Search
-
Categories
- Building Services (95)
- DIY Advice (120)
- Guttering (6)
- Home Lighting (120)
- Plumbing (2)
- Roof Tiles (7)
- Solar Panels (13)
- Staircases (8)
- Wind Turbines (10)
- Window Film (3)
- Windows (23)
DIY & Building
Interior Trends 2010 – The View From Concept Interiors
With 2010 fast approaching, Samantha Morgan, head designer at Concept Interiors, has been looking at future home and interior trends.
There follows her advice on what materials, patterns and colour pallets will give your home the contemporary look over the year ahead.
Says Samantha, “People are starting to opt for quality products in preference to cheaper alternatives for their homes; the current focus is on the more durable and eco friendly choices.â€
Read more about : Bedroom Furniture, Contemporary Furniture, Custom Furniture, Home Interiors, Home Lighting, Kitchen Furniture
AlertMe Energy Launches with Google and British Gas
AlertMe Energy Puts Consumers in Control of Their Home Energy Costs and Consumption.
AlertMe, the award-winning home energy management service, has announced the launch of AlertMe Energy, giving consumers the ability to monitor their home energy usage online, so that they can reduce their bills and carbon footprint.
AlertMe Energy includes easy-to-install hardware and an online service that can be accessed from any Web browser; it‘s also integrated with Google PowerMeter, to enable tracking energy consumption live from an iGoogle home page.
Read more about : Home Automation, Home Lighting, Radiators
Diva “Music For Your Ears, Light For Your Eyesâ€
The innovative Diva is so much more than a lamp – it personifies the integration of sight and sound in a single object.
Diva is an LED light and music system specifically designed for your iPod or iPhone; it combines multiple functions in one compact object, eliminating clutter and stealing the scene.
The anodised, screen printed aluminium jacket makes Diva a mysterious musical instrument, only revealing its many functions when open. But even when closed, it’s an FM radio and speaker system for a connected computer, MP3 or CD player.
Insert your iPod or iPhone, by releasing the retractable docking station drawer. The sound quality is full and rich, thanks to the four, high quality speakers housed in the body.
Pressing a button opens the die-cast aluminium lamp arm; raise this to whatever position is most comfortable to read, or to light your workstation.
The lamp’s cutting edge LED light is warm, highly effective and energy efficient at 4,5W.
A digital screen is hidden behind the anodised aluminium, to show the time and all the other information about Diva’s various uses and FM stations.
An infrared remote control governs every function, including your iPod and the radio.
The back of Diva comes with an AUX socket for playing music from MP3 players, CD players, computers, etc.; a USB socket to play music from a flash drive; an audio-out socket to connect to external speakers.
All these functions allow you to integrate Diva into your technological life – a new way to listen and see – multifunctional, multi-sensory technology.
Read more about : Home Entertainment, Home Lighting, Table Lamps
Home Renovating & Remodelling Weekend 14th/15th November
With house prices down, buying an older property and ‘doing it up’ is becoming very popular, so whether you want to improve your current home, or are looking for an older property to bring back to life, chances are you will have some tricky property problems to tackle.
If you are upgrading, improving or refurbishing your property, head to the Renovating & Remodelling Weekend at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre in Swindon on 14th & 15th November – this event will offer all the expert advice, guidance and information you need to save you time, money and hassle.
You can get tips on finding and assessing a renovation project, consult leading industry experts, including architects, building control officers, surveyors, CAD designers and conservation experts; also obtain inside knowledge from renovators who have completed their own projects.
Read more about : Building Services, DIY Advice, Shows and Events
Shed Your Inhibitions… with Woodcare Experts Sadolin
It’s time to say goodbye to the summer sunshine and start preparing your garden ready for the inevitable cold and wet weather ahead.
Pack away your garden furniture and tools safely for the winter months and where better to keep them than your trusted garden shed, which with a little TLC, can be made into an attractive garden feature – not just a practical storage solution.
This autumn, in addition to tidying up the interior of your shed, why not give the exterior some attention too, protecting and decorating it with a fresh coat of woodstain – giving it a new lease of life?
