Get Creative

We may love talking about the weather in Britain, but can you blame us?  Some summers feel like AWOL could stand for “Any Where Outdoors Leaks”. Unseasonal rain may have ruined your plans for the beach, barbecue, garden or park. However, we have an idea.

Grab your tape measure and design some stylish radiator covers instead. You can feel chuffed about creating something useful today. Then, when winter comes, you will enjoy radiators that work better and add style to your home.

I do not usually use the word “smug”, but in this case, a little self-congratulation feels completely deserved.

Jali bespoke radiator cover

The Great Outdoors

There are other reasons why now is the ideal time for some home-based activity. For one thing, decluttering, often a necessary preparation for a refurbishment, seems less daunting and difficult in the summer months. There’s literally more light on the subject, and if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, it can provide useful extra space for organising and bin-bag packing. (Just watch out for those sharp showers the Met Office is always warning us about.)

I have an unpolished oak kitchen table, made in Dublin in the 1920s or ’30s, that needs a new coat of chalk paint this year. (Someone who shall be nameless decided it was an ideal surface on which to do some soldering. ‘Nuff said.) The original application (of paint, not solder) was so much easier in the garden, so that’s another weekend job destined for the great outdoors.

Jali bespoke radiator cabinet

Being able to have doors and windows open is a great asset too; ventilation is better and drying time for paints and varnishes applied indoors is shorter in the summer months.

art

And it’s also the ideal time to design and assemble all kinds of Jali products.

Many customers decide to order new furniture from us in the final months of the year, in anticipation of friends and family arriving for the festive season.

Unfortunately that may mean longer waiting-times for manufacture and delivery. So be summer savvy, and get designing ahead of the pack. Sorry, did someone utter the “smug” word again?

Finally, don’t miss next week’s episode of George Clarke’s Old House, New Home.  Some of our elegant decorative shutters will feature in the latest makeover. Even we don’t know what the final result looks like – we can’t wait!