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P R O J E C T
Lavazza A Modo Mio Voicy, £249, Amazon NEWS
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The latest ideas, trends and essential buys for your kitchen, bathroom and renovation
We’re used to virtual assistants doing our bidding, but they couldn’t keep us caffeinated – until now! Lavazza’s new Voicy is a coffee machine with built-in Amazon Alexa tech. Just say the word and it’ll brew up your favourite drink and keep an eye on how many capsules you have. It can even play your fave tunes for a blissful coffee break.
Hands free
Geing the tap temp just right can be a waste of water if we let it run while balancing hot and cold. Grohe ’ s digitally enhanced tap gives an exact reading of how warm the water is to cut out the guesswork. A sensor-controlled eco-spray, activated by passing a hand over the top of the spout, reduces the pour to four litres a minute.
Mix it up
Open-plan kitchens have everything on display, so your units need to be as stylish as the furniture you ’d pick for a living room. The Arcos Mix by Schmidt mixes and matches colours and finishes to create storage and work surfaces with character. This scheme even has a traditional walk-in larder to tidy away small appliances and food. Schmidt kitchens start from £10,000 incl. delivery and fiing
Grohe Plus digitally enhanced tap, £814.80
On the fence
Fencing prevents garden anarchy and pets running all over the neighbours’ lawns. Charles & Ivy are bringing glamour to our green spaces with intricately patterned composite fencing and panels. These modern designs can be used to zone gardens, define borders or liven up a plain wall. You can even design your own fencing with an online tool for a bespoke look. Prices start from £50 for a decorative panel
Chip off the block
Shower star
Mira has been making showers for 100 years, designing the world’s first thermostatic valve to ensure safer showering. A century on and it’s still pushing the ablution boundaries – this time with the Mira Beacon Dual, which lets you know when the water is just right via a soft halo of light. There are four spray settings for you to enjoy an invigorating or relaxing experience to suit your mood. The Mira Beacon Dual is from £330 at B&Q and Screwfix
Shell out
If you ’ re planning an autumn room refresh, dip into Dunelm ’ s new own-brand eggshell paint range. Suitable for wood and metal, it’ s steam resistant and easy to clean – perfect for kitchens and high traffic areas. It costs from £15 for one litre
Terrazzo is the on-trend flooring that goes with everything. Made up of chips of material, it’ s easy to pick out one or two key colours and match tiles or bathroom furniture to them. Porcelain Superstore has two new terrazzo-inspired collections: Flecks White is a showstopper with its big shards of tan, grey, blue and beige in large-format porcelain tiles, while Portico is subtler with muted shades of beige, brown and taupe in a cement seing.
T e r r a c o t t a Flecks White, 90x90cm, £50.40 per m2 , Porcelain Superstore
E g g D u c k Cha rm Blu e L i l y p a d G r e y S t e e p l e
Make a splash
Love the natural look of wood in the kitchen but worried about it warping when wet? This ‘ walnut’ geometric splashback – a warm complement to the coloured units and brass accents – is really patterned aluminium, which is water resistant and very practical. Part of Bushboard’s new Alloy range, it’s one of a dozen designs that include marble and herringbone tiles.
Alloy Walnut geometric splashback with Options Nagoshi Pine worktop, £265 for 3050x600mm splashback, Bushboard
Soak it up
Give your bathroom a fresh (and fruity) centrepiece with a bath painted the gloss or ma colour of your choice. Victoria + Albert’ s new RAL colour service lets you personalise the exterior of its freestanding baths to coordinate with the rest of the room. This Traffic Orange shade is part of its industrial-inspired palee. Pescadero bath in a ma finish, £3074.40, UK Bathrooms
FLOOR SHOW
Carpet buying has got a glow up as Carpetright launches The Floor Room. Unveiled at a flagship first store on Toenham Court Road, it offers a salon-style experience with an edited collection of flooring and fun new technologies –like the interactive Design Studio and vending machines dispensing samples and treats. See carpetright.co.uk/ the-floor-room
LAY IT OUT
Mahew Brown, head of sales for Palio Express by Karndean (karndean.com), on laying the perfect floor
q
How does the floor need to be prepared?
