Fabric is the new leather!

Hey my fellow bloggers, sorry I haven’t blogged sooner – my bad! Recently, I have been to the Interiors UK 2013 exhibition at Birmingham NEC. I was amazed at the turn out, and the furniture is out of this world. I did however notice one thing, not only if fabric the new black, but fabric is the new leather – or so it seems! Fabric beds were everywhere, and we love them.

Fabric beds are available in many different colours. Birlea Furniture has introduced an amazing range of fabric beds, such as the Birlea Brooklyn fabric bed which is available in chocolate brown, grey or wheat. The thing we like most about the Birlea Brooklyn Collection is that it is also available as an ottoman storage bed, which is perfect for any room lacking in storage. Currently I have only seen these particular beds available from leading bed stores such as Bed Centre UK and Bed SOS, but we’re sure other retailers will soon sharp jump on the fabric bed band wagon.

Other manufacturer’s, such as Limelight Beds, have introduced some very modern fabric beds. Our favourite is most definitely the Limelight Eclipse fabric bed in plum finish. This Limelight Jupiter bed is another favourite of ours, with its beige upholstered fabric finish and easy lift up action for the internal storage facility.

Time Living is another fine example of a fantastic manufacturer of fabric beds. Their range of Hamburg fabric beds are desirable, and come in a choice of pebble grey fabric or cocoa brown fabric finish.

Here at Home Desirable, we just love the fact that contemporary fabric beds are becoming the latest must have piece of bedroom furniture.

What we learned 2012!

Well guys, seen as its the beginning of a new year, we thought what better time to reflect on what we learned from 2012. So here it goes!

Firstly, we learned that we shouldn’t get our bathroom flooring laid by Franks the Flooring Store. Initially they did a diabolical job, and then sent the same guy out to assess/ rectify his own mistakes. Needless to say, when the guy attempted to fix his own mistakes – it became apparent he was in the wrong industry.

Frank’s the Flooring Store soon sharp sent two people to relay our black bathroom flooring. They did a fantastic job.

Secondly, we learned not to purchase a headboard via eBay. Our experience of purchasing a faux suede headboard via eBay was very disappointing. Not only was the headboard description wrong in regards to the upholstered material which covered it, but also the colour was not as described. On a positive note though, the diamanté crystal detailing to the headboard was very chic. In this instance, we learned that cheaper is not always better!

Thirdly, we learned that we love striped wallpaper. Just look how gorgeous our white furniture looks in our teal bedroom. The teal striped wallpaper is awesome!

Fourthly, we learned that the cats love to be in on the action, especially when it comes to DIY. Take Angel for instance, she couldn’t resist taking down the wallpaper that time when we redecorated the main bedroom. Diesel is more of the gaffa type, he observes the task in hand.

Finally, other than learning why you should NEVER leave kitchen appliances unattended, we learned that Kelly needed a new door mat for indoor use.

Headboard Dilemma: Officially sorted!

Remember that ivory faux suede headboard we bought? Well, as I mentioned previously, when it arrived it was not ivory in colour and it certainly wasn’t faux suede. Basically, it just had to go!

We have purchased many products from Bed SOS in the past, so we thought we would search for a 5ft cream headboard from Bed SOS. We were not disappointed! We opted for the 5ft king size Cambridge headboard, in cream faux leather finish. This headboard came with free next day delivery, or alternatively we could of opted for a specific delivery date if we wished. Bed SOS also deliver on a Saturday at an additional cost of £20.00, but that wasn’t necessary.

Anyways, when the headboard arrived, we were very impressed! The Cambridge 5ft cream headboard is manufactured to a very high standard and comes from the Sleepy Valley Beds Collection. Doesn’t it look beautiful!?

When we unboxed the headboard, it was covered in a white fibre protection bag, which acted like a dust sheet and also offered slight protection against any damage whilst in transit – even Angel from itsapussycatslife was impressed!

The headboard was packaged securely, and came complete with easy to attach wooden headboard fixing struts.

The struts are of far better quality than the ones included with our previous headboard. They are thicker, better finish/ quality and far more sturdy.  The struts were also extremely easy to attach.

The pack included x6 bolts and x6 washer rings, three for each strut, as well as the appropriate allen key.

The headboard took around ten minutes to assemble, and fixed to our 5ft divan king size bed without any problem. Over all, we are extremely happy with the colour, style, quality and over all finish of our new headboard.

What do you think?  Is anyone else as impressed as us with the Sleepy Valley Cambridge headboard?  Don’t forget to like, comment and share!

The Croft-Bakers: Double Your House for Half the Money

 

After watching Channel 4’s Double Your House for Half the Money episode 2, presented by Sarah Beeny, I fell in love with the Croft-Baker’s home. This house features one of the most luxurious finishes Home Desirable has ever seen on TV.

The master bedroom is breath taking, with its combination of light greys and duck egg blue. We love the use of colour and those luxurious blinds.

Double Your Home for Half the Money have even surprised the kids with a fantastic bedroom makeover, whilst in the rear garden they have offered every kids dream – their very own slide! This garden is fantastic with its lawn area, wooden fencing and children’s slide, we just love it.

The kitchen is fantastic with its white gloss finish doors, wooden work bench area and use of bold green colour. The transparent bar stools are a big hit with us.

We especially love the open plan kind of feel to the kitchen, dining and lounge area. The light pouring in through those patio doors makes this room a relaxing place in our opinion.

What do you guys think to the over all design of this property? Has this place inspired you to treat your kids to a must have garden slide? Feel free to post comments below.

 

Johnny Moustache Retro Furniture

Hey my lovely followers, hope your all well? The passed few days have been quite a nightmare, however yesterday when browsing the internet I came across a fantastic website named Johnny Moustache. This website is worth checking out guys, it has some beautiful retro furniture, and I just love it!

Johnny Moustache is a North East based company who specialise in sourcing and selling genuine vintage and retro furniture. Johnny Moustache prides itself on professionally restoring, where necessary, and reupholstering their furniture finds back to their former glory with the use of high quality modern fabrics.  JohnnyMoustache.com sources their high quality fabrics from a variety of sources, including Bute fabrics. Bute fabrics are sought to be suppliers of some of the very best fabrics available.

The thing I like about Johnny Moustache is that they always have in stock a vast array of retro chairs and sofas. Johnny Moustache offers a bespoke upholstery service, upon request, which enables their customers to choose which fabric they desire. With so much to choose from, this place is certainly one of the best online retro furniture retailers we have ever seen in the UK.

Headboard Dilemma: Back to the drawing board… or ‘headboard!’

Remember that headboard we ordered? Well, it arrived safely yesterday. I was impressed at how well it was packaged up, considering we had bought it so cheap!

I arrived home with the 5ft king size headboard, courtesy of a taxi ride via 1 AB. I was dead excited for unravelling our new crystal studded diamante headboard!

When I removed the headboard from its packaging I was quite concerned that the colour was not ivory (as stated via eBay). I thought, hmmm maybe it will actually go once it’s fixed to the bed and once the bed is made!

I flipped the headboard over and screwed the struts to the back via the pre-marked holes.

The headboard was extremely easy to fix to the bed, and it’s always an added bonus when something brand new arrives from delivery with all its parts – wouldn’t you guys agree?!

Anyways, the headboard was fixed to our 5ft bed with ease and when I stood back my initial thoughts were, ‘Kelly is not going to like this!’ I decided to break the news to her gently, via a text message – as you do when you want to avoid someone the impact of disappointment.  When Kelly arrived home, she took one look at the headboard and said, “That’s not faux suede, it’s not even faux velvet – what is it!?” I could tell she was not one bit impressed by our purchase. The colour was definitely not ivory, which is what we selected during the purchase process.

On a plus side though, the headboard was cheap and had all its parts to assemble and affix it to our 5ft bed. The headboard would actually be a real nice focal point in a bedroom with its studded crystal diamante design, and cream/ peachy appearance. Unfortunately the colour doesn’t go with our wallpaper and to be honest, we admittedly did not do very well with this purchase, however it is just going to have to do the job until we get back from our holiday – then it’s back to the drawing board… or headboard!

We definitely didn’t do well with this purchase guys, it looks ‘horrendous!’  I did consider re-papering the wall, but that would mean needing new lamp shades to match the ‘so called ivory finish’ of the headboard, and also a new light shade – the headboard just has to go.  I’m thinking of a plain ivory leather finish this time – I will keep you guys posted of my progress.

Headboard in the bag!

Hey guys! Hope your all well? Today has been a busy day in the office however I have finally found the chance to order that desirable headboard we have been much need of.

Kelly and I have been browsing around various bedroom furniture stores, both online and offline. Darlington has some great bed specialists; however we had a tight budget.  Eventually we found a brand new 5ft headboard on eBay, and the price was unbelievable.

We had two styles of headboard we were looking for in mind – faux leather or suede. Suede would be ideal because the cats would not scratch it like they will/have done in the past on faux leather bedroom products, however faux leather is easier to clean due to just wiping it over with a damp cloth. I suppose faux suede is ‘vacuum cleanable’ though! The decisions were in the air being thoroughly pondered upon.

In the end, the headboard we decided to purchase was a luxurious faux suede finish headboard. I have always liked headboards with diamante stud detailing, and when Kelly and I first glanced our eyes on our chosen headboard (in the ivory colour) we were thinking ‘this is too good to be true!’

It’s not very often I order anything via eBay, so when I first seen the headboard via my iPhone Safari page, I was a little dubious as to if I had miss read something. So anyways, I rang the number which was on the eBay product page just to be sure this seller was legit. When I came in to the office this morning, for my day job, I wasted no time logging on to eBay and checking this guy out. His feed back was over 3,000 and he had sold around 400 plus of the headboards I was planning on purchasing. That to me was enough information for me to decide that this guy was actually selling these luxurious diamante headboards at extremely low prices.

I have purchased the headboard and am awaiting delivery! I can’t wait to update you guys on how it looks in our ‘almost finished’ master bedroom.  In the mean time, here’s a sneak peak of our bargain 5ft Ivory Headboard.

NEWS FLASH: London 2012 Olympics furniture is up for sale!

How amazing! Before most of the 17,000 Olympic athletes and officials had even slept in the beds, let alone sat on the chairs, or switched on the bedside lamps, they were set to go on sale at auction. The sale consists of 11,000 beds from the athlete’s rooms, thousands of chairs from the main dining hall and everything from clothes drying racks to cushions and extension leads are also up for sale.

The guest pass and ticketing centre reception furniture is the most expensive furniture items being sold at a cost of £2,500, while the cheapest items are 50p coat-hangers which will be sold in batches of 10. Other items up for grabs include 14,872 LED bedside lamps for sale, 6,326 cushions, 7,496 clothes drying racks and 17,978 folding chairs – costing £8 each. Whoops, I almost forgot; amongst other items for sale are 1,000 £99 athletes’ bedroom sets which comprise of a bed, mattress, lockable bedside table and a lamp. Last but not least, brightly coloured £15 bean bags are up for sale too.

Ramler Furniture, the Organisers of the sale, which has the contract for sourcing more than 1m products for the Olympic Village and assembling the flat pack furniture, have created a dedicated website to handle the sale. Visit the sale and get your piece of the Olympics 2012 furniture.

Apparently the company bought back items from Locog as part of their contract and has already begun selling them to the public and trade buyers. All items are available for collection or delivery after the Paralympics closing ceremony.

Review: Birlea Furniture

Hey guys, well it’s been a while since our Birlea furniture arrived. Remember that teal and white guest room? Well, we’ve had Jess stay around (Jess is our friends 6yr old daughter) and Jess has been telling us what she does and doesn’t like about the furniture.

Firstly, she loves the 3ft Toronto guest bed, which we purchased from Bed SOS. She says the mattress (also from Bed SOS) is very comfy – it’s like a ‘bouncy castle’ according to Jess.

Jess loves the Cotswold three drawer bedside cabinet. She loves the fact she has her own clothes in there, which in her eyes makes it ‘hers’ (basically – because she’s been staying over frequently – Kelly and I have told her its her bedroom!). She manages to open the drawers with ease, and doesn’t struggle to close them. The drawers are not on metal runners, the whole of the drawers are constructed from solid wood and the drawers sit/ slide on a wooden piece.

Jess doesn’t like the fact that her Lego box doesn’t fit next to the bed anymore (due to the Cotswold bedside cabinet being there instead).

With regards to the Birlea Cotswold 4+2 drawer chest, at first Jess complained that it was too high! We explained that the only reason the chest of drawers seemed too high was because she was laid in the bed looking at them. Once she stood next to the drawers she realised that they were a perfect size. Jess now loves the drawers, and has her books and Bratz doll safe in the very bottom drawer. Again, the Cotswold chest of drawers is constructed in the same way as the bedside cabinet. Jess manages to open the drawers easily, and also closes them without struggle. Jess loves the two small drawers located at the very top, Jess claims that these are ‘cute!’.

Jess doesn’t like the fact that her Cotswold white chest of drawers does not have an LCD TV sat on it – so at present she can’t watch TV in bed!

We’ve promised Jess that a brand new television will be purchased in the very near future to accommodate her room.

Top Tips: Choosing the right bed!

Choosing the right bed can be a daunting task.  When it comes to choosing the right bed for your home, there are a few key factors which need to be addressed before you part with your hard earned cash.  These key factors are outlined below:

Style

The style of a bed is important.  It’s no good putting a state of the art TV bed in a bedroom if the décor is more suited to a traditional bed frame – it would look like an alien had landed.  Faux leather or real leather beds are perfect for modern bedrooms, whereas metal beds are perfect for contemporary bedroom décor.  Wooden beds a perfect choice for a child’s room, or for any guest room – whereas luxurious ornate wooden beds are ideal for any Shabby chic bedroom.

Material

Depending on if the bed you are choosing is for a guest room or a main bedroom depends on which material would be most suited.  Price wise, it would be crazy to put an expensive genuine leather bed in a child’s bedroom.  Although real leather beds are durable, they are still easy to scratch or tear – therefore a child who likes to climb around on their bed is probably more likely to tear, scuff or scratch a leather or faux leather bed.

Faux leather beds are a cheaper alternative to genuine leather beds.  Although faux leather beds don’t have that real leather smell to them, they have the exact same appearance and are just as hard wearing.

Divan beds are usually available in a wide range of material options.  Recently we purchased our very own first divan bed, and we were able to upgrade the material to a thicker, more durable material.  Bearing in mind we have a kitten, leather and faux leather beds were not a wise option in our case.

Metal beds are usually very reasonable in price.  Some high end metal beds are great for a main bedroom, these are usually made constructed from brass or nickel, and feature very attractive ornate designs.  Children’s metal beds are usually quite cheap and often come in child-like designs, such as football themed or princess themed beds.  Metal beds are possibly the cheapest option available for any bedroom.  Metal beds are hard wearing, but not as hard wearing as wooden beds – as metal beds can sometimes have give and thin hollow tubing which can become bent if mistreated.

Wooden Beds are the most durable of beds.  Wooden beds are available in a variety of wood materials, such as solid oak, hardwood and pine etc.  Wooden beds are usually available in a small range of colours, which include pine, oak or white finish.  Natural wooden beds are usually finished in a wax finish.  Wooden beds are a great choice for children’s bedrooms, as they are the most durable of all beds.  Most children’s bunk beds are constructed from wood, as wood is tough and not easily bendable (other than the slats if ‘jumped’ on).  Solid wooden beds can be fairly expensive, but they are worth every penny.  Some wooden beds are available with carved detailing, perfect for any traditional bedrooms.  White wooden beds are usually found in guest rooms, as they look clean and modern.

Functionality

Many beds are designed to be functional, ie they have storage underneath or the added bonus of a spare bed underneath, or even a desk area underneath.  Nowadays you can even buy a bed which houses your flat screen TV.

Price factor

Price factor can be the determining factor of which bed you choose.  We suggest shopping around for the latest deals.  Most good bedroom furniture retailers have an all year sale on, offering you great savings all year round.  Bed SOS is just one example of a competitive bedroom furniture retailer, devoted to offering you the best possible savings.

Don’t just settle for the cheapest of cheap when it comes to purchasing your bed.  Evaluate what material the bed is constructed from, and summarise what the best possible buy is available to you.  Using the above tips may help you choose the right bed for your home.