(United Kingdom – 14th May 2012) UK Flooring Direct has over 25 years of experience in the flooring industry and boasts a wealth of knowledge on everything there is to know in the business. In the current economic climate, homeowners are on the lookout for money saving opportunities and for UK Flooring Direct customers there is plenty of chance to save thanks to their competitive prices. www.ukflooringdirect.co.uk features an eclectic range of flooring products. From solid wood to cork flooring and everything in between, homeowners have an abundance of options to choose from. With spring sprung, many are taking the opportunity to transform the look in their home for less.

UK Flooring Direct is the UK’s largest online supplier of flooring. The team understand the importance of high quality products and take pride in being a brand that customers can trust. The 14 Day Money Back Guarantee gives customers the peace of mind that the quality of their new floor will be of a very high standard.

The independent customer reviews prove that customers are happy customers but to ensure that all UK Flooring Direct customers are confident in the products they purchase, the flooring specialists have put a money back guarantee in place which ensures that they can return their products without any quibbles.

For more information on the flooring products available at UK Flooring Direct and to find out more about the 14 Day Money Back Guarantee, simply visit UKFlooringDirect.co.uk. Alternatively, navigate straight to the site by clicking this link to browse solid wood, laminate and engineered flooring products.

Monday, May 7 is a Bank Holiday, so naturally the forecast calls for rain. According to Netweather, temperatures could drop as low as -9C in some parts of the country as artic-like winds make their way across it.

If the idea this weekend was for a BBQ or a spot of gardening, then perhaps it’s time for a change of plan. Instead look to shelter your garden belongings for brighter days.

A garden shed is the obvious storage saviour for items like bikes and foldaway seating. But for larger goods like wooden garden furniture, protecting them from the elements can be a little more problematic, so shelter in the form of weather covers is a good way to keep them dry and clean.

With any garden activities foreseeably put on hold this weekend, use the opportunity instead to do some DIY.

Bank Holidays have a strong reputation as popular times in the UK for DIY so this weekend why not join the trend. With the Queen’s Jubilee in June, now’s a great time to get your home looking its best before hosting any celebrations.

Giving rooms a new coat of paint is one of the easiest ways to breathe new life into living spaces. Rearranging furniture will also aid a room’s transformation, so get creative.

Finishing touches like replacing outdated light fittings, repairing leaking taps and mending broken goods will finally add that final flourish to your home improvements.

For more ideas on property makeovers and DIY advice, visit www.trueshopping.co.uk/blog

About Trueshopping.co.uk:

Trueshopping is a UK based online retailer dedicated to helping ‘everyone afford luxury’. That’s why we ensure high quality home and lifestyle products at competitive prices. Our departments include Bathroom, Heating, Plumbing, DIY & Tools and Garden & Outdoors.

At Trueshopping our exceptional product ranges are backed by our unrivalled customer service, with fast, reliable delivery and 100% secure shopping.

A top medic has revealed that the best way to beat feeling in a slump and downhearted is to don some gloves and start pottering around in a garden.

Various studies over time have suggested that gardening is good for health and a GP has devised a new treatment to tackle depression and it is to swap the pills for sowing seeds.

Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, has claimed that gardening can be more powerful to rid one feeling gloomy than a dose of expensive drugs and he hopes to prescribe gardening on the NHS as a way to help Britons beat depression.

The expert contends that drug therapy is costly and that gardening is less pricey but just as effective. He hopes that the Government’s health reforms will give doctors more choice in treating patients with depression and allow them to take advantage of the health benefits of horticulture and gardening classes.

According to a study published in 2011, half an hour spent working in a garden can burn off 200 calories and it also helps to make joints more supple and is great exercise. So why not head out into your garden this summertime, mow the lawn and plant some blooming flowers. Swap playing on your blackberry and opt to trim the bushes instead but make sure that you have adequate garden lighting to ensure that you can see clearly when working with garden tools.

Affordable Lighting has a vast array of lighting to light up gardens including pedestals and posts, wall lanterns, walkover lights and LED lighting.

Check out www.affordablelighting.co.uk today for some quality affordable lighting and take some inspiration from the examples below.

Drive Over Recessed Ground Lighting

This energy saving walkover light has a stainless steel finish and is IP67 Rated.
Price: £96.00

Poole Wall Bracket Stainless Steel

This outdoor lantern is made from high quality stainless steel and has a clear glass diffuser with screw lock fixing for easy access to bulb.
Price: £96.50 

Chapel Midi Lamp Post

Available in black or gold, this lamp post is made in Italy and comes with a 10 year guarantee. The classical style has exceptional attention to detail.
Price: £359.99

Low Energy Exterior Brick Light

This low energy exterior brick light has a stainless steel finish, is IP44 rated and comes complete with a 5 year anti-corrosion guarantee.
Price: £30.72

Round clear UniLED Deck Lights

The box of set of 4 round clear UniLED deck lights, as shown in white, are also available in blue, green, amber and red; and come complete with a 2 year guarantee.
Price: £157.99

With summer fast approaching, homeowners across the country are preparing their homes for a season of summer barbecues and garden parties. Despite the current economic climate, many homeowners plan to make home improvements during the May Day and Jubilee bank holidays and UPVCFrench-Doors.co.uk are offering an eclectic range of French doors for competitive prices.

