Plumbs Blog » Quick Tips

4 Essential Habits for a Tidy Home!

HannahJ — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:09:31 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if your living room looked like this? No clutter, no mess. Well, at the beginning of January, it sort of did. The tree had come down and everything was put back in its place. Three weeks into the New Year, and my home is back to its usual weekday mess.

But, with the start of the year being the perfect time to adopt new habits, here are a few that I will be trying out to keep my home looking ship-shape throughout 2012!

1) A Place to call home

If there is a place for everything, and everything has its place, then surely you can’t go wrong. Give all of your items their own special place and ensure they get put back there! Simple!

2) Decorative Storage

For toys, blankets and other nic-nacs that get left lying around, choose decorative storage boxes. These need not be an eye soar. Opt for boxes that will match your décor, or better still, disguise your storage areas as coffee tables. This is easy when using chests or ottomans.

3) Rack ‘em up

My guilty pleasure is home magazines and consequently these will often find themselves abandoned in a pile next to the sofa or strewn along the sideboard. A simple option is to invest in a magazine rack (or even recycle those you’ve definitely finished with.) For a more creative approach, stack in an unused fireplace for a quirky storage solution.

4) Regular upkeep

If you get into the habit of vacuuming and cleaning one or twice a week, you will inevitably tidy up and put things away.

Failing these simple steps, it may be an idea to consider minimalist décor. The less stuff you have, the less mess they will create!

Here Comes Santa Claus… Protecting High Traffic Areas in Your Home

HannahJ — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:28:13 +0000

6 days to go – who’s excited? With Christmas looming and the sound of sleigh bells circling our neighbourhoods it’s time to get prepared! And I don’t mean putting the finishing touches on the Christmas cake or wrapping those last few presents. We need to prepare our homes for the inevitable high traffic of family and friends coming and going, (not to mention Father Christmas and his reindeer!).

The hallway is likely to see the most increase in footfall over the festive weekend, so protect flooring with long runners or assorted rugs. If weather is particularly poor, you could also ask your guests to remove their shoes. If you do however, ensure that you have a shoe rack to hand and that your home is lovely and warm to invite cold feet!

Ensure that there is plenty of space to hang coats to prevent them being strewn across your furniture. Similarly, make a designated space where umbrellas can be left to dry. If you have a porch, this is ideal.

Prevent any spills by having side or coffee tables within easy reach. If though, during the jollity of Christmas, there happens to be a spillage, clean this immediately. It is more likely to stain if left to settle into your carpet. To be on the safe side, ensure you have plenty of kitchen roll, stain remover and sponges on stand-by.

Use blankets or throws to protect soft furnishings whilst adding a cosy feel to your home. For more permanent protection, consider loose furniture covers that you can remove, wash and re-fit with ease, as often as you like. At Plumbs, we also offer a range of anti-macassars and arm covers for added protection for your furniture. You could also use loose covers to protect your dining chairs.

To find out more about loose furniture covers, click here. Now that your home is protected, you can sit back and relax with a mince pie. Why not browse the blog for more great tips!

A warm home and a cool head: 5 top tips to beat the energy price rise

HannahJ — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:26:45 +0000

The clocks have gone back, the nights are drawing in and the first signs of Christmas are adorning the shop fronts – winter is well and truly on its way. But for many of us, this year’s holiday cheer is being dampened by news of rising energy costs and worries of the implications for our heating bills. With the ‘big six’ energy companies including British Gas and EDF Energy all announcing rises of up to 18%, it’s no wonder that so many of us are searching for a solution.

The struggle is often not heating your home, but keeping that heat in. A huge proportion of heat can be lost through windows and under doors, as the image below shows.

So, to help you on your way, we’ve come up with 5 top tips to keeping your home warm, keeping your heating bills down and keeping your spirits high!

1) Don’t invite the cold in! Draught-proof your front door by adding a door brush; particularly useful in windy conditions. Consider getting a door curtain – not only will this reduce the draughts coming in and the warm air getting out, a door curtain can add a real cosiness to your hallway.

