A Fantastic New Invention for Offices, Schools, Universities and Homes

Let your Ideas Flourish with Ideapaint

 

Last week, we attended the 100% Design trade show at Earl's Court, and although we were disappointed with the lack of furniture ideas, we were really impressed with lots of the new design ideas that we saw!  One of our favourite new inventions is called Ideapaint- one layer of 'ideapaint' turns virtually any smooth surface in to a high-performance dry-erase surface, meaning that you could turn anything from conference tables to walls in to whiteboards!

It is amazing how useful dry-erase surfaces can be, whether it be for displaying special menus in restaurants, giving your colleagues visual aids to help during a conference, or planning in a team meeting.  Whiteboards are helpful, but they limit your space and ideas- Ideapaint can be used on virtually any smooth surface, meaning that you could turn unused space, such as cupboard doors or walls in to dry-erase surfaces! 

 

Ideapaint Application

The application process to create the dry-erase surface is very simple.  All you need to do, is clean the surface thoroughly, apply some primer to the surface, and once that is dry, you need to stir the Ideapaint components in together, and apply one coat of the Ideapaint to the surface.  The paint needs 7 days to dry, before you can start to write on it. 

If you eventually decide that you don't want to use the dry-erase surface anymore, all you have to do is paint or wallpaper over the top- this is far more environmentally friendly than the thousands of whiteboards which eventually find themselves on landfill sites!  You could even use the paint to resurface existing whiteboards if you wanted to.  Ideapaint is created using fewer procedural processes, and is shipped in small boxes, using as little packaging material as possible, in an effort to cause as little environmental impact as possible. 

Why not let your ideas flourish with this fantastic new invention?  Call us on: 08450 69 79 89 for more information.

A helpful guide on how to help you move offices or change furniture

How to Make the Most of your Office

Thinking about changing or refurbishing an office can often seem a little extravagant within today's financial climate, but the truth is that it can bring your company a lot of benefits, both in terms of your customers and your colleagues.  A well-designed office can be seen to reflect the solidity of company as a whole, as well as significantly raising the productivity of the company as a whole. 

We understand that the prospect of refurbishing an office or replacing furniture can be a highly daunting and stressful task, as there are many decisions to make that you may need advice on.  If you are thinking of changing your office, you should really speak to a company who specialise in office furniture solutions, because they will be able to give you the most comprehensive advice, as well as helping you to design an office which meets your company's own specification. 

Office furniture specialists work hard to accommodate the specific needs of a company, whilst optimising all of the space used; they also work hard to provide the staff with a comfortable work environment where they may work conscientiously, thus raising their staff morale and productivity.  As office solutions speicialists, Verve takes a great interest in office refurbishment projects, because we really enjoy helping our clients to add a breath of fresh air to their offices.  Here is a little bit of general insight as to how we work as a company, helping our clients with office refurbishments:-

STAGE ONE-  If we get a call from a company who is interested in altering their office design somehow, whether it be new furniture or through a whole office refit, we usually arrange to visit the client's existing office, in order to get an idea of what the office is used for, or what is needed from the new design.  Otherwise, we will request a plan or a rough sketch of the layout of the building, which we can just as easily work from.

We usually arrange to visit the existing offices, in order to get a clearer idea of what the offices are used for and what is needed from the new design.  We also take measurements of the existing space, in order to create accurate designs, taking in to account all of the space available.  We ask you a few questions, in order to get a firm idea of what you have in mind for your office, and how to cater for your office needs.  You may be worrying that you don't have any specific plans for your offices, but don't worry- with our help, you soon realise that you have a more specific specification than you realised!


STAGE TWO-  We then produce a range of design ideas, which we send you, along with wood samples or other items, which help to give you a clearer idea of our designs.  We send you these as soon as possible; we tend to send our ideas via email as a PDF file- this way you can send it to colleagues and discuss it more easily, though we can also produce hard copies.  Sometimes, particularly with office re-fits, we will produce CAD images of our design ideas, so that you can get a good idea of what the room would look like, and where everything would go.  We provide quotations for each option, to help you to get an idea of prices too. 
PLEASE NOTE- there is no charge or commitment for our services here, we are just doing what we can to help you.

STAGE THREE-  After you have looked over our ideas, we discuss with you any changes that you would like to make to our suggested ideas.  We carefully discuss what you like and dislike- after all, we want to create something that you will be 100% happy with.  We work hard to produce give our customers the best prices.

STAGE FOUR-  When you are 100% happy with the proposal, and are happy and confident to place the order with us, we arrange timescales and finalise the order.  We don't do a pushy sales approach- we really don't believe in it; we prefer to make sure that you are happy with everything.  We manage each of our orders carefully, in order to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, releasing some of the pressure from your shoulders, as a consumer!

STAGE FIVE-  We receive the furniture in to our warehouse, then our installations team will bring it into your premises.  They will assemble the furniture, put the furniture into place according to the plans, and then remove all the packaging to leave you ready to enjoy your new workspace.  We can also offer other services such as existing furniture clearance and redecoration.

