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 Originally made by Pole Manufacturers H.J. Searle & Son Ltd, the ‘Berkley Chair’ was sold for many years.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!

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!)

The first snow of the winter has fallen, and here I was thinking it was still Autumn! But even if you’re not under a blanket of snow (albeit a very thin blanket) like the people of Aberdeen, your thoughts might soon be turning to cosying up for winter. You can make sure that your home has that essential warm and comfortable atmosphere by sprucing it up for the season.

Winter is a time when everyone has plenty of visitors so making it warm and welcoming on dark nights is an essential. The key colours for winter are traditionally red, gold and green but this year Plumbs are pegging deep purples in violet and mulberry.

Our newly launched Autumn and Winter ranges consist of the ‘Palazzo Anniversary Collection’, the ‘Bijoux Collection’ and our ‘Timeless Classics’. When we launched them we made sure not only did they have plenty of these on trend colours that would be perfect for the winter season but lots of other colours that would look great throughout the year.

A great fabric for the winter is out Luxury Cord Velour design in Mulberry. It is a sumptuous chenille fabric meaning it offers outstanding washability with no shrinkage, quick drying technology with no need to iron and is so soft to touch, making it perfect for snuggling up to on a cold winter’s night. It is also available in other wintery colours such as chocolate, purple, and for the brave, black. With such a wide range of fabrics available, there is a massive selection of warming colours to choose from.

For a more subtle change to your living room, our made to measure curtains can offer instant warmth. For the winter months you can have thickly lined curtains in a wide selection of fabrics, beautifully lined to keep the heat in.

If you don’t want to make drastic changes to you room decorate it with scented candles and seasonal flowers, cosy scatter cushions, and fleece throws. Spiced apple and cinnamon are the key fragrances for the wintertime. Lighting is important too so use lamps for more intimate ambience with warm luminescent light bulbs or burn candles to create that cosy atmosphere.

One of the easiest ways to update the look of your living room without having to spend money on new furniture is to buy loose covers. Here are our top 5 reasons why furniture covers can make your life so much easier and breathe new life into your existing furniture.

1)      No need to buy new furniture

As Mr Osbourne announces his much awaited budget cuts, everyone is finding it more and more important to save money. And shelling out £2000 or more on a new suite is just not in everyone’s budget. With loose covers there is no need to anyway, you can extend the life of your sofa for years because the damage and stains caused by everyday life are no longer there for everyone to see!

2)      Give your living room a brand new look

Nothing can make your room look more weary than furniture that looks like it has seen better days. With loose covers you can liven up your furniture in a whole new way.  Plumbs have a wide selection of fabrics in plains, florals, stripes and mini designs in a whole array of colours. With everything from classic to contemporary, you’ll be able to find the perfect fabric, which will instantly breathe life into your living room.

Loose covers also enable you to match up all your mismatched furniture. I’ve collected different pieces of furniture over time and therefore they all have a different ‘look’. You may have bought a recliner one year and then a sofa a year or two later and they just don’t match. Loose covers mean that you can now match all of these odd pieces together.

3)      Protect your furniture from everyday mishaps

If you have children, pets or have witnessed the dangers of red wine then you’ll know that accidents tend to happen. Drinks will be spilled, food will be dropped and furniture will look tired after being jumped or slumped on by children and teenagers. By using loose covers you can protect your original, and often expensive furniture from these everyday mishaps. This ties in nicely with point 4…

4)      Easy to care for

This is one of the big reason why people purchase loose furniture covers, they are just so easy to care for. When they become dirty (just see the above!) you simply put them in your washing machine and they will come out looking as good as new. It’s that easy!

5)      Help protect the Environment

By choosing to buy loose furniture covers and not a new sofa, you are saving your current furniture from landfill. Not only that, but all of Plumbs products, be that loose covers, curtains or reupholstery are made in the UK with many of the fabrics being locally sourced too.

These are Plumbs top 5 reasons for using loose covers, we would love to hear yours if you have any!

Several weeks ago we embarked on a clear out of our premises and to our surprise came across hundreds if not thousands of metres of discontinued fabrics. I know, not exactly something you can just lose but there you go.

So we’ve decided to have a mass clear out and offer this fabric up for only £1 per metre.

Please be assured this is not just any old rubbish. This is high quality heavyweight curtain fabric.

Just see what people on MoneySavingExpert.com are saying about us here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2658447

If you want to get some yourself before it all goes, please visit out Curtain Shop website here:

http://www.plumbscurtainshop.co.uk/curtain-fabrics/index.html

Here is only a small selection:

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 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.