Decorating
Decorating: 10 All-new Uses for Building Blocks
These everyday slabs can bring a surprisingly stylish edge to your home and garden
They’re the unsung heroes that can be bought cheaply from any builders’ merchants. Here’s why the humble building block is a homemaker’s secret weapon.
Turn them into shelving
Who needs fancy designer furniture? Team decorative perforated blocks with simple shelves or planks for a one-of-a-kind storage unit.
Turn your storage into stylish furniture
Who needs fancy designer furniture? Team decorative perforated blocks with simple shelves or planks for a one-of-a-kind storage unit.
Turn your storage into stylish furniture
Get creative
Decorative blocks can be laid in line to create an outdoor screen that separates different areas of your garden, giving privacy without blocking light.
Decorative blocks can be laid in line to create an outdoor screen that separates different areas of your garden, giving privacy without blocking light.
Bring blocks into the kitchen
A block-clad island unit adds an industrial edge to a kitchen. Brushed aluminium and stainless steel elements will complement the colour of the island while wooden cabinetry contrasts nicely.
Reasons to work an island into your kitchen
A block-clad island unit adds an industrial edge to a kitchen. Brushed aluminium and stainless steel elements will complement the colour of the island while wooden cabinetry contrasts nicely.
Reasons to work an island into your kitchen
Build a pergola
An all-wood pergola can be flimsy, but using blocks for the supports adds both reassurance and permanence.
An all-wood pergola can be flimsy, but using blocks for the supports adds both reassurance and permanence.
Use blocks on the chimney breast
Another scheme that shows how wood and concrete blocks work so well together. Reaching all the way to the vaulted ceiling, the chimney breast is the focal point of this room.
Another scheme that shows how wood and concrete blocks work so well together. Reaching all the way to the vaulted ceiling, the chimney breast is the focal point of this room.
Make a unique planter
Use adhesive to glue perforated blocks together in a quirky formation, making an outdoor planter that just grows and grows. Line each hole with mesh or hanging basket liner to keep the earth in.
More on preparing your planters
Use adhesive to glue perforated blocks together in a quirky formation, making an outdoor planter that just grows and grows. Line each hole with mesh or hanging basket liner to keep the earth in.
More on preparing your planters
Fire your imagination
Use blocks to create a fire pit that’s the perfect size and shape for your garden. Needless to say, double-check before you buy that the ones you’ve chosen aren’t flammable!
Use blocks to create a fire pit that’s the perfect size and shape for your garden. Needless to say, double-check before you buy that the ones you’ve chosen aren’t flammable!
Zone your space
Create a half-height partition wall to separate an en suite from a sleeping area in an open-plan bedroom. Leaving the blocks unpainted allows their rich texture to shine through.
What ingenious uses have you found for your old building blocks around the home? Please tell us in the comments below.
Create a half-height partition wall to separate an en suite from a sleeping area in an open-plan bedroom. Leaving the blocks unpainted allows their rich texture to shine through.
What ingenious uses have you found for your old building blocks around the home? Please tell us in the comments below.
As simple as it is stylish, this bedside ‘table’ can be knocked up in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea. The perforations are a neat substitute for drawers.