Children love to play and have fun, but all too often it causes chaos around the home.

To make it easier for children to accumulate and play with their toys, IKEA’s clever designers have created the ultimate range of bedroom storage – STUVA, to help create a happier home for all the family.

Launching across all stores this August, STUVA is a unique clever storage system with endless possibilities to suit every child’s needs:

• Designed with rounded corners and edges for increased safety and available in a range of sizes and colours, you can create different storage formations to suit every need, style and personality.
• Easily assembled, the storage can be used for clothes or toys and with the included wall anchors it will be safely secured for any type of play.
• Coming in a range of large and small draws, cupboards, a toybox, shelves and a pull out bench, all sold as separates, you can really create the perfect play area for any child and adapt it as they grow and develop.
• STUVA children’s storage furniture is priced from £85 for a 50×50, H90cm storage bench in white.

Take a look at the full range of STUVA storage products by visiting the IKEA website.

IKEA has conducted a Playreport to continue to listen and learn from their customers:

They were so curious about play that they conducted the largest ever study on child development and the state of play in the world.

With the Playreport, IKEA engaged 10,000 parents and children from around the world, to participate in a conversation about child development and play.

The aim was to increase awareness, start meaningful discussions and hopefully, get parents and children to play more together in the process.
What they discovered might surprise you…!

While it’s great if people simply want to read the survey results from the Playreport, more than anything, IKEA wish to start an open dialogue about play.

Hosted on both Facebook and YouTube, you can now view and discuss the results through these great social media channels.

Playreport
Interact with the Playreport on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/playreport

View the video on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyBfWRW72VA

With homeowners looking to maximise entertainment opportunities within their own four walls, and the increasing need for the type of relaxation that comes with reading a good book, those who can, are choosing to install home libraries to safely store their treasured tomes.

Yiangou Architects has designed a variety of libraries, dependent on client style and requirements, and in some cases has had to think outside the box to maximise the space available.

The Yiangou Architects’ standards and aspirations are as high as yours; their aim is to help create some of the most considered and well-crafted buildings in the country.

Whatever the building project you have in mind Yiangou Architects aspire to bring to the task a combination of creative flair, rigorously applied professional expertise and comprehensive management that will ensure a successful outcome.

The practice is based on the principle that design is nothing without delivery!

Yiangou Architects are able to provide a complete service; their talented team encompasses all the skills - creative, technical and administrative - to ensure coherence and good communication, from start to finish.

Address: Suite 5 Dyer House, 3 Dyer Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

For more information about a complete architectural service, please visit the Yiangou Architects website.

Tel: (01285) 888150

With cohabitation the big new living trend, Raft adopts an anti-clutter approach - you can make the most of your available space, by using it cleverly with practical space saving pieces.

RAFT’s latest seating and storage designs provide an imminently affordable, and wonderfully practical solution to space efficiency, without compromising on design.

The new Sienna storage screen from RAFT pictured here, is the cheat’s solution to de-cluttering living spaces.

• Four sliding wooden box units give this piece a vintage feel, while the open cubby-holes allow you to display favourite collectibles and accessories.
• The sliding door options allow for this piece to double up as a partition screen.
• The teak is reclaimed and carries both FSC accreditation, 100% in keeping with RAFT’s passion for authenticity and sustainability.
  Measures: 115cm x 45cm x 200cm. Priced at £920.

The new Lincoln (£940) and Embassy Chairs (£1175), provide mini break-out zones within bustling homes, combining modern functionality with traditional upholstery.

• With over 57 different upholstery weights and textures to choose from, this can be your personalised sanctuary; these are also produced in the UK further supporting our manufacturing base.

RAFT picks up on the transitory nature of modern living, providing versatile, comfortable and movable furniture to suit busy households; their current philosophy is all about economizing on space, without compromising on style.

All of RAFT’s furniture is made to order, so allow 10-14 weeks for delivery on standard items.

To View the furniture ranges visit the RAFT website.
Tel: (020) 8450 5078

Podesta specialists in handmade furniture, design and custom-make for every room of the home including kitchens, bedrooms, libraries, studies and home cinemas.

Freestanding furniture commissions are also undertaken so that Podesta can provide perfect home solutions for the discerning customer.

It was while working as a freelance furniture designer for companies such as Habitat, Tom Dixon, Smallbone and Mark Wilkinson that Matt Podesta realised his true potential.

Matt founded Podesta in 2002 with the aim to create the finest furniture that is “as individual as the client and their property. Each piece of furniture is created with thoughtful design and has a timeless quality that means it will last a lifetime… or more.”

