Not every home update requires a full renovation. Sometimes the most effective changes are also the simplest, and among the simplest of all is replacing the handles on your cupboards and drawers. It is one of those changes that takes an afternoon to complete but delivers results that you notice every single day. The...
There is a particular quality to the light in late August and September that signals the change is coming. The mornings are cooler, the evenings close in earlier, and rooms that felt pleasantly airy all summer start to feel just slightly too draughty, too exposed, too ready for something warmer. The transition from summer...
Blackout curtains are one of the most popular choices for bedrooms, nurseries, and home cinema rooms. Thick, lined, and often interlined, they do their job beautifully: blocking light, reducing noise, and improving the insulation of any room. But they also weigh considerably more than a standard curtain, and not every curtain pole is built...
Something rather lovely landed on our desk this month. Suffolk Business has run a piece on our partnership with Nigel Tyas Ironwork, and Simon Young has told the story properly, which we appreciated more than we can say. You can read the full piece on the Yorkshire to Suffolk blacksmithing partnership over on their...
If handcrafted ironwork feels at home anywhere in the house, it is in the kitchen. There is something deeply satisfying about a superbly made pan rack, not just for the storage it provides, but for what it says about a kitchen and the people who cook in it. A Made by the Forge pan rack...
Follow a muddy track behind a tiny Suffolk cottage, back in 2006, and you would have found Richard in a garden shed, lit by a single bare light bulb, hammering hot iron into shape. That shed is where Made by the Forge began. Richard is an artisan blacksmith: a craftsperson who heats iron in...
Of all the decisions that go into dressing a window, the finial is the one most likely to be underestimated. It is small. It sits at the end of the pole. And yet it is the detail that gives your window dressing its character, anchoring the look to a particular style and, in the...
It is one of the most common questions we hear: do I need a bespoke curtain pole, or will an off-the-shelf option do the job? The answer depends on your window, your home, and what you want the pole to do. Here is an honest look at both options, so you can decide with...
Shelf brackets do not typically inspire excitement. They are, by their very nature, supporting players: there to do a job quietly and without fuss. But a well-chosen bracket made from quality materials can do rather more than hold a shelf up. It can define the character of a room, solve a storage problem with...
The conservatory is one of the most loved rooms in the British home, and also one of the trickiest to get right. As spring arrives and the sun climbs higher, what was a pleasant retreat in February can become an uncomfortable greenhouse by May. The answer, more often than homeowners realise, lies at the...