In a previous post on this discussion forum I described my laundry bin...a 30L cardboard barrel which I lined with an old shower curtain and decorated still reigns supreme on the lid of my top loder, Nobody knows what it is and its a never ending source of admiration from an artistic angle. Lacking floor space the only option was to sit it up there or out on the veranda.It works as a cat toy too. It has, however, acquired some vents in the lid since some of my art shirts are often a bit oily and I learnt that some oils tend to self combist in enclosed spaces and can be the cause of house fires. Sometimes hiding things in plain sight is a good option. With Tribbletrouble45142k7Trek...Your baskets sound pretty...why hide such nice functional souvenits!

@ minebathroom and @ Luke Buckle, our electrician has informed us that we don't have to put solar panels on our house roof if we don't want to for aesthetics or if for example the roof was old as you mentioned Luke. Panels can be placed on a shed or garage roof anywhere on your property if you are rural like us for example, as the power can be directed into the grid from anywhere the solar panels live and that doesn't have to be on the house roof. We would love to go solar but agree with all your other points @minebathroom, too expensive and expected lifespan and feed in tarrifs are very ordinary but then there's also the back up service too, will the company still be around in one year let alone 10 years. When our electrician got his solar, he got such a fantastic tarrif rate which was offered at the very start of the solar revolution, he was recieving a cheque or refund of something like $500 a quarter but the rates are so low now, there is certainly no chance of recouping some of the instalation costs, although I wouldn't be so fused about that if I thought I would get say 20+ years out of the system before it begun to possibly fail in some way. Things do have to get allot more reliable if nothing else!!

Hey annb, Siri and bigreader - thank you so much all of you, for taking the time to explain your personal stories to me... I loved reading your replies. Have given me much to think about :) I love the idea of a couple of shelves with photos... one or two select albums around our coffee table and a family wall collection I think - a real talking feature. Any other spaces will have some nice artwork I think? Storytelling through photos and beautiful artwork on our walls - I hope - we can find a nice balance. Now.... the task of working out which specific photos to put where lol! I don't want it to look cluttered.... so it may take some playing with configurations on the floor - to work out which layout will look the best :)

Congratulations on starting a new business and following your passion. It looks like you are off to a good start with some beautiful homewares, that have been well designed, and which are presented well on your website. It is really hard at the start but you need to get your products in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and social media is a cost-effective way. Consider Facebook and Instagram advertisements as a starting point, and when you have enough momentum look carefully at some of the markets and tradeshows, which can provide some great opportunities for material for social media. https://www.instagram.com/secret_design_studio/ Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls