We like free ways to help the environment and this is a great one. If you have a toilet at home or work that has just the one flush setting then you need a Save – a – flush. This nifty bag expands when it’s put into the cistern and diplaces 1 litre of water everytime you flush. Incredibly that adds up to 35, 000 cups of tea a year!
Water companies generally give these away for free, eg Severn Trent Water, United Utilities. To find your supplier then click here and grab your freebie.
tuiss bamboo blinds are not only beautiful but tick the eco-credential box in a big way.
Bamboo is the uber sustainable wonder product. A few quick facts for you. It grows incredibly fast, some species grow one and a half meters a day. A softwood can take 10-20 years to mature, while bamboo can be harvested in 3-5 years. Bamboo will also release 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees and absorbs far more carbon dioxide. (All facts courtesy of the Environmental Bamboo Foundation.)
Choosing a bamboo blind keeps it stylish and it’s kind to the environment. There are five blinds in the range from the lightest chalk through to deepest darkest walnut. Keep it light and airy with the kirin or play to the nigra’s dark side with a cutting edge exclusive look. Our stylist and photographer have produced these beautiful shots that showcase the blinds perfectly.
Kirin
Kitsune
Honey
Shu
Nigra
Kirin :: This bleached timber has a fine and delicate grain. The colour hues vary from pale chalky cream through to an extremely soft and fine light grey, adding just a touch of texture.
Kitsune :: The combination of grain and small knot feature gives this paler blind real character. The colour is distinctive and varies from pale straw tones through to light brown.
Shu :: The wooden Shu blind is beautifully grained from the darkest hazelnut lightening through to soft caramel. This blind will bring sophistication wherever it is used.
Nigra :: This blind, reminiscent of dark walnut has a lovely interlocking grain texture which includes a harmonising light brown that gives this blind just a touch of brightness.
Honey :: The classic Bamboo Honey blind is a colour similar to a traditionally stained pine. The grain of this blind is brought to life with slight waves and the occasional knot detail.
I have never seen one of these before, but how beautiful. This salt lamp is available from Natural Collection and is handcrafted from the crystalline salt of the Northern Punjab mountains.
The mineral lamp freshens the air around it by neutralising the positively charged ions present in stale air. This can help people with asthma, allergies as well as promoting better sleep. As if that wasn’t enough the lamp can also work to combat lethargy in a similar way to fresh, salty sea air.
For more information see this blog post at Natural Cures.
Ghost takes furniture that has had a hard life and heaps tender loving care onto them. The results speak for themselves, items that may have ended up in a skip now make outstanding designer pieces.
Very cleverly Ghost have given the background to each of their unique pieces, I just had to include these happy ending stories!
This poor battered lady was found at a Flea Market in Paris. She had been knocked about a bit and was crying out for some TLC. Finished in Designer's Guild Kingfisher and treated with Ghost’s special smooth wax finish. A vintage collar has been stiffened and fixed to the bust. A beautiful vintage brooch with lily of the valley in the centre and a silver frame has been pinned to the collar.
We found this curvy and very sexy antique chair in an old barn in France. It had seen better days and was crying out for some TLC. Finished in a milk chocolate coloured paint it still needed a lift so we decided to wrap it in gold just like you would a chocolate. The seat has been upholstered in a delicious satin, striped in green/gold and chocolate and tied to the uprights at the back with the same fabric.
This fabulous farmhouse chair with a perfect rush seat was found in a cellar of a medieval house just outside Paris. The chair has been painted in Fired Earth Verde Antique and the ornate floral carvings in Fired Earth Rose Mallow Farrow and Ball Red Earth with the scroll details in Farrow and Ball Mouses Back.
Exactly what it says. This antique oak footstool was found in a large house clearance in Northumberland. Beautifully made with little turned legs. An old plaster cast of part of a gladiator's foot in a Roman sandal has been fixed to the top of the stool - yes that makes it a Foot Stool.
This has to be one of the strangest, slash creepy, yet weirdly beautiful things I have seen in a long time!
These white bud vases are made from a reclaimed sherry glass with an imprisoned toy animal trapped inside the heat-shrink skin. Made by Studiomold Design in Cambridgeshire.
The impression of the imprisoned animal is just visible, frozen in rubber forever!
Each vase is hand made using found animals so every one is totally unique.
What an easy way to reduce the amount of plastics that you need to recycle. Give dispenser soap a miss and go back to basics with a bar of soap. Forget horrific green carbolic though, today’s soaps smell good and feel good. Washing your hands becomes a luxurious and sensuous treat.
