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Competitively priced carpets are available all year round from Gilt Edge Carpets, so it rarely needs sales. A family company with a wealth of knowledge, it provides free advice and an expert planning, estimating and fitting service. Choose from wool, velvets, Seagrass, Jute – even Bamboo or Paper. It can also offer Vinyl, Lino, Rubber or Laminate flooring at prices starting from as little as £10 per square metre.

If your chairs or sofas are looking a bit grubby, but you can’t bear (or afford) to replace them, it is worth considering a re-upholstery job – especially if the eagle-eyed in-laws are descending for Christmas. A specialist in this area, Plumbs Upholstery can give a no-obligation visit your home and recommend the type of upholstery best suited to your needs. For those families with kids or dogs, it can also make up loose covers, which can be removed and washed as and when you need. By choosing to keep and revive existing furniture, you are also doing your bit for the environment.

Your average household light switch is hardly the most exciting of items, but  not so at Candyqueendesigns.co.uksells , which sells  a wide range of unusual light switches, printed with a variety of designs, and fitted with themed rotary knobs to give a striking and dimmable switch. Each switch is priced at £24.99, and you can even send in your own photographs for a switch personalised to suit you.

A website dedicated to mending things in the all areas of the home and garden, mendmy.com offers free repair information on everything you can find in a property.

With absolutely no membership, login in or email details required, mendmy.com is a free portal for finding out and giving out helpful advice and info regarding fixing things. Simply go on to the site, post your query and then wait to see what information you receive back.

Fumbling for keys and locating the lock to your home can be a struggle during darker winter months – but this Solar Key Hole Light from Natural Collection can help. Charged by sunlight, it can be attached just above your key hole to allow you easy access whatever the hour of night. The Light comes with interchangeable covers (brass, white and chrome) and provides up to 720 operations.

This Fantome Clock designed by Yee-Ling Wan for Innermost combines the feel of an old carriage clock with a modern optical illusion, to give a thoroughly ghostly feel this Halloween. And Post Modern Designs is offering to give one (worth £85) away to each of five lucky readers.

In terms of investments for the home, you can’t do much better than a set of quality solid wood shutters. Highly aesthetic and practical, these could greatly enhance the value of your home.

Established since 1982, the Plantation Shutters’ range has evolved to include a number of unique features - hidden fixings, rebated panels and mortise and tenon joints – making them the strongest, most efficient and user friendly shutters on the market.

With such a hot April behind us, this summer looks set to sizzle – but it’s glass extensions that will really feel the heat. Thankfully, Appeal Blinds is on hand with an eco-friendly, sun-reflecting solution to keep the temperature down. It’s pioneering Solar R® and Alu-Pleat™ blinds reflect an astonishing 85 per cent of the sun’s heat – helping you to cut your energy use (and bills), whilst remaining cool and comfortable under your glass extension or conservatory. Each costs £200 per square metre but includes an interior design consultation and professional installation.

Fast, affordable and framed art, delivered direct to your door, takes all the hassle out of filling blank walls - making Easy Art an ideal solution for time poor professionals. There’s an enormous choice of art prints available, spanning a varied range of styles and subjects. This Martini print by Steve Forney from the Art Nouveau range costs just £25.95 unframed – to frame it just click on the frame you like and it will pop up, letting you see online how your framed print looks. Prices start from £5.95 for unframed prints.

A fun and surprisingly handy website, Yahoo! Answers provides an interactive platform to indulge in one of man’s best virtues; curiosity.

With helpful categories such as the home and garden, health and computers to the more adventurous and opinionated such as politics, social sciences and parenting, Yahoo!

• Wickes - From now until 3 November 2007, spend £200 or more in the Wickes Kitchen Cabinets section and receive a 33 per cent discount on your total kitchen cabinet purchase. Simply enter discount code K1. Wickes.co.uk

• Haddonstone – The UK’s leading manufacturer of cast stonework for interiors and exteriors is offering 20 per cent off any fireplace ordered and paid for during October, with pieces such as its Tall Manor Chimney Piece reduced from £1,300 to £1,040.

Hallway clutter is a thing of the past with these stylish new OTT hooks by Viable London (available from twentytwentyone). A great buy for those wishing to safeguard their deposits in rented accommodation, these simply hang over the door and are screwed in at the top to help preserve visible paintwork, whilst keeping the hooks in place. A set of two short hooks (28cm and 44cm) costs £18 and a set of two long hooks (72cm and 110cm) costs £22.

