Five savvy ways to upgrade your bedroom to hotel-style comfort
A few low-cost touches can upgrade a boring bedroom to the place of your dreams.
CLEAR CLUTTER: Hotels have clear, calm surfaces, which is easy to achieve at home.
Sweep away your odds and ends and only have essentials on display.
Store other items out of sight or in matching baskets.
Tidy and hide cables and keep devices to a minimum.
CALMING COLOURS: If you're handy with a paintbrush, decorating with a soothing colour will give you the bedroom of your dreams.
Whites, beiges and soft greys are all relaxing colours, and you can add accents of colour with cushions, pictures and plants.
Look out for paint deals to cut costs.
Cotton sheets with a thread count of 300 or more will give you a luxe lie-in.
Go for white bedding for a hotel feel and get a soft topper to upgrade a standard mattress.
Stunning hotel that is the perfect balance between wellness and luxury
If funds are tight, simply ironing your bedding will instantly give it a crisper, smarter feel.
Add cushions for an instant upgrade.
RIGHT LIGHTS: Modern LED bulbs are not only rated by lumens for brightness, but also have a colour temperature measured in kelvins.
In a bedroom go for 2,000 to 3,000 kelvins to get a warm glow.
A dimmable bulb can also be great for changing the mood.
You can now get inexpensive cordless USB lights, which are perfect for small spaces.
ACCESSORISE: A few carefully chosen low-cost extras will give your room individuality.
A framed picture or photo of a special place makes a room feel personal.
Faux flowers in a vase add luxury.
Use a reed diffuser in a calming scent to change your mood as you step through your bedroom door.
All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability.
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The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
Our ‘HUG home' slashes bills and childcare costs by £2,375 a MONTH – anyone can do it
CARRYING backpacks, kids' coats, her toddler daughter and a chatty seven-year-old, Lucy Catkin, 40, pushes through her front door at past five feeling shattered. She's spent a day running wildlife education classes for corporate clients and just wrangled her little ones away from a nearby birthday party. 3 3 Lucy, however, isn't worried about cooking dinner or having enough people to help with her evening list. A cracking tea of mac and cheese and apple pie, all home made, is on the table. All she and the children have to do is wash their hands. Together with her husband John, 52, who works as a landscape gardener, their two children - Indi, seven and Rosie, two - as well as Lucy's dad Peter, 82, a retired headmaster and educational consultant, they're part of a new housing trend. Known as HUGs, or House Units of Generations, super savvy families fight back against soaring rents, mortgages, energy bills and grocery prices by living several generations under one roof. Like Lucy's family living in a four-bedroom detached house in Oxted, Surrey, a HUG home with two households wipes out an extra rent or mortgage. It halves living expenses and slashes childcare and elder care costs which can mean savings up to £30,000 a year. 'I am proud to live in a HUG household. I don't know why more people aren't giving it a go,' Lucy said. 'It's a game changer for us. It's not just about money, other benefits include better health, diet and less stress for everyone if done the right way. 'Our multi-gen house cuts the cost of living, the kids thrive on quality grandfather reading time and it's allowed me the chance to build a dream business. 'We thought it was just a phase' Lucy moved back home in 2011 at 26 before going abroad on a year-long sabbatical from studying biology at university. Her dad was spending much of his time in Spain so returning home made sense. A year later, she went travelling again, met John in South Africa in 2012 and the pair returned to Britain on what they thought was a temporary basis and moved in with Peter. They married in 2018, welcomed Indy that September and the arrangement continued as the new parents settled into family life and careers. 'I never thought it was going to last more than a few months,' Lucy said. 