Maybe the only drawback of a bar a soap is sogginess. Fear no more though, solve it easily by buying a soap dish. Even the soap dishes are now gorgeous…
Pure Nuff Stuff soap with a revitalising blend of tea tree and stimulating peppermint
Fresh and uplifting scents of lemon, orange, tangerine and lemongrass
Vegan, organic and minimal packaging, pretty too, a great soap from Simply Soaps
Marino magnetic soap holder by Zach
Lasts for years but will biodegrade in months!
Soap dishes just got all masculine!
Christmas is approaching! Why not forget disposable advent calendars this year and choose a calendar that you can use year after year? Children and adults alike can have just as much fun with reusable calendars. Delight in discovering little notes, sweets and gifts in the pockets, pouches, buckets and drawers of these calendars.
Christmas is also the perfect time for giving rooms a quick update. We are a little biased but hanging a new blind or set of curtains really is a fantastic way to create a fresh look! Who’s got time for painting and decorating so close to the beginning of the festivities? All our blinds and curtains are made to measure, superb quality and will look fantastic for many Christmases to come.
Create you own festive activities on each daily card!
Handmade in a small backstreet of Kathmandu
Very cute gingerbread man with red hanging ribbon
Gorgeous bright Nordic look, can be personalised too
Get creative! Make your own advent calendar
Made from felt by a small cooperative in Nepal.
Choose your own gifts with this stylish calendar
Just fantastic!
Rustic rusty tins on a string
Gorgeous pixie in advent dress
As the temperature drops so our homes get chillier and the heating gets turned on or up. If we’re not careful though we fight a losing battle as precious heat escapes through ill-fitting doors and un-insulated cavity walls. Don’t be glum though, tuiss can help!
The tuiss range of ‘NRG’ energy saving roller blinds tackles the heat loss from your windows. Even the best performing windows lose five times as much heat as the same area of wall, reducing this loss is a very wise move.
An NRG blind has a special thermal coating on its rear that keeps the heat in and the elements out. All three ranges of NRG blinds offer significant environmental and cost benefits, just choose the blind that best suits your interiors scheme. The most thermally efficient blinds are from the NRG15 range, the energy saved is 15%, that’s £133 per year saved off your energy bill and in your pocket instead.
If you want to conserve energy, save money and lower your carbon footprint you may as well do it with style, click here to see the full range of tuiss NRG roller blinds.
(By the way investing in double glazing only offers a similar energy saving*. These blinds really are very impressive and for a fraction of the outlay.)*data from the Energy Saving Trust.
Legno NRG12 Tortoise
Index NRG12 Storm
Eclat NRG12 Aluminium
Simple NRG11 Oatmeal
I am loving the reestore website. It’s bright, breezy and fun. It was their silvana light that caught my eye, take one old washing machine drum, clean it up a bit and hey presto a pretty funky light. Other cunning ‘restores’ are supermarket trolleys, aeroplane wings and bits of old gearboxes.xx
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Reestore’s most popular product bar none is silvana, producing a beautiful ambient glow and casting beams of light from her polished stainless steel body. Finished with a frosted glass surface for mug resting heaven.
Take one washing machine drum...
...and transform into funky side table...
...and lamp, 100% reestored eco style
This time take one oil drum and magic into a comfy seat
Take some waste pipe from your local building site
Oh go on then, take another oil drum
I like to think that for once I was at the very front of something, very much an early adopter. I’m talking reusable shopping bags, for years I dumb-founded shopping assistants by producing some canvas bag or other and rejecting their bag. Now of course it’s common place to see shoppers carrying a variety of reusable bags. There are huge environmental benefits* to using reusable bags, it’s a no-brainer thing that you can easily do that has a massively good impact.
It can take awhile to become accustomed to always having a bag on you so here’s my top tips:
Once you’re into it you’ll realise that there are other benefits besides the green ones. You’ll no longer have the ‘bag of bags’ in your house that grows and grows, spilling out errant plastic bags if you as much as glance at it. No more hands rubbed raw from plastic handles. Plus save a huge amount of time packing away your groceries in the supermarket.
I am now rarely without a bag and if I am caught short then I simply stuff the items into my handbag or carry said items in my arms while holding the receipt aloft!
*To become all knowing about the environmental issues around plastic bags go to Bag-ne-sia, Earth Resource Foundation or Plastic bag free.
Organic hemp cotton bag with coconut shell buttons
Fold out brushed cotton tote with leather bottom
4 polyester bags in a handy bag with trolley token
Polyester bag with integral strawberry pouch
Made from parachute material and stuffs into a pouch
Pretty bag packs away into a matching case
Lightweight polyester, portable and waterproof
Stuffs down small into its own pouch
Ethically produced jute bag from the Red Cross