His designs are functional yet creative, innovative yet timeless – qualities that are key to designing and producing commercially viable bespoke furniture.

Working directly with the client and their interior designer or architect, Podesta undertakes projects of all sizes and styles, ranging from entire houses through to dining tables or even bar stools.

The woods used are all purchased from major UK timber suppliers, to ensure that they have been carefully selected from trees that are responsibly harvested and, where possible, Podesta use acrylic paints instead of oil based.

Podesta has five UK workshops, working with some of the most skilled cabinet-makers in the country. They all invest personal attention and emotion into each project and will often be on site to install their creations.

Podesta also has a team of interior designers, architects, flooring and timber specialists, stonemasons and lighting engineers, enabling them to handle a project from start to finish.

Matt is a liveryman in the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers. The tradition dates from the 12th century and membership of the Livery is recognition of Podesta’s quality design and craftsmanship.

For further information please visit the Podesta website.

Tel: (01628) 484600

Breaking the mould of the mainstay quality furniture websites, a new interactive online showroom has been launched by Areaz, providing a great choice of high quality contemporary furniture from some of the world’s most respected manufacturers and designers.

The website has been designed to offer users a fully interactive experience and boasts a multitude of features that enhance the search and buy process.

“From the outset we decided to be stylishly different from the rest,” said Philip Wilding, Director at Areaz. “We took a considerable amount of time working on the many different aspects of the site, to ensure it provides the best online experience possible.”

The site has more than 30 brands and 100’s of designers from countries such as Italy, Germany and Denmark to name but a few.

The interactive portal is intuitive and allows users to select the furniture, see detail with the powerful zoom, view swatches of the available materials and colours and, for the space conscious, view a 3D schematic of the furniture with all measurements.

Featured here is the Bontempi Casa Barone Round Dining Table:

• The round-shaped Barone Dining Table is sleek, stylish and completely practical.

• With three top diameters: 120cm, 130cm, and 150cm. Height: 75cm. Retails from £1149.

Areaz is also encouraging interior designers to look at the site, which offers fantastic combined deals through a unique trade portal, where the site automatically adjusts pricing to reflect discounted prices easily ‘on the fly’.

“However, our service doesn’t end online. Our price match, free delivery, installation and removal of packaging service, means that the customer need do virtually nothing at all.” “Our website truly is a step change in the way modern furniture is presented and sold online,” concluded Philip Wilding.

Visit the Areaz website to view the exciting ranges.

Tel: (0113) 2442288

Customers and dealers can now buy online from the Gloucester Antiques Centre and purchases will be shipped to customers directly.

The launch is a significant step forward for the company, the dealers and the customers.

The ability to transact online is something now taken for granted in many areas of business. The new website brings the Gloucester Antiques Centre bang up to date and enables customers from all over the UK and worldwide to purchase directly.

The detailed photographs and descriptions of antiques on the website deliver an experience, which is similar to shopping at the centre in person.

The quality of stock available on the website is assured by their clear dateline policy.

Since Gloucester Antiques Centre’s change of ownership in 2006, they have invested heavily in modernising the way they operate in order to improve the service and value delivered to customers and dealers.

In July 2009 the Antiques Centre moved from its previous building, which was in a very poor state of repair, to a beautiful refurbished warehouse in Gloucester Quays.

The new website is the next important step towards providing the service every customer and dealer now expects.

Fresh stock at the centre is uploaded onto the website daily and the range of items currently on show on-line provides a real taste of what is available at the Antique Centre itself.

Visit the Gloucester Antiques Centre website to view the exciting collections.

the-saleroom.com, the UK’s leading live online bidding site, recorded a 120 per cent year-on-year increase in bidder numbers in 2009, revealing growing buyer confidence in purchasing art and antiques online.

In a year when recession and credit issues dominated the headlines, the-saleroom.com bucked the trend with revenues generated by the site increasing by 55 per cent year-on-year.

With a growing International presence, the-saleroom.com appears to have a winning formula.

The value of lots sold on the site has also grown by 87 per cent with the highest price paid online for a single lot sold being £88,000 for a collection of war medals.

49 per cent more sales were connected up to ATG Media’s live bidding platform in 2009 and the percentage of lots sold over the Internet increased from 9 to 15 per cent.

the-saleroom.com has succeeded in building a world-class live antiques bidding platform and has attracted auctioneers all over the world, with sales in China, New York, Rome and Paris coming online through the platform in the last 12 months.

Anne Somers, Chief Executive of ATG Media, commented: “the-saleroom.com opens up the world of Antiques to a much larger population and is a fast, simple, reliable way of purchasing something timeless and valuable.”

