Now is the time to have fun – go big, bold and extraordinary.

Eliminating walls and merging small, separate rooms into one large multi-functional living space has dominated home renovations and new builds for decades now. These bright, airy, light-filled spaces are far more sociable, allowing families to cook, eat and relax together.

But months of lockdown – when those spaces also had to function as offices, classrooms, and recreation areas – highlighted some of the shortcomings of open-plan living. As a result, we’ve fallen a little out of love with the open plan concept, and a new interpretation is emerging: broken plan living.

The broken plan concept maintains the advantages of open plan designs – light, spacious, sociable spaces – while defining zones, creating distinct areas for different activities, and returning a degree of privacy.

Open plan designs can be ‘broken’ with structural elements or simply through clever use
of colour, floor treatments and furniture.

With pandemic uncertainty keeping large-scale social events on the back burner for the time being, many are rethinking their homes with entertaining in mind.

Essential for preventing stains in the kitchen, backsplashes are also a key decorative feature, often setting the tone of a kitchen or breathing new life into a tired one.

Whether you’re customising a brand new sofa or reupholstering a much-loved easy chair, choosing the right fabric goes beyond gorgeous colours.

Floored by the options? Today’s range of floor treatments is vast, but choosing the right material is about more than aesthetics.

Climate change is accelerating at an alarming pace and scientists consistently call for urgent action. It’s easy to assume that the responsibility for averting the crisis lies in the hands of policymakers, but in reality, every one of us can make small changes which, added together, have a significant impact. One such change is switching to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable energy source - propane.

Given that the Cayman Islands were not permanently settled until the 1700s, the human history of the islands is relatively short. One of the best records we have of how life has evolved over the past 300 years lies in the surviving historic homes. The National Trust for the Cayman Islands acquires, restores and maintains several such properties as part of its mandate to protect and preserve historic sites for current and future generations. The organisation also offers tours of historic buildings in order to educate the public on Cayman’s built heritage.

With the sudden switch to working from home, many of us have set up a laptop on the kitchen table and carried on, as the family ebbs and flows around us and the dirty dishes vie for our attention. But with remote working set to continue, this is not a long-term solution.

In an age when staying in is the new going out and our homes are having to meet more needs than ever before, once-neglected outdoor spaces are becoming prized real estate.

How to hang a string garden.

As the Cayman Islands keep pace with global trends and innovations, the growing discourse on ‘Cayman-style’ highlights a concern that what makes these islands uniquely Caymanian is in danger of being lost.

Usually tucked away in small spaces, powder rooms can suffer from design neglect. Yet it is precisely because we don’t spend much time in them that guest bathrooms are places we can take some design risks. Turn a utilitarian space into something far more dramatic with bold wall colours, stylish lighting and well-chosen accessories.