This week I discuss working with Frank, Cassie and Kyle as we made over holiday homes on week 5 of Interior Design Masters on BBC/Netflix.
I explain how to get you garden featured on the big makeover shows like Garden Rescue and Love your Garden.
Plus I Interview the exciting lighting designer Emer from Spark & Bell as she shares the passion of creating her beautiful lights.
And I remove the fear and explain how your home fuse board works so you can turn your electrics off in an emergency.
Guest details: www.sparkandbell.com
Sponsor: To take advantage of the generous 15% discount from my sponsor Thorndown, please visit http://bit.ly/TVCarpenter. Discount code: TVCarpenter
Contact me: Wayne Perrey on Twitter and Instagram.
Music: "What's the Angle" by Shane Ivers
To learn how to achieve a Safe, practical and beautiful home,
join THE DIY DOERS Facebook group
This week I discuss working with Frank, Cassie and Kyle as we made over holiday homes on week 5 of Interior Design Masters on BBC/Netflix.
I explain how to get you garden featured on the big makeover shows like Garden Rescue and Love your Garden.
Plus I Interview the exciting lighting designer Emer from Spark & Bell as she shares the passion of creating her beautiful lights.
And I remove the fear and explain how your home fuse board works so you can turn your electrics off in an emergency.
Guest details: www.sparkandbell.com
Sponsor: To take advantage of the generous 15% discount from my sponsor Thorndown, please visit http://bit.ly/TVCarpenter. Discount code: TVCarpenter
Contact me: Wayne Perrey on Twitter and Instagram.
Music: "What's the Angle" by Shane Ivers
To learn how to achieve a Safe, practical and beautiful home,
join THE DIY DOERS Facebook group
On today's show, I talk about working with the wonderful Charlie Dimmick on the BBC show garden rescue. I tell you about my experience of working with the designers, Cassie, frank and Kyle. On this week's episode of Interior Design Masters. I have the pleasure of speaking to the wonderful lighting designer EMA from spark and bell and explain how your fuse board works so you can turn the electrics off in an emergency. I have to say this week has been a particular, it's
Speaker 2:really a fun week for me to have my uh, episodes of, um, garden rescue and was shown, it's a daytime garden makeover show for the BBC and I filmed quite a few of those episodes last year and they're all coming out this week. So this week I was featured on two of them. It's a daytime make-overs show, but more importantly, I got to make a water feature for Charlie Dimmick. Now, Charlie Demo originated ground force years ago with Antish Martin, Tommy Walsh, and he was known for what features and to build, albeit a really small little, um, B, a cooler style of water. A water feature for me was a bit of a dream come true. And what was really funny as I was building it, she was saying, Wayne, what? Like what? You know why you taking so much time on it? Like why? You know, why you being so fussy about it? And I was like, Whoa, Whoa, hold on. I'm actually building a water feature for you. I'm building a water feature for Charlie[inaudible]. This needs to be perfect. And she just laughed at me, but she loved what I did and we had a real good last, if any of you get to watch the show, catch it at the county level, it's actually set in leads, but also the design of that one was particularly brilliant. It was designed by the rich brothers and they created this amazing bridge, but using decking boards on their end and then we bolted them together. So carpentry wise as statically looked beautiful. It was probably one of my favorite garden make-overs I've ever done in all my garden. Make overworld and then like I say, to top it off to work with Charlie Dimmick was absolutely dream come true. I'm often asked because people know I work in these garden make-over shows, I'm asked, well, you know, can they come and do my garden? Can you get advantage Martin to come and you know, sort of my God now, you know, surprise me. And so I have to explain how all of these work really. So if your, the advantage marsh show, um, Love Your Garden is an ITB production, which means it's, uh, it can be sponsored. So those gardens tend to be bigger budgets. Um, it's a primetime show and the people who received the gardens have normally have having a tricky time or they're, they've done something amazing for the community themselves. So there's got to be a story within it that I'm a worthy recipient of the, of the garden. And those gardens as well tend to be the bigger budget gardens. Like I said, because he's ITV, everything can be gifted. So the buildings are given, the barbecues or the paving and the budgets that they have are very minimal as in for the crew. And obviously all the Labor is paid for anything, but they, they gardens can be all singing, all dancing because everything in it, all the materials and all the furniture is gifted. And in exchange for, they get mentioned on the website. And if you'll see sometimes when they do the reveal, they'll have little strap lines that say, Oh, that sofa was from sound. So, so they get some advertising out of it. ITV Gardens. If you want your garden done by Alan Titchmarsh, you need to know really where they're going to, but you can nominate people. So if you know somebody who has a, has done something amazing for the community and he's a, a worthy