No two councils across the UK have the same policy for removing bulky waste and unwanted furniture.

Extreme differences between policies were highlighted within the research, which found some council policies charging as much as £20 for the removal of a single item, compared with other boroughs which offered free removal for up to five items.

The research is part of our bid get the nation to consider reupholstering and repairing furniture instead of simply discarding it.

Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester, Liverpool, Oxford, Preston and Wakefield offer the free removal of unwanted furniture, but with varying restrictions on the number of items and in some cases, type of waste.

Worcester and Cambridge were revealed as the most expensive, charging £16.10 and £20 respectively for the removal of just one single item.

The cost to remove a fridge freezer also varied dramatically between councils, with Canterbury charging the most at £25 while others offered the service for free.

Discounts for those on income support, housing benefits and pension credits were offered by some councils and not by others and in some cases, the time of year affected a council’s policy. In Chester, collection is free during the months of March and April but for the rest of the year there is a charge of £15 per collection.

Chris Plumb at Plumbs said: “According to latest government figures, the UK sends more than half its waste to landfill – that’s a huge 62 million tonnes a year in England alone. By reupholstering furniture, consumers are taking direct and effective action to help reduce our landfill problem.”

“The collection and subsequent reuse or recycling of furniture by councils is key to reducing landfill, yet our research shows that there is no consistency across UK councils with some waste policies coming out more favourable than others.”

We have created a new collection of fabrics called the ‘Bijoux Collection’. It is a co-ordinated range of four differently styled fabrics, featuring textured tweeds and crushed velvets, which are colour co-ordinated together to offer mixed furniture groupings following current trends.

The new range of fabrics have been manufactured using the very latest technology with the highest quality raw materials to offer beautiful, timeless fabrics.

The four fabrics are:

Bijoux Weave –a richly textured tweed effect combining similar tones
Bijoux Slub – a smooth textured random slub effect for perfect simplicity
Bijoux Velvet – a sumptuous crushed velvet with the very latest design trends
Bijoux Hopsack – s simply styled contemporary tweed with tonal shades

Colourways include: Grey, Mulberry, Pearl, Coca, Chocolate, Teak, Charcoal, Mist, Duck Egg, Pear and Cherry

Chris Plumb of Plumbs said, “Our new collection offers some stunning fabrics with lots of different colourways. Use them to transform a sofa or chair with loose covers or reupholstery to brighten up your room for the summer.”

We restored Anne Pritchard’s 1930’s style wingback fireside chair to its former glory live at this year’s show at the NEC. Mrs Pritchard’s chair was reupholstered in one of our beautiful fabrics – Opulence Floral – Cream, with Anne herself in attendance to see the transformation first hand.

To enter the competition, we asked entrants to submit an image of a chair they would like reupholstered, with the winning chair receiving up to £1000 worth of reupholstery, with a choice of fabric from 30 different options and full reupholstery live at the show earlier this month.

Mrs Pritchard said: “Winning this competition was a complete surprise and I’m absolutely delighted with the result. My chair has been completely transformed and it was a fantastic experience to watch the incredible skill of the Plumbs reupholsterer at work.”

Before and After Images:

From all at Plumbs, we hope Anne gets many years of joy from her restored chair.

We have recently put a brand new delivery van on the road, even though we are really excited about this, we imagine you are probably not!

So, to get you a little more excited. The first 5 people to send us a photo of themselves with one of our delivery vans will receive a lovely surprise. NO EMPLOYEES PLEASE

If you are lucky enough to snap a photo with our new van, you’ll get an extra special surprise.

Please post your photos on our Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/Plumbs.Home

Just so you know, our delivery vans go all over the UK so watch out wherever you are!

Here is what our other vans look like:

Congratulations to our very own Chris Plumb, on completing, what can only be descried as a gruelling and painful bike ride.

Although “bike ride” doesn’t seem to do it justice, the long slog of cycling from Lands End to John O’Groates took Chris and his cycling partner Andrew Broomby just about 10 days to complete.

Well done from everyone at Plumbs. We’ve got a very soft cushioned chair waiting for you!

In conjuction with the BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2010 on 16th – 20th June, we are giving a lucky winner the opportunity the chance to have a one-seater chair REUPHOLSTERED LIVE AT THE SHOW.

This fantastic prize is worth up to £1,000. Your chair would be collected from your home, reupholstered live at the BBC Gardeners’ World show, in your choice of fabric (from a selection of our top 30 fabrics) and then re-delivered back to your home.

To be in with a chance of winning this amazing prize and seeing your chair transformed live at the show, upload a picture of the one seater chair you would like re-upholstered on the BBC Gardeners’ World show:

Enter here….

Closing date for entries is May 21st 2010. Two runners up will receive tickets to BBC Gardeners’ World Live.

With consumers looking for products with a low carbon foot-print around the home, loose covers can go along way towards this:

Is recycling old furniture set to become more popular?

But this goes for any product around the home from, especially ones made from materials that can be recycled such as; glass and metal etc. These will play a big part in this year’s renovations.

One such product is a work surface created using pure natural quartz and recycled metallic chips. As well as being kind to the environment it is a durable solid surface offering excellent resistance to acids, abrasion and wear. The surface comes in four polished colour tones: white, black and two shades of grey. The worktops are also able to be created to support the stylish continental trend of slimline work surfaces.

For further information please contact: Chiltern Marble Group

Just a line to thank Plumbs for the wonderful, professional job done by you on reupholstering my settees. I could hardly believe that these were my same pieces of furniture! Both settees are over 15 years old and both had suffered badly from the claws of my two cats!

One settee was down to the wood in places and the frame was rickety. My bed settee is such an unusual shape I hardly dared hope that it would look good. However, they both look amazing! They are better than new, and I’ve had so many compliments regarding them.

Not only does the fabric look great and feel luxurious, but the replacement seat cushion and upholstering have made them far more supportive and comfortable than before.

Mrs J.E. Jones – Liverpool

I thought I’d share some new photography we have done that show’s off our very popular Deco Antique fabric in a natural colourway.  The sofa is an antique style Chesterfield that has been reupholstered. As you can see this sofa looks as good as the day it was first made.

If your sofa is starting to look worn and weary, the cushions are saggy, and the fabric is wearing thin you are faced with a choice, throw it away or buy new?

As more homeowners invest in green living and recycling old furniture becomes more popular, reupholstery is an environmentally pleasing way to give old worn out furniture a brand new look.

Buying a new suite does not necessarily mean better. Imported foreign-made suites means your money goes towards a massive amount of raw materials from across the globe including tropical hardwoods, production energy and transport costs. Chances are however that the suite you’ve already got is better made than the new one.

Economic and social trends often have an effect on interior designs and trends. We believe 2010 will see a shift back to preservation and exploration of the past.

This year bold floral and spring blossom will be reflected heavily in fabrics used in reupholstery. Soft greens will be the choice colour and teamed with pale pinks, make a winning combination for a spring palette.

Here at Plumbs we recommend going for a bold floral print or a coastal theme when choosing fabrics for reupholstery.

Spring blossom in soft jade is bang on trend this season, use to reupholster an old sofa or a tub chair and combine it with plain walls to make a daring floral statement in your living room. For something a little less daring try an ocean blue fabric paired with creams and yellows to bring a splash of summer into your living room.

The reupholstering process itself is an intricate and delicate procedure and we pride ourselves on the craftsmanship involved. Sofa and chairs with button effects look particularly pleasant. The art of deep-buttoning gives the item an indulgent, voluptuous look made fashionable in the Victorian era.

Here at Plumbs our advice is to think before you throw, furniture can easily be given a brand new look by reupholstery.