'Almost a decade and a half later I am still here with my dad, my husband and our two children all under the same roof. "The kids adore their grandfather and it is up to 50% cheaper than running two separate homes.' More 'HUG homes' than ever before ONS figures reveal there are now 1.8million three-generation households in England. They make up 2.1% of all households, a 17% rise in a decade. Three in ten UK adults now live in multigenerational homes, rising to nearly half of those aged 25 to 34. The number of two-generation households, like adult children living with parents, jumped 44% in just four years. The surge is fuelled by the cost-of-living crisis, soaring property prices and a shortage of affordable homes. For many, moving in with family is the only way to keep a roof over their heads. Once they see the savings and support, few want to leave. HUGs include kids who never left, boomerang sons and daughters, and couples raising children alongside their own parents. Property experts at CBRE predict HUG homes will triple by 2040, with the biggest surge between 2025 and 2030. Research also shows older adults in HUGs are 30% less likely to feel lonely, while children in multigenerational homes have higher reading scores and spend more time on homework. How it works When Indy was one, Peter offered the young family the use of the upstairs area as their space including three bedrooms and a bathroom. Lucy and John also helped convert a downstairs sitting room into his bedroom and bathroom. It turned the three-bedroom house into four bedrooms. The refurbishment of upstairs and downstairs cost less than £10,000 as John is also a builder and did much of the work himself. 'It meant HUG snugs for each family group and a shared kitchen, lounge and garden as bustling communal spaces,' Lucy said. Grandad Peter became the Pied Piper of reading, with Indy and her friends flocking to his special book corner rather than the TV. 'He is also a fabulous cook, famous for chicken curry, mac and cheese and a Monday night roast. 'We all do unpaid jobs around the house and, despite the odd arguments about who ate the last piece of cheddar, we love our unique household.' The finances 3 If they were to live on their own, Jon and Lucy's monthly bills would be hefty. They would pay £1,571 for a mortgage, based on Office for National Statistics data for their area, £204 in council tax, £140 for gas and electric, and £40 for water. Their food shop would run to £650, broadband and mobiles another £70, plus £450 on transport, £300 on leisure, and £250 on insurance and other essentials. A total of £3,625 every month. Peter, living alone in his three-bed, had paid off his mortgage years ago but even without that, his monthly running costs still came to £1,244. Run separately, the two households would spend £4,869 a month. By moving in together, they scrap a second mortgage, share utilities and shop for one big family instead of two smaller ones. Gas and electric fall from £250 to £170, water bills halve, groceries drop by £150 through bulk-buying, broadband and TV costs fall by £50, and childcare costs shrink with Peter helping on babysitting duty and reading while mum and dad are busy at home. They have also reduced transport costs by sharing cars. By living together, they can save up to £2,375 every month, or 48.8% of their combined running costs. To keep on track, the family has most bills on direct debit and holds regular meetings about repairs and switching providers. How they've got on the property ladder When Peter decided to keep living with his daughter Lucy and her husband John, he also wanted to put long-term estate planning in place. As part of this, he gifted each of them a one-third share of the house, meaning the property is now owned equally between the three of them. The gift is treated as a Potentially Exempt Transfer (PET) for Inheritance Tax (IHT). If Peter lives for seven years after making the gift, the value of the shares he transferred will generally fall outside his estate for IHT purposes. The family shares costs, repairs, and other housing-related expenses. Because this is Peter's main residence, there is normally no Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to pay on the transfer thanks to Private Residence Relief. This relief means the gain in value on his share of the property is exempt from CGT. If there is no mortgage on the property and no money changes hands, there will also be no Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for Lucy and John. If the property did have a mortgage and they took on part of it, SDLT would be calculated on the debt amount assumed. If you're considering this you should consult a solicitor and formalise the arrangement with the Land Registry. A chance for a dream business For Lucy, the arrangement also made her dream business possible. After being made redundant in 2023, she knew she had enough support and financial leeway to launch Catkin and Conker, a nature course based small-business. The courses include ones for children, adults and executives designed to help people go back to nature, learn woodland craft and spend time in forest school style settings. Catkin and Conker is now in demand across the country, especially from nursing homes. 'Seeing how my kids and dad benefited from doing things together inspired this idea,' Lucy said. 'Now the courses are run at nursing homes for patients including those with dementia. 'Children get to come for free and the elderly residents and kids work together on craft.'