French doors are a popular choice for homeowners as summer approaches. Creating a link between home and garden, French doors not only allow light to flood into the home but also ensure the garden is more accessible as the weather gets hotter.

For those considering French doors, UPVC French Doors outlines the benefits, not only for the summer but for the winter months too. UPVC is an insulating property, along with double glazing, all French doors from UPVC French doors ensure the home is energy efficient all year round, saving homeowners money on their energy bills.
Those looking to install French doors in their home will find competitive prices at UPVC French-doors.co.uk. Homeowners need only fill in the quote form on the site before a member of the team scours customers’ local areas for the best deals.

All suppliers are highly trusted and each holds a FENSA and CERTASS certification, proving their worth. Customers will receive three, free no obligation quotes with up to 75% off installation prices. To find out more about the benefits of French doors and to take advantage of the competitive prices on offer, simply visit UPVCFrench-Doors.co.uk for more information.

We’re programmed to outsource. If you want a light switch wired in or a pipe unblocking, you will probably call an electrician or a plumber and brace for financial impact. But there’s a small learning space called the Goodlife Centre in London’s Waterloo that is trailing a (self-wired) blaze to buck this trend of dependency.

Skills for life. Skills for living.

Taking control, having fun and learning a skill for life is the mantra at the Goodlife Centre. A spacious workshop studio nestled in Waterloo, the Goodlife Centre runs short and snappy DIY, decorating and home maintenance courses for anyone wanting to get their hands dirty.

If you are a total DIY beginner or just need to brush up on your techniques, then this is the spot to come to.

Make do and mend is not just for girls.

Seriously, it’s 2012. DIY, decorating and home maintenance are no longer skills being passed down from father to son. We’re all as helpless with a hammer as each other these days. True parity of the sexes achieved at last through the medium of coving. The glass ceiling finally shattered, when someone dropped the chisel. OK, I’ll stop now.

But the point is really that the Goodlife Centre’s DIY, Wood Work and Decorating courses are not just filled with sisters doing it for themselves. We’ve all moved on a bit now. The groups are mix of the sexes and ages and everyone seems to rub along together quite nicely. Hard not to when the person along the bench from you is armed with a powertool and not afraid to use it.

Co-counder, Alison Winfield-Chislett explains why the centre has resonated with Londoners:

“We’re at the ‘hard-end’ of the make-do-and-mend culture. We’re about the more basic needs of maintaining your home, losing your dependence on trades(wo)men for the small jobs around the home and saving up your hard-earned pounds for the big jobs. And there is an enormous about of satisfaction to be had from literally doing it yourself.”

Michelle Purse is writing on behalf of the Goodlife Centre, an independent learning space offering daytime, evening and weekend courses to learn life skills in DIY, decorating, basic electrics, plumbing, tiling wood working, carpentry and furniture restoration .

(United Kingdom – 12th April 2012) Bedroom World is one of 70 web stores which has been trading as part of World Stores since 2003. Offering customers an eclectic range of beds and bed accessories, http://www.bedroomworld.co.uk/prides itself on its excellent customer service and premium products.

Despite the current economic climate, many homeowners have indicated that they plan to make home improvements during May Day and the Jubilee Weekend. As the home improvements industry prepares for a busy season, homeowners will scour the many online stores for a service they can trust.

Bedroom World can guarantee unrivalled customer service thanks to the team of experts who are committed to helping each and every customer with their queries. Available via phone all week, the team are always happy to help.

As well as offering competitive prices on beds and accessories of all shapes and sizes, Bedroom World offers next day delivery and day of choice delivery service to offer an increasing number of flexible delivery times.

Once customers have placed their order, they can rely on the team at Bedroom World to keep them updated on the status of their products via email, SMS or telephone. Alternatively, there is a tracking service onsite.

Bedroom World works closely with local courier services in order to guarantee to customers that their order will arrive on time and in perfect condition. For those that are looking for new bedroom furniture, visit BedroomWorld.co.uk where a plethora of beds and accessories can be found as well as more information on the service Bedroom World will provide.

Gardening has been found to help alleviate stress and nobody can vouch for that better than Alton Garden Centre. The outdoor area and gardens specialists know only too well how creating your own outdoor space can bring stress levels right down and also improve your health.

Nurturing a natural area on your doorstep will mean you create something yourself with just a few gardening tools where you can take time out and relax. No matter how big or small your garden is, even a yard can become a haven with a few pretty pot plants and window boxes!

