Here at Plumbs we are always striving to offer a better quality of service to our customers. We believe that investing in our staff is one way of achieving this.

So we are delighted to announce that the following Plumbs staff have all successfully passed their National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) awards and were presented with their certificates on the 25th September 2008 by Arthur Diamond, Production Director and Heather Murphy, HR Manager.

• Kirsty Carter – Level 2 – Performing Manufacturing Operations
• Andrew Haigh – Level 2 – CAM
• Rachael Richardson – Level 2 – Making and Installing Furniture
• Hayley Tarney – Level 2 – Making and Installing Furniture
• Katy Bolton – Level 2 – Making and Installing Furniture

The company would like to wish everybody many congratulations. Please see below a photo of the dedicated and highly valued team receiving their awards.

Turn the sofa round today. You know the one that hasn’t moved in years. And move the chairs to face the garden.

Now Summer has arrived why not shake things up a bit and give your living room a lift. Fresh flowers in the window, and a couple of new cushion covers will make all the difference. What about paintings, photos and ornaments. Why not ask a friend round and have some fun moving things round. Try moving photos into groups rather than covering every surface. This helps make the room look less cluttered and more organised. A couple of scatters can be had for just a few pounds – try the clearance range at plumbscurtainshop website. Or you could get free accessories such as cushion covers when your order new suite covers. Plumbs are running this offer during June. Summer is such a great time for getting out and about with light nights and warm weather. Plus there are so many fabulous events to visit. Local shows, village fetes, friends and family. But it’s lovely too to create a fresh Summer look at home for when you need a rest.

Let the sunshine in and banish the boring same old look. Move that sofa to face the window, and have a great Summer.

This simple montage of four photos shows the start to finish process on the reupholstery of a classic Queen Anne style chair.  Probably fifty years old, this kind of chair always has a superb frame construction.

The wings are of beech construction with hand made joints! They don’t make ‘em like that any more.

With quality new fillings, tightened springs and a fabulous new cover, the end result is a joy. A priceless family heirloom.

Show wood as seen here on the arms and scroll area is one of the real advantages of reupholstery. Choosing loose covers means a revamp and a new look but show wood is covered up. It is after all a loose cover.

With reupholstery however it’s a different story. The pictures below show how this sofa was quite literally taken to pieces and rebuilt by the Plumbs reupholstery team.

An added complexity was that each side of the sofa has an independent recliner action. A very complex job but also a very satisfying outcome.

Nothing unusual in this order you might say. The pictures however tell the whole story of what well made loose covers are all about. Taking a well constructed but tired piece of furniture and breathing in new life.

Below shows a view of a piece of furniture that most of us never see. In this case proper steel springs, hardwood frame and quality fillings mean that this is a piec of furniture made to last.

The end result ready to be wrapped and delivered. There is probably 30 hours of skilled labour and around 40 metres of fabric gone into this 3 piece suite.

Every week there are around 100 reupholstery orders passing through our workrooms. Every one gets the same attention however some really do stand out as being interesting or unusual.

This is a great example. Double drop arm sofas like this really are worth preserving as the mechanisms and frames are very well built.

These pieces are particularly versatile as they create a fabulous day bed or even emergency sleepover for unexpected guests.

The pictures say it all. The original furniture has been stripped down right to the frame and all internal elements checked and replaced where necessary. The end result with the new fabric applied is just stunning. This could so easily have gone into landfill but now it’s good for another generation to enjoy.

Last week I was talking about how reupholstery is good for furniture with show wood. Another interesting example appeared this week in the Plumbs re-upholstery workshops. This fascinating chair is one that stands out and really shows how show wood furniture can be transformed.

I haven’t seen a recliner before with this footstool arrangement. Very unusual!

The foot rest has the appearance of a drawer which then pulls out. The leather upholstery contrasts well with the newly reupholstered cushions for a really interesting finish.

The heavily carved wooden frame picture 13 contrasts well with the new fabric, a superb end result.

A lot of work and skill goes into this type of project but the end result is worthwhile. These pictures underline the fact that if a piece of furniture has a good frame, it’s worth keeping. It’s good for the environment and gives really satisying end results. The people doing this work really are taking pride in their efforts.

Welcome to the first post of our Blog, we hope you enjoy! To kick off we thought we’d tell you a bit about ourselves:

Plumbs specialise in traditional Upholstery, Loose Covers and Curtains and offer a free in home measuring, fitting and advice service by a fully trained Plumbs home consultant who lives locally to the customer. They will bring along samples and swatches so that people can match them to their carpets, upholstery and wall colours.

Plumbs have around 150 Home Consultants who will visit the home free of charge throughout the U.K. The Home Consultants can recommend an appropriate window dressing and reupholstery solution and advise on room colour co-ordination and any other home furnishings such as cushion covers and footstools. With over 350 different upholstery fabric designs and colours to choose from, and a range of materials to suit any piece of furniture, the choice is up to you. Please visit our sites here:

Plumbs Covers
Plumbs Upholstery
Plumbs Curtains

For our cusotmers who do not wish a consultant to visit their home, we also run two ecommerce sites that enable customers to buy both Furniture Covers & Curtains online, these are:

Plumbs Curtain Shop
CoverMyFurniture.com