Times
11 hours ago
- Times
This has to be Australia's most breathtaking, magical landscape
The world's best fake jungle swimming pool lies in the grounds of the five-star Silky Oaks Lodge hotel in Mossman, Far North Queensland. Spangled with the sunlight that's dripped through the forest ceiling, its blue waters are fringed with river-rounded boulders and dense yet carefully pruned foliage. It's so perfect that it even fools the Torresian crows — and not much fools Torresian crows. And yet I wonder why the owners bothered, because just 50 yards from this film set is the Mossman River: a natural waterpark in a tropical rainforest, with swimmable waterfalls, still wallows and shaded white sand beaches. It's as beautiful as a fever dream, as cool as champagne and, since the crocodiles don't come up this far, as benign as a boatload of nuns. The Daintree Rainforest is ten million years older than the Amazon and the most ancient on the planet. It rises on Australia's Mount Carbine Tablelands, where the bull kauri conifers and red cedar trees scrape the water from the clouds as they bump across the top of the Atherton Tablelands. There's a little-used footpath from Silky Oaks to a place called Fig Tree Rapids. The first stretch is the perfect location for those TV explorers who make hardcore survival shows — authentically wild, but just moments from the restaurant, spa and that fake jungle pool — but the deeper it goes into the forest, the trickier it gets, with trees brought down by cyclones blocking a trail that frequently vanishes, or divides into identical branches, like they do in fairytales. I hesitate at the first bend in the path. I should be used to the forest by now — I've walked alone in jungles from the Darien to the DRC — but, deep down, I'm still scared of the woods. I think we all are. • Read our full guide to Australia Some — men, mostly — cut walking sticks when they enter woodlands in a symbolic act of authority over the trees. Others talk in whispers so as not to waken what lurks within. In Finland I was told to wear my jacket inside out so as not to vanish in the metsanpeitto, or forest fog. In Papua New Guinea I was warned not to call my guide by his real name so the tree ghosts wouldn't kill him, and in the Carpathians there's a more prosaic fear: bears. Our species came down from the trees about four million years ago. As Africa split along the Great Rift Valley, new mountain ranges changed rainfall patterns. The tropical forests in which our ancestors evolved were replaced by grasslands better suited to the new aridity, and we had to adapt. We've now been out of the woods so long that the familiarity of home has become fear of the unknown, and as I blunder through the world's oldest rainforest, I wonder if those whose ancestors once lived here feel the same trepidation. I can also see a situation involving a search party and the overuse of the phrase 'bloody Pom', so I waymark every junction like Hansel without Gretel, in the hope I will find my way back. If not, the old rainforest distress signal of a rock bashed repeatedly against the buttress roots of a yellow carabeen tree can be heard for miles. The vibrations are also a good way of informing snakes of your presence. I see no snakes — Tourism Australia is very keen that I mention that — but Boyd's forest dragons (imagine an 8in T. rex) are everywhere, and the huge webs of the harmless giant orb weaver spiders are strung between the pungent dead horse trees and the light-sapping red pendas. I watch a paradise kingfisher, with his fancy tail; electric-blue Ulysses butterflies; and I spot a sugar glider — basically a flying possum — soaring between the trees. Feral pigs, heard but not seen, flee in panic; orange-footed scrubfowl dart clucking through the undergrowth and as I round a bend I spot a golden bowerbird: a brilliant impressionist who spends his adult life building show homes to attract a mate. This one's got a bit of the Daffy Duck about him. He doesn't spot me because he's demolishing a bower with a fury that can only be for one of two reasons. Either he's evicting a rival from his manor, or he's a bachelor frustrated by the inadequacy of his interior design skills to attract a wife. I suspect the latter. Shouldn't have gone with the Farrow & Ball, mate. That's so Y2K. Fig Tree Rapids is the halfway point on the Mossman's sprint to the sea, the water spouting in white torrents through the gaps in a wall of giant boulders worn smooth over eons. Below the falls, it collects in still, tannin-rich pools, where rainbowfish flash in the sunlight and archerfish lurk in the shade, squirting jets of water with deadly accuracy to down reckless damselflies. I've been told I might see the sparrow-sized giant petaltail — the biggest dragonfly in the world and a species that's been here as long as the forest — so I find a still pool in which to lie in wait. None shows, but as my blood cools the primal anxiety is replaced by wonder. Up to my left, the Tableland is covered in a tablecloth of cloud. Billions of drops from millions of leaves trickle earthwards, irrigating 3,000 plant species — of which 920 are trees — as it percolates through soil that smells of pepper and vanilla. It gathers in the rivulets and creeks that feed the tributaries that wind into the river like braids on a rope falling 3,440ft in a 15-mile journey to the Coral Sea, where it evaporates to form the clouds that make the tablecloth. Driven by gravity and fuelled by the sun, it's a machine so perfect that it blows my mind. • 16 of