Design Matters at Naidex 2010

March 10, 2010 by admin 

We are delighted to announce that the Design Matters team will be at Naidex 2010, from 20-22 April at the NEC, Birmingham. Always an exciting show, Naidex is the premier exhibition for accessible products in the UK, and we are delighted to be attending for the third year in a row.

With a stunning fully featured kitchen display on stand G106, and the opportunity to book an appointment with Adam Thomas our award-winning accessible kitchen designer, Naidex 2010 is the place to be if you are looking for kitchen inspiration.

Our Naidex display kitchen will feature an exciting new colour scheme for 2010, and a wide range of products and storage ideas for you to try out. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of our brochure while you are visiting the stand and chat to our helpful staff who are there to answer all your questions. There will be plenty to see and experience if you are looking for kitchen ideas.

If you would like to meet with Adam, please pre-book your time slot by calling us on the office number. There are a limited number of meeting slots available each day, so don’t delay in contacting us. Please bring along a rough sketch, or plans of your new kitchen space to make the best use of this unique opportunity.

Calling all OTs and health professionals! Adam will be speaking twice during the official Naidex seminar programme on accessible kitchen design. There is no need to book in advance for these sessions, just turn up on the day: April 21st at 1130h and April 22nd at 1330h.

Registering to attend Naidex is simple, just visit www.naidex.co.uk and click on Register Now to pre-register for quick and easy entrance on the day of your choice. We look forward to seeing you there!

We are updating our website.

February 11, 2010 by admin 

We are updating our web site, and uploading hundreds of exciting new images to bring you news of the best kitchens and accessories available. We now have one central Design Matters home site, plus three separate microsites giving more information on our areas of expertise:

• Quality kitchens for private homes
• Tailor made Accessible kitchens for disabled people – still receiving finishing touches
• Designer kitchens for private developers – still receiving finishing touches

With all-new images showing the different kitchen styles we can offer, and extensive portfolios of recent work, we are aiming to give you more ideas and inspiration than ever before. We are also entering the world of social media, with regular News items and plans to publish videos on the web. Please bear with us as we iron out any snags and put the finishing touches to our pages for Accessible kitchens and Private Developers. And visit us again soon to see the new content as it becomes available.

Showroom Refurbishment

January 19, 2010 by admin 

January 2010 sees the opening of our refurbished showroom in Flackwell Heath. It is always a challenge to design four kitchens to sit side by side in the same space, but the finished result is stunning, and a great illustration of the wide variety of kitchens now on offer.

The front of the showroom features a Ballerina kitchen with white glass doors, Miele appliances and a striking orange glass splashback. A beautiful Edwin Loxley painted shaker kitchen coordinated with a walnut pantry shares the limelight. Towards the centre of the showroom we are showing Rational furniture in book-matched Smoked Oak veneer with a coordinated Silestone worksurface and Gaggenau appliances. Finally,to the rear of the showroom, we have installed a shaker oak kitchen with Neff appliances and substantial Corian worksurfaces.

To complete the update, an LCD screen featuring images of recent projects is now the focal point of our meeting area. This is linked to a further screen at the front of the showroom, and is also networked to our office giving us internet access for quick product searches when discussing design ideas with clients.

The overall effect is breathtaking, and we are receiving great feedback from recent visitors who have caught us adding the finishing touches. Do make an appointment to pop in, and let us know what you think.

Kitchen Trends 2010

January 18, 2010 by admin 

Another year dawns, and word in the specialist press is that kitchen trends are moving towards texture and warmth as the economic climate continues to blow cool. After a few seasons of 70’s-inspired kitchens and homewares, buyers are beginning to favour products made of natural materials such as wood and ceramics, and hand-worked textiles echoing the make-do-and mend ethos of harder times.

The kitchen industry expects to see a resurgence of interest in wooden kitchens, to provide warmth and comfort as the recession lingers, albeit in high gloss finishes. Exotic wood veneers continue to become more accessible and more beautiful as new manufacturing methods produce real wood imitations of rare veneers previously only available to the super-rich. These manufactured veneer products make book-matched doors more readily available and more consistent in colour and finish.

Add warmth to your finished room with fabric blinds and softly textured worksurfaces such as flamed or honed granite, especially when your kitchen doubles as a dining/entertaining area and you want to deaden the ringing echoes created by hard surfaces.