person who's garden should be made over, you can contact them, look up on, um, the ITV, loved your garden website and it'll say how to get involved and it'll tell you who to write to. They're always looking for people that are always casting it, you know? So the casting process, if for anyone else who wants a garden, I suggest they're trying to demonstrate the garden rescue, approaching them for that, anyone can approach them. And, and because it's BBC, it can't be advertise. You can't get any sponsorship. You can't be seen to favor one brand over another. And it also has to be paid for by so that, so that means, because you can't get any freebies as it were, you then have to be paid. It has to be paid. But what's brilliant is if you've got a four grand budget for your garden, I would approach the, you know, Garden Rescue Company, um, and say I've got four grand. And what they'll do is they'll come round if you get on the show and the garden has to be, you know, um, usable as in access and all the rest of them. And if you get on the show, it's a great value for money because say for your four grand budget, you get the design for free. So the two, you know, the presenters will pitch a design to you. You get an award winning designer designing your garden, and you get to choose between the two and then you get, and the trade for free. So you get all the, the myself and the landscapers. But then your budget goes on materials. So you're not paying for labor, you're not paying for design. But what you are paying for your foreground budget would go towards the plants or the materials. And because the garden producers know all these amazing garden and centers and they know all these amazing contacts, all them material costs tend to be at cost. So your plants, you, you know, you know the markup on plants, it's ridiculous. So you probably get double the amount of plants that you would if you went yourself to a garden nursery. So if you have a budget, I would definitely recommend approaching the show and seeing if you can get on the show that way. Then the downside is they have a two day make. So when I work on those shows, we have a day before the presenters arrive. You'll see us arriving in the interviewers and they'll show us, you know, breaking ground and doing the majority of the work and prepping everything. And then when the, um, the presenters and the, you know, Charlie Dimmick or the rich brothers or area arrive, they arrive for the second day and the garden has to be finished by the end of that day. So the garden can't be too big, he can't be too extravagant because you've only got a two day bills on it. But the gardens that they create in two days are amazing. Like if anyone watched this week's one in Leeds, it looks absolutely stunning and it was like, it, you know, it definitely was a 10 grand garden and they spent four or five grand. So, um, it's well worth doing if you have a budget and you don't mind paying for your garden alongside the two garden shows. This week there was also the fifth episode of Interior Design Masters and this week it was chalets and I got to build for Frank Kyle and Kasey and I, it's the first time I've ever worked with Kasey or Kyle and they were absolutely lovely. Um, and to be fair, all the contestants are lovely and I think they all appreciate what we do for them. You know, obviously this pressure is on them, the design is from them. But ultimately they need our help and they need us, you know, as to support them as much as possible. So they're always so, so lovely with us. And it was really interesting working with them in the chalet they were, they had a couple of builders and a couple of decorators, cause obviously it was, I think we have, you know, three bedrooms, um, the living, dining room and the outside area. So they really needed as much trades as possible. It was really interesting seeing them work cause we know that frank is quite strong in his design and his and his opinions of things. But that's cause he's just passionate. I think he knows what he loves. And this is what I love about India design is, and I've been listening to people and I talk to friends who are watching the show and I go, who's you favorite? What do you think? And everyone has a different opinion. Everyone has a different style that they love and that, and it's shown throughout the show, which is amazing because then you have someone like Cassie who's, who's very different to frank, so obviously they're going to rub up against each other. And you know, you saw the argument about, um, like lamps, but there was an argument that you didn't see and I was quite shocked they didn't show it cause it was quite heated. It was about some picture arranging on a wall. Frank had a designed, I think, who is that come in which way it was was right now. But, um, I was putting up some pictures in the lounge above a console table and it had been arranged and we, uh, and I put them up and then I, with Cassie and then frank didn't like the way they'd been pope and said, no. Um, I don't like it. And they kind of to do fro a little bit. And it ended up that they kind of spoke with, stormed off a little bit and didn't really speak to each other about it. They're all getting a bit, it all got a little bit heated to the point that I had to put my hammer and nails down and step away. But then Kyle came in and mediated between the two and worked it out