Public Designs

Funky Bathroom Furniture

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:46:09 +0000

There’s a new trend developing amongst consumers out there, who are all looking to create better bathrooms for themselves with funky bathroom furniture.

Bathroom Furniture can come in many styles, shapes and colours, meaning there is a wealth of choice out there for you to pick from. Ranging from the standard storage unit to space saving WC vanity unit combinations, the choices are great at this time.

The vanity unit normally comprises of a storage unit with drawers or internal shelving and a basin unit at the top of the unit. They can come either as wall hung or floor mounted and can be a great way to add storage space into your bathroom without taking too much room. The idea is that instead of having a basin and pedestal the plumbing is hidden internally in the unit, which does take away some of the internal room, but you will still have the shelving around the plumbing to hide away toiletries and such.

A real space saver is the combination unit, which incorporates a Vanity unit and wc unit with a back to the wall toilet and concealed cistern. This gives you 1 block unit which has your toilet, basin and storage space, with the plumbing tucked away under the outer casing. These units often have a short projection toilet, which makes this type of installation a great space saver in the more modest sized bathroom or en-suite. Not only are these great for space saving, they can look fantastic giving real added value to your bathroom. There are some great styles of combination units out on the market place, with classic walnut wood effect to glossy white finished units. The internet is a great place to start looking, with many companies out there offering this type of unit, in all manner of styles and colours. I’ve found a great walnut combination unit at www.betterbathrooms.com which was a slim like model, the wood finish on the unit was perfect for the look and feel of my bathroom and was pre-assembled, so installation was relatively easy.

Another great way to save space in the bathroom is to install a mirrored bathroom cabinet, also known as a medicine cabinet, these combine shelving with mirrored doors. This means that you are gaining some valuable shelf space behind your mirror. It’s a great place to hide away items which you don’t want young hands to reach, as these cabinets are often mounted at head height so that the mirror is best place for use. The cabinet can also add an extra feeling of space within the bathroom as the mirror reflects the light around giving the illusion of more room.

Bathroom Design

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:28:18 +0000

Bathrooms are an essential part of any home. When considering what type of bathroom suites you require, you have to look at the style of your house, and more importantly, the room you have to fill.

There are lots of bathroom websites and showrooms out there so shopping around is always a good idea. Find your style that fits you, and then get a suite to fit the room. Look out for great deals, but don’t get so overwhelmed with them that you end up with a bath tub that won’t fit your room!

The key thing to remember is to measure the space once, then measure it again. It’s surprising how often people only do 1 measurement and when their bathroom arrives find out that it doesn’t fit. This can be a costly mistake so measure 2-3 times just to make sure.

One thing to look out for when buying online or offline, is a classic trick used by companies who offer free delivery, but bump up the prices of their products to reflect this, so again, shop around and work out your best deal, as it won’t always be the one’s offering free delivery or free extras. Ultimately your bathroom is a long term investment and will ultimately add significant value to your property, if done correctly!

How many of use have gone to look round a new property and been put off by an aubergine suite, and grotty tiles?!

Adding features to a bathroom is where you get your main style, a bath tub with traditional taps and embossed square looking bath panels will make the bath look traditional, where as smooth lines and funky taps will give a more modern look. So use these types of features to add your character, even colourful toilet seats can be used to personalise your suite if white isn’t your thing.

However, don’t get put off looking at endless rows of white items which all start to look the same. A good way to do this is by going to showrooms, and seeing how suites look in a bathroom environment, this can also help in working out what style you want for your bathroom. Not all of us have the time to go out and visit showrooms and a lot of websites offer good life style images showing how their bathrooms look.

Once you have chosen your bathroom suite and measured and measured again, its time to get your new bathroom into your home. Check out our plumbing forums for some helpful insight. The main thing is, whatever style you go for, make sure you enjoy your bathroom!

Wedding Day Invitations

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:50:48 +0000

Send out unique wedding invitations to your guests for them to be excited on your wedding day.

