Ey up my faithful blogworms, bit of a bits and bats week this week, responding to conversations I had this week. A catch up on a recent job, a freebie for you all to play for and opinions on recent events really.
Starting with a catch up from a post I put up on 14th May, "Re-defining space".
Tiling .... what, where and how ?
After much deliberation we decided to use two seperate colours of tiles: a grey off white and a rich Victorian maroon. Most people are conditioned to think in tiles in all one colour but I hope you agree that the chance we took here works really well, certainly the customer loves it.
We tiled the two flanks in the grey off white while the maroon took centre stage in the opened up fireplace creating and fab central feature blast of colour. It's a Victorian house and the maroon tiles look like they've been there forever and we worked round them !
We think it's useful illustration as to how you can re-think your perception on using tile colour. To link it all and keep it subtle we chose a grey grout for all 3 tile areas, white would have been OK but the grey really does set it off, although I admit it might be difficult to see from my pictures.
BY THE WAY ...... What do you think of the fireplace overmantle ? On the subject of reducing waste, again, this is the original fireplace surround that we took out to open it up to put the cooker in.
Our customers wanted something to detail the chimney breast with and we stood the old surround on the worktops more as a bit of a giggle really, they liked the idea and it's been there ever since, they love it. It will, in time, be made to fit fit properly and painted in a colour to suit the room but yeah .... why not ??
Here's a cheeky little freebie competition for you to play with. Those of you who know me, know how I hate wasting anything so here's an egg rack for a dozen eggs made from from a timber off cut left off a job ages ago.
I'm sure you all know by now that keeping your eggs in the fridge is entirely the wrong thin to do so how about a fab egg rack ?
It's a bit different, a bit more creative that the normal boring ones and all you have to do to win it is pop into our showroom, guess the wood and it's yours !! Simples. Yes, I know, this favours my local blog fans but as my last topic illustrates, you can't please all the people all the time ! There's only one so it's first come first served, good luck !
Brexit ..... You can't escape it, it's happened and I feel now that we all need to stop whingeing, knuckle down and let's pull the positives out of this and move forward.
We are a great nation and have a lot to offer so let's re-kindle our great British spirit of old and do what we're good at: pull together.
From a Milestone point of view, we will be a constant in an ever changing world. All our own brand products and all our Eco offerings are all made within the UK and, as far as is humanly possible, always will be.
Who knows, buying British and supporting local industry and products might well be more important now and in the years to come ??
Staying positive, Jules
Ey up, my faithful blogworms, been going back to our roots just lately with a run of "replacement door" orders. This is where we started all those years ago in 1988 and it's nice to re-visit this type of work from time to time.
It's always been our mission to develop the products we cover to enable us to carry out refurbishment of existing kitchens aswell as installing new ones, so this is a reminder that when you're thinking of a way to lift or modernise your kitchen, keep this in mind.
It has always been our proud boast that "there isn't a kitchen in the UK that we can't fit new doors to".
Unlike a lot of what can only be described as "charlatans" in our industry offering replacement doors, we can and do make any size door required to fit your needs, in pretty much any material you want.
A refurb based on this principle is always cheaper than replacing your entire kitchen. When you look at what's involved with a new kitchen and how long it takes, for a new set of doors and handles we can be in and out often in just 1 day !! Minimum down time and minimum disruption and a kitchen that looks brand new when we've finished.
Just to give you a couple of pointers as to whether it's worth considering re-furb over re-new, there are two things I always look at first.
1) Are the cabinets in good enough condition to enable this work to happen successfully ?
2) Are you happy with the layout in the room and does it work for you ?
If the cabs are still good, any or all of the fittings can be renewed including things like hinges and drawerboxes and if you're happy with the layout then there's no need for additional or replacement cabinets.
New worktops and sink etc are viable to consider at this stage aswell but once you start to go beyond this, you can reach a "tipping point" where it becomes actually more economical to rip out and start again.
So, consider re-furb before you necessarily think about ripping it all out, you will probably be surprised with the results that can be achieved.
Those of you who know me by now will know that I hate waste and, whilst I'd love to fit you a new kitchen, there are alternatives working with what you have, saving waste and saving you money !!
Looking after your pennies, Jules.
Ey up my faithful blogworms, Going on my jollies tomorrow so I'll be away for a couple of weeks.
Here's some early info on a new product that I hope will give you something to think over while I'm away
You may have noticed that I've gone a bit quiet on the old 'Dekton' front.
Good reason for that ..... Great material, ticks all the boxes I could ever wish to tick as far as using it is concerned but with one big drawback ...... None of the fabricators I use can cut it successfully, guaranteed !!
However ..... there's a new kid on the block called 'Neolith'.
Ticks all the same boxes but way, way easier to fabricate successfully.
This means we're back on course for an all singing, all dancing worktop material. Training and cutting tests have gone well, we've a large colour database and have a thinner section of material available which means easier wall splashbacks can be made without the visual weight of the heavier sections in Dekton.
We've got some samples and are going to do the extreme destruction testing we tried last time, just to make sure it lives up to expectations.
It also comes down to a 12mm thickness so we can make the new trend of ultra slim profile worktops which is a trend that seems to be gathering steam.
Haven't found a downside to this this one yet but I am trying. After the false start with Dekton, I'm digging deeper into the spec. for Neolith and talking to our fabricators in more depth to find out if they think there's any problem areas.
All's good so far and I will bring you up to speed with whatever I find out next time I check in with you. There is undoubtedly a huge market for a worktop that's impervious to everything but this time I just need to be sure in my own mind that I have the confidence to recommend it to you all.
I don't mind admitting I'm wrong and eating a slice of humble pie because at the end of the day, I only want to provide products for our customers that I believe in and would be happy to have in my own home. That's my benchmark !!
Looking after your interests. Jules.
After much deliberation we decided to use two seperate colours of tiles: a grey off white and a rich Victorian maroon. Most people are conditioned to think in tiles in all one colour but I hope you agree that the chance we took here works really well, certainly the customer loves it.
Here's a cheeky little freebie competition for you to play with. Those of you who know me, know how I hate wasting anything so here's an egg rack for a dozen eggs made from from a timber off cut left off a job ages ago.
