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Aldi is adding two beautiful new spring shades to its cast iron cookware collection. The sell-out cookware is available in a range of contemporary colours – from black and greige to teal and red.
But it will be available in timeless pearl and soothing sage green from April 3rd (online) and in stores from April 7th. Given that these dishes costs just £29.99, Aldi’s cast iron cookware is a fraction of the price of luxury rivals, namely Le Creuset and Staub.
Want the real thing? Head to our Le Creuset sale page to shop the best Le Creuset offers online now
Image credit: Aldi
The best-selling Aldi cast-iron range now comes with even more options. Sage green and white is an immensely popular colour combination in interiors right now, and the new pieces will look just the part in your kitchen.
The cast-iron casserole dishes are oven-safe up to 250 degrees and will be fine used on all hobs, including induction hobs. Aldi’s Le Creuset dupes also have a clean enamel coating on both the interior and exterior to reduce time spent scrubbing.
If blue’s more your thing, the Cast Iron Roaster, £24.99 at Aldi (pictured below) looks so good it wouldn’t look out of place among your Easter tablescape. The cast-iron roaster is perfect for taking mid-week dinners straight from the oven to the dining table for ease. A similar Le Creuset cast iron roasting dish would cost £180.
Image credit: Aldi
If you’re cooking a big dish for lots of people, opt for the 30cm Cast Iron Shallow Casserole Dish (£29.99), which will be available in the new spring hues. Another firm favourite is Aldi’s Cast Iron Griddle Pan, £14.99, at Aldi, which is compatible with all hob types and in the oven.
There’s also the Cast Iron Griddle Tray (£14.99) available in a square or rectangle shape. These griddle trays will add those signature sear marks to meat, fish and vegetables and lock in flavour while helping any additional fat to drain away.
Image credit: Aldi
The Aldi cast iron cookware offers a saving of just under £700 if you’re buying one of each of the new products. This is when compared with comparable buys from the iconic French cookware brand.
Thanks to these Aldi Specialbuys cooking with cast iron just got a whole lot more affordable. Not to stir the pot, but you need to be quick – once they’re gone, they’re gone.
The post Aldi’s sell-out cast iron cookware range to rival Le Creuset is back – in white and sage green for spring appeared first on Ideal Home.
When space is at a premium – as it so often is in the bathroom – clever design is key. A small bathroom shouldn’t mean compromising on style or quality. Choosing space-saving fittings and clever storage ideas will help you to maximise and create the illusion of space in small bathroom layouts.
Whether you’re refurbishing an existing bathroom or transforming a box room into a bathroom, here are the key small bathroom layout ideas for a space that is both stylish and highly functional.
According to the Founder & Creative Director of Ventura, Arlene McIntyre, ‘whenever you start planning a bathroom renovation, the same principle applies regardless of size. You need to first work out how you’ll use the room and who will use the room. Is it a purely functional showering space? Will you use it to get ready in and therefore need adequate task lighting? Is it a family space where lots of storage is paramount? Once you have a clear idea of the room’s function and users, you can begin to plan’.
Image credit: Future PLC/ Colin Poole
A bath takes up a lot of precious floor space in a small bathroom, so if you can bear to sacrifice a soak in the tub in favour of a satisfying drench in the shower, then getting rid of the bath is a fantastic space-saving solution. Replace it with a luxurious walk-in shower idea and the room will feel instantly bigger.
Image credit: Matki
If you decide to keep your bathtub (and who can blame you!), then opt for a frameless bath screen. By replacing a heavy frame or shower curtain with a frameless alternative, you’ll remove the physical divide and create a seamless sensation that will make your bathroom feel less cluttered.
Tile the bathroom walls with a strikingly shaped and coloured tile for a small bathroom that packs a punch!
Image credit: Omvivo
When space is limited, multifunctional fittings make a big difference, especially when it comes to extra storage. Whether you opt for a combined toilet and vanity unit or a mirror with hidden storage behind it like the one in this bathroom, your space will feel instantly less cluttered. Hiding clutter is a savvy way to make your bathroom feel bigger.
Image credit: Future PLC/ David Giles
Becky Dix, Head of Design at The Luxury Bath Company, says: ‘For those with limited floor space, hung cabinetry is a great solution. Not only can a wall hung cabinet create the illusion of space by opening up the room, it can also free up some much-needed floor space and create a natural break between the floor and surfaces.’
The same applies for toilets – a wall-hung toilet will add to the visible floor space in your bathroom, and the more floor space on show, the bigger your bathroom will appear.
Image credit: Bathroom Mountain
For a contemporary small bathroom that feels oh-so luxurious, consider a wetroom idea for your small bathroom layout. Continuous flooring, without a shower tray interrupting the flow, will elongated the room, and since minimal fixtures and fittings are required, the room will feel more spacious.
On a practical level, a wet room is also an ideal option for those with limited mobility, as well as families with small children, as it eliminates the need to step in and out of a shower or bath.
Image credit: Future PLC
When planning the layout of a small bathroom, it’s important to take into account the projection of your fixtures (how far they stick out into the room). Short-projection toilets and sinks are a great idea in a small bathroom as they are slimline and take up less room. The short-projection sink in this bathroom is wall-mounted too – ticking two boxes!