It depends on the fitting
Aformat you choose. If you’re installing over an existing hard floor, such as tiles, or have an uneven subfloor, we’d recommend opting for a rigid core format, which can be laid directly on top. This means less costly subfloor preparation and the upheaval of taking time out to lift an existing tiled floor. If you decide on a loose lay format, this must be installed on a smooth and flat floor – so the quality of the subfloor is important. It’s great to have the flexibility to choose which format best suits your room and preference, but it’s a key consideration before picking your final floor design.
q
Should flooring be
FIRST BEFORE UNITS?
Flooring ought to be fitted
Alast to ensure a neat finish and avoid any accidental damage when moving or installing kitchen units. Kickboards on units can be fitted so they hide any expansion gaps required by your flooring, too. For example, our Korlok and Palio Rigid designs can be fitted so the expansion gap is under the skirting board. Alternatively, our colourmatched scotias (floor trims) are available if you aren’t planning on replacing your skirting board. With loose lay, there is no need for an expansion gap and the floor to be fitted tight to the skirting board.
q
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH a patterned floor?
There are multiple ways
Adepending on the design and style you’re looking to achieve, but they can be slightly trickier than a straight lay floor to install. A popular choice is herringbone, and this can be achieved in a full-length plank using our Palio Loose Lay collection. We recommend DIYers start from the centre point of the room. Loose lay and rigid core allow the flexibility to achieve a staggered, brickbond or diagonal pattern, too.
A DV ERT OR I A L
Amore electric shower in gloss black, from £196, Triton
Make a splash with an efficient shower
Save water and money without compromising on performance
greener bathroom is something we should all aspire to as we
Alook at ways to cut our water and energy usage. But there’s no reason being more eco-conscious should impact on the pleasure of our bathroom experience. Triton’s electric showers prove you can have performance and style while still being kind to the planet – giving you a cleaner conscience. And they offer a cost-effective way of managing your water and energy costs. Here are five reasons why you need an electric shower in your life:
Electric showers1are sustainable
In a Triton electric shower, you’ll only use as much hot water as you need and no energy is wasted heating water that you won’t. An electric shower takes cold water directly from the mains and heats it in a central element right before it comes out of your shower. This means the energy that’s spent keeping water warm in traditional systems is saved.
Electric showers2are cost-effective
Opting for an electric shower will not only help you cut down on water and energy wastage, ticking a big environmental box, it will save you money as soon as you switch. The up-front cost of buying a Triton electric shower is surprisingly affordable when you consider their modern aesthetics and touch-screen controls, but the value for money doesn’t stop there. From the day you invest, you’ll be saving money on water and energy bills.
many styles to
3choose from
Triton offers dozens of electric shower designs, in all colours and finishes. There’s a brushed steel or gun metal for those who want to match their taps. Alternatively, pair the electric shower with your tiling in gloss white or black. The Aspirante line has soft-touch buttons to make adjusting the temperature easy, and the power button unmissable. That means you’ll no longer need to explain how your shower works to visitors, or get confused when your partner has left it at a different temperature.
Amore electric shower in gloss white, from £196, Triton
Electric showers
4are high tech
Electric showers can be incredibly innovative. For example, the Amore range offers a sleek digital display to make showering straightforward. This includes a touch-activated dial to control temperature, and a digital on/off button. Thoughtful touches such as the rubber edging mean your fingers won’t slip on the dial when adjusting the temperature.
There’s enough5hot water for all
Triton’s electric showers take cold water directly from the mains and heat it up in a central element, housed within the sleek and compact shower panel. This not only means you don’t need to hook up to a specific supply of hot water, but that you’ll never run out of hot water – even if you’re the last in the queue to grab your morning shower. For more details about Triton showers, go to tritonshowers.co.uk