How to Decorate Your Office for Christmas

Jaimyn Chang — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:49:49 +0000

The way your office is set up, organized, and decorated shows a lot about you to other people. When the jolly ol’ Christmas season roles around, it’s important to show that you care by decorating your office using some creativity. Don’t overdo, just decorate enough to let people know you love the most wonderful time of the year.

First, choose appropriate colors. Since not every person celebrates Christmas, try choosing other colors besides red and green. Black and white always blend and so do purple and blue. For instance, hang a few blue and white snow flakes around the doorknobs and on the Christmas tree (we’ll get to that).

Second, be sure to hang ornaments from the ceiling in places where they will not accidentally bump into peoples’ heads. It’s best to put them on the ceilings of lounges or lobbies, since the traffic is usually slower and more relaxed in those locations. If you hang decorations from the ceiling of your office itself, people often overlook them and find them to be a nuisance.

Third, be sure to use ribbons and bows. Use ribbons to hang the ornaments and place bows around your desk. Let your imagination go and find some other original places to put them.

Also, you can place ornaments in wine glasses if you have a coffee table or something of the sort in your office. Ornaments don’t always have to be hanging.

Lastly, don’t forget to have a small tree. A large one is always noticed and quickly taken for granted, while a small one is cute and appreciated more, especially among females. Add a few ornaments and maybe even a Santa hat on the top.

Try out some of these things and mix it up with some of your own ideas! Let us know how your office decorations go as well.

Happy Holidays!

Simple Ways to Decorate for Christmas!

Jaimyn Chang — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:22:32 +0000

Despite the fact that many of us have very little time and energy at the end of our day to actually decorate for Christmas, there are many easy things you can do that will add a ton of Christmas feel to your home!

By following these tips, you’ll be able to get a few compliments on your decorations and also enjoy the holiday.

1. Bows!

Tie bows wherever you can. Behind chairs, around the base of candles, the handles on your laundry baskets, and doorknobs.
Make sure your themes and color schemes go together. Red and green are obviously the most festive. Silver and gold are nice add-ons.
Also, with ribbons, buy ones that are easy to tie and un-tie. This will save you a lot of time as the years pass.
Make sure that you keep everything loose; that is, make sure that your bows and ribbons are not tied incredibly tight. You want your home to feel welcoming and relaxing.
This is an excellent article on how to make your own floral bows which should help you a lot.

2. Use holiday tableware throughout the month of December.

Dishes and any festive silverware will always help the decor.
Purchase a few place settings that are related to Christmas.

3. Keep the lights dim.

Eat dinner by candlelight. Not only will this put you in the Christmas mood, but it will also save your electricity bill!
Place candles in the bathrooms. This always adds a nice touch and guests always comment on them.

4. Wreaths!

Place wreaths on your front door to welcome guests.
Be sure to use real holly.
Artificial wreaths can be bought in large quantities (cheaper) and last a lot longer.

So try out a few of these and let us know how they work out for you! Let us know if you have any suggestions as well.

Happy Holidays!

How to Convert Your Garage into a Guest Room

Jaimyn Chang — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:24:19 +0000

Garage space can be converted into a variety of things, in this case, a guest room. Before you start remodeling your garage into a guest room, make sure the building codes in your area let you do so.

Some of the benefits of doing this include:

Obviously, more living space.
Your home should be less disrupted, due to the fact that you’ll be working in an enclosed area.
You will save tons of money because you won’t need to lay a new foundation. This excess money could go to decorating the interior of the guest room once it is completed.

Be sure to submit any building plans your city may require for approval. Some communities also have restrictions on covered car parkings. If this is true in your case, you may want to only convert a portion of your garage to a guest room.

