Why Buy Flooring ?

Laminate Flooring has several advantages over wood flooring

It is durable, easy to lay and cheap

Wood flooring looks better but it cost upwards of three times the cost of Laminate.
Laminate comes in easy to handle boards with a groove on one end and one side and a projection one the other side and the other edge.

You really need a fixing kit which comprises a jemmy,wedges and a block to protect the edge of the board. You will be hitting the block and not the board !
The block has a groove which corresponds to the projecting edge and slides over it.
This way you get minimal damage to the projecting edge when you tap the boards together.

Before you put laminate down cover your floor with a thin foam sheet which cuts down noise and gives some support.
You could always consider underfloor heating as this can save you money over a period of time.

Lay the projecting long edge next to the longest wall in a corner and build out from there.
This way you will get less wastage and you will have to cut fewer small pieces.
Lay the boards loose at first and then turn them round at 90 degrees to see which way round suits your room best.
The boards just snap together and you tap the block until the join is practically invisible.

You must leave a small gap at the edge of the board and the wall to allow for expansion.

Edge strips are tacked above the laminate to finish the job professionally.

Laminate flooring is very hard wearing, to the point where Ikea can give a much longer guarantee on their laminates than most wood floor shops can. It will not fade or dent easily

It is a lot easier to clean than carpet (and does not get eaten by moths !)

Regrettably Laminate is a little noisy (even with the foam underlay) and sounds hollow when you walk on it.
Laminates come in various qualities and colours now and these are a great improvement on laminates from a couple of years ago.
You can choose from various wood finishes.

Laminates are unsuitable for bathroom or kitchen use as they are prone to spoiling if water is dropped on them regularly.

Edges of Laminates can be damages and a laminate repair kit is a wise investment.

Also, laminate floors will often curl up and get spoiled if you drop water or other liquids on them. This generally makes them unsuitable for bathroom and kitchen use, unless they have been specially treated for it.
It is a good idea to invest in a laminate repair kit (before you need it !) as eventually you may need to repair chips or scratches.
Having said that it is a practical and affordable alternative to carpet or floor tiles.

Coffee

To make great coffee you really have to know a little about the history of coffee.
Coffee in fact comes from roasted seeds of the coffee plant first known in Ethiopia in the 9th Century.

 
There are two common varieties Coffea Robust and Coffea Arabica.

Coffee plants are grown in fairly hot places like South America,Southeast Asia and in Africa.
The seeds are dried after picking then roasted.
Different roasting times produce different flavours.
If you buy coffee in its roasted beans form and keep it in an airtight container it will retain its flavour longer than ground coffee.
So buy Roast Beans and a grinder for the freshest strongest flavour.
French Coffee Percolators use the coarsest ground coffee.
Turkish coffee uses the finest ground coffee
Automatic coffee makers drip hot water onto coffe grounds held on a filter paper.

Cafetières work by steeping coffee in boiling water for a few minutes then pushing down a filter to hold down the coffee grounds.
Espresso cofee makers force very hot water strongly through ground coffee.
This produces a very strong coffee with a reddish brown foam (called a crema)
This is often diluted with very hot water to make a more dilute version called an Americano.

Cafe Latte is coffee with milk
Cappuchino is equal parts of espresso and foamed milk. This with a blob of hot foamed milk on top is caffè macchiato..

Miss the Sales and You Miss The Bargains !

Ikea annually holds a HUGE Discount sale at each of their UK Stores both to clear their stocks and to attract new customers. This often happens during Bank Holidays or other public holidays.

Ikea regularly brings in new models of furniture and to make space for these they sell off stock which has not sold quite as well or stocks that have been replace by new models. This happens in all sections of each store. They also give away bits and pieces to add to the fun of the sale.

Ikea is basically offering low prices on most of their furniture anyway so additional discounts are more than welcome to anyone setting up or refurbishing their home.

You will often see in the Ikea Sale specific items for children (Ikea are well aware of the power of the demands of a child ! )

How can you benefit best from an Ikea Sale ?

First thing is to go around all of the store a week or so before the sale with a notebook and a good pen (those pencils are really not good enough for what you want to do !) and make your own notes of items that just might be of interest to you at the right price.

A really great idea is to go online and make a hit list from there (remembering that many items will sell out quickly during the sale.

This way at least you know just what you are looking for and not just peering around through the crowds and confusion.

An Ikea Sale draws MANY people and you really just HAVE to be there early to get the best bargains. Congestion is not just an idea during the sale – it is an astounding collation of people and traffic.

Do not go to the sale alone – first of all you may need someone to guard your purchases while you get your car (better still borrow or rent a Transit or larger Van for the day).Secondly you may well need two people to load larger items into the car/van.

The people around you will all be trying to get their purchases into their cars too.

Park your car as near to the loading zone as you can at least an hour and a half before the store opens. (You will not be alone !)

Lets be honest about this – an IKEA Store is a massive impulse buy store.

Everyone that goes in comes out with more than they intended.

Make sure you get what you really want FIRST !

Then go round again and shop for unexpected bargains.

