Not a "purple patch" .. more green and blue !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, it's been a while since I've added a blog, hope you are all well !
We've been experiencing computer problems lately and it's taken some sorting out and we are having a complete new website built to update all the ranges we can now offer, so it's all been a little bit up in the air. However, mostly sorted now and just waiting for the website to go live.

This is really a quick update on where we are now.

We have joined the AECB for a second year ( Association of Eco Conscious Building ), one of the biggest groups for all things eco in the house building world with a huge network behind it. There's a lot of effort these days being put into sustainable building, which as you know, has been our ethos for a good while now !

 Do check it out for more eco good stuff !

Another association that has picked up on our eco work is Blue Patch, which we have just become a member of after being checked out.

Blue Patch is best explained with a quote from Jane Langley herself, who is the founder of the organisation:

"When a business applies to become a member of Blue Patch, we check they’re a good match with our values:"

• Products on Blue Patch are made in the British Isles
• Food and ingredients are grown in the British Isles
• When materials and ingredients are sourced internationally, businesses aim to work with ethical partners
• Products and services are of good quality
• Global Impact businesses based in the British Isles, support ethical working conditions, traditional artisans and local communities

We think the paragraph above says it all and we firmly support any organisation that promotes their values and particularly sourcing from within our own country. We used to be proud of saying something was " British Made" and we should be again, we still have a lot to be proud of without looking to foreign shores.

 Look for the logo and go have a nosey over at Blue Patch, we think you'll like what you find !












Anyway, that's all for now and once I get my photos of our recent projects back onto my computer, we'll get upto date and show what we've been up to recently. There's a lot of good stuff going on at the moment in the world of Milestone !! And, hopefully very soon, I will have some new eco and recycled products to let you all know about.

Hoping this post finds you, fingers crossed,

Jules

The Dogs Bathroom !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, I did say we were doing another Denim ..... Do you know, you hit a colour once every few years where you might aswell take everything else out of your showroom and Denim is rapidly turning into one of those colours.

Mentioning another Denim, the pics below are a Utility room that we've just installed in it, featuring the fantastic deal we are able to run at the moment on a Butler sink and spray head tap combo where you are getting the top quality tap virtually for nothing ?

This is a deal we've put together to satisfy the need in the market at the moment for owners with dogs wanting to have a place away from the main kitchen where you can wash hiking boots, wellies etc and not forgetting ...... wash your dog in comfort when they come back from a good walk blathered in mud !

The intial set up for placing the Butler sink with a washing machine enclosure facing sideways due to a lack of width in the room

Utility storage with somewhere to keep your washing kit and a worktop to put your washing basket on

This gives you a perspective on the constraints of the room shape

Shown here are the sink and worktop set up, the beauty of a Butler sink is that with it's place in the layout and not being under the worktop, you can use a normal laminate worktop to go at either side. Normally with a Belfast sink you need to use granite, quartz or solid timber because it goes under and would destroy worktops if laminate was to be used. Keeps the cost down !

Washing machine turned through 90 degrees makes using it in the small space much, much easier than if it faced the way you would normally expect.

Storage for"stuff" and a spot for a "back up Fridge" for overspill from the mian kitchen.

Altogether, a very useable space that ticks a lot of boxes for our customer, good result !

Having started out as a normal Utility room project, we have it on good authority that the room is now going to be renamed " The Dogs Bathroom" 

Well, there ya go !, are we a nation of barmy people or just a nation of dog lovers ?

You decide but I think both ! ..... in the nicest possible way !

Jules

Who says denim isn't fashionable anymore ?

Ey up my faithful blogworms, DENIM: Where would we be without it ?

This might seem a bit random but stick with it !

1850's: Denim type material first worn by sailors as 'Boot cut' to protect their legs

1870's: The decade that the first pair of rivet reinforced denim trousers were created by Levi Strauss and Company, thus beginning the legendary brand.

1910's: Denim used to make workers trousers for long lasting durability

1930's: Saw denim jeans being worn by cowboys are starting the meteoric rise to popularity

1950's: Denim goes to Hollywood ! In films like "The Wild One" and "Rebel without a cause" starting the biker culture for jeans wearing

1960's: Denim now becoming seriously fashionable with the creation of Bell bottom trousers and Flares ( Ask your parents !! )

1970's: Even car interiors are now getting covered in Denim for the first time ! The Jeans Beetle being the one everyone remembers. Google it !

1980's: Boot cut jeans reappear and the legendary Levi's 501's make the first appearance in the cult TV advert.

Into the 2000's: A stretch fabric content appears in Denim making them even tighter and figure hugging.

2018: The big turning point in our world where even kitchens have started wearing the iconic denim look !

170 years it took our wonderful world of kitchens to finally latch on to this but we got there in the end !!

