But if you have pictures or feature wallpaper up in a room that is particularly sunny, then these can fade quickly, which can be annoying and expensive to replace.

This can especially be a problem in conservatories and rooms with skylights or big windows that let a lot of natural daylight in.

Perhaps you don’t want to stop the light from coming in though the windows, so how can you avoid your pictures fading?

Keep your home’s pictures from fading

Having pictures up in your house makes it feel very homely, but how can you keep their quality and stop them from fading in the home?

Ideally, it would be best to keep them out of the sunlight, but this can be dificult. Although one of the best things you can do is to arrange the pictures so that no sunlight falls on them, it is not too bad if it is only the weaker late-afternoon sun that falls on them.

You can check when the sun will fall on which part of the room by doing an hourly check when you first hang the pictures. Make a mark on the wall with chalk so you can chart the sun’s progress and see where it falls, and then avoid hanging pictures in these places.

There are other really useful tips here from members of the public so have a look.

This can include using wires when doing home improvements. Anything to do with the electrics is always a matter for extreme caution, so don’t attempt anything if you don’t know how to properly and safely do it.

For example, re-wiring a plug isn’t necessarily a difficult or complicated job, but you must make sure that you do you research first and know how to execute the job without any problems.

Also, always make sure that you turn the electricity supply off before you attempt any job to do with the electrics. Double-check you’ve turned it off, then triple-check it, and then you can start your DIY job.

Ways to stay safe when using wires to do home improvements

Another way to stay safe with wires and cables, is to make sure that they don’t get in your way when you are doing DIY or home improvements.

If you are not careful, then you could easily trip over them and fall, or pull plugs out of the wall. Both could be very dangerous, especially when you have lots of DIY materials around, so be really careful to keep wires out of the way.

You could do this by taping them to the floor, or along a wall, instead of leaving them loose. Or you could use a cable tidy to ensure that they are all kept out of your way. This website sells cable tidys; getting one could save you from having an accident.

Furniture is something that is personal to the people living in the property; everyone likes different types of chairs, sofas and tables, and so finding the style that suits you and your home is really important.

So, how often should you replace your furniture? There is no hard and fast rule but, of course, if your furniture is starting to look tatty or old or worn, then you might starting thinking about replacing it, whatever its age.

However, there are other things you can do instead of simply going out and buying new furniture.

Home improvements: Replacing or repairing the furniture in your house

Whe furniture starts to get a bit old or tatty, you might want to buy new furniture so that the look of your home is improved.

But there are other things you can do, in the spirit of DIY and home improvements, which will have your furniture looking as good as new.

For example, you could try re-upholstering chairs. This is a great DIY project that will result in a really special piece of furniture that you will be proud of.

You could also ‘distress’ the furniture, so it looks vintage and ‘shabby chic’ style. This works especially well with wooden items, such as a bedside table or a dining table. By doing this, you are embracing the older, worn style of furniture, so it will look stylish instead of tatty.

Blogs such as this one will help you to get a ‘shabby chic’ style out of your furniture, and it’s not too much work either.

It means that you can adapt how your home looks until it really suits your style and tastes. It doesn’t have to be a big job that takes months but, instead, can be a series of smaller projects that you do when you have the time, which will really change and improve on how your home looks and feels to you.

It can also be useful when it comes to renting or selling your home, as you can make sure it looks the best it can, so you will have achieved a higher property value.

One way to keep your home looking in top condition is by painting it. This is something I have touched on before in this blog, but it is helpful to have some tips on how to do DIY painting, as it can be a tricky job.

Tips for painting your home

Painting your home yourself is one of the best types of DIY you can do.

It can take a while, but if you tackle each room singly then it is a manageable job for one, two or three people to undertake.

A really important thing to do is to make sure you have protective covers down. If you don’t, you could get paint on your floors, which can be very expensive to clean up or replace, especially if you spill paint on carpet.

Also, put masking tap on sockets and light switches so that you don’t get paint on them, and you can have a nice straight line of paint around them.

Choose your colours carefully too; most hardware and paint stores are happy to make you up some testers to try out, so you don’t have to buy a whole tin until you’re happy with the colours.

Check out this blog on DIY painting; I think it looks great!

Tables can become wobbly for any number of reasons. It could be that your floor is uneven, or even changes in temperature: wood can expand in warmer weather or when temperatures or humidity changes suddenly.

Also, if the table was incorrectly built to begin with, then this could be another reason as to why it might be wobbly and move slightly when any weight is put on the table.

It is the same with a lot of furniture; sometimes, general wear and tear can cause a piece of furniture to stop functioning properly, and then you have to decide whether to replace it, get it fixed or fix it yourself. Of course, we like the fix it yourself option!

Ways to fix a wobbly table

There are a few ways to fix a wobbly table in your home, which don’t require much effort or money.

Of course, the thing that most people do first of all, is to put something under the leg that is making the table wobble. This is only a temporary solution, unless you actually attach a small block of wood or similar material to the bottom of the leg.

