7 Reasons

Tag: glass

  • Guest Posts: 7 Reasons You Need To Re-tile Your Bathroom

    Guest Posts: 7 Reasons You Need To Re-tile Your Bathroom

    Is your bathroom starting to feel a little tired? Are you living with the odd cracked tile? Is your grout starting to look more yellow than white? Then perhaps it’s about time to re-tile your bathroom. OK, so budgets are a little tight right now, but a new looking bathroom could add thousands to the value of your home – so think of it as an investment. Still not convinced? Well maybe these awesome tiles will help you to make up your mind. Here are seven reasons why you should re-tile your bathroom today!

    7 Reasons You Need To Re-tile Your Bathroom
    Make Your Bathroom Fit For A Gladiator

    1.  Top Glass. Next time you tile your bathroom – go glass! Glass tiles are all the rage and can be used as either a border to add a little colour to good old fashioned white tiles or even to tile your entire bathroom. As well as being available in a rainbow of colours, glass tiles also come in a range of shapes – from squares and rectangles through to diamonds and hexagons. As well as looking gorgeous glass tiles can also ensure you are doing your bit to save the planet as many, such as the ones supplied by Stardust Glass, are made from recycled glass, which may otherwise have ended up in landfill.

    2.  Mirror, Mirror On The Wall. Love your own reflection? Then these beauties are just for you. With mirrored tiles you can do away with that little bathroom mirror as your bathroom becomes your mirror. As well as providing that all important ‘wow’ factor to your rest room mirror tiles do provide a practical use too as in small bathrooms they can be used to create the illusion of space. Granted mirror tiles aren’t to everyone’s taste and they certainly are not recommended for re-tiling your bathroom floor.

    3.  The Really Wild Show. If you’re looking to express your wild side in the bathroom, then check out the Savana range from Italian tile makers Petracer’s. Inspired by the inhabitants of the Savannah these opulent designs feature tiles with leopard and zebra print alongside stunning replica crocodile skin which is available in a range of striking colours including chocolate brown, burnt orange and deep red. Re-tile your bathroom with these beauties and you’ll have Cavalli himself ringing to ask if he can come around for a bath.

    4.  The Glitz Of Glitter. From Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to the Disney store, glitter tiles are used by some of the biggest names in the business to add a little sparkle to their buildings. You too can add some glitz and glamour to your bathroom by re-tiling using engineered quartz stone. Also known as glitter tiles these stunning sparklers are available in a wide range of colours, but be warned, when combined with some sexy down-lighting you’ll start needing to wear your shades to spend a penny.

    5.  A Touch Of Travertine. If it was good enough for the Romans it’s good enough for your bathroom. Appreciated by many for its marble look, but without the marble price tag, travertine was used by the Romans as their material of choice for their elaborate bath complexes. You too can replicate the look of ancient Rome by cladding your bathroom from head to toe in this stunning natural stone from the walls down to the luxurious feel of travertine floor tiles underfoot. Add a couple of gladiators and a lion and you’ve got your very own Colosseum.

    6.  Bubblicious. The Italians don’t just make sexy clothes and cars; they also make sexy bathroom tiles too. The latest must have tile of the moment is the bubble tile. Made by the Italian tile manufacturer EVIT these amazing creations are a must have for all those looking to make a real impact. These lovely bubblies are available in a wide range of colours but, whichever you choose, your guests are sure to be impressed. Just add a steaming hot tub and bubble-bath to complete the look.

    7.  Televisual Tiling. Worried about missing the latest episode or your favourite soap whilst taking a bath? Scared of not seeing the winning goal whist taking a shower? Worry no more! Now, thanks to TileVision, you won’t miss a thing as you can tile a TV straight into your bathroom wall. These amazing pieces of tile tech include remote control, integrated waterproof LCD TV and are available in black, silver or even mirrored finish – which means even when the sets off you can still use it to squeeze those spots or wax those wayward eyebrows.

  • 7 Reasons That This Is The Worst Present Ever

    7 Reasons That This Is The Worst Present Ever

    Okay, 7 Reasons readers.  It’s September, so there’s only one thing we can possibly write about today.  That’s right, Christmas.  Because – strange as it may seem – there are people out there that are actually planning their Christmas and buying presents right now.  I, of course, will be leaving my shopping until the last possible moment, as usual, but I feel I should issue a cautionary tale to those of you that may be contemplating buying presents.  For, if it prevents anyone else having an experience quite like this one, I feel I will have done the world a great service.  This may make me appear to be an ungrateful man and a bad brother but that’s okay, because I’m an ungrateful man and a bad brother.  So, present-buyers: Don’t buy this!  Here are seven reasons that it’s the worst present ever.  I have obscured the name of the sender to protect her identity.