It is almost certainly NOT a great idea to go to Ikea during the sale and try to plan your kitchen there and then. That way madness lies – you need peace and quiet to plan a kitchen properly and perhaps advice from a salesperson too – which may not be available during the sale. PLAN before you go for best results.

Make your Ikea Sale Visit a Pleasurable Experience and have lots of fun.

For suggestions on Ikea Storage bargains : http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/Storage

(C) Copyright 2008 Keith Jones

Mini Ovens
These are small ovens very suitable for kitchens with limited space,for student accomodation
or as a very useful second oven.
A cheap and excellent mini oven is the Standard Remosa Electric Cooker which has a stainless steel lid and a very useful glass viewing window.
The Standard Remoska is only 21 cm across and fits very will in limited spaces.

A larger version called the Grand Remoska is 32 cm wide and has a deeper pan.
Here are things you can cookin this mini oven:
Lamb chops with roast potatoees,roast chicken pieces,toasted sandwiches vegetable bakes,fish,8 in pizzas from frozen.
You can also reheat ready meals and even cook sponge cakes. Its made in the Czech Republic and is tefal coated for easy cleaning.
It is much cheaper to run than a full sized oven.
With spiralling electricity prices the Remoska is definitely one to consider.
It is distributed in the UK by Lakeland who have a great reputation for quality and after sales service.

Russell Hobbs Mini Kitchen Mini Oven 13824
Russel Hobbs is an excellent name in Kitchen appliances
A great mini oven with 2 hobs on the top.

This one is actually big enough to cook a medium sized chicken or a roast joint.
It has 2 Oven Shelves and a baking tray with removable handles.

You can boil or fry things on the top hobs but do not place this mini oven too high or it will be difficult to use the hobs
and there would be a danger of scalding then if you slip. Its OK at standard kitchen worktop height though.
Casseroles and roast,reheated meals and pizzas are great from the oven (fan assisted)
The grill works well but read the instructions !
You have to keep the door open when using the grill or it switches itself off.
A couple of minor niggles though - the white exterior shows the dirt quickly and needs
kitchen cleaner to clean it.It is self cleaning inside though.
There is no way to turn off the interior lamp without switching off the whole oven.
When new the protective coating on the heating elements needs to be burnt off.
This is very smelly and MUST be done next to an open window (this is not unusual with mini-ovens)
The glass door is see-through but not from certain angles (just move round a bit !)
Hobs take quite a while to heat up.
These are the two I have tested and they were both great and eminently suitable for a single person with limited space for a cooker.

Other Mini Ovens Worth Considering :

Bidets confuse many people.

Bidets have been around in France and the other Mediterranean countries since around 1710
when French Cabinet Makers were selling a simple version.
(I have even seen one inside a wardrobe in a Luxembourg Hotel !)

In French a Bidet is a word for a Pony and the term probably came into use as the proper way to sit on a bidet is astride it.

There are many jokes about bidets but the truth is that it is a device for cleaning your private parts and your rear end.
They were originally designed to be used in the privacy of your bedroom .
In France and the Rest of Europe personal cleanliness was a bit simplistic and without indoor plumbing until Victorian times.

In modern times one does in fact sit astride a bidet and face the taps.
You then use soap and water to clean yourself.

Families with small children often use them as baby baths (after disinfecting the bidet first of course)
Bidets usually have a single spout with hot and cold taps and a china basin below.
You can either use running water or use a plug and splash around to your hearts content.

Japanese inventors produced a paperless toilet which was a kind of combination toilet and bidet.
Bidets like this have spread and often have two nozzles.
They also sometime have heated areas to help you dry yourself.
In Tropical countries a bidet nozzle is often attached to a toilet for a similar use.
These are growing commonplace among the elderly and in hospitals.

Shabby Chic Video 1

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabby-bags

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-bathroom

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-bedroom

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-curtains

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-frames

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-garden

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-kitchen

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-mirror

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-perfume

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabbychic-Shoes

http://www.all4yourhome.co.uk/Store/shabby-signs

Ikea Names for things

Product names
IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are Swedish in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA

Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan
Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names
Dining tables and chairs: Finnish place names
Bookcase ranges: Occupations
Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names

Chairs, desks: mens names
Materials, curtains: womens names
Garden furniture: Swedish islands
Carpets: Danish place names
Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
Childrens items: mammals, birds, adjectives
Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions

Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish place names
For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of childrens toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, BILLY (a Swedish masculine name) is a popular shelf, DINERA (meaning: (to) dine) for tableware, KASSETT (meaning: cassette) for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV (meaning: efficient), SKÄRPT (meaning: sharp or clever) is a line of kitchen knives.

A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the items designer.

Because IKEA is a world-wide company working in several countries with several different languages, sometimes the Nordic naming leads to problems where the word means something completely different to the product. While exotic-sounding names draw an attention, e.g., in anglophone countries, a number of them call for a snicker. Notable examples are "Jerker" desk, "Fartfull" workbench, or "Lessebo" sofa.

The products are withdrawn, probably after someone pointed at blunders, but not before generating some news. Similar blunders happen with other companies as well

SOURCE : Thanks to Wikipedia.com for this information
(We have been trying to figure it out for years.)