If your project involves refurbishment or interior works, then we effectively project manage the whole process for you at no extra charge.  We make sure that all of the 'trades' are working as they should, lowering your stress levels somewhat!

STAGE SIX-  We like to make sure that you are satisfied with your furniture and/or new office, so we check that everything has gone smoothly.  If there are any problems that have occurred, we try our best to solve them as quickly as possible for you. 

Design in Today's Society

Keeping Quality at the Heart of Design

The term, 'quality' is used to define a level of excellence, or a property or attribute which differentiates a thing or person.  We, at Verve, believe strongly in safeguarding quality as one of the most important elements at the heart of a product's design.  We much prefer to supply our clients with high quality products, which are designed to last them a very long time, rather than cheap products which will last a fraction of the time.   

Sadly, we live in a society, which is driven by commercial fads and disposable products.  Our society has an increasingly 'temporary' mindset with regard to products- we tend to choose products which are cheaper, intending to save our pennies, without even thinking about the life-span of what we are buying.  Over the past few years, large supermarket outlets have expanded, so that they now sell a whole range of products, such as office chairs, cameras, furniture etc., making it increasingly easy and tempting for us to choose the cheaper option. 

Our country's current financial climate seems to have helped people to think more carefully about a product, and the benefits of buying a slightly more expensive product of a much higher quality, rather than a cheap product. 

Let's take office chairs as an example; most of our clients find that cheap chairs will last less than a year, and will be very uncomfortable to sit in- often leading to back complaints.  Most cheap chairs are manufactured in other countries such as China, and so their carbon footprints tend to be huge, adding further to environmental pollution; this really needs to be taken in to account alongside the fact that these products tend to only last a fraction of the time. 

The slightly more expensive chairs are designed and manufactured specifically for the user's comfort, as well as to last a considerably long time.  The chairs are manufactured with much higher quality materials, making the chairs more durable and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  Most of the chairs that we offer come with a FIVE YEAR GUARANTEE, which indicates an excellent standard of manufacture, as well as taking some stress off the shoulders of the consumer.  Many of our products are manufactured within the U.K., significantly improving the environmental impact of our products, with much smaller carbon footprints.

Gaining Colour Continuity in Industry

Colour Continuity

The Colour Conflict for Offices

When you go in to a shop, I bet you never consider the continuity of a product.  In our line of business, it is a particularly important aspect to consider- especially in terms of colour and finishes.

It is often the case that a customer will request some furniture for their office in a certain finish, and will then request some more furniture components for the same office as it evolves and changes over time.  Obviously, these new components must be manufactured using the same finish, so that the items in the office match, giving the office a professional and clean look.

With most non-furniture specialists- i.e. stationary companies- and high street furniture superstores, it is often the case that they sell products with increasingly short shelf lives.  This means that if you need go back to the shop to buy more of the same furniture in around a year, the furniture that you previously bought has been discontinued, in favour of a newer product that will look similar but is slightly different in colour and style.  This makes it very difficult to match the furniture that you have already bought, and can often prove frustrating for you as a customer.
 

Our ranges of office furniture are particularly reliable in this situation, which is particularly useful for our customers who want to add to their offices or receptions as they evolve over time. 

We had a customer recently, who had previously bought a desk in one of our furniture ranges at least five years beforehand.  They needed a cupboard from the same range, which would match the desk.  We sent out a wood sample for them to compare, and the finish was an exact match.  The customer was overjoyed with the cupboard, which was a perfect match for their existing furniture.

Something To Think About...

Windows- A Cause of Skin Damage?

According to a new study, which has been carried out by Boots, workers who sit by windows can look up to ten years older than other colleagues.  Experts have found that damaging sunrays can penetrate the glass, forming lines and wrinkles in the skin.  The study also found that rays through side windows can leave one side of the face with up to seven years more creasing than the other, leaving cabbies and van drivers at risk too. 

The Boots research has concluded that even sitting by an office window in weak April sunshine can increase the risk of skin damage by up to 300%.  Scientists in Besançon, France, have found that over 90% of all skin damage can be attributed to harmful UVA rays.  According to skin doctor, Mike Bell, 'the biggest danger is for staff in open-plan offices with big windows'.

How can you protect your skin from harmful UV rays?

Don't panic, there are a few different options available to people who want to protect their skin, even in office or commercial environments.  You could cover the windows in solar glazing film, which acts as a barrier for these danagerous rays of sunlight, without imposing too much on the view.  Alternatively, you could fit blinds in the windows in order to control how much sunlight you let in to the room or office.

Verve- Relieving the Stress of Moving Offices!

Today's blog is dedicated to our wonderful installations team, who have been very busy helping our customers to move offices.  We all know how stressful moving offices can be, so we try our very best to make your move as stress free- and mess free- as possible.  We even caught photographic evidence of a certain 'installation fairy'- who shall remain nameless- hoovering up the mess after having put together all of the office furniture for one of our customers!  There aren't many companies who will go the extra mile to help their customers, so we like to rave about our thoughtful and helpful installations team!