For their latest advertising campaign, Aviva searched the nation to find the UK’s most extraordinary homeowners to celebrate
the nation’s passion for home renovation and the extreme lengths people go to in order to revamp their living spaces. Amongst those, they found a stingray breeder who converted the whole of his basement
into an impressive domestic aquarium, a family who converted their back
garden into a four-storey Pirate’s den and a lady who converted
her modern day home to make it look like it came
directly from the Victorian era !
If you want to see the videos, you can view all eight clips on Aviva’s YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XavE0D-2phc&list=UU1waY0p35rI-1b7lnGI3Pyw&index=5&feature=plpp_video
Inspired
by the stars of the latest campaign, Aviva has launched a Facebook
competition to celebrate those across the nation who go above and beyond
to celebrate their love for their home. The
Extraordinary Homes
Facebook competition offers homeowners around the country the chance to
win a home renovations prize of £5,000 by submitting a photo or short
video and description of their home
improvements which demonstrates their own love for their home.
The competition
will be judged by Aviva’s Extraordinary Homes ambassador and competition
judge, Craig Phillips. As part of Craig’s involvement, he has come up with some exclusive tips and tricks on
how to make your house extraordinary without costing the earth.
You have until the start of June to enter the competition so his tips may give you some pointers. If you enter, feel free to share your entries - I'd love to see what you've done to your houses !
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Top 5 tips on how to make your house extraordinary without costing the earth
By Craig Phillips, Aviva’s Extraordinary Homes ambassador and competition judge
1. Clever use of mirrors - Mirrors can make a world of difference
to any room if set in the right place. They can make it feel larger in size and much brighter, creating a whole new atmosphere.
If
you have a very small room, covering a wall with large plain mirror,
preferably one with no frame automatically gives the impression the room
is a lot
larger than it really is. These can be purchased from any good glazing
supplier and can be cut down to suit. All you will need is a good grab
adhesive to apply to the back and fix it straight onto the plaster.
2. Draw in the light
- Hallways are renowned for being dark due
to the limited amount of natural light. One of my top tips that I use
in my own home is to use long thin mirrors to draw in natural lighting
into the corridors. The trick is to position a torch where you have
placed the first mirror, reflect it down the hall
way to see where the light lands. This will create a zig zag effect
causing the natural light to continue down the hallway.
3. Create a feature wall
- Patterned wall paper is a great way
to inject some colour into a once plain room. By only wallpapering one
wall, you can really splash the cash and go for quality and buy one that
you really love. To be extra thrifty, you can use the ends of the paper
that haven’t been used and put them into
picture frames to hang on the plain walls.
4. Back tile your kitchen
walls- Splash back tiling in your kitchen is a great way of
changing the look of the kitchen, as well as making the area more
hygienic. Just place three or four tiles high along the top of the
surfaces to create the effect. There is such a great range
available now, my favourite being black gloss ceramic tiles. Just
remember, if you’re using black tiles, use a black grout as well!
Another
idea for splash back tiling is to make a collage of photographs on the
wall, and cover with clear Perspex. The Perspex will need to be around
6MM
thick – however you will need to consider heat resistant Perspex for
around the oven area. This is a great way to personalise your kitchen
area with fond memories.
5. Get creative in kids bedrooms
- A great idea for children’s
bedrooms is to paint a small area with magnetic/chalk board paint. It
will not only make a great feature for their room, but it will be a good
way to encourage them to learn, by using it to help them with their
sums or spelling.
A
great way to make the kid's room more exciting is to create a stepping
stone effect. Lay green carpet to give the impression of grass, then
using patterned
vinyl, I'd recommend a stone effect, and cut to form stepping stones.
Place these from the door to the bed, wardrobe, desk or anywhere you
want the path to go. Once you're happy, cut the carpet to the exact size
of the stones and stick them down using double
sided carpet tape.
If
you’ve done something extraordinary and wonderful to your own home,
Aviva want to hear about it! Simply submit a photo or short video and
description,
which will be judged by Craig, for your chance to win the £5,000
prize. Go to Facebook and search for “Aviva Extraordinary Homes” to
enter their competition.
for more information : https://www.facebook.com/AvivaUK/app_314055151993168
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