This morning’s job was to install the last few blinds in a customer’s conservatory. Having fitted the pleated roof blinds and most of the window blinds recently, the last few arrived a few days ago.
These “Perfect Fit” blinds from Hillarys give a really neat finish, being enclosed in their own frames. Continue reading Perfect Fit Window Blinds
Not content with the 91 items I assembled a couple of weeks ago, my happy customer called me back for a few more things last week.
This time, a table tennis table was the main item and it could qualify as the heaviest single piece I’ve ever built. I don’t know what it weighs in total but for the first time ever I actually needed help lifting parts of it into position. Continue reading Ninety-One Was Not Enough
When a potential customer contacted me a few weeks ago for an estimate to assemble their new IKEA furniture it looked like a big job. I’ve done big jobs before – big items and/or lots of them.
But this was the biggest yet. When we agreed I would do it the list looked like four or maybe five days’ worth, and I knew it would mean some heavy lifting too. IKEA are quite careful not to make any of their individual boxes too heavy – even though many of those boxes are best lifted and moved by two people and one piece of furniture might come in three such boxes… Continue reading Ninety-One IKEA Items Later
The day after building the Rauch wardrobes and chests, I was back at a previous customer’s home for not the second but the third time. This was in a kitchen I’d helped to nearly complete some months ago.
This time there were just the kick boards to add and a cowel for the cooker hood that the customer was struggling to fix. The problem with the kick boards was Continue reading Back Again
You can forgive manufacturers picking daft names for their products if the products themselves are worth having, and so it is with Rauch’s Elegant4You range. There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the wardrobe and bedside drawers I built this week, but they are stylish enough and of a decent quality and went together well.
The wardrobe is very heavy (or I’m getting weak), especially the sliding doors Continue reading Rauch Elegant4You Wardrobe and Chests
The most popular colour for shutters is undoubtedly white – either pure white (a close match to most ‘brilliant white’ domestic paint) or silk white, which is slightly softer, although the difference isn’t obvious until you put them side by side. Cream is also quite popular.
Recently, though, I’ve had several jobs where customers have chosen wood grain for their shutters rather than solid painted finishes, and I must say Continue reading The White Solution?
Today’s customer had ordered a few items from IKEA, which were duly delivered to her flat in town. Looking at her shopping list I estimated 4-5 hours and quoted my half-day rate of £125.
The items to be assembled were a three door Brimnes wardrobe, a three drawer chest to match, plus a bedside cabinet and a Lugnvik sofa bed. Continue reading A Morning’s Work
With the pre-Christmas deadline passed and a flurry of shutter jobs completed, I had time recently to work on a job I had been putting off – refurbishing a dated kitchen, on a tight budget.
It involved a fair bit of tinkering and creativity. Continue reading Refurbishing a Tired Kitchen
I don’t like to mention the word this early in the autumn – in fact I’m still clinging on to the last vestiges of summer and an occasional paddle – but with a 10-12 week lead time, the Christmas deadline for shutter orders has already passed. Continue reading The Pre-Christmas (sorry!) Rush
Yesterday, I built this three-door Brusali wardrobe for a customer in St Helier. Although she was quite capable of building the matching drawer units and other items, the wardrobe is very heavy and difficult to handle. Continue reading IKEA Brusali Wardrobe: Sturdy and Heavy!