One final design tip as we enter 2010 is candy-coloured accessories for a splash of colour and cheer in an otherwise grey climate. For more inspiration visit our Kitchen Styles pages, and speak to one of our design consultants.

Filtered Water Returns To The Tap

January 16, 2010 by admin 

Once regarded as just another European fad, bottled water is now big business in the UK with a market worth close to £2 billion per annum. Now more health conscious and sensible about what we eat and drink, we accept that clean water is important for more than just hydration, but at what cost? Environmentalists are questioning the ethics behind an industry that transports a natural product many thousands of miles and produces mountains of plastic and glass for our recycling facilities. Is it morally acceptable to engage in this profligate use of the earth’s energy resources when clean water is still an unthinkable luxury in certain parts of the world? And what’s the alternative?

The alternative is to install a filter tap which will pay for itself in less than a year. Not to be confused with water softeners, where salt is  added to the water supply of the entire home, water filters come in the form of either a replacement tap with filter system, or a standalone filter cartridge that fits in the cupboard beneath any tap. Today we are can choose between a number of different water filtering systems according to health requirements and taste. The type of filtration offered by these systems varies, and this article sets out to demystify some of the options.

Brita offers a range of quality replacement taps with a separate control for filtered water, and a filter cartridge mounted in the cupboard beneath the sink area. Brita filters improve the clarity of water by removing limescale, chlorine and other impurities such as some pesticides and heavy metals. This  improves taste and creates a famously crystal-clear cup of tea. Brita cartridges last for around 500 litres of water treatment, and are widely available from high street retailers. Brita also runs an active recycling programme for used cartridges

Franke Triflow taps come in a range of prestigious designs and finishes, with a separate lever for filtered water. The system includes a filter cartridge mounted in the cupboard beneath the sink which removes a range of contaminants including – harmful bacteria, protozoan organisms such as giardia and cryptoporidium cysts, chlorine, foul tastes and odours, certain chemicals, rust particles, sediment and numerous other undesirable contaminants including particles above 0.2 microns in size. Franke Triflow cartridges should be replaced approximately every 6 months, are widely available in quality household stores. Franke runs a service to remind customers when cartridge replacement becomes due.

The  Zip Hydrotap delivers instant filtered boiling and filtered chilled water in a smart contemporary chrome pillar tap with its own drip tray and a special child lock.  The triple action water filtration system filters out dirt, rust and particles that contaminate drinking water, plus asbestos fibres and micro-organisms such as giardia and cryptosporidium. The filter timer is set to approximately 9 months, but this can be adjusted to take account of local water conditions. Replacement filters are available directly from Zip.

The Quooker tap delivers filtered boiling water on demand for much less than the cost of running an electric kettle, and is fitted with a child-proof push and turn handle for safety. The Quooker boiler comes with an internal high temperature activated carbon filter (HiTAC), which removes or significantly reduces many volatile organic chemicals (VOC), pesticides and herbicides, as well as chlorine, benzene, trihalomethane (THM) compounds, radon, solvents and other chemicals found in tap water. The integrated filter should be replaced every five years, and replacements can be purchased online. An additional in-line limescale pre-filter can be fitted in front of the boiler in particularly hard water areas to protect your Quooker boiler and also your dishwasher, for example. The additional pre-filter we use is the Everpure Claris system (below).

Everpure Claris Filters can be fitted into the kitchen cupboard beneath any tap, and combine excellent filtration with the option to tailor water hardness. These  highly efficient water filters combine ion exchange (changing scale ions into sodium ions for ’softer’ water), and a 5-step filter to provide a high level of particle and mineral removal down to 5 microns. Some coffee machines and steam ovens use mineral content to detect the presence of water, so the Everpure Claris Filter allows a blend of filtered and tap water to be set to the mineral level required to operate appliances properly without compromising on taste. Baristas choose Everpure technology to protect their coffee equipment from scale and at the same time gain optimum taste, and they know their customers can taste the difference. Water is blended to adjust the mineral content by the simple twist of a dial on top of the filter. On the inside Everpure Filters employ  Micro-Pure® precoat filtration technology which means superior chlorine and particulate reduction, and significant reduction in contaminants such as lead, cysts and asbestos. Everpure filters should be changed once a year, and claim to be six times as effective as the competition.