Launched in 2006 by ATG the-saleroom.com, is an online service, where bidders can view hundreds of catalogues and participate in live auctions using live audio and video links.

The website provides a complete range of online services for buyers and sellers of art and antiques at auction, including a leading UK facility for live online bidding.

The site publishes a wide range of catalogues for upcoming sales, giving full details of the sale contents and highlighting star lots in each catalogue.

Visit www.the-saleroom.com to browse and bid.

For more than 100 years, Grange has been making houses into family homes with furniture that is beautiful and practical.

Drawing on history and the pared-down elegance of traditional, provincial French furniture - particularly pieces from Provence - Grange has brought together a collection that is at once timeless and yet entirely right for today.

From innovative modular furniture that adapts to suit both space and purpose, through to witty signature pieces, the Grange range is authentic, usable and an absolute pleasure to live with.

Using traditional joinery techniques, sustainable materials and timeless design, the Grange collections capture the warmth of the classic French family house and translate it into furniture that is exquisite and perfectly suited to contemporary British life.

The company has retained its manufacturing base in the Monts du Lyonnais, where craftsmen stain, lacquer, wax and polish pieces by hand, giving Grange furniture its distinctive translucency, silkiness and satin-touch finish.

Pieces from the Grange collections have their roots in history, but many have been subtly adapted, to ensure they fit perfectly in today’s relaxed family home.

Ideas are reworked, but the essence of warm, relaxed living are retained and the furniture Grange produces todaym is infused with the same passion and creativity as was the case more than a century ago; each furniture piece is unique, thanks to the wide range of stain, sheens and sizes.

There are a number of new additions to the Grange collection, particularly notable is the Table basse Jacob featured here:

• The mix of natural wood and painted finish, ensure this piece is both playful and modern, but with a definite nod towards history.

• A truly stunning piece, made of solid lime and cherry wood, with four useful small drawers and a unique take on painted wood, this table is set to become an antique of the future. Priced at £1440.
  Dimensions are: W= 150cm H= 40cm and D= 105cm.

Visit the GRANGE website to view their distinctive collections and find out where to buy in the UK.

Tel: (0870) 755 6486

When it all began in 1979, no one in their wildest dreams could have imagined what a success it would be….

Since then, the world’s most versatile bookcase has moved into the homes of millions of people all over the world. Happy birthday, BILLY!

BILLY was designed to be just a bookcase, but in real life, has proved to be multipurpose, in providing plenty of space for other things.

There is no right or wrong. BILLY is a bookcase for every passion!

41 million BILLY bookcases have been made since 1979; if you laid them all out in a line, the line would be over 70,000 kilometres long.
That’s a distance equivalent to almost twice around the world at the equator.

Since BILLY was first launched 30 years ago, continuous product development, combined with more efficient production methods, as well as increasing volumes, has allowed IKEA to make BILLY even more affordable. Since the start, the price has been reduced by more than 30% in today’s monetary value.

BILLY, to prove his adaptability is available flat packed, in a huge range of sizes and shapes, veneers and colours to fit any storage requirement.

There are even some limited editions available (from 1 October 2009 to 31 January 2010), covering various themes including quotes from Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets; Japanese Manga Motifs and in multi colours.

In honour of the Birthday and to view the complete range of BILLYs visit:

Web: http://www.IKEA.co.uk

Montana is a creative shelving system, which promotes individual freedom to change form, composition and function at any time.

Not just at the moment when decisions are made, but the freedom to change form, composition and function at any time.

Let your imagination take charge; the company invites you to create your very own solution online and by doing so, make one of Montana’s 5 billion possible combinations a reality. Go on – have some fun being creative:

• Montana storage systems can help you to achieve your own design for any of your living spaces:
  You can do just about what you like, in what colour you like. Montana units are made in 12mm and MDF with environmental friendly water based lacquer.
  The units can be built with drawers, doors, shelves, trays, lights etc.
  Made for wall mounting, on plinths, legs or castors.
  Can be supplied with separate tops in glass or MDF.
  Montana creative shelving selection consists of 42 basic units, 4 depths, and 46 colours.

Montana is manufactured in Denmark and made to order, according to customer’s specifications; the units always come fully assembled from the factory and carry a 10 year warranty.

The newly established brand agency, Icons Of Denmark is designed to be a sales conduit for top Danish manufacturers of furniture and interior accessories, with promotional and sales activities over the whole of Great Britain and Ireland.
With Internationally renowned clients such as Montana, Carl Hansen & Son, and Pandul, they aim to offer their customers World Class Designer Products.

Web: http://www.iconsofdenmark.dk
          http://montana.dk/en/Home

Tel: (07535) 244524