And we are starting yet another one this coming week ! 

Who says denim isn't fashionable anymore, certainly not us. 

This is turning out to be the superstar of 2018

The big difference is that our denim doesn't "shrink to fit" ( Oblique reference ) 

Think  "Levi's" ..... runs away giggling !

So, when do you want yours ??

Jules

You see, we really do care !!

Ey up my faithful blogworms, out on the Eco trail again this week. It appears that the new "Coastal themed" Eco2 display in the front of our showroom really has captured your collective imagination.

The Eco2 Denim Blue with the Eco Cosentino "White Diamond" worktops does seem to be another of those combinations you only create once in a while that really do very well.

This is the basis for the new creation we are currently working on over in Boston Spa. 

A total Eco project which will be getting it's provenance folder with all the Eco documentation in it, once finished.

Just so you know, these are quite definitely not the finished worktops, just temporary until the quartz is cut and installed !

A temporary sink being hooked up so washing up and dishwashing can happen

This layout has become a true U shape to improve storage and provide a good spot for a dining table on the end. Originally it was an L shape, wasting a lot of space.

The new utility area which is in the passageway between the old dining room and the kitchen, so really needs to match.

This is another of those "works in progress" which we seem to be doing a lot of lately where I'll need to update you once the worktops go on. Due to customer holidays, that might be a couple or 3 weeks before they are fitted.

The reason for the odd worktops is that we promised our customer a working kitchen by this weekend so offered to fit temporary worktop sections to enable them to use the kitchen in the interim period.

It's not necessarily something we do normally but when you've got young kids to feed, clothes to wash and kitchen items scattered about the house, we've tried to enable them to put everything away, use the kitchen and get everything back to as close to normal as possible. 

You see, we really do care !!

Looking after the environment and our customers needs !

Jules.

Where there's a will, there's a way !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, sorry my blogs seem a bit haphazard at the moment but we're working all over the place and sometimes I can't get to manage to keep you all upto date with our goings on.

Anyway, this week I thought a post about refurbishing existing kitchens might be in order to remind you all of what's possible. After all, this is where we started all those years ago and still carry out this sort of work.

It's surprising what can be achieved as you will see in todays photos

We started with a kitchen built many years ago by a joiner using reclaimed timber, so all the sizes were a bit off standard, all the fittings were outdated and it took some getting apart.

Part of the cause of the demise of this area was that some muppet had used a laminate worktop, timber edged around a double Belfast sink .... A big no-no as it just rots with all the water around the sink !! It ruined the worktop and leaked down onto the sink base taking that with it, so new both required here

Sometimes, just sometimes when working with old cabinetry, things just don't go your way ! We were increasing storage space on here by fitting a sequence of top boxes above the old wall cabinets. With the best measuring possible, the new top boxes were an annoying 8mm longer than the old wall cabs, hence the need to make a very skinny filler piece to make up the levels. Can't screw it on so must it be glued resulting in the "clamps nest" that you see here ! Where there's a will, there's a way !

The resulting modifications fitted with all the new cabs and doors builds up the storage space to a new level, and looks very tidy, if I say so myself !

The sink area took nearly as much work. You will notice the dishwasher has gone ( an "on site" eleventh hour decision by our customer ) and we were short of a cabinet to put in it's place ..... Oh poo !
The answer, salvage any usable parts from the old sink base and end panels that enclosed the old dishwasher and create, from scratch, a cabinet that would take the new door we supplied. Once again, where there's a will, there's a way !

We are just waiting for the new quartz worktops to be fabricated to finish the project off and I will, of course, show you photos of it once completed.

This shows you what's possible by refurbishing old kitchens. We do need to look hard at the old kitchen structure initially to make sure this sort of project is possible but when it's still serviceable, then anything is possible.

Those of you who know us also know that "anythings possible" is the guiding principle that we've always worked to. But that decision when working on old kitchen has to be tempered with common sense too.

So, as a reminder of where we began, don't forget that you can consider a refurbishment, it doesn't always need to mean that you rip out the old kitchen, at least we can genuinely offer you that choice.

And it saves waste and saves money, another of our guiding principles !

Jules

Tackling the plastic disaster

Ey up my faithful blogworms, been away for a bit again, have you missed me ?

We've been beavering away recently on the "free water refill scheme" again and have now met a wonderful lady by the name of Anne Cuthbertson who has taken the bull by the horns and has set up a new facebook group to co-ordinate the scheme.

Annes new group is called "Wharfedale Tackles Plastic". She and her team have managed to get Yorkshire Water on board, which is a great achievement and will help drive this forwards. Pop over and have a look at:

 https://www.facebook.com/WharfedaleTP. like the page and lend your support to this superb cause. 