and got them kind of into the same room again to talk. And, and I think that's why Kyle maybe went home, because bless him, he was too busy navigating this, this threesome relationship between them to try and get some kind of cohesive scheme between them. That meant that, um, he almost didn't get to put his stamp on anything cause he was too busy trying to please everybody else. And I think he even said that in the show. He said he was, you know, so they're trying to, to mediate between them all that actually, you know, he lost sight of his design. You know, in the end what was really nice is little things that like Kyle had, had all the m he'd had all the MDF battens that we put in and all the bedrooms, he hit all that precut so he knew to save some time. So that was all precut and sorted out as always with all of these makeover shows, you can't cram everything in, you know, all the footage that they get. You know, it'd be really boring if you showed everything. But um, both of them did over their kitchen, the kitchen units, you know, respraying a kitchen or repainting a kitchen. We had one of the decorators, I think it least Joe in ours literally was painting every door, every drawer. It had to unhook them all. You know, we created another, um, plinth that went above the, um, kitchen units just to, uh, update the kitchen units. So it was a major makeover, you know, in the kitchen area and the kitchen island. I think the even as well got given a, um, like an up cycled, uh, you saw in Nicki's you saw this fishing rod that she had made into a light. We got fishing rods as well and they, they put them up. I think they would given those as a, you know, as a, as a little bit of a task to throw in and to do something with. So it was interesting out there. Haven't shown that in the show. I think maybe they just didn't have enough time to explain it or you know, she think there's so much going on in the shows and they've got to pack it all in in an hour. So yeah, it was, it was a big job. It was a big one to do and it was made even more tricky by the fact that, you know, you had to particularly very strong opinions on how things should be done and and it with Kyle going home, which was a real shame. All right, a huge thank you to my friends at Thorne down paying for sponsoring this episode. I love working with fallen down and I have done for a few years. What I love about them is that they created a paint that was developed to be the best exterior timber paint on the market, but also at the core of their company is they wanted to create a paint that was as gentle to the environment as possible. So they've created the water-based eco paint that's nontoxic. So it's great to be used around kids and animals. It's also really easy to use. It's self priming, which means you have to do minimal preparation and we all like that in these time conscious times that we have when we're doing DIY. But also it has a water repellent coating, which means that paint is designed to last up to 10 years. As I said before, it's water base, which means you can mix the colors together. You could even water it down. I've used it before where I've thinned out, um, one of the pain and used it as a water I'm staying that went on the decking. So it changed the timber decking with that. But also they have over 48 colors in their core color chart ranging from traditional heritage to the more modern. But because like I said, it's water-based, you can mix them and create any color you like. If you'd like any more information, check out thorn down.co. Dot. UK whilst working with some of the best interior designers in the business. I've, uh, come across certain, um, product designers and one of them is an amazing lighting designer called EMA. And she created the company called spark. And Bell, their lights, her lights, absolutely stunning and beautiful. And I, we've been friends on Instagram and I contacted her just to say how much I appreciate and loved her lights and how an inserting every time I've used her lights, I've always taken a picture and sending it to her just to say, look, we're using your lights. And then she shares on her social media and vice versa. When I knew I wanted to interview a lighting designer for my podcast and she was the one person I needed to speak to him. So I'm really pleased that she agreed to chat with me. So here we are. This is EMA from spa.
Speaker 3:Okay,
Speaker 2:Emma, thank you for, for talking to me your from an amazing company called spark and bell and I've seen your work a lot because I've worked with a lot of interior designers, one of them being the amazing Nicky Bamford bows from and when they went wild and I used some of your products in a shop, a sustainable shop that we created and copy too and beans. So I just wanted to get you on and have a chat with you and find out about your, your amazing work.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much. You can't be an m. Brilliant. Mickey's been great to work with. Um, she keeps on returning to me and we keep on having chats and, and designing the stoke pieces and it's pretty amazing to have that such a creative person. Um, kind of jumping in camping thing, my, uh, my life. Um, and I think she appreciates the kind of quite bespoke handmade service that I have here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So how long has your, your company been going? Sparking Bell?
