sofa gets the rug and the other two don't necessarily need to sit on it at all yeah i think you with with the rug you always want to the rug can actually really help create a little bit of symmetry in the space so by sort of skewing the rug and skewing the chair and everything being a bit off it's going to feel off as soon as you centralise the sofa on perhaps the rug and then the coffee table directly in front of the sofa, you've instantly created that feeling of structure in the room. And then it doesn't matter if you've got a chair slightly sitting off the rug and the sofa slightly back,

but as long as you're using the rug as almost a framework. And what about the size of the rug? So if you say you've got like, I don't know, a two metre sofa, should the rug be wider a framework. And what about the size of the rug? So if you say you've got like, I don't know, a two metre sofa, should the rug be wider than the sofa? You're usually quite limited by the size of rugs anyway. So with a two metre sofa, so you'd probably want to go with something like a three by two, where you've got 50 centimetres either side, you've got three metres is the length, which is where the sofa is sitting. And then the two metres is sort of going the other way, especially in a long, thin room like that. so you want a bit of extra you always want some overlap on either side of the

sofa so you want to go longest on the sofa side so in long and thin rooms you're trying to make them look fatter right so in a long and thin garden we always try and cut it yes going across the garden to give the the feeling of it being wider and i presume yeah so for instance where you've got a long and thin room the last thing you want to do is have like a runner style rug that would sit in front of the sofa because that's going to make it just look even more like a sort of tunnel so you want to widen the rug to make it feel as wide as possible so that it does sit underneath the legs of the sofa and then as far forward to the next wall opposite wall as you can polly this one's for you this is from bianca who is a lovely little outie and she's asking for any recommendations on privacy trees to cover ugly neighbors gardens this one is getting harder and harder by the year so my

favorite tree that evergreen tree because usually if if people say privacy they mean they want privacy year-round not just in the summer when a tree is in leaf. And it's getting trickier and trickier year on year. My favourite evergreen tree that we used to use was Quercus ilex. But that is very, very difficult to get that imported now because there's various pests, which it means that importing these trees is being restricted. And so pines was another one that we like. And we're going to see

a great reduction in the importation of pines as well for similar reasons for for pest reasons. Two of our favourite trees that we like to use are being restricted in their importation so unless they're grown in the UK we can't get hold of them to use them. So one tree that I like for privacy is Ilex Nelly Stevens that's a holly tree some people love holly some people don't we use a lot of pleats trees as well but again evergreen pleats trees are like hen's teeth so hard to get hold of very slow to grow and obviously a pleats tree which when I say pleats I mean tree on a stick so it's a clear stem with a cube or a rectangle on the top and it's sort of almost like a hedge on a stick are brilliant if you're in an urban setting and you're

only looking to restrict the view for say one or two meters above your fence line but in larger gardens and we instead are using a lot more deciduous trees which are going to give you the privacy at the time of year when you're going to use your garden and be in it so they're going to be in leaf during the spring the summer and even to a degree in the autumn and then winter we found almost it's better to have deciduous trees and just own that you're going to see more of someone's house garden whatever it is you're trying to block but you actually recommended to me because i have this exact same um issue is that i want to create privacy between our house and our neighbours when we take down that.

What's that big, ugly, what have we got? The Leylandii. Leylandii, which is absolutely enormous. How tall is it? It's got to be like 16, 20 foot tall. When that thing comes down, we've got to then create this privacy wall. And we were looking at these hornbeams,

hornbeams, weren't they? Hornbeam, yeah. And they're absolutely beautiful. And I love them, evergreen red they go slightly red in the winter and the leaves go but they never quite fall off but i what we found is that when they're very young and very spindly they're about 500 quid each and to get a really mature one when we need seven of them that you need to spend about a grand each don't't you? That's a lot of money. Yeah.

Well, it is. But if you actually look at how much time has been spent training that tree onto that frame, it's years worth of work. No, I fully get it. It is one of the most expensive options because there's a hell of a lot of labour that's gone into getting that tree into that form.

Jojo, this is an any question from lee by the sea love the podcast my pine cupboards etc look more ginger now that jojo has brought it to my attention i can't afford to change them so i was thinking of staining them darker what do you think oh orange pine is something i fully detest um It's actually the varnish. When you basically varnish pine, over the years, the varnish just turns more and more and more orange until you get that really saturated orange that is impossible to put anything with so I feel you I feel your pain you want to get rid of that you can stain it to a darker timber but you will have to ensure that you take all of that varnish off all of that existing stain that orange pine is going to have to come off before you attempt to do anything that would be my advice it's a lot of work, I think, to properly strip back. Whereas obviously if you're painting, it's a simple case of a bit of light sanding and then you've got your undercoat and then you've got a couple of coats of actual paint, your eggshell. So there is probably a bit