Already the water refill idea is catching on throughout Ilkley with many businesses signing up to enable you to refill your water bottle for free while walking round town. 

Our hope is that this will dramatically redude the plastic waste we see lying around our beautiful countryside and get this plastic into recycling where it belongs instead of littering the countryside and ending up choking our rivers and seas and killing wildlife.

Look for the "FREE WATER REFILL" logo on shop doors and windows and drop in to refill your bottle.

We had to overcome the design of our showroom building to bring the water supply all the way from the cellar at the back to a display that we have near our front door. Running the pipework around the back of our existing displays and blind drilling through various walls was a challenge to say the least but it proves it can be done.

All you need to do is download to app to your phone and you will be able to see where you can get refills. This scheme is nationwide and growing in strength, so wherever you are, you should be able to see where this facilty is available in your local area. Now, if you can't find outlets in your own town then it's about time someone, like Anne and the team, grasped this and launched your own scheme and became part of this revolution.

With plastic waste, not just being a local but a global problem, together we can start to make a difference and joining with different groups and approaches, we are becoming able to put pressure on manufacturers and supermarkets to cut down a lot of this waste at source by simply saying a big fat NO ! to the ridiculous amount of stupid plastic packaging we see being used every day. 

Milestone: Eco, driven by quality AND price

Ey up my faithful blogworms, just got back from another successful Eco kitchen adventure in deepest, darkest Cambridge.

An Eco Elite kitchen this time in a painted English Ash where you can still see the grain pattern in the paint finish. The cabinets are again our bedrock cabinets from the Eco2 range in 75% recycled timber content 25% FSC.
Painted in Farrow & Ball colour: Pointing 2003. This sits well on the cabinet colour of U104 Alabaster.

We were contracted to supply and fit the furniture content of this kitchen and install it, the client supplying their own appliances and our old friends GlassEco were supplying and fitting the worktops. For Glasseco in the UK,  check them out at: http://urbnrok.co.uk

Now, bearing in mind the quality of our eco ranges and the fact that this kitchen is from our premium range, Eco Elite, the kitchen content came out at just £5623.00 inc.vat.

We feel this represents fantastic value for both genuine eco content and the quality of solid English hardwoods.

So, for those of you who look at the Eco Elite range on our website and think you can't afford it ....THINK AGAIN ! .... Eco kitchens done the Milestone way are very affordable, we can't stress this enough.

Any way, enough of my rambling, here's the pictures of the kitchen so far. We will, of course, keep you posted with further pictures once the wonderful GlassEco have completed the worktops. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking !!

This was as far are we went on this one, so I'm just as excited as you to see the finished pics once the worktops go on and everything is second fixed and connected. 

Probably likely to be about another week or two before we see the finished results but stay tuned for further developments, as they say !!

Milestone: Eco, driven by quality AND price

Jules

When we say it's Eco, we prove it !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, as we're going to be away installing one of our lovely eco kitchens down in deepest, darkest Cambridgeshire next week so I thought I 'd give you all a sneaky peek at the full extent of our Eco stable of kitchens that are currently for your delectation and delight. 

Talks with my web guy are in full swing and hopefully within the next few weeks these will form the content of our new website.

Our range has over doubled in the last few years, hence the reason for a new approach to our web presence.The new site will be much more user friendly for I-pads, phones and desktop viewing and much more interactive for us to add stuff and you to comment on stuff and ask questions. 

The info you see below puts the kitchens pretty much in order of cost, lowest first, going up in price as you get lower down the page.

To prove to you that going Eco isn't as expensive as you think it is, here are a couple of comparator prices: 

As mentioned in my last blog, 

An Eco2 500mm full height base unit complete is just £134.40 

and going up the scale to the 

Eco Elite Hardwood in English Ash, the same unit is only £191.08. 

Both prices include vat.

We feel these prices represent fantastic value for your green pound and will compete well against comparable products in the market at this time. Certification to prove the provenance of your kitchen accompanies every Eco kitchen we supply !!

When we say it's Eco and sustainable, we mean it !!

Looking after your planet. Jules.

Never been a better time to talk Eco !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, not posted for a bit, been away again and on holiday but back now and off we go !

Promised a catch up on this kitchen, it's now looking resplendant in its Eco Cosentino quartz tops in White Diamond. 

This kitchen is in the Fjord Green which is the sister colour to our Denim Blue on display here at Milestone HQ.

While I'm on the subject and to give you an idea, Eco done properly does not need to be expensive, it's a myth put about by "none believers" 

Using our Eco2 range, which these kitchens are from, a full height 500mm base unit complete is an extreme reasonable £134.40 inc.vat.  

( and that's an 18mm rigid built cabinet with top quality Blum soft close hinges )

Put that up against "other companies" and see how we compare !!!