Speaker 4:Probably about four years. Part time for the first couple. And then I quit my teaching job two years ago, actually, July two years ago. Um, and then went full time. So still quite like in its infancy, I would consider them then. I'm still working a lot on new designs and uh, research and developments and kind of allowing the business to grow quite slowly and organically. Yeah. Like I originally am, did my degree in textile design and works fiber optic fiber optic lighting back then. Um, and instead of going for lighting at the time, I decided to go down the photography route. So I did photography and for many year and taught and photography in college and exhibited my own work. And then, yeah, it was just, it was a complete accident in making a life for my daughter's room. And I ordered loads of parts and I was reminded him much their in those lysing and that's it. I got hooked.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. As soon as, because looking on your website, it's interesting, I didn't know your background in photography, but your website is stunning. Like you see spark can bell.com if any of my listeners want to check it out, but it's so styled so well and looked beautiful and it really showcases your lives for people who haven't seen your lights, one of your, you know, your first kind of lights. How would you describe them?
Speaker 4:Um, I'm definitely, I mean, because I hadn't make everything, I try and keep things on processes, quite simple on kind of working a lot of the time with, um, a lot of, uh, parts that I can resource from around me. Very much influenced by iconic, quite minimalist, mid century design and the materials that they used back in design from the 1920s to the 1960s. So BRAF being my obvious, uh, of, and the one material that I mainly focus on again because it's just mainly me in my workshop working with the materials. But I've got, I've chosen to focus on bras, but I've also kind of looked to other kinds of materials that would have been used for instance, wall notion oak. Um, I've gotten amazing carpenter here, um, in my workshop that and makes parts for me. And so yeah, I would quite, I'd probably say quite kind of minimalistic and handmade Bush, always kind of keeping an eye on what's going on as well as though it's important to Kinda know kind of what's going on and also material wise. So, yeah, I've got us quite strong focus on, on kind of recycling, sending the products at with little to no plastic. And I'm working with the new company now with the whole new recycled range of plastic material. And so that influences my designs as well as looking at what I can make very close to me, brought with the skills of people around me and also what's going to kind of balance out and in terms of kind of consumers and making sure that they are kind of lasting products as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing because um, we haven't always spoken before before this, but my background, like I said, is carpentry and TV carpentry. But of late, I've been designing sustainable built shops and things. So I do the, I need to build a sustainable garden at the ideal home show. And everything in the garden was made from sustainable or recycled products. So we had things like recycled rope that was made out of bottle tops or you know, seating that was made out of plastic cartons, but it didn't look like the typical recycling. It didn't look like an up-cycled garden. It looked brand new, but everything in it was recycle. And that's what's amazing. Now the products are out there, some of the high end products or I've seen amazing kitchen worktops made out of plastics and, and things and that, and people are so, so keen to, to, to use those products now that are sustainable or even repurposed and refashioned. And it's amazing that you'll for essentially when you describing your products, but most people who've never seen your products you would got, okay, it's brass, it's wood. As soon as you say brass, you tend to think of the old style sand layers and things like that. But you're, it's so plein lined and like you've got this, um,[inaudible] I've seen quite a lot of yours to start with. I think what's made you kind of stand out is, is these desks like these gold brass disks that are so on trend at the moment and look so fresh and so it's so new and yeah, I just think they're stunning. And I think that's where did that idea come from? The whole disc and the bull kind of look come from.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think I'm very much obsessed with circled. I think. I think that the natural form of a of a light bulb has a lot got to do with this. And also again, if you think back to me two, three, four years ago, I'm a single person working with what I can get my hands on essentially. So this was a very simple clean pro um, parse that I can get made. Yeah. Um, cause also what's tricky is working as a small business, finding producers and fabricators that will work with small quantities for person, like a single, you know, maker like myself. Yeah. So that influence it. But actually in the end it, I've just became obsessed and I started to layer the discs and then I'm that now I've got kind of getting more and more materials made in the disc form. And again, visually it just works in real hot balance and harmony when you look at a light and the bulb. And again, sometimes it's just really nice to keep things quite simple because the lighting generally is probably going to be up against, for instance, more materials, more pattern gold paper or other backgrounds. So lighting is something that you've got people kind of buy, install and don't change over as often as probably soft furnishings and things like that. Yeah, keep it simple and officially fresh and clean looking. It's probably going to go with more interiors as well and therefore last longer and people are less likely to kind of change the out down the line.