Where is Your Nearest UK IKEA Store ?

 

There are IKEA STORES In :
Belfast, Bristols.Cardiff,Coventry,Croydon (South London)
Edinburgh,Edmonton (London),Gateshead (Newcastle)
Glasgow, Lakeside (London), Leeds,
Manchester (Ashton-Under-Lyne),
Milton Keynes (Bletchley) ,Nottingham,
Warrington (Manchester), Wednesbury (Birmingham)
Wembley (North London )

Opening Soon : Southampton 2009 , Dublin 2009

Buying Art at Ikea

One of my favourite areas in an Ikea Store is the Art Department.
This is always a constantly changing display of not only posters and picture frames but also of strong and vibrant pictures which complement the room setting you have just wandered through.
We all remember iconic pictures like a child blowing away a dandelion or that slightly naughty picture of the Tennis girl scratching her bottom and it is images like those that stick in ones mind.

Nowadays though people are much more demanding when it comes to wall decorations.

A nice addition is the multiple pictures in a single frame whoch are always along a similar theme.
Ikea Picture Frames are outstandingly good value and are usually between 30 to 60 percent less than Gallery Prices.

Posters are also available in the stores and you can choose your own with a frame that suits your surroundings.
We are besieged daily with offers of art – either as Canvas Prints from our own photos or paintings, our Children or Pictures of exotic Dream Beaches or Far Eastern Cities and even of our pets.

Art is now much less expensive than it was formerly and we al take advantage of it.

There are even slightly naughty erotic posters and paintings widely available to adorn our bedrooms or harems.

You could of course take with you a sample of material or wallpaper to see what will go with that.
It is far too easy to fall into what I call the Home Doctor Trap – where everything is beige and inoffensive.

Try to imagine the picture in a specific place in your home (take a digital photo of the spot you are looking to decorate)
You are after all going to view that picture every day for a number of years.

Consider how you are going to light it – a picture in a dark corner just fades away and becomes a part of the background.

Ignore the advice of the experts on TV – they are attempting a specific effect and pictures are just a by-product for them.

Buy what YOU really like – not what an expert tells you to – if a picture of a fluffy kitten or a cute puppy cheers up your day then that is a really good thing to do !

You can always buy a piece of Original Art from a Chinese Copyist on eBay who produce superb (but not really original) Art at very reasonable prices

These include excellent copies of the Old Masters and some lovely ladies too (but watch out for the postage charges !)
Do keep within your budget though – there are so many lovely pictures that it is really hard to do.

If you would like to support a local artist then by all means do so – who knows you could end up with a treasure of the future.

Blood Sacrifice For Novices

It is not necessary to adopt the traditional Black Hooded Robe or to carry a Razor Sharp Dagger while assembling furniture.
(Especially remember to remove the open knife from your tracksuit bottoms - this is IMPORTANT !)

I have assembled furniture for ages (no longer than THAT !) and these are my considered conclusions:

1 When using a Stanley knife you should always make a small cut on your finger and this will do away with the need for a larger deeper cut through your wrist later.

2 - When you need a Phillips screwdriver you wil only be able to find a flat screwdriver

3 See 2 but in reverse.

4 when you need an urgent tool or clamp or tube of impact glue all the stores will be closed for the festival of Baseholm ( A similar festival to the Wicker man where customers who cannot find their loyalty card or the RIGHT CHANGE are rounded up and burnt in a Wicker Cage on Clapham Common).

5 All roads leading to the store you need will be closed by police looking for terrorists or waiting in the queue at a fish and chip shop.

6 You will always get the instructions for a video recorder in a box for a satellite Dish. This will be in Romanian.

7 Any Satellite dish will always need to be installed 4 feet higher than your ladder.

7a Your ladder will always be missing one of the rubber feet.THis will make it wobbble and fall over sideways.

8 When shopping for large pieces of Ikea Furniture you will never be able to park near the loading Bay.

9 If you need a saw to adjust any piece of woodwork the only one you will be able to find will be the one your father sharpened in 1932

10 All attempts at Plumbing will result in a leak. This includes the installation of washng machines and toilets.Plumbers may need 2 days to arrive.

11 Electrical work on tlevisions and cameras will result in greater damage.

12 All electrical appliances need a 5 star pointed tool (unobtainable to the public) to repair or even open.This is an EC requirement to stop you electrocuting yourself..

13 Vacuum Cleaner bags are only made for half the life of the cleaner.
Replacement bags are always smaller than the original and may no longer fit.

14 Never work on any moving machinery while wearing a tie or in the nude. (or both) This particularly applies to strimmers and circular saws/grinders..

15 Sex and DIY do not mix - you get the grease everywhere.

16 DIY Books are written in Chinese by an illiterate left handed zoo keeper with the aid of an OrangUtan..
Such books are helpfully translated via Serbo-Croat translator who only speaks Welsh.THe language in the final text may vary but will be accompanied by illustrations for a washing machine.

17 MOST IMPORTANT - always take the CARD from the man offering to assemble your furniture before you leave the store. Who knows - it might be from me !