The huge advantage that the Eco Cosentino material gives us is the ability to create full height splashbacks as shown here in the quartz material. Typically with other types of quartz, these would normally be in 20mm thick which makes then seriously heavy but using Cosentino enables us to make splashbacks and upstands in the much slimmer 11mm. A cleaner, slimmer profile and a lot less weight. 

The worktops are just as happy in 20mm or 30mm thick, we used 30mm here (being the more normal thickness ) and all the upstands and window cills are in 11mm. It just looks so much sleeker and less weighty creating a more modern look.

And, as those of you who know us, we don't say it's Eco unless we can prove it ( unlike other companies !! ) so this pic shows the provenance of the Eco Cosentino material.

Every now and then in this industry you get a "look" or a "style" that captures the zeitgeist of the time and this appears to be one just such occasion.

Since we put the Cosentino White Diamond on a display here at HQ, it really has captured peoples imagination.

The Denim Blue / Fjord Green colours combined with the White Diamond tops are rapidly establishing themselves as our best sellers. 

Whether it's the coastal style or the clean, bright lines, we don't know but we have conpleted 4 kitchens with this look and have 3 more booked in so far going forwards. 

Usually kitchens, as we people, tend to be a mix of varieties but trends do develop and long may this one continue as we love it !!

We have the Eco Cosentino in 4 colours, another one is the Riverbed, shown below, this time in a mix of 30mm tops and 20mm upstands / window cill. This range of material really is a winner from our viewpoint.

If you are looking to Eco for your next project, there has honestly never been a better time to explore the fabulous materials that we can offer. 

Come in and talk to us, see what all the fuss is about, 

Committed to doing our bit for the environment !!

Jules.

Created in true Milestone fashion .... properly !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, rock 'n' rolling again with our latest kitchen, lots of clever unit design gives us the skill with which to design proper kitchens properly !!

After this blog you may want to look at my blog of 11 Jan 2014 ( Bespoke by definition ) that explains more about how we use cabinet design to it's best advantage. 

This weeks kitchen over doubles the amount of storage in the same space and provides nearly double the amount of worktop, the blog mentioned above explains how !

I'm going to do what I seem to do a lot these days and let the pictures tell the story. We have the kitchen 'worktop ready' now and are just waiting now for the quartz tops to be fabricated, so this is really a 'story so far' post.

This kitchen is in one of our new colours for this year "Fjord Green" with Eco Cosentino White Diamond quartz worktops.

That feeling of 'here we go again' comes to mind, badly fitted, badly plumbed and wired, all to be sorted out

Oh, did I mention the floor was miles out too ! This shows all the nasty pipes and wires replaced, the walls cleaned up and replastered

Units going in using clever trick design to make this layout function spot on. Note the chicane at the far end !
The left side on here has the sink, dishwasher and oven in place so is quite appliance rich and has to be full depth. Hence the reason for the chicane, we had to put the fridge somewhere !

The only space to put a tall built in fridge/freezer was opposite these units, so by using an angled base to lead into a reduced depth drawer pack, we created the space for the fridge to work perfectly.

One way to add walk space is to reduce cabinet depths but keep the units usable, how often do see reduced depth functional working drawers? We do it as standard.

By using the drawer packs shown above we can create a slimline run of cabinets, increasing storage and function and walk space

This was a tricky little blighter !! Designing a housing for a built in microwave where the space is a tapered triangle under stairs ! Again to save worktop area, it was ideal to place the microwave in here rather that have it sat on the worktop. Giving silly shaped, dead space a useful function.

There ya go ! Perfick !

Doors going on where the wall units are individually hung and on tension stays to hold each one up seperately. Looks like 'bi-fold doors' but none of the obvious drawbacks. Note the fridge housing at the end. This bit is worktop ready now, a full run of quartz worktop going on, 3.2 metres of it, loads of space.

Angled base ...Easy ! Reduced depth base unit...Easy ! Putting drawers in it.... tricky but not impossible.

Loads of space to open the fridge and turn round to put stuff down.

Viewed from the fridge end, this shows there will also be easy worktop space to put things on as they come out of the microwave.


We've considered the ability to open the dishwasher and oven doors, made sure there's enough room to bend down and still clear the worktop on the reduced side, made sure there's enough space to use the fridge properly and the storage space speaks for itself.


Forget this " I'm sorry madam, you can only have it if it's in the catalogue" crap, there's only one way to do kitchen design and that's properly !!

Whoops ! nearly forgot to mention ..... this kitchen is from our Eco2 stable and it's a 100% eco built and we can prove it. Happy days !

AND, just as importantly, created the Milestone way, this kitchen with all it's clever design costs a lot less than you think, we need to talk !

Jules.