There are many reasons why gardening is so good for relieving stress, but here are some main points why it is thought to help many to relax:

- Creation. The creativity aspect of designing and then executing your own plan for the garden gives a great feeling of satisfaction.
- Sunlight. Getting out in the sunshine can help combat S.A.D, help you to get more vitamin D as well as fresh air for your lungs.
- Being at one with nature. Getting outside and back to nature is very therapeutic and takes us back to basics. Things such as TVs and computers can often be stimulants and distractions which actually stress us out more.
- Meditation. Being in the garden encourages meditation and contemplation, allowing life’s troubles to wash over you.
- Patience. In the fast paced world we live in nowadays, taking part in gardening encourages patience, going at life’s own natural pace as plants take a certain amount of time to grow and so we have to sit it out and nurture them.
- Physical Labour. As long as we don’t overdo it, gardening allows us to physically relieve our tensions by applying ourselves to some manual labour for a good night’s sleep!
- Exercise. As previously stated gardening is a good form of physical exercise and so can help to prevent some health problems and alleviate others – in particular, some people have found that it benefits some sufferers of depression as it releases endorphins and being out in fresh air will only help increase the effects of this.

Once you have created your garden space you can then enjoy it even more by inviting your friends and family over to enjoy it with you and take advantage of Alton’s great range of Weber barbeques.

Alton Garden Centre advise making sure you keep your plan of action simple so as not to create more stress for yourself, by applying short, achievable to-do lists in manageable chunks.

Their range of products will help you to keep on top of your space whether you just need a few packets of seeds or for more adventurous landscapes; they have some excellent ride on mowers.

To find out more about Alton Garden Centre and take a look at their extensive range of outdoor furniture, gardening tools and plants, visit www.alton-gardencentre.co.uk

(United Kingdom – 6th April 2012) It seems pastel colours have arrived in the world of fashion and interior design. People across the nation have gone crazy for soft-hued colours and UK Flooring Direct is offering homeowners advice on how to create the perfect room for Spring.

Earlier this year, interior designers announced their opinions on the colour schemes and trends which look to prove popular in Spring 2012. Spring has sprung and with it homeowners are getting creative.
Blossom pinks, apple greens and daffodil yellows are popular choices for homeowners looking to create a room which is bang on trend for this season. Matched with the stark contrast of brilliant white, the spring colours are perfect for introducing pops of colour into a room.

When it comes to flooring, there is an overwhelming number of products on offer. Choosing the right style, design and colour is essential to completing the look in a room. Solid wood flooring is perfect for adding texture and character into a room. The grain and knots in the wood create a real impression but for those that are working with a smaller budget, engineered and laminate flooring products can create a similar look.

Vibrant colours in oak and ash offer the perfect contrast with the smooth pastel colours which dress a room’s walls and furnishings. UK Flooring Direct is renowned in the flooring industry for offering customers competitive prices on an eclectic range of flooring products. Visit the site at UKFlooringDirect.co.uk to find out more.

(United Kingdom – 27th March 2012) Pinterest has quickly become one of the most popular social media networks on the net. A social site for curating themed boards for anything and everything, users across the country fill their profiles with images of food, drink, holiday destinations and home decor to name just a few. This month, Terrys Fabrics joined the phenomenon and is pinning its latest interior design trends and ideas to pinners across the world.

With an average of 1.36 million users daily, Pinterest has taken the world by storm and as a result, many top online retailers are following suit. Terrys Fabrics, specialists in fabrics, curtains and home wares, has born its Pinterest profile and is spreading the word about the latest trends for home decoration.

Pinterest relies on users to generate content and users do this by pinning images to various themed boards on their own profiles. Terrys Fabrics has started its life on Pinterest with four themed boards, centralised around interior design. One board which many homeowners may find interesting is the Spring 2012 board which features images of products that reflect trends for Spring 2012.

An eclectic range of floral designs and spring colours are scattered across the page. Greens and yellows fill the board and can be found on an array of fabrics, curtains, duvet covers and cushions. The Opium Cushion and Savannah Duvet Cover are fine examples of the fabrics and designs which are guaranteed to be popular for homeowners looking to create a look which is bang on trend for this season.

Those looking to keep up-to-date with the latest interior design trends for 2012 can find an abundance of information on the Terrys Fabrics interior design blog. Alternatively, follow Terrys Fabrics on Pinterest at Pinterest.com/TerrysFabrics/.

(United Kingdom – 23rd March 2012) Spring has sprung and with it, interior designers are having their say on what is fashionable this season. Grey solid wood flooring is set to be a popular choice for homeowners looking to step away the usual suspects in the world of flooring.

A place to relax and rewind after a hard day’s work, a home’s decor is an important part of everyday living as it can create a welcoming environment for family and guests. People across the nation are always on the lookout for something new and unique and this month, it seems grey solid wood flooring is the perfect choice for anyone looking to decorate their homes differently.

One colour trend which many homeowners have opted to splash across their walls this year is pastel colours. Blossom pinks and apple greens are bang on trend as spring is sprung and to match them, grey wood flooring is a must.

The grey flooring on offer at UK Flooring Direct is similar to the neutral trends which are set to be big this season. White, blue, grey and darker shades dominated flooring exhibitions earlier this year, an important event for flooring experts and interior designers.

Whether homeowners are looking for dark greys, shades of or even just a stain, flooring specialists UK Flooring Direct offer an eclectic range and for those on a budget, there is promise of low prices.

It is not just grey solid wood flooring which is making the headlines though. Homeowners looking for a cheaper alternative can find plenty more opportunity to lay their floors with a shade of grey in the form on laminates and engineered flooring as well as vinyl flooring products.