Monday, 18 August 2008

Occasional Furniture Store 247

What is occasional furniture? Is it only furniture part of the time? Of course not, occasional furniture is furniture that you only use now and then as opposed to a sofa, used everyday.

So what comes under the term occasional furniture? There are coffee tables for use when you have a hot drink, TV units, lamp tables for a lamp and bookcases to store all your books for when you get a chance to read them. Also computer desks come under the term occasional furniture.

Furniture Store 247 has a wide range of occasional furniture. Their coffee tables come in a variety of sizes to suit most living rooms.

The Oakleigh range covers a complete set of matching occasional furniture in Solid Ash with a light oak finish including a small hi-fi unit.

For those who prefer the look of reclaimed oak there is the Petersburg range.

The Alexander Oak collection provides a modern alternative to reclaimed oak.

The Montana oak TV cabinet and coffee table provide a more traditional alternative.

The use of Indian Hardwood in the Indian cube range creates a modern look that would still suit a traditional living area. This range includes a TV cabinet, a coffee trunk table. A nest of tables as well as a selection of cubes to be used as bookshelves but also are themselves a feature to use in your living room.

The great thing is most of these furniture ranges have matching occasional furniture to compliment it and it's all available at furniture store 247.

Why do we need king size beds?

When it comes to buying a new bed, there is huge amount of choice on the market. There are two big decisions to be made before rushing out to buy. Firstly there is the size of bed and secondly the type of bed. Only once this is decided can you look at the different styles and themes.

Sizes
There is a broad range of sizes of beds, smallest there is the single bed, this suits a smaller room and generally one person or a child.

The next step up is the often called a ¾ bed it is 4ft and is generally for a single person wanting a bit more space, for a small room or it can be used for two people but tends to be a bit of a squeeze.

Then we have the standard double bed at 4ft 6, the king size at 5ft and the super king size at 6ft. What is the need you might ask for such large beds? Some see king size beds as a luxury but in a large master bedroom a small double can be dwarfed by large accessories like a large wardrobe. More and more people are opting for a king size bed as bedding manufacturers catch up with this trend and begin to create suitable bedding.

Types
There are two main types of bed, the frame bed and the divan.

Divans have advantages and disadvantages. On one hand a divan is good for storage and sometimes breaks into smaller parts, on the other hand it is sometimes bulky and is easily snagged and stained.

The frame bed provides many advantages it can be constructed in the room where you want it to be. Its easy to keep clean, you can choose the mattress separately and it can tie in with other furniture in the room, for example if you purchased a bedroom set a divan may look out of place.

So before you go shopping for a new bed, have a think about what size and type of bed suits your needs. Then why not have a search online and check out our furniture store.

Friday, 15 August 2008

The Perfect Dinner Party

Invitations
Send out Invitations early to give your guests a week to RSVP and also give a date to RSVP by. This will give you time to finalize the menu and seating arrangements. But, don’t send out the invitations too early otherwise your guests may forget about your event by the time it takes place. A good solution to this could be a quick email or phone call to remind them

Decoration
Keep decoration tasteful, one colour and white always works well and make sure everything matches. A flowery old tablecloth is not the best answer to dinner party decoration. Try to have matching cutlery and plates. The quality is not as important as long as it matches it tends to look ok. If you lack matching cutlery you could try a theme of mismatched items and possibly try something mismatched with the menu like an unusual combination.

Dining Table
Try to ensure that the dining table is of an adequate size as overcrowded guests may be unhappy guests and the dining table needs room for serving, if space is an issue you could make use of a sideboard as a desserts table. Alternatively consider investing in an extendable dining table which can be used for family dining day to day and extended for dinner party use.

Menu
The best advice is to keep it simple, there’s nothing worse than a host fussing over food and leaving the guests to fend for themselves. Prepare a desert and starter if possible earlier in the day and leave only a few things to do once the guest arrives. It is usually expected that the main course will require some cooking but again ensuring you have prepared as much as possible leaves you free to spend more time with guests.

Seating
Ensure you have enough dining chairs to seat all your guests. Sitting on the stool from the kitchen is not fun. Plus the unfortunate guest ends up appearing taller than ever. Consider a seating plan to avoid a talkative and quiet end of the table, encourage new people to talk to each other; an interesting centrepiece could be an icebreaker for communication.

If you have run through this quick checklist and discovered an extendable table is the answer to your dinner party needs or you are looking for a new dining set then have a quick look at http://www.furniturestore247.co.uk with a great range of furniture options.

Dining Room Dilemmas

It has to be said that when we look around houses built recently there seems to be something missing… A dining room. Dining rooms are commonplace in old Victorian style properties but seem to be lacking in the building of modern houses replaced by a space in the corner of a living room or kitchen. Many people now don’t even own a dining room set, they are content to eat their meals from the kitchen counter or sat on the sofa, a lack of a dining room means people can’t physically eat at the same time due to lack of space. Mealtimes used to be a social time, a catch up of the days events. Without a dining room the chance to discuss the day and chat disappears into watching the news or a soap.