Steps to Success:

Remove the large garage door. Don’t forget to disassemble cables and other wires that may have been used to automatically open and close the door.
Build a new wall to cover for the old garage door. Make sure your design flows; keep window shapes and other aspects of your home true to your new guest room.
Be sure to insulate the new wall. Typically, garages are not insulated, or are insulated poorly. Add the insulation before putting up the drywall.
Add your closet now if you want your room to have one.
Also add lighting fixtures and other electrical applications.
In order to make your guest room look like a part of the rest of the house, it might be in your best interest to change the door from the garage to the main house.
Paint the interior. Begin thinking about new furniture and other accessories you’ll be adding.
Due to the fact that many garages have concrete floors, you’ll want to add a carpet so your guests don’t complain of the cool temperature.

Tweek anything you may need to in order to make the guest room special and you are finished! Throw a party and invite some of your friends and relatives to spend the night!

Boarded Solidfloors

Jaimyn Chang — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:47:39 +0000

Most floorcoverings, including woodblock flooring, can be bonded directly to a dry, smooth, screeded floor, but floorboards cannot be directly bonded and so must be fixed by other means.

The boards are nailed down to 50 x 50mm (2 x 2in) softwood battens, or bearers. These battens are embedded in the concrete while it is wet or are fixed to metal clips which are already implanted in the concrete. In either case the timber must be treated with a wood preserver. A damp- proof membrane (DPM) must be incorporated, usually in the form of a continuous coat of bituminous material sandwiched within the slab.

This means of fixing requires the slab to be level and relatively smooth. The flanges of the clips are pressed into the surface of the concrete before it sets, while a marked guide batten is used to space the clips and align them in rows. The rows are normally set 400mm (1ft 4in) apart to centres, starting 50mm

These are splayed in section so as to key into the concrete slab. Again, the slab is built up in two layers with the DPM sandwiched between them. Before the top layer or screed is laid, the treated battens are positioned at 400mm (1ft 4in) centres and levelled on dabs of concrete. Strips of wood are nailed across them temporarily to hold them in position. When the dabs of concrete are set and the battens firmly held, the wood strips are removed and the top layer of concrete is poured and compacted. It is levelled with a rule that is notched to fit over the battens. As the rule is drawn along the battens, it finishes the concrete 12mm (1/2in) below their top edges. When the concrete layer is fully dry the boards are nailed on the battens in the conventional way.

Flooring-grade chipboard is a relatively recent innovation as a material for boarding over a solid floor. It is quicker and cheaper to lay than a floor made of boards. Chipboard flooring is also more stable and it can be laid without being fixed to the concrete slab.

This technique produces a floor of the type known as a ‘floating floor’. The simplest floor of this kind is laid with 18mm (3/4in) tongue-and-groove chipboard, either the standard grade or the moisture-resistant type.

First a sheet of insulating material such as rigid polystyrene or fibreboard is laid on the concrete slab; then a vapour barrier of polyethylene sheet is laid above the polystyrene. The vapour barrier must be a continuous sheet, with its edges turned up and trapped behind the skirting boards. The chipboard, glued edge to edge, is then laid on the vapour barrier.

Battens can be incorporated in a floating floor. Lengths of 50 x 50mm (2 x 2in) softwood, treated with a preserver, are spaced at 400mm (lft 4in) intervals for 18mm (3/4in) chipboard; for heavy-gauge 22mm (7/8in) material they are spaced 600mm (2ft) apart. A quilt- type sheet of insulating material is laid on the concrete slab, then covered with a polyethylene vapour barrier. The battens are positioned on the insulation, held together temporarily with strips of wood nailed across them. Tongue-and groove chipboard is laid at right angles to the battens and glued at the edges before it is nailed down.

The chipboard flooring is held in place by its own weight and by the skirting boards, which are nailed to the walls round its edges. The skirting boards also cover a 9mm gap between the chipboard and the walls, allowing for expansion across the floor.

Most floorcoverings, including woodblock flooring, can be bonded directly to a dry, smooth, screeded floor, but floorboards cannot be directly bonded and so must be fixed by other means.

