ELIZABETH ARCHER
Scrapbook, £8.50, Paperchase
Neon light, £12; heart light, £12; pinata, £10; cushions, £10; leopard print glasses, £5; mugs, from £2, all Sainsbury’s Home
Dipping bowls, £36, John Lewis
Tumbler, £5, Marks & Spencer
Tealights, £2.50, Sainsbury’s Home
Travel jewellery case, £16, Oliver Bonas
Mug, £14.95, Emma Bridgewater
Throw, £15, George at Asda
Water bottle, £24.99, Caroline Gardner
Salted caramel chocolate bar, £4.50, Love Cocoa at Selfridges
Bowl, £12, Le Creuset
Plant pot, £4.50, Albert & Moo
Cushion, £9.99, British Heart Foundation
The grouting on my bathroom floor tiles is the colour of old concrete. Can it be cleaned up? Anthony Oswin, Grimsby
Take some matte emulsion paint and paint over the grout with a one-inch brush. Don’t worry about getting paint on the tiles. Leave for five minutes, then wipe the paint off. Grout is porous so some paint will remain on it.
I put Halloween stickers on our garage door and the dye has remained. Bleach won’t clean it. Carolyn Young, by email
You need a solvent to dissolve the dye – bleach isn’t a solvent but white spirit and dry cleaning fluids are. If you still have the packet for the stickers and it has a helpline number, call and ask what solvent to use.
I’ve got efflorescence lifting emulsion paint off on an interior wall. What should I do? Terry, Saltash, Cornwall
If you have efflorescence the wall must be damp. And the problem is, if you add water via a water-based emulsion paint, the problem will continue. I would line a wall like that with plasterboard, then plaster and paint it.
DONNY’S TOP TIP
Sue Smurthwaite
QI live in a house that’s four years old, and on some of the ceilings it looks like tape is coming away where it meets the wall. Why? Sara Lloyd, by email
The plasterboard in your home was jointed using a system called Ames taping which is paper plasterboard joint tape embedded into a jointing plaster/compound. This covers the joints in the plasterboard. To sort it, brush jointing compound behind the tape and press it down with a roller. Then sand away any residual compound and re-coat. Alternatively, remove the old tape and stick on FibaTape, which is a self-adhesive plasterboard joint tape.
ASEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO: diy.donny@trinitymirror.com PRODUCT OF THE WEEK Insulated plasterboard (around £50 a sheet) I talk about this product a lot – it’s plasterboard bonded on to a polystyrene sheet which cures the problem of a damp wall. I typically use a 12.5mm plasterboard bonded to 25mm of polystyrene.