Who’d have thought that an old plastic bottle could produce something as striking as this decorative “fabric” by Michelle Brand?

A good quality rug can be expensive, so it’s always worth checking out the bargain or clearance pages of a few “rug” websites to get the best deals. That said, pickings are often slim, with dull colours and moth eaten corners a standard characteristic of the supposed “deals” on offer. Not so at Wovenground.com where a sister site, Budgetrugs.co.uk, has been set up selling quality and colourful clearance rugs at up to 50 per cent less.

Be sure to click through to this week‘s Ask the Experts on Homes and Bargains if you have ever struggled to find room in the suitcase for those gorgeous holiday homeware finds. Giving her advice on how to buy good foreign imports on the web, Antonella Edwards shares all. Click here to read what she has to say.

Next time a light bulb blows, stop by a Ryness store. In a bid to encourage green thinking, it is offering free light bulb recycling to all of its customers. And when you consider that the mercury from a single fluorescent tube or light bulb (eg. an energy saving light bulb) is enough to pollute 30,000 litres of drinking water, it does not seem worth risking sending these to landfill.

This week: getting prepared for winter

• If you can’t afford new curtains this winter, add a look of luxury to tired fabrics with tasseled, chord, beaded or rope tiebacks – Collybrook.co.uk has an excellent selection.
• Arrange to have the chimney or flu cleaned. Blocked residue or birds' nests can disrupt ventilation and endanger your health.

Following in her uncle’s footsteps, Carina Haslam (niece of interior designer Nicky Haslam) sells paintings by artists such as Louisa Burnett-Hall and Fiona Macrae for up to £2,500. But if that strikes you as a bit steep, it is well worth looking up the less publicised Limited Edition page on Carina’s website. This offers the chance to buy limited edition reproductions of the original oils by these artists at a fraction of the original prices (as little as £90). A personal favourite, this Washing Cow giclée print by Fiona Macrae is priced at just £150.

Dread the annual Christmas shopping scrum on the High Street?

Better known for its retro take on kitchen appliances, Smeg has now branched out with the launch of three equally trendy ranges of flueless gas fires. Incorporating the latest gas fire technology, these do not require a chimney or flue to operate. Instead, the combustion gases pass through a catalytic converter system, converting 100 per cent of the gas to heat. This is so effective that the air is cleaner going out than coming in, making these as eco-friendly as they are cost-effective.

I love the summertime. Alfresco feasts, warmer temperatures and, best of all, the glorious sunshine. And, if you haven't already, it's time to turn your attention to making the most of it.

An attractive and unusual way to combat allergens and odours in the home, the Fresh Air Globe (£39.99) from JML extracts smells and pollutants from the air and pumps them into a vent, cleansing them and creating purer, cleaner air. Sounds great. But its benefits don’t end there, as the Globe is also a mood light, and a great night light for kids suffering from hayfever. It also has the benefit of being energy efficient – using only 10 watts of electricity. A star buy for the summer. JMLdirect.com

A summery way to save (and hide) pennies this summer, these Beach Hut Money Boxes (£24 for four) from Newenglandlifestyle.com look great as decoration (I love the solitary seagull perched on the roof), but also provide a tasteful way to store an emergency stash of change. And it’s well worth checking out the rest of the collection here – elegant, painted furniture for the dining room, bedroom and living room  - and all very reasonably priced.

The only company in the UK certified by the Soil Association to produce a range of organic bedding products, Abaca makes mattresses entirely from natural materials, with a key component being organic Welsh wool. Naturally warm and fire resistant, wool has the added advantage of being much more organic and chemical-free than the cotton alternative; which can also have positive implications for your health, as well as the environment. Prices start from just £525 for a ‘Snowdon’ pocket sprung mattress.

You can’t beat hardwood shutters in terms of quality and elegance; but, when hotter weather strikes, their practical merits are not to be underestimated. And no one knows this better than Shutterly Fabulous.

An excellent investment when the temperatures rise, shutters allow fresh air and sunlight to come into the room without compromising on security or privacy; and Shutterly Fabulous offers an unrivalled design and installation service.

You can’t put a price on someone who really knows their craft, which is how Norfolk Decorative Antiques comes up trumps every time. A chandelier expert that both restores and sells period lighting, it can repair and rewire chandeliers in any condition, carry out conversions from candle or gas to electric, provide a professional cleaning service; and supply candle lights to mimic real candle power. Prices start from £35 per hour plus vat for chandelier restoration. A truly wonderful service.

