If your outside space is microscopic, you need to be extra-clever about giving it atmosphere. So steal some nifty tricks from indoors

It’s been endlessly said that gardens have become “extensions of the home” without this cliché telling us much. But the idea of an interior room begins to be useful when you’re trying to make something of a micro yard – that minuscule patch before an abrupt wall, where the sky is visible only when you crick your neck all the way back.

Such tiny spaces benefit from the ideas you might usually associate with indoor rooms. Paint, mirrors and focal objects can create a delightfully intimate place to sip a coffee and smell the air. What you shouldn’t do is treat them like a garden. You won’t benefit from, say, the kind of varied planting that a normal garden can enjoy. Stick to evergreens: box, ivy, camellias, rosemary, maybe grasses at a push. Or no planting at all: beautiful paint colours can do much to improve the brickwork that looms all too soon.

Beware magazine images showing squishy, sofa-style furniture – those piles of cushions have to be lugged indoors whenever there’s a smatter of rain, then stored somewhere. Instead, keep things simple and weatherproof: a near maintenance-free space that needs little more than the odd sweep. That way, the only thing you need to lug outside is your skinny latte and the paper.

Give the eye somewhere to rest

A focal point is crucial in micro yards, otherwise the only thing you’ll be gazing at is the boundary at the end of your nose. To prevent the prison yard feel, think laterally about decorative objects. Anything wall-mounted is fair game. Pick a single idea and don’t elaborate: a focal point is a focal point because there’s only one of it. For white resin deer antlers (£124), check out Graham & Green; or for a £29.99 aluminium stag’s head, try gardens2you.co.uk. Architectural salvage yards are great places to find chipped, lichen-covered statues, urns or stone benches, but why stop there? How about a stone fire surround against your yard wall? Or a trough-style sink, filled with pot plants? The key is to keep everything else minimal.

If you can’t face trawling salvage yards for antique finds, check out gardenornaments.com for repro wall-mounted fountains, statuary and urns. Paint with live yoghurt for fast-track lichen.

Walls and floors

Paint is underused in tiny gardens. Render a brick wall, paint it white, dot with a few geraniums and you’re suddenly in a delightful Mediterranean cubbyhole rather than a claustrophobic urban pit. Olives, sages, pale greys and blues: these colours were made for outdoor light, and Farrow & Ball now produces all its colours in eco exterior eggshell, which is wonderfully matt.

Micro yards can carry off a statement floor and ceramic encaustic tiles can be laid outside without any special sealing or waxing, plus they’re naturally nonslip. But they do cost a small fortune. For new, go to Fired Earth.

For antique French charm, take a look at The Antique Floor Company for glorious, muted floral patterns that can be shipped all over the world, though you will need a small mortgage to buy one. For these floors to work, they need to be the stars of the show – a muted, toning paint colour on the walls, plus table and chairs, is enough. If decorative tiles are beyond your wallet, then grey paving slabs can work well: they’re simple and cheap.

Smoke and mirrors

If minimal modernity is a step too far from the trad garden, aim instead for an overgrown dell, where boundaries are disguised with tumbling ivy and the eye tricked with mirrors. Garden mirrors are now widely available and made from acrylic, which is shatterproof. Check out primrose-london.co.uk’s gothic stone arch mirror for £58.95, or its Tudor leaded mirror for £84.95. Or the £144.95 galvanised metal trellis mirror from internetgardener.co.uk.

There’s one critical point to make about mirrors: make sure you have something to reflect. Using them on bare walls will only give you more bare wall. They must be secreted among an excess of tumbling foliage that stays in reasonably good nick: the last thing you want to multiply is the image of brown leaf curl.

Read the full article

If your outside space is microscopic, you need to be extra-clever about giving it atmosphere. So steal some nifty tricks from indoors

It’s been endlessly said that gardens have become “extensions of the home” without this cliché telling us much. But the idea of an interior room begins to be useful when you’re trying to make something of a micro yard – that minuscule patch before an abrupt wall, where the sky is visible only when you crick your neck all the way back.

