There’s nothing like summer to give us all a breath of fresh air, just when we need it most. So it’s a delight to see the arrival of a brand new range of made-to-measure blinds from Plumbs.

If you’re stuck for ideas on how to revamp your living room, or give your bedroom a new lease of life, the experts from Plumbs are here to bring the warmth and colour of Summer into your home.

Windows are the focal point in most rooms; Modern, minimalist interiors shun heavy fabric treatments and instead favour the simple, straight lines of Roman or Roller blinds. Blinds offer a perfect mix of security, shade and style.

Plumbs Merchandise Director, Linda Hindle says: “if you prefer plain walls then bold, dramatic blinds using an eye-catching patterned fabric is very effective. You can really enhance the effect by adding a co-ordinating cushion or two.”

Linda continues: “Our home consultants always advise people to pick colours from their existing furnishings as a starting point. They will bring along samples and swatches so that people can match their new blinds to their carpets, upholstery and wall colours”.

Plumbs offer a free measuring and free quotation service by a fully trained home advisor. Plumbs can also provide curtains to co-ordinate with blinds – again a free estimate service is provided.

The exhibition program for the year kicked off in March at the Country Living Spring Fair in London and the Retirement show in Manchester.

What is so striking about the exhibitions is that everyone who comes onto the stand is amazed – Plumbs in real life aren’t what they think.

The event was packed and we were busy on the Plumbs stand at Country Living Spring Fair. Lots of people were attracted by the live reupholstery demonstration taking place.

Around 600 people visited the stand and took samples and brochure. A further 84 requested a home consultant visit.

Lots of positive feedback from customers who came onto the stand to tell us how delighted they were with their recent Plumbs purchase.

More exhibitions on the way – come and see us……

Badminton Horse Trials – Badminton – 21/25 april
Malvern Spring Gardening Show – Malvern – 12/15 May
Holker Garden Festival – Holker – 3/5 June
BBC Gardeners World Live – NEC – 15/19 June
Hampton Court – Surrey – 5/10 July
Great Yorkshire Show – Harrogate – 12/14 July
RHS Tatton Park – Cheshire – 20/24 July
Burghley horse trials – Lincolnshire – 1/4 September

Plumbs Home Consultant Sheryl Davy receives the award for Plumbs Home Consultant of the year 2010.

The award was made by Managing Director Sarah Page, who also handed over a large cheque and warm congratulations from everyone at Plumbs.

This is a great achievement after only two years as a consultant. Well done Sheryl!

Here at Plumbs we would just like to wish all our customers, employees and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Today is the last day in the office before the Christmas break and many people are looking forward to their holiday. Plumbs have been busy over the last couple of weeks with many Christmas activities including office parties, a Christmas meal served by the production managers in fancy dress and a Christmas raffle.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

After 34 years at Plumbs, Maureen Williams retires today.

Plumbs regularly celebrate long serving employees of 25 years. To achieve a 34 year run however really is something to be very proud of.

Maureen joined Plumbs in the seventies, and has worked in many departments over the years including the shops and exhibitions. More recently she worked as Showroom Manager. She has always been a great “people person” and will be greatly missed. Congratulations Maureen and best wishes for your retirement!

We have finally finished the two antique wing back chairs that came in recently for a face lift. People have been following the progress of these chairs on Facebook and Twitter so I thought I would do a photo montage to show the full effect. Doesn’t the finished result look fantastic?

The finished chairs and recliner (centre in the final photo) will be returned to the customer in time for Christmas too. Please remember that these photos have not been taken in a photography studio so the final picture is not a true reflection of the fabric colour! Apologies for the lighting and colour variation.

We even managed to find some history on the chairs after the original tag fell out one of the chairs. Originally made by Pole Manufacturers H.J. Searle & Son Ltd, the ‘Berkley Chair’ was sold for many years. Look at this poster that we found on the internet that was featured in the newspaper advertising a later model of the chair!

Last Friday Plumbs managed to raise a fantastic £421.86 for Children In Need. This year’s theme was ‘Show Your Spots’ and everyone showed their support by wearing spots to work on Friday. We even managed to find a spotty sofa in the factory providing the perfect photo opportunity!

Particular congratulations must also go to all of the canteen staff who raised £184.46 through the sale of cakes, Pudsey and Blush ‘ears’ (as featured in the picture) and spotty wristbands too. What a lot of cakes they must have baked!

Plumbs are celebrating the royal news with the launch of Katie, a new fabric which is being released today.

‘Diana’, Plumbs last ‘Royal’ fabric, was launched by Plumbs at the engagement of Diana and Charles 29 years ago. Who would have guessed at the dramatic story that would unfold. Their marriage was an amazing journey of highs and lows.

‘Diana’ the fabric however was one long high. It turned out to be Plumbs best ever selling fabric. We were selling more Diana Chintz fabric at one point during the eighties than all our other fabrics added together. While Diana was everywhere in the newspapers, so Diana fabric was everywhere in the living rooms of Great Britain.

Now after years of ‘practising’ as Prince Charles called it yesterday, Prince William and Kate Middleton have finally announced their engagement. Plumbs are proud to launch ‘Katie’ – a contemporary, hardwearing, beautiful and totally easy-care design.

The highlight of the day was Camilla who expressed her delight with the news with the well thought out phrase ‘wicked!’

To find out more about Katie, contact Plumbs or call 0800 019 05 05

Here at Plumbs we want to ensure that there is something in our collection for everyone. So as well as introducing two fantastic cotton fabric ranges recently (read about them here), we have now launched our new Floral Serenade Collection. This upmarket collection is made up of Decra fabrics, so not only is it a great value for money option and ensures fantastic fitting covers, but it was put together with our customers in mind as it includes fabric features that we have received many requests for.

This new collection even includes Plumbs first ever stripey fabrics, allowing you to create stunning curtains and covers, but there is also a variety of abstract designs, plains, florals and even some darker background patterns in there too. This collection was launched last Monday and so far customers have been particularly stunned with the feel of the fabrics, some never guessing that they were made from a ‘stretch’ material at all!

With plenty of practice putting together new collections over the years, we really know what we need to do to make choosing fabrics as easy for our customers as possible. This book is laid out with all the co-ordinating fabrics together so you can easily see the plains, semi-plains and patterned materials that look great together. Add into this the photography we have included in the book showing just what can be achieved with beautiful, easy-care fabrics. The photography also helps to make it even easier for our customers to picture what their furniture will look like after its makeover.

To see this new collection in your home, you simply need to request a free, no-obligation visit from one of our home consultants.

Long gone are the days of Plumbs having shops on high streets up and down the country. However, we do still have a showroom at our factory and head office in Preston and we recently gave it a make-over.

Much like decorating your own living room, we gave the showroom a lick of paint, new lighting and new furniture showing the very latest Plumbs collections as well as some old favourites.

If you want to visit us, details of our opening hours and where we are can be found here. But travelling to Preston to see us isn’t an option for many people, so I thought I would share some pictures of it with you. Have a look and tell us what you think! (Sorry about the photo quality, they were snapped on my phone!)