Painted Blocks Strips at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

An innovative mix of berry shades and aqua blues have been blended to give this living room lots of colour and life. Sheer muslin curtains in a deep aqua diffuse a glow of colour into the room. The walls have been painted blocks strips with blocks and strips of colour, too, to create mini works of art, while accessories have been kept to a minimum to let the Wall treatment sing out.

Bamboo Blinds are available in various styles. An expensive but formal type is made of very thin strips of bamboo bound closely together. Others more informal in character are made of wider strips, either from the outside or the inside bark; the former presents an irregular, varied surface in both the color of the strips and their width; the latter is more standard in these respects. Bamboo Blinds are available in widths up to 10 feet.

A large area of paving blocks likely to receive considerable traffic should be bedded on mortar on a prepared foundation. Start to lay the blocks in one corner of the patio and work diagonally across the surface. This makes it easier to ensure that they are laid consistently flat. Place i/zin thick offcuts of wood between the blocks as consistent joint spaces, or simply butt up the blocks for finer joints. As you work across the surface, kneel on a piece of board to distribute your weight.