When they do exist Dining rooms raise issues for homeowners. Should they furnish it within the style of the property using Traditional style Dining tables or use a modern style dining room set or even a breakfast bar.

When furnishing a dining room, people often think what else can I put in the dining room apart from a table, the space is often seen as a wasted space. Sideboards fill this empty space, look good and provide handy storage for all the cutlery and plates while they are not in use. The sideboards provide space for the display of ornaments and family pictures which would look out of space elsewhere

A lack of a dining room can often be problematic for homeowners, often there is no room for a dining table. One solution to this problem can be the use of extendable tables. These can be opened out for meal times and folded away to save space in the corner of a kitchen or living room. Another solution could be the use of a breakfast bar which are generally smaller and take up less room.

So, if a dining room exists there exists a great deal of choice to fill the space and if there is no dining room, extendable tables provide a great alternative to sitting on the sofa and eating your meal off a tray.

Friday, 27 June 2008

The Oakleigh Furniture Range

The Oakleigh furniture range is a very versatile and popular furniture range available on the market today.

Oakleigh is so popular that the range covers many different furniture aspects. Unlike many ranges which concentrate often on bedroom sets, or dining sets, or even occasional and lounge furnishings; the Oakleigh range covers all of these.

Made from solid ash the Oakleigh furniture range is plain yet stylish and has a very traditional, even country look to it. No furniture items in the Oakleigh Furniture range are veneered and this makes the furniture versatile as it can be varnished, stained, painted or left as it is (which is a fine option as it already looks great). Handles (on those furniture items that have them) are made brushed steel offering a simple yet stylish finish to the items.

The fact that the Oakleigh range covers bedroom furniture, dining room furniture, loung
e and occasional furniture means that you can mix and match the items and create very unique looks. Want a desk for you lounge area? The dressers from the Oakleigh bedroom range are perfect for this use and there are several different styles that will compliment your other Oakleigh furniture. The Oakleigh display cabinets will match perfectly in a bedroom, lounge or hallway. The storage cabinets won’t look out of place in any room with matching Oakleigh furnishings, the possibilities are endless.

Furniturestore247.co.uk offers a huge selection of furniture from the Oakleigh rang
e. We stock bedroom furniture such as beds, wardrobes and bedside tables. We have lounge and occasion furniture such as display cabinets, TV units and storage units and we have dining tables and sideboards.

So if you are looking for a versatile, quality and stylish range of furniture, one which you can tailor to your needs, then check out the Oakleigh furniture range at furniturestore247.co.uk.

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

Dining Room Chairs....... Everywhere!

Dining room chairs. They’re very simple and standard piece of dining room furniture; a core part really. If you have a dining room (and yes, some people don’t) then you’re going to have dining chairs and if not well you’re probably going to need them.

So what choices are there out there? Well that’s the thing, there are so many. Assuming you don’t need an entire dining room suite and you have the dining table already and maybe even sideboards, then you need the right chairs to compliment them.

Surely it can’t be that hard though? Well that’s the thing; buying new dining chairs can be easy, assuming you aren’t to concerned what they look like. The thing is almost all of us do care. We all tend to have very specific tastes and want our house to look like our ideal image. So much so that we’ll often not buy that matching dining table and chairs as we only like the look of the dining table, or the dining chairs.

One such influence on why we have these newer ideals is media input. Shows we see on TV demonstrate different ways and styles to make you home look special and unique, or even ways to spiritually harmonise your rooms.

Back to the dining chairs where do we start? Well you have your different materials to start with; wood or metal? If it’s wood are we looking for hardwood, ash, oak, pine beech or something else, even within those there are different types of oak and hardwood, and of course do we want these veneered or natural?

Metal has a few less choices as typically it will be a chrome effect or perhaps a brushed aluminium finish. Of course there are also combinations of metal and wood dining chairs, just to make things more varied.

Then there is the upholstering. It’s rare a dining chair is going to be simply wood or metal. You have various materials such from leather, suede and cotton, to leather-look and faux leather.

Finally the design, do you go for classic, contemporary, modern, retro or something in between? The amount of designs available in dining room chairs in almost limitless, so having an idea of what you want will always help point you in the right direction.

So to sum up, yes it can be daunting finding the right dining chairs, but the reason is because the wealth of choice and having such an open palette to choose from can only be a good thing as it allows you to add that individual stamp to your dining room.

For a vast range of dining chairs visit www.furniturestore247.co.uk. Our stock includes wooden and metal frames, with various styles upholstery (our leather look Guinness Chairs are one of our best sellers and very popular) and chair designs to suit your needs.