Speaker 2:Looking at your uh, on your website and your Instagram, I saw that you, you, you start to use cane. Um, and that was a, so it's made a huge, um, come back like that proper wicker cross weaved cane. What sparked that idea with your, for your you like,
Speaker 4:and I think again, because I'm, I'm obviously so kind of immersed in Instagram interior. It's what's going on. And I'm also in the gap of trying to renovate our Victorian terrace.
Speaker 2:In other words, you're doing it for yourself.
Speaker 4:I know. Well that's actually what's actually happening now. So I've started to design like really, really thinking clearly, what do I really want? So and new like Opal, Opal Chandelier is because my husband isn't as much of a fan of the go blocks. I was like, okay, well let me, I don't know if we'll show it to her. Yeah. And again with the cane lung, um, it was a really lovely material the way up to you love. And again it was like, well how can I bring this into a like I want, I'd like for my sitting room to hide on the wall. So then I just start to order the materials to look at everything, how it's made, getting all the parts and there's a great upholster here called Louise in my workshop. So I passed her with shade. I'm kind of starting to realize that I can't do everything myself, so I'm trying to handle off different tasks to people. And so she has hand both handmade and I attached to the cane material onto these few shades and I just absolutely love them.
Speaker 2:If you're buying a light or your design wanting lights for your room, is there any rules or any tips that you would give our listeners when, when choosing what kind of light to have in the room
Speaker 4:and material obviously is one of the main things and sometimes I get asked as well. I mean we inherited a lot of rooms with chrome and sometimes customers are worried about the clash of brass and chrome, but I wouldn't worry too much about having everything matchy-matchy like my kitchen, I've installed my bras slides but I'm not going to replace the cooker or the sink or anything like that. And, but I mean that felt to be kind of quite specific to the consumer. I'd also got to think classically in terms of what's gonna last you the longest as well. I'm a big believer in buying kind of warm well and then hopefully it will work with your changing interiors, both again getting it right. I got a lot of people getting contacted[inaudible] send me ceiling heights and stuff. I've done, I've written a blog post about it to help my customers, but getting the length right and thinking in terms of well how can I adapt this specifically for the space? Um, so that I think the hike of the life is very important. You don't want this directly in your Eisai score. You want to be able to make sure that one told total your house, they're not going to knock their heads. Um, and again, just I think it's very much about my personal taste. I have to eat of walnuts and I love bras, so on trying to sneak more wellness into my house currently. Um, you know, obviously I've found in terms of like designing lights if like if I keep to the very kind of, um, obvious colors of black-white bras that they are the ones that, that worked the best for spaces. And sometimes when I deviate off color wise, it doesn't work as well and that's fine. But I've, if you stick to the classic colors, again, it's probably gonna last you. The longer it's gonna probably fit your space. Even if you change your furnishings around you, those plastic and materials and um, um, colors are gonna, you know, stand the test of, you know, I think an interior is, there's a lot of changing sides, like the fashion industry kind of turnover in materials on. I think the way that I'm trying to do that, I know that I'm obviously looking and seeing what materials are working. They all generally are from classic design. So if you think of Kane, you're looking back to the Nazi 20th and perceived brass. I think even though it's very popular at the moment, I think at the very classic materials that will withstand the kind of the changing trends and again, woods and things like that. So I'd be careful with going with anything that's been a little bit too, um, had like that might change too fast for your interior and therefore you'd have to invest in new launching. Um, but yeah, it's very much about your, your tastes and style. I'm so lucky that I have amazing customers with amazing style that they taught me in their photos because I'm African spoiled on Instagram. All these amazing interiors by all these have very creative customers that just have such beautiful homes. I think that they work very well in them
Speaker 2:because your a workshop where I know that Nicki spoke to you in the past where she's rang you and said, okay, I want to use this or you know, they can actually talk to you and say well how, how long can the leads be and can we have it really long face for the shop window for example. I need it this length because then he's going to be in the display window and, and you, you can make things be spoken, tailor things we spoke. Do you think that's a, an important part of your business?