DIY: Laying Chipboard Flooring

Jaimyn Chang — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:36:22 +0000

For a floor that is going to be invisible beneath some kind of covering — vinyl, cork, fitted carpet or whatever — chipboard is an excellent material. It can be laid relatively quickly and is much cheaper than an equivalent amount of timber flooring. It comes square- edged or tongued and grooved. Each has its own laying technique.

All the edges of square-edged sheet flooring must be supported. Lay the boards with their long edges along the joists and nail 75 x 50mm (3 x 2in) softwood noggings between the joists to support the ends of the boards. The noggings against the wall can be inserted in advance; those supporting joints between boards must be nailed into place as the boards are laid.

Start with a full-length board in one corner and lay a row of boards the length of the room, cutting the last one to fit as required. Leave an expansion gap of about 9mm (Min) between the

Tongue-and-groove boards are laid with their long edges running across the joists. Noggings are required only to support the outer edges close to the walls. The ends of the boards are supported by joists.

Working from one corner, lay the first board with its grooved edges about 9mm (Min) from the walls and nail it in place. Apply PVA wood adhesive to the joint along the end of the first board, then lay the next one in the row. Knock it up to the first board with a hammer for a good close joint, protecting the edge with a piece of scrap wood. Nail outer edges of the boards and the walls. The boards’ inner edges should fall on the centre line of a joist. If necessary cut the boards to width, but remove the waste from the edges closest to the wall, preserving the machine-cut edges to make neat butt joints with the next row of boards. Nail down the boards, using 50mm (2in) ring-shank nails spaced about 300mm (1ft) apart along the joists and noggings. Place the nails about 18mm (3/4in) from the board edges.

Cut and lay the remainder of the boards with the end joints staggered on alternate rows.

Continue in this way across the floor, gluing all of the joints as you go. Cut boards to fit at the ends of rows or to fall on the centre of a joist, and stagger end joints on alternate rows.

Finally, fit the skirting boards, which will cover the expansion gaps around the perimeter of the floor.

If you wish to, you can seal the surface of the chipboard with two coats of clear polyurethane varnish to protect it from dirt.

Start with a full-length board in one corner and lay a row of boards the length of the room, cutting the last one to fit as required. Leave an expansion gap of about 9mm (Min) between them.

Cut and lay the remainder of the boards with the end joints staggered on alternate rows.

Continue in this way across the floor, gluing all of the joints as you go. Cut boards to fit at the ends of rows or to fall on the centre of a joist, and stagger end joints on alternate rows.

Finally, fit the skirting boards, which will cover the expansion gaps around the perimeter of the floor.

If you wish to, you can seal the surface of the chipboard with two coats of clear polyurethane varnish to protect it from dirt.

Home Improvement: Spiral Balances

Jaimyn Chang — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:04:26 +0000

Instead of counterweights and cords, modern sash windows use spiral balances which are mounted on the faces of the frame stiles, eliminating the need for traditional box frames. Pairs of balances are made to match the size and weight of individual glazed sashes and can be ordered through builders’ merchants or by post from the manufacturers.

Each balance consists of a torsion spring and a spiral rod housed in a tube. The top end is fixed to the frame stile and the inner spiral to the bottom of the sash. The complete unit can be housed in a groove in the sash stile or in the window frame.

You can fit spiral sash balances to replace the weights in a traditionally constructed sash window.

Remove the sashes and weigh them on your bathroom scales. Place your order, giving the weight of each sash together with its height and width, plus the height of the window frame. Refit the sashes temporarily until the balances arrive, then take them out again and remove the pulleys.

Plug the holes and paint the box- frame stiles. Cut grooves, as specified by the manufacturers, in the stiles of each sash to take the balances (1). Also cut a housing at each end of their bottom edges to receive the spiral-rod fixing plates. Fit the fixing plates with screws (2).

Sit the top sash in place, resting it on the sill, and fit the parting bead. Take the top pair of balances, which are shorter than those for the bottom sash, and locate each in its groove (3). Fix the top ends of the balance tubes to the frame stiles with the screw nails provided (4) and set the ends tight against the head.

