Home of bright ideas

W ITH two bank holidays next month and the national obsession for home interiors, it’s not hard to guess what DIY fans will be doing in May. But as anyone who has ever picked up a paint brush or roller knows, it’s all in the preparation. Not the boring sanding and cleaning: the fun of planning and dreaming. John Lewis & Partners’s new home design service, Refresh For Less, launched this week to help customers get to know its new ANYDAY range of homeware, which is priced 20 to 50 per cent lower than other John Lewis own-brand goods. Refresh For Less can be booked in-store or online and is a free 45-minute in-person or virtual consultation with a home design stylist, to guide you through ideas from the ANYDAY range that will transform whichever room you’re working on. There is plenty of other online advice from DIY brands such as Dulux, which has just launched a new time-saving one-coat paint range called Simply Refresh. Its website’s Expert Help section offers tips on everything from painting melamine kitchen cabinets to uPVC front doors, and you can download the DuluxVisualizer app. Online DIY store ManoMano.co.uk has project guides including small space design ideas and it also sells furniture and accessories for homes and gardens. While Arthouse, a UK firm that designs wallpaper including self-adhesive ArtiStick, has a DIY Guides section of videos at arthouse.com to help you wallpaper around corners, radiators, windows and more. So that’s this weekend sorted.

John Lewis & Partners’s stylish Clapton fixed back sofa bed, £299-£399; Perch coffee table in almond, £89, and cosy Berber-style rug, £80-£150 (johnlewis.com)

Dulux’s new Simply Refresh one-coat paint comes in a range of colours, including Natural Hessian, £46 for 5L, and Decadent Damson, £18 for 1.25L (homebase.co.uk)

Arthouse’s ArtiStick self-adhesive Tropical Palm Green wallpaper is easy to remove and reposition, £19 per six-metre roll (wilko.com)