If you’ve jumped onto the trend for bold and colourful wallpaper, you’ll want to show it off to its best advantage. Colour co-ordinated soft furnishings undoubtedly help but, for a more thoughtful touch, these invisible light switches from Forbes & Lomax are an excellent buy. Made from a thick transparent acrylic face plate, these allow your wallpaper to show through and are available with a selection of different switches including Rocker Switches, Rotary and Button Dimmer controls. Prices start from £26.

For the last word in all things relating to lighting, Light-My-House.co.uk offers a vast range of lamps to serve all possible purposes.

Cut down on the expense and environmental waste of buying sparkling water with this new top of the range Drinksmaker from SodaStream. The Penguin comes with reusable glass carafes, and allows you to add as little or as much sparkle as you want to water. Just fill the carafe with tap water, put it in the Drinksmaker, close it and push the button. The Penguin is available for purchase online at Soda Stream Penguin.co.uk, priced £99.99 for a starter pack.

You can’t put a price on someone who really knows their craft, which is how Norfolk Decorative Antiques comes up trumps every time. A chandelier expert that both restores and sells period lighting, it can repair and rewire chandeliers in any condition, carry out conversions from candle or gas to electric, provide a professional cleaning service; and supply candle lights to mimic real candle power. Prices start from £35 per hour plus vat for chandelier restoration. A truly wonderful service.

If you’ve jumped onto the trend for bold and colourful wallpaper, you’ll want to show it off to its best advantage. Colour co-ordinated soft furnishings undoubtably help but, for a more thoughtful touch, these invisible light switches from Forbes & Lomax are an excellent buy. Made from a thick transparent acrylic face plate, these allow your wallpaper to show through and are available with a selection of different switches including Rocker Switches, Rotary and Button Dimmer controls. Prices start from £26.

Whether it’s Wimbledon, football or a night in with a couple of DVDs, a good quality TV can make all the difference, and Richer Sounds offers some of the best models on the market. This Samsung LE23R71bx offers a high-definition sharpness, processing no fewer than 12.8 billion colours, and combining DNIe (Digital Natural Image engine) for crystal clear clarity. Normally priced at £549.95, this is currently being sold in Richer Sounds stores for £349.95 – but readers can buy it for just £299.95. The best value way to bring the action home.

The only company in the UK certified by the Soil Association to produce a range of organic bedding products, Abaca makes mattresses entirely from natural materials, with a key component being organic Welsh wool. Naturally warm and fire resistant, wool has the added advantage of being much more organic and chemical-free than the cotton alternative; which can also have positive implications for your health, as well as the environment. Prices start from just £525 for a ‘Snowdon’ pocket sprung mattress.

If you’re going away this summer and are worried about leaving your plants, it is well worth investing in a Wet Pot from Wet Pot Systems. Since its launch last year, this has taken off across Britain with folk as far afield as LA hailing it the latest homeware hit of today.

Too hot?

With the start of Heals summer sale tomorrow, there’s more than just good weather to put a spring in your step. As part of its seasonal bonanza, it ' s offering discounts of up to 50 per cent across a selected range of Molton Brown products, as well as an array of furniture and home accessories.

If Kate Moss is wearing it and interior designers are using it, monochrome must be in. Keeping in line with trend, Hyder International has launched a range of black and white accessories. This florally inspired triple fold screen is a fabulous addition to the bedroom or lounge, updating the traditionally utilitarian accessory of pre-war Britain into a distinctly modern and decorative accessory. But before you baulk at the thought of boutique prices, take heart – the screen costs from just £49.

Watch out for the Roger Oates Clearance Room Sale starting this Saturday (23 June) where you can find up to 50 per cent off Wilton runners, 100 per cent wool flat weave rugs, fabric lengths and cushions. The discounted collection includes sample stock, remnant lengths and discontinued lines and represents exceptional savings. This Pisa Red runner is approx. 60cm wide and is reduced from £89 to just £45 per metre. The sale ends 7 July.

If you’re more beast than belle when it comes to photos, This is Venture can help.

Fans simply don’t do the job when temperatures hit the highs, so it’s well worth snapping up a good air conditioner for the hotter days ahead. The happy home solution to all things electrical, Ryness has a small yet reliable collection of air conditioners in its stores. It was this 12000 Btu Mobile Air Conditioner that got the gold star in the line up though. Dubbed as “one of the most powerful air conditioning units money can buy”, this will quickly cool down your room and does not need to be professionally installed.