more work involved with staining it and I don't know how it's going to come out, but you could do a test patch. Osmo wax. Osmo waxes are brilliant. So have a look at those guys. Osmo. Hope that's helpful question for you poll from an outie lc coma i thought that was gonna be one of those joke names you know where like like ip nightly but alas it's not um polly what would you put rusty bed springs by ip nightly what would you put in a part shade border in the front of a house? So front of the house, we treat quite differently to back of the house. We treat gardens a bit like a mullet. They're sort of formal in the front and party in the back. So for part shade, I like a lot

of structure in the front garden. I like it to be formal and give a bit of a sense of entrance. So I always make sure we have plenty of evergreen structure in the front. That might be a eudome. It might be some pittosporum. It could be some topiary, some sort of jazzy shapes. At the very least, we would do some evergreen shrubs. So I would definitely look at that. And that's going to give you your year round sense of entrance. And then with that, we want to soften it because I don't like it if it's too rigid so I would be bringing in some really lovely perennial shade lovers such as Brunnera jackfrost which is a stunning green and silver leafed low-growing plant which is very happy in part shade and also because

it's slightly silvery it really elevates and brightens. And then you could pair that with a strantia, which is a beautiful pincushion flower that comes in whites and pinks. And again, I really like a white and green scheme at the front of a house. So going with something like a strantia star of billion, which is white with a sort of blush pink or a strantia shaggy, which is one of the bigger astrantias would be beautiful that's going to add a little bit of height and some flowers in sort of May June those would be three you could consider I'd also add in ferns and I know a lot of people don't like ferns but I think they in terms of the evergreen ferns they're a great option for just giving that bit of texture because if you're playing with having say evergreen domes you need to bring the softness through having those textural froths and that's ferns are going to do that for you and you could also because it's part shade

you could use my very favorite grass hackanacloa macra which again quite a low-growing grass but sort of beautiful greens in summer and then turns rusty brown and again it looks beautiful sort of around the feet of the evergreens and it's going to add softness so I mean that would be a beautiful combination one thing I would say is a lot of people want wisteria on the front of their house but wisteria needs sun so don't put wisteria in north-facing shady front gardens okay Jojo I've got a question for you from Laura who is an innie. We have an oak dining table in an open plan kitchen and need to upgrade the chairs before Christmas. Oh she doesn't have long. If you don't want the formality of matching

chairs how do you pick a contrasting set which still looks considered and sleek? Oh we get this a lot and interestingly one of the things that most of our clients hold on to is their dining table understandably it's an expensive purchase but with something like an oak dining table like a sort of farmhouse style oak table what I wouldn't tend to do is go with anything that's too matchy matchy as in the oak and therefore what I tend to do is go for something dark stained like almost black so you could do something like a stick back black chair for instance or even a black cane chair but it wants to be different enough so if you went with a sort

of a light elm it's obviously not going to look very good against an oak table so you want something that's contrasting enough that you're not trying to the woods aren't going to clash because oak can sometimes be quite yellow and therefore if you were to then bring in a light chair it might look a bit a bit odd so I tend to sort of try and mix them up a bit go something a bit darker and also it does depend on the style of the oak table whether it's sort of farmhouse or not but just create some contrast I would say between the dining chairs and the table. You've also got wishbone chairs and they come in a number of different styles some have a sort of cane base which again adds another texture to your oak table so something like with a bit of a rush or a cane seat would look really nice on a black frame. Taking it outy out outside and I'm going to

throw this question at you because it just makes me feel warm and I'm looking forward to those days suggestions for a hot south-facing patio with stone south-facing the world's your oyster because north-facing we tend to watch it on what natural stone we want to use because if it's north-facing it's in shade which means if you've got a natural stone it goes green quicker it can be a bit of an ice rink so we would shy away from certain natural stones and go for less porous ones so we'd probably use a limestone if it was north facing whereas south facing obviously it's getting all that sun it's not in dank shade I mean you can have what you want really but what I would say if it's really sunny don't go for anything too pale because that is going to hurt your eyes in summer it's a big

mistake people make is to go for a very very pale stone or even worse like a white porcelain you are going to be living in sunglasses just to be able to sit outside and also presumably going the other way you don't want to go too dark because otherwise you burn your feet oh my goodness yes I actually have had it before when I've been on holiday and the decking And also presumably going the other way, you don't want to go too dark because otherwise you burn your feet. Oh my goodness, yes. I actually have had it before when I've been on holiday and the decking that had been used outside the room was a very, very, very dark decking and you couldn't stand on it without burning your feet. Absolutely scorching. So particularly, that's particularly true of say a composite deck, a black composite deck that is hot underfoot.