Such tiny spaces benefit from the ideas you might usually associate with indoor rooms. Paint, mirrors and focal objects can create a delightfully intimate place to sip a coffee and smell the air. What you shouldn’t do is treat them like a garden. You won’t benefit from, say, the kind of varied planting that a normal garden can enjoy. Stick to evergreens: box, ivy, camellias, rosemary, maybe grasses at a push. Or no planting at all: beautiful paint colours can do much to improve the brickwork that looms all too soon.

Beware magazine images showing squishy, sofa-style furniture – those piles of cushions have to be lugged indoors whenever there’s a smatter of rain, then stored somewhere. Instead, keep things simple and weatherproof: a near maintenance-free space that needs little more than the odd sweep. That way, the only thing you need to lug outside is your skinny latte and the paper.

Give the eye somewhere to rest

A focal point is crucial in micro yards, otherwise the only thing you’ll be gazing at is the boundary at the end of your nose. To prevent the prison yard feel, think laterally about decorative objects. Anything wall-mounted is fair game. Pick a single idea and don’t elaborate: a focal point is a focal point because there’s only one of it. For white resin deer antlers (£124), check out Graham & Green; or for a £29.99 aluminium stag’s head, try gardens2you.co.uk. Architectural salvage yards are great places to find chipped, lichen-covered statues, urns or stone benches, but why stop there? How about a stone fire surround against your yard wall? Or a trough-style sink, filled with pot plants? The key is to keep everything else minimal.

If you can’t face trawling salvage yards for antique finds, check out gardenornaments.com for repro wall-mounted fountains, statuary and urns. Paint with live yoghurt for fast-track lichen.

Walls and floors

Paint is underused in tiny gardens. Render a brick wall, paint it white, dot with a few geraniums and you’re suddenly in a delightful Mediterranean cubbyhole rather than a claustrophobic urban pit. Olives, sages, pale greys and blues: these colours were made for outdoor light, and Farrow & Ball now produces all its colours in eco exterior eggshell, which is wonderfully matt.

Micro yards can carry off a statement floor and ceramic encaustic tiles can be laid outside without any special sealing or waxing, plus they’re naturally nonslip. But they do cost a small fortune. For new, go to Fired Earth.

For antique French charm, take a look at The Antique Floor Company for glorious, muted floral patterns that can be shipped all over the world, though you will need a small mortgage to buy one. For these floors to work, they need to be the stars of the show – a muted, toning paint colour on the walls, plus table and chairs, is enough. If decorative tiles are beyond your wallet, then grey paving slabs can work well: they’re simple and cheap.

Smoke and mirrors

If minimal modernity is a step too far from the trad garden, aim instead for an overgrown dell, where boundaries are disguised with tumbling ivy and the eye tricked with mirrors. Garden mirrors are now widely available and made from acrylic, which is shatterproof. Check out primrose-london.co.uk’s gothic stone arch mirror for £58.95, or its Tudor leaded mirror for £84.95. Or the £144.95 galvanised metal trellis mirror from internetgardener.co.uk.

There’s one critical point to make about mirrors: make sure you have something to reflect. Using them on bare walls will only give you more bare wall. They must be secreted among an excess of tumbling foliage that stays in reasonably good nick: the last thing you want to multiply is the image of brown leaf curl.

Read the full article

Are there right-handed opening microwaves on the market? Plus searching for 50s-style diner seating

Is there a right-handed opening microwave on the market or are they all left-handed?
Unfortunately, our searches have drawn a blank, but we have found a couple that open at the top – the Panasonic NNCF778S combination microwave/oven/grill, £234.98, from Electrical Discount UK, and the Panasonic NN-CF778SBPQ combination microwave in stainless steel, £299, from John Lewis.

