No-build tricks to update your guest loo for the holidays

From out-of-town relatives, friends, colleagues and of course, the in-laws – there’s never a shortage of visitors around the festive season. If your holiday guests stay for more than just a few moments, they’re certain to end up in your guest bathroom. Make family and friends feel right at home with these great tricks that’ll have your bathroom looking brand-new, but without the stress of a complete revamp.

Bathroom Essentials

Dress up bare windows with eye-catching curtains or blinds and place decorative towels around the bathroom. Add some scented candles, hand wash and lotion, or even patterned toilet paper to change up the look of your guest loo, without it leaving a dent in your wallet.

Fake A New Look

Replace worn-out toilet seats and lids, old mirrors, rusty taps and other fixtures to fake your way to a brand-new looking bathroom. Swap out your current bath mat for a fresh new fluffy one and keep soaps in their packaging to have your guests feeling truly spoilt.

Add Some Greenery

Often homeowners will opt for a plain white bathroom when revamping, but with a bit of greenery, they can add some life to this plain white canvas. Whether real or synthetic, a few plants can go a long way to add that pop of colour to a dull looking bathroom, and it won’t cost you a whole lot either!

Scrub-a-dub-dub

It can be tempting to put off cleaning the bathroom “just for a little while”, but this paves the way for a build-up of mould and mildew, which will only make the chore twice as hard later on down the road. Fortunately, this inexpensive baking soda and vinegar concoction will have your bathroom sparkling in a flash.

Simply dissolve two or more teaspoons of baking soda in pure distilled white vinegar. Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and spray directly onto the mould or mildew. Allow for it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then scrub with a damp cloth and wipe away. This process can be repeated until you’re rid of it all.

Reviving a tired looking bathroom for the festive season doesn’t require a total overhaul, with simple tricks like these, you can add character and style to your bathroom, all without breaking your budget. Happy holidays!

Flooring for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Businesses: 3 Considerations You Can’t Afford to Ignore

From boutique hotels to coffee shops and restaurants, in the information age, great interior design can mean the difference between your business getting tongues wagging on social media and a spot in the hottest editorials – or not. And though gorgeous art and expensive designer furniture certainly have their place, many business owners – usually on a tight budget – tend not to realise the impact that a beautiful floor can have. And we’re not just talking about aesthetically, either.

Here are three important considerations to take into account before making your final flooring decision.

Cost

Wooden flooring, carpet, and tiles can all be equally beautiful if installed properly, but when it comes to cost, some options are certainly more practical for a small business owner than others.

Wooden floors, though beautifully warm and very on-trend, are rarely a practical choice for commercial spaces, simply because of their high material and installation costs. And to complicate things even further, they are highly vulnerable to scratching and scuffing, which means they’ll need to be polished, sanded, and even replaced sooner than a tiled floor would be.

Carpets are more cost effective in terms of materials and installation, but require deep cleaning more often, which adds to their maintenance costs later. The carpets chosen for commercial spaces tend to have bolder patterns and darker colours to better hide dirt from thousands of grubby shoes – meaning you’ll be limited in terms of your décor options and may not end up with a result that you love.

And while tiles may not be the cheapest choice up-front, they do offer great value in the long run, as they are extremely long-lasting, much easier to clean than carpets, and more durable than wood. Modern tiles also come in a wide variety of sizes, styles and finishes – from realistic wood-look to colourful patchwork designs – allowing you to blend the beauty of wood and textiles with the practicality and strength of tiles.

Practicality and Durability

As we mentioned, tiles have a great advantage in terms of overall costs, as well as offering a good lifetime of durability. Public areas in commercial spaces see plenty of wear and tear, and eventually, spills and accidents may require a small section to be replaced from time to time. In a carpeted environment, this would entail removing the entire carpet and starting from scratch; and in a wooded-floor environment, replacing just one or two planks can cause a very noticeable discrepancy between the new areas and the old.

Tiles win again in terms of practicality, offering the option to replace each one individually, as and when needed, therefore it is essential that you purchase a few extra square metres of your chosen tile at the outset ensuring you’ll have a steady supply in case replacements are needed.

Safety

When it comes to safety, you might assume that carpeting and wooden flooring would beat tiles hands-down, thanks to their Carpets, as mentioned earlier, can be much dirtier than they appear, harbouring all sorts of bacteria, moulds and fungi that can present a real health hazard to your staff and customers. In addition, carpet edges (and warped or bowed wooden floor planks, for that matter) can present a tripping hazard that will leave your guests “floored” – and not in a good way.

Tiles, on the other hand, are perfectly flat and smooth for walking around on – with or without trolleys. It’s also worth mentioning that porcelain tiles (which are less porous due being pressed harder and fired at a higher temperature than ceramic tiles during the manufacturing process) are much better suited to outdoor areas than any of their competitors. At Tile Africa Commercial, we are not only able to guide you in the direction of the perfect tile for your requirements, we are also able to design a bespoke offering tailored perfectly to your business’s needs.

Still not sure what flooring options are appropriate for your commercial space? Why not contact a architectural specifier at Tile Africa Commercial on 011 979 0327 or go to https://www.tileafrica.co.za/Commercial/ for more information. They will be more than happy to take you through the many the flooring solutions available and help you find the perfect tile for a stylish, practical and hard-wearing floor that your guests, staff and customers will love.