Read more about : DIY Advice, Paints
New Hobby Table Kit From Dremel for Christmas
Christmas this year brings a high value promotion from Dremel, in the form of a clever Hobby Table Kit crammed with Dremel goodies.
The compact Hobby Table not only provides a great workstation for detailed projects, it’s also the perfect storage container for the projects themselves: The sleek aluminium top layer serves as the work-table, incorporating an ingenious guide rail for the Flexshaft tool holder, which is designed for detailed work; the tool holder turns the Dremel into a hanging motor. The Working Mat holds your project steady on the hobby table and helps to prevent it becoming damaged. A Multi Chuck fits all accessory shank diameters up to 3.2mm. The original, all-round classic Dremel 300 Series multi tool, is also included with 40 accessories – including a Drill Bit Set, with seven quality bits for precision drilling in wood, aluminium and other materials. The table case itself provides storage for the multi-tool, Flexshaft, Flexshaft holder and Working Mat; it measures just 32 cm wide and 46 cms long.
Normally the entire kit would have a value of around £125, but it will retail at £89.99 (SRP) – a saving of nearly 30%.
Read more about : DIY Advice, Home Entertainment
John Cullen Lighting Leads The Lighting Revolution
John Cullen Lighting the leading lighting expert, designs, schemes and supplies cutting-edge products for everything from kitchens, drawing rooms and bathrooms, to swimming pools and gardens, creating the perfect atmosphere for the house and garden, including home automation.
Not since the arrival of the low voltage tungsten halogen in the early 80s, has there been such a revolution in consumer lighting. Improvements in LED technology, now make it suitable for the home.
At the forefront of this innovation, John Cullen offers a comprehensive range of LED products, all designed in-house and manufactured in the UK.
Read more about : Bathroom Lights, Garden Lights, Home Interiors, Home Lighting, Light Switches
The Big Green Home Show Is a Must for Self Builders
As the recession sees more frustrated would be homeowners turn to self build, they could be the people to lead the way in sustainable building.
For any budding self-builder or renovator, the choice to build and live ‘green’ can take up a lot of energy! Deciding which methods are the ‘greenest’, researching which products will save energy and calculating carbon footprint can be confusing.
However, for anyone committed to a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient way of living, the Big Green Home Show at the National Self Build & Renovation Centre is a great place to learn about building and living ‘green’.
Read more about : Building Services, DIY Advice, Solar Panels, Wind Turbines
New Child Safety Feature on Sunway Venetian Blinds
A choice of 4 slat widths in over 100 colours and a new Child Safety cord connector, are key features in the new made-to-measure Metal Venetian blind collection from Sunway Blinds.
The new Cord Connector, available on 16mm and 25mm slat blinds, addresses the current issue of Child Safety in window blinds head on, by making the blind cords completely safe for children and pets, as downward pressure on the cord, breaks open the connector, thus releasing the cord and preventing dreadful accidents.
The Sunway metal Venetian range also offers a wide range of pale and natural colours and metallics, as well as the funky modern on-trend colours and stunning perforated slats, which give an interesting play on light.
Read more about : Venetian Blinds, Window Blinds, Windows
How to Carve Your Halloween Pumpkin with Dremel
Carved pumpkins and gourds are wonderful ways to mark the festival of Halloween, which falls on Saturday 31 October; lit up at night either inside or outside your home, they’ll frighten away the ghosts and skeletons!
It’s really easy to carve your own Halloween pumpkins and ward off the evil spirits with the Dremel 300 multi-tool – just follow this step-by-step guide: Step One – Using a pencil, draw your design onto the pumpkin, pressing lightly at first until you are happy with the design and then go over the lines to clearly define them. Step – Two Using a Dremel 300 multi-tool and high speed cutter accessory, cut around the top of the pumpkin to form a lid. Set to one side. Scoop out the seeds and some of the flesh of the pumpkin with a spoon, making sure that you don’t puncture the skin. Step Three – Cut out the shapes carefully using the Dremel; work into the corners and curves cautiously to ensure a neat finish. Step Four – Put a candle or nightlight inside the pumpkin and light it to finish.
Materials required : Dremel 300 Series multi-tool and high speed cutter accessory (193).Selection of pumpkins, squash and gourds; Pencil; Candle or nightlight.
Read more about : DIY Advice