We have been searching for some time for a booth of the sort you see in diners and restaurants. It does not have to be authentic 50s style, but we would like two bench seats with a fixed table between them. Do you know of a place in the north-west where such furniture might be sent for recycling or selling on after outlets are refurbished? We’ve tried the local secondhand shops and Googled with no luck.
We’ve found a couple of stores specialising in authentic diner furniture, both of which will deliver to your door. Lawton Imports has a very cool Hollywood booth set in seven different 50s colours for around £1,400, while wotever.co.uk sells a two-seat booth set, also known as Hollywood, for £1,315. On the secondhand front, Luna, a vintage furniture store based in Nottingham, offers a search service or try your luck on eBay – there were 13 for sale on the day we looked.

• Got a question for our crack team of domestic experts? Email space@guardian.co.uk

Read the full article

Are there right-handed opening microwaves on the market? Plus searching for 50s-style diner seating

Is there a right-handed opening microwave on the market or are they all left-handed?
Unfortunately, our searches have drawn a blank, but we have found a couple that open at the top – the Panasonic NNCF778S combination microwave/oven/grill, £234.98, from Electrical Discount UK, and the Panasonic NN-CF778SBPQ combination microwave in stainless steel, £299, from John Lewis.

We have been searching for some time for a booth of the sort you see in diners and restaurants. It does not have to be authentic 50s style, but we would like two bench seats with a fixed table between them. Do you know of a place in the north-west where such furniture might be sent for recycling or selling on after outlets are refurbished? We’ve tried the local secondhand shops and Googled with no luck.
We’ve found a couple of stores specialising in authentic diner furniture, both of which will deliver to your door. Lawton Imports has a very cool Hollywood booth set in seven different 50s colours for around £1,400, while wotever.co.uk sells a two-seat booth set, also known as Hollywood, for £1,315. On the secondhand front, Luna, a vintage furniture store based in Nottingham, offers a search service or try your luck on eBay – there were 13 for sale on the day we looked.

• Got a question for our crack team of domestic experts? Email space@guardian.co.uk

Read the full article

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A queer mix of high-priced executive piles and commoners with smallholdings

What’s going for it? I’ve always rather fancied keeping pigs. Or chickens. Or geese, for that matter. Now’s my chance. The New Forest national park is looking for new “commoners” to populate its woods. These days, the forest is a queer mix of high-priced executive piles clinging to the railway line, and “commoners”, several hundred of them, with smallholdings – some as old as the Domesday Book. Commoners have various ye olde rights, including keeping and letting roam pigs, geese, chickens, the famous ponies and various horned beasts. No goats, mind (I don’t know what the park has against goats). But with property prices so eye-watering, few non-bankers can afford it. All hail Natural England, then, for its financial support. The national park is, of course, gorgeous, home to bats, cute ickle ponies and the odd nightjar. It’s also a hidden foodie and cultural gem, with its elegant art gallery at Sway, Festibelly festival in August and farmshops and restaurants galore.

The case against Because development is heavily restricted, prices are… yikes! Millions and millions and indeed millions of tourists.

Well connected? Very. Rail: Brockenhurst is the main station – an hour and a half to London Waterloo, 22 minutes to Southampton airport, 12 minutes to Southampton Central, 13-26 minutes to Bournemouth, three or four an hour. Less frequent stops at Beaulieu Road, Sway and Ashurst New Forest. The M27 and A31 provide for roads; chocka in summer.

Schools St Luke’s CofE in Sway and South Baddesley CofE are “outstanding”, says Ofsted, with Poulner, William Gilpin in Boldre and Ringwood “good” with “outstanding” features, and Brockenhurst CofE, Pennington CofE in Lymington, Burley and Bartley all “good”. Secondaries: Ringwood, and Hounsdown in Totton are “outstanding”, Priestlands in Lymington is “good” with “outstanding” features; Noadswood and Applemore, both in Dibden Purlieu, and Burgate in Fordingbridge all “good”.

Hang out at… You’ll not want for cute pubs like the thatched Royal Oak at Fritham, or teashops like Burley’s equally thatched Old Farmhouse, or fancy food like the Michelin-starred Montagu Arms in Beaulieu.

Where to buy Check out the fringes, like suburban Dibden Purlieu and Totton, where prices plummet.