Image credit: Bathroom Mountain
Every inch of space counts in a small bathroom, so install a corner shower or a corner vanity unit to optimise the space in the corner of the room that would inevitably go to waste otherwise.
This corner shower, paired with the light marble-effect walls and floor, makes this small shower room feel far more spacious than its footprint would suggest. Especially valid a small en-suite idea to make more of the limited space.
image credit: Matki
Consider reconfiguring your space to make more of the useable floor space. In a narrow small bathroom layout consider creating a return to house the toilet, while turning the shower positioning sideways to make the room feel more streamlined. Just because the space is small doesn’t mean. you can’t make it work harder to meet your needs.
In a narrow space simply turn everything on its side to fit the floor plan so it creates an unbroken flow, rather than cutting the room off with a conventional face-on layout.
Image credit: Drench
When planning your small bathroom layout consider all the fixtures and fittings carefully. ‘Mirrors are essential to make a space feel larger than it is,’ says Becky Dix. They create an optical illusion and they also bounce light around the room, and a lighter and brighter bathroom will always feel bigger than a dark and dingy one.
‘Whatever mirror you choose, ensure it is anti-steam,” she says. “In a small space where steam will inevitably be an issue, help your bathroom to remain functional whatever else is going on.’ Hang your chosen mirror design on the wall opposite a source of natural light to capture the most amount of light available.
The are key things to consider when planning a small bathroom layout. ‘When planning the layout, we always begin with the toilet,’ says Arlene McIntyre, Founder & Creative Director of Ventura. ‘You will be limited where you can put this given the soil stack positioning. Once its position has been decided, you can fit everything else around it.’
Becky Dix at The Luxury Bath Company advises you to ‘always start by considering your bathroom routine and how the space can best cater for it’. How many people use your bathroom, what are the priorities and what can you do without?
‘It’s important to maximise every inch of the bathroom when space is in short supply,’ she says. ‘Look to corner units, clever storage solutions, slim basins and toilets. Consider matching finishes of your brassware, flush plates and accessories to give a cohesive aesthetic running through the space; this will ensure there are not too many competing colours in one small area.’
Both experts agree that good lighting is key, as it will help to elevate the space and make it feel brighter and larger.
‘When a bathroom’s footprint is small, opt for wall-mounted sanitaryware to help give the illusion of more space,’ recommends Arlene. ‘Rather than a back-to-wall or close-coupled toilet, opt for a wall hung alternative which shows more floor space and keeps the cistern hidden behind the wall. Similarly, opt for a wall-mounted basin, vanity unit and mixers to continue this spacious feel throughout the room. The more floor space on show, the larger the space will feel.’
Corner and combination units will allow you to make the most of the space too, utilising space that would otherwise be empty and wasted.
The post Small bathroom layouts – 9 ways to make the most of limited space appeared first on Ideal Home.
Since the pandemic hit, the appetite for home improvement has risen dramatically. Due to Brexit, Covid, and this renovation fever taking over the UK, prices have also skyrocketed.
According to Rated People, bathroom renovations will be 40% more expensive this year than they were back in the ‘Before Times’ of 2020. Loft conversion costs and the cost of a new kitchen have also both gone up by an average of 25%.
Image credit: Future PLC/Lizzie Orme
‘It’s incredible to see how the last two years have influenced the ways we’re improving our homes,’ begins Adrienne Minster, CEO of Rated People. ‘But unfortunately, the combined effects of Covid and Brexit have meant the vast majority of tradespeople have experienced cost increases, which they need to pass on to homeowners to remain profitable.
Adrienne comments that various aspects of our lives are now affected by rising prices. So whether you’re planning a bathroom or having a kitchen extension, it’s crucial to start planning and budgeting as early as possible.
Starting early will mean you can negotiate the best price and avoid a situation where you’re waiting months and months for tradespeople to become available. While you wait, why not research how to renovate on a budget?
Image credit: Getty images / Mixmike
So when the time comes, you know exactly what you want to be done.
Materials shortages, increased demand, Covid challenges, and increasing production costs are key factors driving price rises up. For example, labour and material costs for a bathroom renovation are expected to be around £5,726 on average this year.
This is 22% higher than in 2021 and a huge 40% more than in 2020.
For a loft conversion, homeowners will have to pay 25% more. That’s an extra £7,000 for the same job this year compared to 2020.
Image credit: Getty images / Reza Estakhrian
The majority (82%) of UK tradespeople are increasing their prices this year. Jobs that require builders, heating engineers, and plasterers will be most affected by rising prices, says Rated People.
We asked PriceYourJob’s Property and Construction expert, Gregory Smith for a comment, and he said that almost all materials and tools have increased in price since 2019 and this is only set to increase in the coming weeks (from 1st April). ‘The most affected materials have been housebuilding and domestic repair materials, such as cement, timber, insulation, and roofing products, with the average increase being 10-15%,’ says Gregory.’
‘Timber, however, has seen a huge increase, costing at least 50% more than in 2019,’ he says.
The post Bathroom renovations could cost 40% more this year than in 2020 appeared first on Ideal Home.
