As I write this blog our stylish shoe cabinets are literally sailing their way across the Gulf of Finland to arrive at STORE HQ in around a week’s time.

As ever, our brief to Leon (our friend the shoe cabinet designer) was to ignore the cheap tacky flat pack shoe storage cabinets that flood the UK market and instead concentrate on a range of items that were both stylish, well made but still affordable.

Leon has done us proud with some new shoe cabinets and storage benches that we really think you’ll like.  They’re both slimline, look great and are fairly priced. Better still they’ll stand the test of time unlike some UK shoe storage cabinets we’ve tested!

STORE’s new range of shoe storage cabinets goes on sale as part of our summer range  in mid July. To purchase online visit our Shoe Storage Solutions section online at www.APlaceForEverything.co.uk

Do hurry though as our neat summer discounts are only around for a few weeks in July.

The same is true of the now famous STORE Summer Sale which only lasts for a few weeks in July and has some really juicy discounts on regular lines with over 50% off many summer sale items and up to 80% off where we can.

This year we’re also offering a bit of shelf help with 20% off all our elfa shelving and storage. Whether you’re simply buying an elfa basket drawer tower to organise the bottom of your wardrobe or asking us to design a full-on elfa walk-in wardrobe, dressing room or elfa wardrobe internals within your existing fitted wardrobe, elfa is ideal to declutter your space.

The STORE Summer Sale starts this Thursday 1^st July online at the stroke of midnight and in our stores from 9.30am when doors open on the same day BUT unlike our colleague Gerry’s infamous quote, “I hope I live as long as the DFS summer sale” the STORE sale only lasts for a short few weeks so hurry whilst stocks last!

Designed and (importantly) made in Italy too, our new range of summer tableware for your summer BBQ or dinner party has already received several admiring glances from our Chester flagship store customers, even though we’re not officially launching it until Monday.

Not wanting our online customers to miss-out too, here’s a couple of sneak-peak photos of this really unusual range of summer tableware.

The Entity hor d’oevre, fruit or cheese board serving platter

The Entity range (as it’s known) will be available in STORE and online at www.APlaceForEverything.co.uk in the next few days but do hurry as the Colombo family workshops are only producing a limited run for us this summer and we think that stock is destined to eaten-up quickly!

The Entity ice cube bowl and tongs

It’s been a few years since our famous space saving Flip Coat Hook was introduced into the STORE range of hooks and hangers. Oft copied but never quite matching-up to the original, the Flip Coat Hook was and still is a massive hit for those with tight hallway spaces requiring a stylish coat hook. It’s designer Alan Wisniewski is back this summer with a variation on a theme in the form of The Flapper Coat Stand. The Flapper is finished in a gorgeous  lacquered dark wood and has nine of Wisnieski’s famous flip down coat hooks . In stock from early July, I’m tipping  the Flapper coat stand to become be another Wisniewski classic.

Our new Beehive Composter is due in stock in mid July and you won’t be disappointed. We’ve had it treated with a cedar wood stain so it’ll stand whatever the British elements throw at it and better still, unlike some we tested it has a hinged lid for easy no fuss access as well as an opening at the bottom to retrieve all your lovely nitrogen rich compost.

organise your garage this summer with our new range of Elfa Utility storage hooks and hangers

Our new range of workshop, garage and shed storage products from elfa of Sweden is now in stock both online and in our shops.  Known as Elfa Utility, this neat system of hooks, hangers, storage bags, part bins and tool storage hangers really is top quality and simple to install as you’d expect from our friends at elfa in Sweden.

As well as for the serious DIY junkie wanting to kit-out a whole workshop wall with tool storage, Elfa Utility is ideal if you’re just after a simple way to clear the clutter and make best use of space in your garage, shed or even utility room.  The genius of elfa means that once the single horizontal top track is in place everything else simply clips-on in seconds.  Better still, as it’s a totally modular storage system you can add, move or bespoke as your storage needs change in the future.

For details of the products available in our new Elfa Utility range see our new workshop and garage storage section online. We’ve also added a few of our Best Selling Elfa Solutions alongside the individual hooks and hangers to give you an idea of just want can be achieved with the Elfa Utility system.

LAMM 2010 - Photo by Jon Brooke

Congratulations to our MD Simon Glanville and his running buddy Dr Ulf Demnitz who completed the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon (LAMM) this weekend at Glen Fyne in Scotland. The veteran pair came a respectable 46^th in the D-category crossing the finish line in a record-breaking 11 hours and 17 minutes over the two day mountain event. Simon tells us he even had time to point a few potential storage solution customers in the direction of some camping storage products on our website during the event! Between them, Ulf and Simon have completed 11 Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon’s and (according to Simon) it’s “all the fault of our elfa shelving.” Ulf was originally an elfa customer at STORE’s Chester flagship shop looking for walk-in wardrobe storage and in an effort to secure the sale, Simon agreed to run the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon! Five years later the mad pair are still running.

Our new range of LEGO brick plastic storage boxes are not just for small kids storage needs!

I’m delighted with these great photos of our new LEGO brick plastic storage boxes but I can’t help thinking they look a bit surreal as I’m not use to seeing LEGO bricks at this sort of scale. I’m really pleased that we also managed to get a photo of the boxes under the bed.  When we first saw these stacking LEGO storage boxes with thought they’d be great for children’s toy storage but they actually make great underbed storage boxes for big kids too!

Our new range of LEGO plastic storage boxes will be available in STORE from mid July 2010…it’ll be worth the wait, they’re the best looking children’s toy storage boxes we’ve seen in years!

Recyclable Plastic Storage Boxes

If you haven’t spotted our new range of plastic Nick Nack storage boxes yet they went onto our STORE shelves a few days ago. These neat little plastic boxes have a bigger story to tell than perhaps is offered at first sight. Apart from being a great little storage box for all those trinkets and bits & bobs that always seem to clutter-up your drawers, they’re actually made from the world’s first 100% biodegradable plastic. Each storage box is manufactured from a combination of polymer and corn starch which when disposed of in compost or soil will TOTALLY biodegrade in 6 – 9 months. Still not convinced? Here’s the science bit:

To create our new plastic storage boxes, naturally occurring bacteria are fed sugar that is obtained from corn starch. The bugs digest the sugar and store the resulting PHBV polymer much as the human body would store fat. The “fat” is then extracted and becomes an injection mouldable polymer called poly-3-hydroxy butyrate-co-valerate…a derivative of the molecule that Forbes magazine declared “one of the five molecules that will change the world.”…and guess what, it was first developed right here in Blighty in the late 1980s