Lift the sash to its full height and prop it with a length of wood. Hook the wire ‘key’ provided by the makers into the hole in the end of each spiral rod and pull each one down about 150mm (6in). Keeping the tension on the spring, add three to five turns anti-clockwise (5). Locate the end of each rod in its fixing plate and test the balance of the sash. If it drops, add another turn on the springs until it is perfectly balanced. Take care not to overwind the balances.

Fit the bottom sash in the same way, refitting the staff bead to hold it in place. Fit the stops that limit the full travel of the sashes in their respective tracks.

In time the springs of spiral balances may weaken. Re-tension them by unhooking the spiral rods from their fixing plates, then turn the rods anticlockwise once or twice.

The mechanisms can be serviced by releasing the tension and unwinding the rods from the tubes. Wipe them clean and apply a little thin oil, then rewind the rods back into the tubes and tension them.

You can fit spiral sash balances to replace the weights in a traditionally constructed sash window.

Fit the bottom sash in the same way, refitting the staff bead to hold it in place. Fit the stops that limit the full travel of the sashes in their respective tracks.

In time the springs of spiral balances may weaken. Re-tension them by unhooking the spiral rods from their fixing plates, then turn the rods anticlockwise once or twice.

The mechanisms can be serviced by releasing the tension and unwinding the rods from the tubes. Wipe them clean and apply a little thin oil, then rewind the rods back into the tubes and tension them.

How to Re-cord a Sash Window

Jaimyn Chang — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:02:13 +0000

In time, the sash cords from which the sashes are suspended will wear and eventually break. Replace both cords even if only one has broken.

Waxed sash cording is normally sold in standard hanks, although some suppliers sell it by the metre. Each sash requires two lengths of cord, measuring about three-quarters the height of the window. Do not cut it to length beforehand.

Lower both sashes and cut through the cords with a knife to release the weights. Hold on to the cords and lower the weights as far as possible before allowing them to drop.

Use a wide-bladed paint scraper to prise off the side staff beads from inside the frame, bending them in the middle until their mitred ends spring out.

Lean the inner sash towards you and mark the ends of the cord grooves on the face of the sash stiles (1).

Reposition the sash and carry the marks on to the pulley stiles. The sash can now be pulled clear of the frame.

Carefully prise out the two parting beads from their grooves in the stiles. You can then remove the top sash, after marking the ends of the grooves as before. Place the sashes safely aside.

To gain access to the weights, take out the pocket pieces which were trapped by the parting bead and lift the weights out through the openings.

Pieces of thin wood known as parting strips are usually suspended inside the box stiles to separate each pair of weights. Push the strips aside to reach the outer weights.

Remove the old sash cords from the weights and sashes, and clean up the wood ready for the new cords.

The top sash is fitted first, but not before all the sash cords and weights are in place. Clean away any build-up of paint from the pulleys. Tie a length of fine string to one end of the hank of sash cording. Weight the other end of the string with small nuts or a piece of chain. Thread the weight, known as a mouse, over a pulley (2) and pull the string through the pocket opening until the cord is pulled through. Attach the end of the cord to the weight with a special knot.

Pull on the cord to hoist the weight up to the pulley, then let it drop back about 100mm (4in). Hold it temporarily in this position with a nail just below the pulley. Cut the cord level with the mark on the pulley stile (3). Repeat this procedure for the cord on the other side, and similarly for the bottom sash.

Replace the top sash on the sill, lean it towards you and locate its cords in the grooves in the stiles. Nail the cords in place, using three or four 25mm (1 in) round wire nails. Nail only the bottom 150mm (6in), not all the way up (4). Lift the sash to check that the weights do not touch bottom.

Replace the pocket pieces and pin the parting beads in their grooves. Fit the bottom sash in the same way. Finally replace the staff beads, taking care to position them accurately or you may trap the bottom sash.