Speaker 4:Yes, definitely. And again, when I was kind of doing that, my first has, um, I was, I was, it was making something very specific for certain parts of my daughter's room and to be able to kind of pick the length and, and there are some amazing, I love him companies out there, but a lot of their lights might be just kind of off the shelf and boxed and ready to go because I'm a small workshop on a maker such on up all the parts of you're ready to make each order as they come in. It is no problem to make a longer lead on something or slightly change the width of something. I'm going to have to order a part and that might take a bit longer. But to me that's just part of my service in terms of the identity to be able to kind of custom make it to fit. Exactly. That's why I always encourage people to measure for spaces, but simple thing of making a wall, like beside your bed and measuring the distance from the lights to the, to the switch so you can just very easily reach out from your bed and turn it off. All those things. I always encourage customers to kind of let me know because then you're just getting exactly the right light. So yeah, I think, I think that's definitely the advantage of, you know, he woke into that Iba. Jeff doesn't do fantastic one called the don't walk into any world order. They have beach life, but they're all packaged and ready to go. Um, so yeah, I think the advantage of this situation is that I can work with, with them and they seem dishonest, like Nicky or completely just, you know, a regular consumer buying for their house and I can have a chat with them and it's usually not that much bother for me to, to adjust something. So yeah. So yeah, definitely very handy.
Speaker 2:I love, I love that. And it was interesting obviously before I spoke to you, I had a little look through your Instagram and there was something really lovely you put on and it really made me think, and he was talking about black Friday and how people were asking if you're doing any discounts and don't know if you remember that post. Um, but yeah, what did you say in that post? Cause I just thought it was perfect and I if you can remember what you said and, and tell my listeners. I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 4:I think that was one of my most liked Instagram posts and I put it up because it was just a run up to black Friday. I was getting some emails and I just, I felt like I was being rude saying no, but I kind of felt like I wanted to explain myself. So with Black Friday, I love, they work fantastically for large businesses who have stock that they need to care. And, and again, especially for something like the fashion industry, um, where there's a massive turnover and styles and trends. And so that works really, really well for big, for big companies. But for makers like me who make everything to order and I feel like I, I kind of very reasonably priced all my life because I'm able to cut out the middle man. You know, I kind of priced them very reasonably. I'm not being overly, I'm not putting a massive mark up on them. So for me to, to give huge discounts on, on black Friday, it doesn't, it doesn't work for me as a maker and for a lot of other makers. But it does sometimes for my kids, cause they might have stocked that they need to care. But for me, I make everything to order so it doesn't really work for me. What I do, what I will do, I am planning on doing soon is a sample sale because I have lights ready to go that and I've made for different shoots and they'd come back or something like that. So I'm, I'm planning on doing a couple of sample sales, but I'm not gonna not gonna try to, I'm not a big fan of black Friday. I think it works fantastically for some. But for me, I think for smaller businesses you can feel pressurized to jump on the bandwagon. We're actually, I think at the very much consumer, um, fabric being brought over from America and, and works great for other people. But like, yeah, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And, and I love that holiday began in La. It's just me in my workshop, I have to, you know, there's me and another friend who might take it to the post office. We'll package it by hand to that. I mean, so taking that 10% offer a five day isn't, isn't feasible. And, and if I'm being totally honest, when I looked on your website, your lights, your lights look high-end, they are high end, they look beautiful and the prices can be honest. Don't we flip that? I think that they're surprisingly cheaper than you would expect if they, and this is not me, I'm trying to do this as a positive. It sounds like it's a negative. It's not, I just, I was looking going, oh my God, I expect you to pay twice that because that's what you see in magazines like living, et Cetera, where things look high end and they are have a high end price. So if anyone gets a chance to go to your website spot@sparkandbell.com and you'll see these beautiful slick, well-made lines that aren't as expensive as, as you would think
Speaker 4:20 you say twice the price because actually that's generally the mark of that that large companies have on if they sell through a shop.[inaudible] and I often get approached by wholesalers asking me to tell them I turned down the mall because I would have to increase all my prices massively if I was ever to do wholesale. Yeah. And that's why, that's why I'm pretty much pretty sure that I'm always going to be direct to customer. Yeah. Because I'm able to keep, keep the prices down.