2) Fill in the gaps! If your radiator is directly below your window, tuck the edges of your curtains onto the window sill. This will prevent the hot air from the radiator escaping straight out behind your curtains. Alternatively, you could invest in a radiator cover to ensure that heat is directed out, into the room.

3) Safeguard your windows! Opt for lined and interlined curtains to keep the draughts from coming in. Interlinings act as an extra insulation layer within the curtains. To be twice as prepared, add a blind behind your curtains.

4) Pick a pelmet! Not only do pelmets provide an excellent finishing touch to your window dressing, they can also reduce the amount of heat lost when hot air that has risen begins to cool and fall.

5) Bathrooms and kitchens! In rooms where you may not have curtains such as bathrooms or kitchens, consider installing blinds. They may be less effective insulators than curtains, but they should certainly make some difference. Avoid slatted blinds and opt for roman styles.

Plumbs offer made-to-measure curtains and blinds in a beautiful range of designs, so you can keep warm and you won’t have to compromise on style.

To view our range and find out more about about Plumbs’ Curtains and Blinds, click on the link below:

http://www.plumbscurtains.co.uk/

Thermal Imaging picture taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa/energy/heatrev3.shtml

Quick Tips: Get a statement piece of furniture

Simon — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Get a statement piece of furniture. Look in auctions, or antique shops for big, glass-fronted cupboards. They aren’t popular so are reasonably priced – and they’re perfect to paint. Go for a pretty French look.

Quick Tips: Buy fresh flowers

Simon — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:30:49 +0000

Buy fresh flowers. These can be expensive, so display them carefully. Put one stem each in several bottles or vases and place them in a line. Or buy pretty junk-china cups or teapots and plant them up with bulbs.

Quick Tips: Paint a wall

Simon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:18:33 +0000

Paint a wall. Choose one that is more dominant – behind the bed, say – and paint it a contrasting colour. A cheap, quick way to modernise a room.

5 Good Reasons To Re-upholster Your Furniture

Simon — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:33:19 +0000

1. Your furniture is looking tired and worn
2. Your furniture looks as though it never left the 1960’s
3. You have more padding than your furniture
4. Your furniture is cheaper to have re-upholstered than replaced
5. You want to be more creative with your furniture and decor

To read this article in more detail, please click here…

Create a focal point in any room

Simon — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:49:42 +0000

When you walk into a room or interior space, you’ll feel more comfortable if your eye can rest on a main feature. That main feature is called the “focal point” of the room.

If your room has a beautiful picture window looking out to a lovely garden, that’s it. If you have a fireplace, large or small, that will be the focal point in that room.

Sometimes a room has no distinguishing feature built in and you have to create one. Some ideas of focal points that you can add to a room are; large cabinet, oriental or patterned rug, dramatic mirror, fabric panel.

Quick Tips: Arranging your furniture can save you money

Simon — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:52:51 +0000

Have you ever thought that something as simple as arranging your furniture in a different way could help save you money. Well here it is, like most households in the UK, people often arrange their living room around their TV’s. The obvious affect of this is the TV is most probably always on.

Just by simply re-arranging your furniture so that the focal point will encourage conversation, such as positioning sofas and chairs around a table or facing each other rather than pointing at the TV.

Not only will his save you money in the long term by not always having the TV on but it can also create a healthier family environment.

Quick tips: Curtains can hide flaws

Simon — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:00:45 +0000

Curtains are a great way to hide flaws in your home and can bring symmetry to most rooms. These are some really simple tips and tricks interior designers and staging consultants use to make a room look far better just by using curtains.

If a room consists of several windows at differing sizes, first take the measurements and dress the largest window. Then hang all the other curtains in the room at the same height making sure that all the hems are also at the same height off the floor.
If you want to create the illusion of wider windows extend the curtains poles and width beyond the window frame.
Alternatively, if you want to make the window look shorter, use a longer pelmet when dressing the window.