Market values Vast detacheds with land, farmhouses, etc, £500,000-£1m. Detacheds, £250,000-£550,000. Semis, £180,000-£420,000. Flats, £120,000-£275,000.

Bargain of the week Compact, three-bed detached house in Sway, £267,000, with Murray & Hayward.

From the streets

Karen Neale “The trees, streams and plains are not just beautiful to look at, but you can explore them freely. If you hire a bike next to Brockenhurst railway station, you can cycle into the forest in any direction. Great community spirit.”

Tina West “Newcomers are welcome, and we all look out for each other. Living on the forest is wonderful: we keep two ponies and a horse there. Beautifully picturesque in winter.”

• Live in the New Forest? Join the debate below

Do you live in Hunstanton, Norfolk? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, please write, by Tuesday 3 August, to lets.move@guardian.co.uk

Read the full article

A queer mix of high-priced executive piles and commoners with smallholdings

What’s going for it? I’ve always rather fancied keeping pigs. Or chickens. Or geese, for that matter. Now’s my chance. The New Forest national park is looking for new “commoners” to populate its woods. These days, the forest is a queer mix of high-priced executive piles clinging to the railway line, and “commoners”, several hundred of them, with smallholdings – some as old as the Domesday Book. Commoners have various ye olde rights, including keeping and letting roam pigs, geese, chickens, the famous ponies and various horned beasts. No goats, mind (I don’t know what the park has against goats). But with property prices so eye-watering, few non-bankers can afford it. All hail Natural England, then, for its financial support. The national park is, of course, gorgeous, home to bats, cute ickle ponies and the odd nightjar. It’s also a hidden foodie and cultural gem, with its elegant art gallery at Sway, Festibelly festival in August and farmshops and restaurants galore.

The case against Because development is heavily restricted, prices are… yikes! Millions and millions and indeed millions of tourists.

Well connected? Very. Rail: Brockenhurst is the main station – an hour and a half to London Waterloo, 22 minutes to Southampton airport, 12 minutes to Southampton Central, 13-26 minutes to Bournemouth, three or four an hour. Less frequent stops at Beaulieu Road, Sway and Ashurst New Forest. The M27 and A31 provide for roads; chocka in summer.

Schools St Luke’s CofE in Sway and South Baddesley CofE are “outstanding”, says Ofsted, with Poulner, William Gilpin in Boldre and Ringwood “good” with “outstanding” features, and Brockenhurst CofE, Pennington CofE in Lymington, Burley and Bartley all “good”. Secondaries: Ringwood, and Hounsdown in Totton are “outstanding”, Priestlands in Lymington is “good” with “outstanding” features; Noadswood and Applemore, both in Dibden Purlieu, and Burgate in Fordingbridge all “good”.

Hang out at… You’ll not want for cute pubs like the thatched Royal Oak at Fritham, or teashops like Burley’s equally thatched Old Farmhouse, or fancy food like the Michelin-starred Montagu Arms in Beaulieu.

Where to buy Check out the fringes, like suburban Dibden Purlieu and Totton, where prices plummet.

Market values Vast detacheds with land, farmhouses, etc, £500,000-£1m. Detacheds, £250,000-£550,000. Semis, £180,000-£420,000. Flats, £120,000-£275,000.

Bargain of the week Compact, three-bed detached house in Sway, £267,000, with Murray & Hayward.

From the streets

Karen Neale “The trees, streams and plains are not just beautiful to look at, but you can explore them freely. If you hire a bike next to Brockenhurst railway station, you can cycle into the forest in any direction. Great community spirit.”

Tina West “Newcomers are welcome, and we all look out for each other. Living on the forest is wonderful: we keep two ponies and a horse there. Beautifully picturesque in winter.”

• Live in the New Forest? Join the debate below

Do you live in Hunstanton, Norfolk? Do you have a favourite haunt or a pet hate? If so, please write, by Tuesday 3 August, to lets.move@guardian.co.uk

Read the full article

Read the full article on www.nytimes.com

Read the full article on www.nytimes.com