Speaker 2:[inaudible] so in the future, what, what's, what's the dream, what, you know, you've started this company a couple of years ago, what are you hoping for?
Speaker 4:So I've just taken all my first comments, employee on amazing girl called Emma. So finally I didn't have an intern for a year, which eased me into us and now I've got Emma. So it's fantastic. Have an extra pair of hands around to do the polishing and the testing and everything. I thought the dream, I think down the line would be to have more um, like another worker to be able to provide more in house metal finishes and things like that. Again, I'm still, I'm allowing the business to grow quite organically and slowly because I want to make sure I do everything really well on the way. Cause there's a lot of obviously um, uh, British standards and things I've done, I'm constantly kind of working on. So yeah, I think it would be to have a still quite small company, about four to five people and for me to not be doing all the jobs that they're currently on. I'm trying to learn how to handle things to, and apparently so yeah, I think, I think we like a holiday for sure. Two weeks be life without everything falling apart. I'm contracted trying to train up and as much as I can so I can take a week off in August. That's what I'm working towards moments. But yeah, I think still keep it small, very much in house for a bespoke, but to, to have more hands on more skilled hands. I'm starting to learn as well. I don't need to learn time to do everything. There are people with skills out there that I just need to pop into.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I think that's the thing as well. When you're creative and you're self employed, it is hard to want to delegate sometimes. But also just when you're, when, like I said, when you're, when you're doing it all by yourself, sometimes you end up getting bogged down with all the paperwork that it takes you away from the fun of why you started the business in the first place, which was being hands on as well. So it's, it's that fine balance isn't it, between the team and it's been absolute pleasure speaking to you. So if people to look on your website, they can look@sparkandbell.com and what's your social media handles? And so people can can look you up as well
Speaker 4:at the act spark into the hub. Yeah, that's my thing on Facebook and on Instagram. I mainly on Instagram. Yeah. That's why favors
Speaker 2:what's your favorite, you do blogs and things like that, but you can get all of that on your spark and bell websites. Um, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. Um, hope you get that. Hope you get that holiday and uh, and I look forward to seeing your lights on. Uh, I am the interior design show, interior design, masters on BBC and Netflix. I hope that you'll be getting some from all around the world as well. Some inquiries. Alright, lots of love speaking. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Bye. Bye. A lot of you guys will have heard me talk about the DIY two is now what that is. It's a DIY company that I created with my good friend Steph Brown. And it was created really to empower and encourage people to pick up the tools and half ago. So we created a free resource. We've got a website called the DIY doers.com and we have a Facebook group and it's an interactive Facebook group and it's somewhere where you can go if you're doing some DIY at home and you just need a quick answer to something, you can type it on there. It's a bit like a mums net for DIY and w me and Stephanie[inaudible], my business partner says she's a trained plumber and a property developer and you know, I'm a carpenter and and general builder. So generally we know quite a lot of questions, but also a lot of the members help each other out. So people, you know, we had a lady the other day who was in the middle of a DIY store and wanted some information about what sand paper to use to sand her front door and put a post on while she was in the DIY store on Facebook. And within a couple of minutes, some of the other 2000 members jumped on and answered some questions. If you want to use that free resource, go to it. It's on Facebook, the DIY doers club and obviously we've got their website. D I do is um.com. But why I mentioned this is as we were talking about electrics with EMA from spark and bell, I thought I'd give you a little insight into the fuse board. And on Ido I do a website, we've got a whole load of things about what you can and can't do with electrics. But when we do talks at the angel home show and trade talks, we always give people the um, the Holy Trinity, we call it, we teach people how to work with water, electrics and gas and how to make your house safe. So how to turn them on and off. So I'm going to tell you quickly about the electrics. Your electrics are powered by your, um, fuse Bot. If you know where you're at, fuse board is, open it up and you'll see it's a huge plastic fronted box generally with the loader switches on there and what that does, you're a mains power electric comes into your house and it goes there first and then from there it is distributed around your house in sections as it were and you can't get electrocuted by touching the front of this box. It's designed so that it's completely safe and everything in that box is there to protect you. So