the best Australian tours The forest it feeds is a beautiful miracle. It nurtures and heals, repairs and recycles and, at 180 million years old, is the closest we've got to the life eternal. Every living thing in this wonderland has, in previous lives, been other things. Every second of every minute here is spent in a state of wonder, and when I report back to the hotel four hours later than expected the receptionist raises an eyebrow. Bloody Pom. The next day I meet with the forest guides Levi Williams and Chase Walker. They're from the Kuku Yalanji community, which has lived here since long before in the woods were named after an East Anglian geologist called Daintree and the river after a gold mining politician called Mosman from New South Wales. For the Kuku Yalanji, the forest is the Kaba Kada — or rainy place — and the river is Manjal Dimbi, named after the benign mountain spirit that keeps evil at bay from the valley. Does that mean the forest is safe? 'Let me put it this way,' Williams says. He points at a large-leafed growth not dissimilar to giant hogweed. 'Have you seen this plant before?' I have, I tell him, on my hike to Fig Tree Rapids. Can we eat it? 'No. This is the most dangerous plant in the world,' Williams says. 'We call it gympie gympie, the stinging tree or the suicide plant. It can kill a horse.' He turns the leaf with his stick. 'See those fine hairs? They're silica-tipped. They embed themselves in the skin and deliver a neurotoxin. We had a foreigner go hiking alone here. She saw these big, soft leaves and picked a bunch to use as toilet paper. That was 15 years ago. She's still taking the painkillers.' A flashback of me the day before, skipping between the gympie-gympies and the dead horse trees like Goldilocks, brings on a cold sweat, but Williams has moved on. 'The second most dangerous species in the forest is the cassowary,' he says. 'Australia's second largest bird: 6ft tall, with a 5in claw that can split you open. It's my spirit animal, but if I see one, I run. As for bilngkumu — or saltwater crocodile — they don't come this far upstream, but if we see one downriver, or the kurrujuwa bird warns us, and we need to cross, we splash the water to let him know we want to come in.' Does that work? Williams shrugs. 'It has mixed results.' Walker agrees that Far North Queensland has the odd hazard. 'But our mob has been living here for tens of thousands of years,' she says. 'The forest was our supermarket. The men would fetch the meat, the women the fruit and veg, the teenage boys the fish, and the girls would find the seeds and nuts. But the old people had the most important job. They looked after the kids, taking them on walks through the forest and teaching them what was good and bad. So we grew up with the right knowledge, and that knowledge is preserved in the community.' So could Walker live in the woods? 'I reckon I'd be all right,' she says. 'What about you?' I'd give myself seven days, Haslam travelled as a guest of Tourism Australia ( A 14-night luxury tour focusing on the flora and fauna of Northern Queensland, with two nights at Silky Oaks Lodge and three nights at Orpheus Island, costs from £10,995pp, including flights to Brisbane and transfers to Townsville (
Times
15 hours ago
- Times
Scottish Thistle Awards: a sneak peek at this year's shortlist
Want to know the best places to stay, the must-visit attractions and top sporting events? Frankly, who has time to do the research? Well, luckily, the Scottish Thistle Awards judges do — they've found the hoteliers with heart, the restaurants cooking up a storm and the events worth putting your kilt on for. Better still, they've given us a sneak peek at the finalists, exclusively revealed below. Our advice? Book now, while you still can. Say what you like about his politics, Donald Trump sure knows how to glam up his hotels — not for nothing Trump Turnberry scooped last year's Best Luxury Experience, and is down to the last four in 2025. Perched high above the rugged South Ayrshire coast, it was Britain's first purpose-built golf resort, dating from 1906. You're unlikely to forget the year: the signature restaurant is named 1906 and dinner service begins every night at 19.06. Besides eating lobster thermidor while looking out over the golf course to the sea, or taking tea under sparkling chandeliers in the Grand Tea Lounge, guests can also detoxify in the five-star spa, which has floor-to-ceiling views over to Arran and Ailsa Craig, plus a heated infinity pool, steam room, sensory showers and ice fountain. Much has been made of Trump's bid for the Open return to Turnberry — the Ailsa course hosted the event here in 1977, 1986, 1994 and 2009 — but for now hotel guests (and visitors) can play a round at this bucket-list course for an eye-watering green fee roughly between £500-£1,000. Or get stuck into activities including clay shooting, quad biking, or horse riding at Turnberry's own equestrian B&B doubles from £299, A finalist in last year's Scottish Thistle Awards, Knockinaam Lodge is a five-star luxury boutique hotel in a former shooting lodge where Churchill and Eisenhower met in secret to plan the D-Day landings. Just round the coast from Portpatrick on the wild, western edge of the Rhinns of Galloway, the hotel has dreamy views over the Irish Sea — but the food is an even bigger draw, with three AA Rosettes over the restaurant door. The head chef Tony Pierce and his team take pride in their daily-changing tasting menus, using ingredients from their own kitchen garden. Since last May, the