    This is not the actual gift. This is a far more tastefully coloured version of it.

    1.  It Created Expectation.  It was Christmas morning.  My wife and I had finished the croissants and were sipping our second glasses of bucks fizz while, in the background, Frank Sinatra gently exhorted us to have ourselves a merry little Christmas.  It was time to open the presents.  My wife pulled the many gifts out from under the tree and divided them into four piles: presents for her; presents for me; presents for us and presents for the cat (the largest pile).  We took it in turns to unwrap them (and to help the cat) and fairly soon the floor was a gaudy collage of discarded paper.  Then it was my turn again.  It was a small, rectangular present.  It was tastefully wrapped and surprisingly weighty.  A glance at the tag revealed that it was a gift from my s*ster.  “Who’s it from?” my wife asked.  “It’s from my only s*ster.”  I replied.  Expectantly, I tore the paper away, to reveal a narrow blue gift box about six inches long.  Wow!  This looks great, I thought as I unwrapped the box.  Then I opened it.

    2.  My Eyes!  My life prior to opening the box had been a poor preparation for that moment.  My life had been one of carefully and tastefully matched colours and textures.  Of aesthetical sobriety and decorousness.  I was fundamentally ill-equipped for the spectre that cruelly and aggressively assaulted my retinas.  What greeted me was the sight of a glass object consisting of a conical frosted glass stem tapering up toward a rounded top that was made up of most of the colours in the world – minus all of the nice ones and the ones that go together – encased in glass that was partially frosted and liberally spattered with gold leaf.  It was the single most hideous thing that I have ever seen.  And I’ve seen the Lidl in Scunthorpe.

    3.  It Caused Bafflement.  What is it?  What is this glassy-horror?  Why has my s*ster sent me this?  Why is it covered in gold leaf?  Is the glass frosted to obscure the thing, like a toilet window?  Why does it have a stem? Why does it have a bulb?  Why does it have a rim?  What the buggery-bollocks is this thing?!  “What is it, darling?” My wife enquired.

    4.  It Caused Speculation.  Putting all aesthetic squeamishness aside, I coolly regarded the gaudy object in as objective a manner as I could.  It had a tapering stem.  It had a bulb at the end.  It was simultaneously shiny and frosted.  It was a myriad of lurid colours and was festooned with gold leaf.  “It’s…it’s…(got it!)…Liberace’s butt-plug!”

    5.  It Caused…The Pause.  “Don’t be silly,” my wife said, snatching Liberace’s butt-plug from me to regard it more closely.  “It’s…(there then followed a long pause.  A pregnant pause so long it seemed that an elephant could have been brought from conception to gestation during it.  In fact, it was merely a pause of several minutes)…a wine-stopper!”  “A what?” I enquired.  “It’s a wine-stopper.  It stops wine.”

    6.  It Caused Incredulity.  It does what?!  Of all the things one could conceivably want to stop why in the hell would anyone pick wine?!  I like wine.  Why not send a gift that stops something more objectionable, like fascism or tennis?  Wine is fun!  Sending something that stops it is like giving the gift of abstinence.  For Christmas!

    7.  It Caused Me To Lie On The Telephone.  “Thanks for the…um…thing.”

    “We got it in South Africa.”

    “It’s…come a long way.”

    “It took us ages to choose that one.”

    “Really?”

    “Yes.  There were so many different coloured ones.  Have you used it yet?”

    “No, but I will.”

    And that was a lie.  Until now!  Because now – five years later – I’ve finally found a use for it, even if it is as a cautionary tale.  A gentle reminder for 7 Reasons readers to choose their Christmas presents carefully.  And, even if you don’t, you could at least get it in a colour that matches the recipient’s loft because that’s where it is.  Or rather, where it was, because earlier today when I went up there to relive the horror and to photograph it in all its sickening hideousness for you, the reader, I discovered that it had disappeared.  My investigations have revealed that it may have been placed in a charity bag by my w*fe during some sort of cull-of-the-horrid.  With some irony, it may well have been a bag from the RNIB.  I can only offer our apologies to them.

    *For fans of gifts like this, this is the place to find them.