Alternatively, you could shorten the other legs very slightly so that all the legs are the same length. If you do this, you must shorten each leg very very slightly, one at a time, so you do not take too much off and end up with a short table!

Thirdly, you can attach a leg extension, which means you can adjust the length of the table leg. Look for more ideas here.

But it’s not just about improving or making new things; you can also make the most of what you already have, such as your heating system.

It’s a very cold time of year, and heating costs are rising, so it’s a good time to conserve your heating so you use less, and therefore pay less too. This doesn’t just mean putting on an extra jumper instead of turning on the heating though; there are other ways to improve your heating use, including the position of furniture.

Ways to improve on the heat you use in your home

One really important way that you can improve on how much heating you use in your home is the position of your heaters.

If you have central heating, then you obviously can’t move these around, but you can move where the furniture is in your home. Don’t put anything, such as a sofa, in front of the heater, as it will mean it blocks the heat from warming up the room.

The same goes for curtains: if you have a heater under a window, then have short curtains that do not cover the heater, as this will not only block the heat but it could also be a fire hazard.

There are some more useful tips here; so check them out and watch your heating bills go down.

Whether it’s in the bathroom or in the kitchen, you can learn how to stop it dripping, but first you need to find out whether it has a cartridge or a washer.

If you have to turn your tap a few times to turn it from full power to completely off, then it has a washer. If you only turn it a small amount (say, a quarter of a turn), then it is probably a newer tap system and it has a cartridge.

If it has a cartridge, then you will need to find out who makes the cartridges and then buy a replacement from a bathroom or hardware store, or from the manufacturers themselves.

How to replace the washer or cartridge in the tap yourself

The most important thing that you definitely have to do, is to turn the water off before you attempt any home improvements.

Once you’ve done this, according to The Sunday Times, you need to “remove the cover plate on the tap handle, undo the screw beneath and, with a spanner, twist out the body anti-clockwise”.

You’ll see the washer or the cartridge then, which will need replacing, then put it all back together again.

For a video to help you, click on this link and then go down to number 7: “How to replace a tap washer to stop a dripping tap”.

This is especially true if you’re not that used to DIY. For example, you might want to undertake a big project, such as building a new bathroom or rewiring, but these can be really big projects.

At times like this, you might want to call in a qualified tradesperson to do the job. This is a good idea for when the project might involve electrics or water, as the most important thing is that you stay safe. Make sure you get in a registered electrician if you are doing any DIY projects that involve the electrics in your home.

Which tradesperson to get for your DIY and home improvements

If you decide you do need to get a tradesperson in to help you with your DIY, then it’s a really good idea to do your research first.

Firstly, look up a registered tradesperson. Then you will know that they are qualified and will know what they are doing, so that the home remains safe and secure and not damaged.

Also, if you can get recommendations from friends, then this is a good way to know that they are trustworthy. After all, your home is very precious, so you don’t want to hand it over to just anyone!

This website, Consumer Direct, is from the Government and gives lots of handy tips, so take a look.

But if you have a DIY disaster and something goes wrong, you might find yourself in a difficult situation. What many people don’t realise is that their home and contents insurance won’t usually cover any damage caused by home improvement accidents, or DIY gone wrong.

It would be a real shame to embark on a new DIY project, aiming to save yourself money by doing the work without calling in a professional, only to have to shell out to repair any damage you’ve accidentally cause.

Often, accidental breakage is covered (for example, to a bath or door), but not spillages or nails being knocked through pipes, for example. It’s really worth checking what your policy says and, of course, checking what your policy says.

Home improvement and DIY insurance

You can purchase accidental damage cover from your insurer, to protect yourself from any financial problems in case of a DIY disaster.

Of course, your premium will go up, but it might be worth the extra small increase, if you do end up with a large amount of damage to your home.

This is definitely worth it if you are embarking on a large project, which will be a lot of work and take a lot of time, such as building an extension or increasing the size of a room, for example.

However, if you are redecorating, perhaps the most important thing you can do is simply be very careful. Paint spillages can cost over £1,000 to rectify, so lay down protective sheets over your carpets.

More top tips and information can be found in this money-related article.

However, you need to make sure it is in a good condition and that you look after it, so that, when it comes to selling, your garden is a definite positive feature of the home.

And if you don’t want to sell, then it will still be a beautiful garden to spend time in, especially when the weather warms up as we head towards spring and summer.

It’s very important to look after the lawn, and spend time weeding it and taking out any plants that could be destructive to the grass or could weaken any walls or fences.

How to look after the garden lawn

Looking after the lawn in your garden doesn’t have to be a big job, but it can really improve how the whole house looks, and is definitely a DIY job that you can do without too much help.

Even though it has been a wet winter, it is important to water the lawn, as it can quickly dry out if the weather is dry for a couple of days. This doesn’t have to take long; just water it with a hose every few days.

Make sure you mow the lawn often, as unkempt grass can make the whole property look untidy. It’s especially important to tidy up the areas around any fencing, water features or walls that you have, so that is it neat around the edges.

This website has lots of articles on lawn care, from keeping bugs away to aerating a lawn.