hotel has teamed up with local businesses to offer bespoke packages for guests, including falconry experiences, gourmet weekends and in-room massages, which have been going down a storm. • Knockinaam: heaven's door The best room is the Churchill Suite, where the prime minister stayed for that famous meeting in 1944, featuring a seating area around the original fireplace and views over the garden and a private cove below. Nine other rooms are available; some with a cosy window seat or Victorian rolltop bathtub. Book one for your own secret rendezvous or the entire Victorian lodge can be hired for exclusive use. All suites come with luxury handmade toiletries by Apothecally, an hour away in Gatehouse of Dinner and B&B doubles from £390, 'Made in Scotland, made to last' goes the motto for this luxury cashmere and merino wool brand, weaver of the world's finest fibres since 1797. Buy its knitwear at its shops in Edinburgh, St Andrews and Mayfair — or see how it's all done at its visitors centres in Hawick and Elgin, the latter housed in Johnstons' original mill on the banks of the River Lossie. • How to get the best out of a weekend in Elgin Guided tours teach visitors about everything from the 30 processes involved in crafting a single scarf to the history of the company's famous tweeds. Johnstons' Elgin mill is the only 'vertical' weaving mill in Scotland — where raw fibres are treated, spun then dyed and woven all in the same building. Tours can be tied in with a personal shopping experience followed by lunch or afternoon tea in the Weavers coffee One-hour tours £15, Nicknamed the Harrods of the north, The House of Bruar is to the Highlands what Jenners used to be to Edinburgh (albeit halfway up the A9 near Blair Atholl, not slap bang on Princes Street). It calls itself Scotland's premier independent country living retailer — and it's hard to argue with somewhere selling everything from Harris Tweed dog blankets and top-brand fishing rods to merino wool socks and Barbour jackets. The adjoining food hall and restaurant have similarly high standards (our recommendation, the lobster, fish and chip shop). A bonnie location near the Falls of Bruar helps: where else can you stock up on copper-plated garden tools, antique games tables and smoked salmon terrine, then walk to the falls, let the children loose on the play park, and take off up or down the A9 — probably off on your hols?Details • Walk of the week: The Falls of Bruar, Perthshire The opening stage at last year's men's Tour of Britain cycling race kicked off in Kelso, looping through the Borders via Coldstream, Melrose and St Boswells. Free to spectators, the event featured Borders boys Callum Thornley from Peebles and Oscar Onley from Kelso, with this leg won by the Frenchman Paul Magnier. The bad news for anyone wanting to copy the route is that it's a whopping 113-mile rollercoaster — you would need to borrow Chris Hoy's thighs if you wanted to do it in a day. • A cycling tour de Borders fuelled by fine French-inspired cuisine The good news is that with a fair wind (and energy gels) most could manage the 56-mile Four Abbeys loop, which hits Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh and Dryburgh and includes some key climbs from the race — minus that pro peloton breathing down your neck. It's by no means a cakewalk (you're looking at six to eight hours in the saddle), but you'll get epic views, ancient abbeys and maybe a slice of cake at Sir Walter Scott's old home, Abbotsford Visit for information on the Four Abbeys Loop Wondering about the name? It comes from the Gaelic word for disembowelling a deer. Strange name for a mountain-biking event then? Not if you look at the stats: 69 miles on gravel, one vertical mile of ascent — the 1,500 competitors at last year's event knew exactly why the organisers chose the name. Taking place each May, the Gatehouse of Fleet event began in 2023, the first time the UK had hosted a top-level international gravel race. There's live music, food and drink, and riders aged 16 to 80 have competed from as far afield as Mauritius, New Zealand and Colombia. It's a perfect showcase for Scottish cycling, with its rolling hills, hidden lochs and vast network of gravel tracks. Got what it takes to join them? Registration is open now for the 2026 event. If you fancy giving it a go but don't know where to start then visit Wheels of Fleet ( a fantastically friendly bike shop near the Mill in Gatehouse that rents out gravel bikes from £30 a day and ebikes from £45 a day, including helmets and route maps for loops of 5-35 If you were in Holyrood Park last July and saw a bunch of wiry runners hurtling about with maps and compasses, you were probably witnessing the World Orienteering Championships. The six-day speed navigation event drew amateurs and elite athletes from across the orienteering world, with races also taking place in Leith, Wester Hailes, Heriot-Watt University campus, the old town and even the University of Edinburgh's King's Buildings. The competition will be in Genoa in July 2026 — and if that sounds tempting, there are several clubs in Edinburgh who'll help you get into the sport, including Edinburgh Southern ( and Interlopers ( Beginners outside Edinburgh can visit Scottish Orienteering ( to track down a club nearer to Delivered by VisitScotland, in association with headline sponsors Abbey: The Destination Experts, the Scottish Thistle Awards celebrate the very best of the tourism and events industry. The national final takes place in Glasgow on November 20, 2025;
