Finding the perfect mattress is very important as you will be spending quite a bit of time on it and it will play a part in ensuring you get a restful night of sleep. Therefore, when shopping for a mattress, keeping some key things in mind can help you find the best mattress to fit your needs.

There are many different kinds of mattresses to consider, so when you’re shopping, don’t rush into it and buy the first mattress you see. It’s always a good idea to try out a mattress before you buy, but many people simply lie down on it for a few seconds. Realistically, this isn’t enough time to determine the full comfort level. Sometimes a mattress can feel comfortable at first, but after a time, becomes less so.

Instead, take your time and spend some time relaxing on it. Also, if you will be sleeping with a partner on the mattress, take them with you to try it out too. You want to know how the...

If you want the look and feel of natural wood in your home but aren’t keen on the cost, there is one more affordable option open to you: laminate flooring.

As well as being easier on your wallet, laminate floors are scratch and stain-resistant and easier to install than traditional hardwood floors, making it a great option for do-it-yourself enthusiasts who want to save on the cost of labour. Most retailers now offer glueless laminate flooring that simply slots together and comes with instructions that make it easy for anybody to install.

Most laminate flooring has a wood-effect finish, so you can choose from any kind of wood imaginable according to what suits the space. Smaller, darker rooms can be made to look bigger and brighter with a white beech finish, or alternatively you can achieve a luxurious, classical effect with oak or mahogany. There are even designs that mimic the...

My first home was in Libya.

My father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and we were always travelling. I was born in 1950 so my childhood was very post-war. Only after my father’s death were we told that he had been a member of the SAS.

He was a very gentle, loving and artistic man who had been brought up in India; his father was a colonel in the Indian Army. As an officer’s family we were never in the barracks but were given a nice house in a residential area.

As we had travelled so much, I had no real qualifications.

I left home at 16 to go to Carlisle College of Art. When I was 18 I married John Timney, a graphic designer.

My father lent me some money for the deposit on our first house — a lovely Victorian terrace in Jesmond, Newcastle. It cost around £8,500 and I found it exhilarating to have my own property. I did up the rooms and changed and personalised everything. My...

Bold, graphic and contemporary – we think these three words sum up the wallpaper range by Evil Robot Designs very well.

If you like decorating with wallpaper that is certainly not run-of-the-mill, then these designs could fit the bill, as they are graphic designs at their best.

We’ve been meaning to write about them for months, since they were launched in May at Clerkenwell Design Week.

It Came From Beneath The Sea is a bold red wallpaper featuring a swirl of black and white octopus tentacles.

It Came From Outer Space is inspired by B-movies and features a graphic print of a flying saucer invasion.

From a distance, the white and grey pinstripe design of The Three Laws of Robotics wallpaper looks quite tame. But once you see it close up you realise that each stripe consists of robots and cyborgs fighting!

What do you think of the designs and would you decorate your home with them?

Coasting in neutral

It’s OK to be a fan of neutrals – just choose one accent colour to add to the room. Turquoise, for example, goes with almost anything. I actually use a lot of neutrals in my collections, creating room sets with white, navy, grey and beige then adding a couple of ‘pop’ colours. I’m a potter and believe that the best neutrals are natural materials – wood, linen, clay

A little goes a long way

Distribute colour around the room in small bits and bobs such as lamps, accessories, so that there’s a nice rhythm. Everywhere you look there should be a place for your eye to rest – on a cushion or vase, or a bowl full of lemons or limes. Pattern, too, provides necessary punctuation. I love a bold patterned rug as an anchor – top it with neutral furniture

Make an impact

Want to go more hardcore? Being reckless can work just as well as having a plan, so go crazy with colour and...

When I set off to meet Kevin McCloud – the thinking woman’s Monty Don – to talk about his new book, I intended to bring along the copy his publishers sent me, so I could refer to it in depth and cross reference chapters, like the true professional I am.

All right then, so it was I could have it signed by the author and then sneakily wrap it up and give it to my husband for his birthday next month. But most inconveniently, the Grand Designs presenter’s 43 Principles of Home is big and so heavy I would have needed a taxi to carry it, like a ministerial red box, behind me as I hopped, sustainably, onto the 73 bus.

A 392-page tome weighing as much as a toddler and with a carbon footprint to rival the Aga Khan, is not, I suggest, what we would expect from a man with solar panels on his roof and a biomass boiler in his sitting room and whose green credentials are so unimpeachable you can...

Abigail Ahern

Ahern’s white-text-on-black-background blog looks as dramatic as the zeitgeisty interiors that she creates. Like them it is also intimate, with chatty tips (illustrated with lots of arresting pictures) on everything from hanging art to ‘zoning’ space, as well as trends and tricks of the trade.abigailahern.wordpress.com

Apartment Therapy

No top 20 would be complete without that behemoth of blogs/forums, Apartment Therapy. Despite its size and reach - and it really is huge, with dizzyingly frequent updates, and posts from around the world - it retains a sense of community. It’s primarily pictorial, with the main feature being House Tours of hipsters’ homes, though it mixes these with practical tips.apartmenttherapy.com

The Beat that My Heart Skipped

'A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations’ reads the sub head. Which roughly translates as 'nirvana for...

Grand Designs has had its day. Back for the start of a new – 11th – series today, the opening episode is a visit by presenter Kevin McCloud to a project that began in 2006. If the producers are so lacking in new building projects to film that they can’t even kick off with a bit of novelty, where’s the hope for the rest of the series?

The problem is that McCloud and his GD cohorts have failed to move on. Whereas Sarah Beeny has now branched out from her mainstay series Property Ladder to the suitably calamitous-sounding Help! My House is Falling Down, McCloud keeps plugging the same programme format – which has no place in these gloomy economic times.

The fact is, architects are the canaries of the retail economy – if it’s slim pickings for the rest of us, they’ve been on a starvation diet for a couple of years now. A kitchen extension there, a loft conversion here, but you only need to...

A couple of months ago I wrote about Barbara Elsmore, a reader from Hampshire who saved a fortune on her kitchen with a few simple DIY techniques. She’s not the only one, it seems. Our search for Britain’s best budget kitchen has provoked many brilliant responses from enterprising home owners around the country.

Frankly, your carpentry, painting and sourcing skills really put the designer gang, and their £80,000 refurbishments, back in their box.

The most impressive makeover came from Tracy Dodds, who revamped the kitchen in her Northumberland cottage for just £600. “The units were not damaged, just out of date,” she says. “So we took them off and pre-painted them with paint for plastic-coated doors. Then we put rivet lines into them to create the Shaker look.”

By twice sanding and painting with eggshell, Dodds achieved the required effect. She bought one set of drawers, new...

Carefully chosen cushions can help bring the interior design of a room to life.

John Lewis have put together some lovely cushion collections – here are three of our favourites.

Playnation cushions

The Playnation cushion collection is ideal if you like contemporary designs and lively colours. Mix and match these plain and print cushions for a playful and fun look.

The cushions are priced from £15 to £35 each.

Bright and beautiful cushions

The Bright and Beautiful cushion collection lives up to its name, as it’s full of bright colours and eye-catching designs. The 3D style cushions add texture and interest, whilst the bright floral and watercolour prints combine uplifting colours. Even the plain cushions add a bit of luxury, as they’re made of silk.

These cushions are priced between £20 and £45.

Monochrome cushions

If natural colours, blacks and whites are more your style, the...