you'll see a load loader switches, there'll be a large switch, we'll probably call the main switch and that's normally red is bigger than all the rest. What that one switch does, if you flick that switch down, it will turn the power off to your house completely. So if you need an emergency to turn all the power off in your house, if you flick that switch, all the power will go off in your house, which is a great thing there to protect you. Next to that you'll see lots and lots of other switches. Now, all of these are different circuits and if you look at them, they'll probably be a space where there'll be a name written on them or they'll be a picture on there. And watch each of these circuits does is it represents a different area in your house. So the main power comes into your house, it goes to your fuse board, and then it's divided into different circuits, different areas. So you might have upstairs lights, downstairs, lights, kitchens, bathrooms, downstairs, plug sockets, upstairs, plug sockets, your garage. So each area is zoned by a different circuit. So what happens is if you have a problem with one of your electrical appliances in your house, for example, in my kitchen, I've got a problem with my dishwasher. Every time I switch it off, something's not right and it affects that warm circuit. So all the electrics go off to my kitchen because there's a problem with something in the area. And this is a good thing because it means the whole of your house, you don't lose power. It's not like turning off the main power switch, you just lose area in the kitchen. That's Emma. Flip side. If you've got an electrician coming round to come and fit, um, a new chandelier in your lounge, you don't want all the electric to the house to go out. What you do is you can go to your fuse board, find where it says lounge lights. It's normally probably downstairs lights. If you flick the isolation switch, it'll mean that the power will go off to that one area. It means you can work safely in that one area without, without your fridge going off, without, you know, upstairs computers going off. So it means you can isolate certain areas next to these switches. You've got, like I said, you've got all of these switches that represent different areas. You'll also have another switch, which is our CD, it's called and that would be a connected to public five of those switches. And that detects a slight current change. So I got a puppy. If my little puppy Harper decides to chew through a lamp cable rather than my puppy being electrocuted constantly. It might get a little Zap, but what will happen is this RCD will detect that there's been a slight difference in current power going through and that'll turn off all of those switches that is connected to next to it. So again, that's there just to help as an extra safety measure is there to protect, you know, if there is an accident of someone drills flew something or cut through something or bite sue, something like my dog. So you have RCDs which are next to your, your circuit breakers. So I hope this has explained it. Remember your fuse board is there to help you. It's there to protect you and if you open up the cupboard door, have a little look at it, work your way around it all. It will mean that if you come to do any DIY or in an emergency, you need to turn off that one area because there's an issue or you've got an exposed wire or something like that without turning off the whole power to the whole house. Now you know how to do it.
Speaker 5:[inaudible]
Speaker 2:it really was a jam packed episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing about me working with Charlie Dimmick on God and rescue and working on this week's interior design show. I purposely put together the interview with EMA from spark and bell
Speaker 1:with the information about your fuse board and like I said before, people are normally, we be scared about even opening the door to even look at their fuse board and what my main aim is to empower you to be confident enough to look at it. You don't have to do any electrics in your house. Actually, please don't do any electrics in your house, but I want you to be confident enough to know how to turn it off in case of emergency. So hopefully just listening to that, the short piece about your fuse board will mean that you feel safe in your home. Now remember, if you enjoy listening to the TV carpenter, please like and subscribe as the usual thing. If you put a five star there, it means we go up in the ratings and people can find us and realize that it's a really, really good podcast. And the response from people. So far, we're in episode five, but the response has been amazing. A huge thank you to my sponsors thorn down paint. Remember, you can contact them at thorn down dot code at UK and if you use the code t v Carpenter, when you purchase anything online, you get 15% off. If you have any questions you want, ask me if there's any DIY related questions or any questions you want to ask me about any of the shows I've worked on. Please contact me on the usual social media is Instagram and Twitter and Wayne Perry. And you'll see me there are normally wearing orange and I've got a drill and I look like I'm Mr. Bond. Um, but yeah, I hope you enjoyed episode five of the TV Carpenter and I look forward to speaking to you next week.
Speaker 6:[inaudible].