The Many Choices You Have For Worktops When You Extend Your Kitchen

Many people today are deciding to add an extension to their homes as a way of gaining extra space rather than moving home. Adding a conservatory gives you year-round views of your garden, and conservatories today are greatly improved on those of 20 or 30 years ago. Other people might add a home office in order to get away from the family when working from home which, with the coming of the internet, more and more people do today.

Whatever you add by way of an extension will add considerable value to your home and will save the expense of moving to larger premises if you have a growing family. It also saves all the hassle of finding and buying a new home, and then moving – which is acknowledged to be one of the most stressful things we ever do. Furthermore, moving home often entails moving away from family and friends, whereas adding an extension doesn't.

Another extension which is becoming more and more popular is a kitchen extension. Times have changed in the 21st century, and people now not only cook in the kitchen, but eat there too, and many entertain guests in the kitchen. The problem with many kitchens is that they are quite often small rooms if they are in older properties, as they were originally only for cooking in and doing the washing up after a meal. Extending the kitchen gives you the opportunity to entertain your guests the modern way.

Of course, when you add a kitchen extension there are a lot of things to consider, such as cabinetry (the more the better), where to put the fridge and freezer, and a very important matter is that of the worktops.

If you are extending the kitchen you can have an island which can be used for dining, but how do you select the perfect worktops? There are so many choices.

One very popular material is natural stone. Marble and granite are natural materials and have a number of benefits. Quartzite and limestone are also natural stones. One of the beauties of natural stone is that every piece is different. The stones come from different places around the world and will be composed of different materials. So, for example, granite, which is an igneous rock is mainly composed of quartz, mica, and feldspar, but may contain small quantities of other materials which will affect the colour and patterns of the stone. The result is that you can get granite worktops in blues, greens, blacks, whites, browns, and reds, which provide you with a very wide choice for your kitchen worktops.

Marble is largely white, but can contain greens, browns, and reds as well. It can even be totally black, as in the marble Belgian Black. Marble is a softer stone than granite, and needs a little more care, but many people love it for the amazing look of luxury that it provides.

Then there is quartz, which is composed of around 93% quartz together with polymer resins and pigments. This is what is known as an engineered stone, in that it is man-made. Quartz is one of the hardest materials known to man and is almost, but not quite, indestructible. It is completely impervious to stains and acids, whereas marble is not. If you spill red wine, beetroot juice, lemon juice, and more, on marble, it can stain, so spills need to be wiped up straight away. Quartz will just shrug them off.

A recent development is sintered stone. This is also man-made and is composed of powdered natural minerals and oxides which are put under extreme pressure and heat in order to form slabs of material. It is almost totally waterproof, and is highly resistant to scratching (except for highly polished finishes), resists bleach and ammonia, doesn't give off any harmful substances (so you can put food directly on it), and it consists of as much as a little over half of recycled materials, so it is environmentally friendly as well.

So natural stones and engineered stones have a lot going for them when used for kitchen worktops. Most people are taken by their sheer beauty, and a bonus is knowing that your kitchen worktops will be unique.

Marble & Granite of Hatfield is a leading manufacturer of kitchen worktops in a wide choice of natural materials including quartz, sintered stone, granite, marble, quartzite, and limestone.

Some Of The Different Types Of Curtains Used In Theatres

When most people think about theatre curtains, they probably only think about the ones that they see at the front of the house. That is because it is a very large curtain indeed and they are sitting facing it before the production begins. It is the focal point. 

For this reason, the front of house curtain has to have a dramatic impact. It is usually made of a very heavy material and needs to be fire retardant, and the standards can vary from one country to another. In Europe and Australia, the front of house theatre drapes fire-retardant standards that are most accepted within the theatre industry are the British, French, and German standards. In the UK, the standard is BS 5867 part 2B. the test method consists of the material being held vertically and a small flame applied to the front of the material. For type B the ease of ignition is observed, and whether the flame reaches one of the edges of the specimen, and if any flaming debris falls down.

The test fabric has to be tested both before and after washing. For type B, it has to be washed with 12 cycles of BS EN ISO 10528 (Standard Washing Procedure) at 75°C, after which it must be line dried. There is also a type C procedure which requires 50 cycles of BS EN ISO 10528 (Standard Washing Procedure) @ 75°C and then low heat and tumble drying.

Front of house drapes are also known in the UK as front tabs and can be sewn flat or they can be pleated. The pleated effect gives more fullness and helps to increase absorption of light and sound and also gives more depth to the curtain. There are several different styles of pleat which can be used, such as a rippled pleat, butterfly pleat, shirred pleat, full box pleat, and pinched pleat, in addition to the flat curtain. 

Obviously, the price of front of house theatre curtains can vary enormously, depending on how big they are, the type of material, and how much material is used. All of the pleats will take up more material than a flat curtain, but some will use more than others. The very thick velvets will obviously be most expensive, but you can get budget-priced velvets as well.

Front tabs can be made of mohair stage velvets, and these are the most luxurious and heavy materials. They have excellent colour clarity and good sound absorption. The material has a long upright satin pile and it is extremely hard-wearing. These curtains can be made to include your own patterns and logo embossed into the material.

Traditional cotton theatre velvets have a directional pile and a matte looking finish. They come in a choice of weights. Cotton velvets have to be chemically treated in order to make them flame retardant. However, IFR polyester velvets are made using materials that are permanently and inherently flame retardant. so they do not need treating. IFR polyester velvets are more resistant to creasing and moisture than other kinds of stage velvets, and they are extremely low maintenance. 

Of course, there are several other types of theatre curtains in use such as cycloramas which are large flat curtains hung at the back of the stage. These can be used with lighting effects to create all sorts of different results. You can use them in conjunction with a gobo, which is a template placed in front of a light source to control the shape of the light emitted. You could also leave the cyc blank and use side lighting to enhance the performance on stage. 

A backdrop, as the name suggests is a curtain that hangs at the back of the stage and can be painted so that it is part of the scenery. So, for example, you could have a field of cows or sheep at the back of the stage, or tall buildings if you wanted to give the impression of a city outside a window. 

A scrim is another type of curtain that appears opaque when viewed from the front but when lit from behind becomes transparent. This means that you could have action going on behind the scrim that complements what is taking place on the stage.

Cameo Curtains is a leading UK manufacturer of theatre curtainsand can supply and install them complete with tracks and everything else required for venues anywhere in the country.