Hot, hot. Hot hot so something hot hot hot so we love something like a dark composite deck in a woodland lovely because it's always going to have that dappled shade over it but you need to really watch out go for something with quite a warm tone if it's south facing but you can have a lot of fun with south facing you don't even necessarily have to have stone i mean it'd be a wonderful opportunity to have a gravel garden as well because it's going to get baked so you could go for really drought tolerant plants which is certainly something we're moving towards and i mean some of my favorites and i know a lot of other people love them too you could definitely go for it with your herbs so you can bring in at rosemary a beautiful like

miss jessup's upright is a sort of very upright rosemary which I love you could mix it with sedums which are now called hylo telephium but sedums which are a beautiful late summer bloom or euphorbia and this is a real mouthful but euphorbia carachias wolfeni is one of my absolute favorite plants Mediterranean Mediterranean, it's a spurge. Do watch out for the sap. You don't want that in your eye, but stunning in a Mediterranean scheme. And if you've got south facing, then I mean, you can go for some of the most scrumptious plants that we all love in this country. And don't forget salvia, so sages, but salvia caridona is a complete classic favourite that a lot of people like, but there's salvia amethyst and amistad.

There's many, but there's something wonderful about salvias because if you sort of brush against them, they're quite aromatic because they're a sage. So it's a wonderful opportunity to bring in herbs and aromatics and then go for a gravel garden if you don't need it to be fully paved. I have a question from an innie for you our spare bedroom has a big bay window that looks onto our neighbor's driveway below because we're higher up the top part of the window has nicer greener views what would you suggest to try and hide the lower part of the view oh i i could talk about window dressings until the cows come home i think it's one of my favourite things is to try and decipher what window dressing would look best in a window because they can be extremely challenging and

there is there are so many right and wrong ways of dressing windows. When you're trying to create privacy the first thing a lot of people do is immediately think of shutters. Now the only thing about shutters is that they can be very obstructive. From inside the room, they can look very heavy. But then when you do want a bit of privacy, you can't bring it down from the top because you want to let all that lovely light in. And I always use this fact, but the top one third of a window lets in two thirds of the light. I remember having that conversation way back when with you. And therefore, if you want to cover that lower half, but still let all that lovely light in and be able to see out, you know, that lovely green space. What we're doing a lot at the moment is using cafe curtains.

And you'll have seen these in the reason they're called cafe curtains in lovely little French bistros. And there are sort of lovely linen or lace or slightly very, very soft pattern. And they're usually on a sort of little brass rod that runs from one side of the window to the other. They can be split because they can attach between bay windows. You can have it almost sectionalized. And then you have this lovely little sort of half height curtain that just covers the lower half. And you can still pull them back, which is so nice. I know I don't like short curtains. I've made my point very clear on short curtains and how much I dislike them, but I consider these to be a different type of short curtain. They're very much allowed. so do investigate cafe curtains because they look so beautiful and especially in bedrooms they are really really

pretty and they're a brilliant solution to create privacy but also just add a lovely layer of softness in a room i love those they're so pretty we use them everywhere now honestly we use cafe curtains nearly all of our projects so this is one for both of us actually paul and inian and outie we're planning a house and garden renovation in 2025 good first off well done because you're giving yourself plenty of time oh we like that time are there any tips for the order we should approach the build we're thinking of starting with the driveway oh i would say no no no no don't do that okay so this is this this is a common a common question and i know we're both the answer is the same thing don't do the driveway first don't do the driveway first driveway last your driveway is going to get

trashed during this build it's going to have skips on it lorries tradesmen's vans portaloos you name it your your poor driveway yeah it's going to get damaged don't do the driveway first that's the last thing absolutely not unless of course you've got access i don't know what your plot is but if you've got access elsewhere and everyone's going to park everywhere else but even so driveway last and then in terms of order of service you should be looking to design your house and garden at the same time I'm not sure if you've got designs yet but I would look to design both together so that you have a cohesive design that's why we call this the ins and outs because they go hand in hand I mean planning inside I mean the number one thing is always going to be your floor plans it's really kind of maximizing your potential in those walls if you're doing any extensions

obviously that's number one but you really want to really think about the the spatial planning inside that house and and maximizing every possible opportunity to create more space and add all the little details the joinery think about your lighting I mean I think get down on the plan first and then actually what I always say to people is when you're planning is imagine closing your eyes and walking through that front door think about where you would want to touch your light switch where the first light switch is what that's going to turn on what are you going to see when you walk in the door i think too many people sort of spend too much time looking down at a plan without really sort of visualizing and thinking that they're in the space when you walk in the door where are you going to put your shoes where you're going to put your coat

you know where's the toilet going to be how much space is there in that loo you know access to the kitchen you've got a boot room how are you going to get in there from the outside spatial planning is everything but actually probably number one for me and and i would probably think this would be for you as well polly is your concept designs so make sure that you have a concept for every single room um a clear vision of what you want in each room um and an idea of what it's going to look like and you you really want to try and stick to. And that will then form the next stage of the development process, which is the floor plans. So I say concept is always, always number one for me. And then floor plans. And then in terms of the order of the build, something that we find happens quite often is the house extension or houseworks

renovation is done. And we get a phone call saying help the builders are asking what should happen immediately outside the house because often that's put into the build and we always strongly advise that any external work is completely excluded from the house build contract wrapping it up doesn't save you money it can sometimes save time but but rarely you would be far better if you're looking at sort of order of service get your house get the architect to design the house and then speak to garden designers and interior designers about the layouts of both the interior and the exterior then you have all of your answers before a spade hits the ground where it gets tricky is where you're looking for answers when you already have tradespeople on site.

Because that can lead to very rushed decisions. So you've got plenty of time here. 2025 means you have time to get all of your designs and make all your decisions ahead of it so that you aren't under pressure. I was going to say, obviously, when it comes to actually making the decisions, you've got a lot of time on your hands. it comes to actually making the decisions you've got a lot of time on your hands and therefore you want to start creating schedules for everything that you're selecting and everything you're choosing for each of those rooms when especially the hard finishes tends to be the first thing that we choose and the reason we choose our hard finishes you need to know what is going down on the floors and the walls because when you go out to tender that's going to be one of the number

one things that they need to know to be able to compile quite an accurate tender for you so know where you're going to have wood floors know where you're going to have stone know where you're going to have tiles it's the thicknesses it's the build-ups that they're going to need to know for the flooring which is going to be really important to establish quite early on you just need to have a plan as soon as you've got a plan in place and you know what it's going to be then it doesn't mean you have to do it all at once but it means i mean it's the same with everything in life isn't it if if you have a plan you don't need to deviate from it there's no surprises there's no rushed decisions there's no uh wasted costs where you've made a mistake by buying the wrong thing yeah it doesn't

mean you need to do it all at once but what a difference it makes when it's all mapped out and you're ready for it when the decisions come also get some real help with your floor plans and your layouts because i don't think i'd be able to do it myself and i do this for a living i have i lean on my team and it's a it's a sort of real team effort to try and figure these things out but taking on a whole house renovation on your own without designers is it's a lot I mean it's a lot to do so don't feel like you can't reach out to designers to get help even on a consultation basis or especially with your floor plans architects will get you to a certain point but bringing an architect just to help you know a designer to even help with your spatial planning or if there's any rooms you're

particularly stuck on or you know there are plenty of designers that can help in that capacity so this brings us now to one of my favorite questions of the week polly what is in and what is out a few things that are in for me number one the thing that i want for christmas every single year and will always want is socks i absolutely love them i absolutely live in them i've got countless numbers from genevieve sweeney who is my favorite oh yum i just love them so socks are very much in for me and i hope i will find them in my stocking can we actually give a shout because she has got gorgeous really beautiful socks so anyone needs to fill their stockings or or toast up their feet genevieve and not just her feet i mean all of her knitwear

is stunning and made in the uk championing this is an ad. This is just two fangirls loving some wool. But also what is in is the new Pantone colour of the year, which I am very much here for. It is called Peach Fuzz, which I love. And it's sort of a peachy apricot. But I think what I love about it is so Pantone, when they choose their colour, they're trying to kind of echo the mood of the nation. And what I like is this year's choice. They've said it's an innate yearning for closeness and connection and compassion. And I think that's what a lovely way to choose a colour. Yeah. And a stunning one, one that we absolutely love to use in planting schemes as well so I am here for the Pantone peach fuzz oh my cat

Jojo what's what's happening over there right now my friend something's something's amiss so what's in is the mouse that my cat just brought in whilst filming this podcast is it alive they're always usually a bit alive until they're not a bit oh no and then they're out and and therefore what's out is my out of office because i just and your will to live and my will to live actually is in my in is out what is in and out anymore who knows what is out is 2023 see ya I have to say for me one of my favorite parts of this year has been starting this podcast with you Paul it's been one of my highlights and i have to and me honestly just put out the biggest heartfelt thank you to absolutely everybody that tunes in

and that is giving us all the love and messages and it's that not one of them falls by without us acknowledging them and we're so grateful to all the support and the love that you guys show us so honestly from the bottom of my heart thank you so much for tuning in here here it's been such a special time it's not only lovely to spend time with one of my dearest friends but also to be able to share what we know with you all and start connecting with you it's it's really special so thank you for all your gorgeously kind words and shares and reviews don't forget to review if you have on that note let's pop that one in there bloody get out there and review it or else or we won't love you anymore um and i have to say although i have been saying i have been talking about being on my on my knees

towards the end of this year but with the new year once we've sort of got some rest and we're going to come back with so much more and we're excited to bring it. Oh yeah, we're coming back with a bang. A bang. Just bang. Baby. Yeah.

Boom. Boom. A bang. And a schvang bang.