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Thursday, 12 February 2015

Rooms Made For You - Innovative Solutions For Your Walls

Now, I don't know about you, but I've never considered plaster or plasterboard to be much of a consumer product.  It's not like we ever give it much thought when decorating our home or building an extension - simply book a plasterer and let them get on with it.

But British Gypsum Rooms Made For You are changing all that, with a new range of innovative products which will make your walls work harder for you and perform more of a function than just being the perimeter of your room.




The three new products you'll want to discuss with your plasterer when doing any home renovation now are:




I attended a showcase of these products and my mind is literally buzzing with possibilities of incorporating these into my home.

We went to the stunning Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard, and after being awestruck by the views, got down to demonstrations of the products.

Thistle Magnetic Plaster:

This was certainly my favourite of the three products, giving a mind-blowing amount of possibilities for styling your home.

The specialist plaster is applied just like regular plaster.  You can then paint it, paper it, decorate it however you like.  BUT, it's hidden secret is that it will hold magnets as if by magic.

Imagine being able to decorate as simply as popping a magnet on a wall?  You can change your style as often as you like with absolutely no damage to the walls.

Perfect for organisation walls in kitchens; playrooms for displaying artwork and storing toys; home offices for storage of paperwork and stationery; pop up your seasonal decorations without any blue tak or drawing pins...endless possibilities.

We had some fun with the glue gun and some magnets making all kinds of items to stick to the walls, the crafting and upcycling possibilities are incredible.


I've started a Pinterest board full of ideas because this really is a product I want to incorporate into my home and the next room which is tackled will definitely be getting the magnetic treatment - I'm only gutted we've just had our kitchen replastered.  Although, you can retro-fit and plaster just small areas of existing walls.





This is also a fun little video testing the weight limits for hanging items on the magnetic wall.  Bookcase full of books?  A TV screen?  You'd be amazed.

Lifestyle Wall:


Lifestyle Wall is a plasterboard product from British Gypsum with a new internal core making it much more durable than standard plasterboard.  It will withstand all the daily knocks and bumps kids can throw at it, but more than that, it allows you to fix items to the wall without any drilling or specialist fixings.


This was a revelation for me.  I'm not a proficient DIYer and often projects wait for ages to get completed because it involved the hassle of trekking out to the shed to find the drill.  Invariably it's flat and needs charging first. Then there's the nightmare of finding the right drill bit and that's before the headache of having to work out which rawl plug to use.  Plus the fact of course that I'm not very good with power tools!

Lifestyle Wall takes all these problems away.  You can simply hand screw directly into it, with regular screw - no need for special plasterboard plugs.

A single screw fixing can safely hold up to 15kg of weight as was demonstrated to us below.  Imagine the ease of putting up mirrors, TVs, book shelves, coat hooks... I think this will give a lot of people a lot more independence when it comes to DIY.


Because you don't need whacking great wall plugs, removal is easy too and you can simply fill, sand and re-paint if you want to change your room around, giving much more flexibility to adapt your home around changing needs.


We had a timed test and I managed to fix in 5 screws in 60 seconds - lets face it in that time I'd have still been looking for the key to the shed to go out and find the drill!






Silent Floor:

Awarded the Quiet Mark by the Noise Abatement Society, this product is a real bonus in any family home, as well as shared dwellings and apartments.

With the home being so multi purpose and people requiring the ability to have parties; friends round; play or practice music;  work from home; listen to audio-visual equipment as well as sleep this sound-reducing flooring (or it can be used as ceilings) really comes into it's own.

We listened to a demonstration of sound carried from a downstairs TV to an upstairs bedroom both with and without Silent Floor and the results were really noticeable.

Silent Floor can reduce noise by up to 15db which is over and above the standard building regulations.

With us planning to convert our garage into a family room, it's something we're going to seriously consider given that there's a bedroom above.





Special thanks to British Gypsum and Rooms Made For You for sharing these innovations with me.  I attended a showcase event and was compensated for my time.

Find out what some of my fellow bloggers thought of the products and check out these lovely blogs:

The Ana Mum Diary
Love Chic Living
The White Approach

12 comments:

  1. I need all of this in my house. We still have lath and plaster walls in my house so trying to get a good fix on the wall is almost impossible. I love the idea of the silent floor too especially when Roo is practising her dance routines

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    1. Must be tricky putting up shelves and pictures etc. This is exactly what you need!

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  2. I've loved seeing all the reviews of these great products, especially like the sound of the silent floor. We've been looking at all modern technologies to fit into the house whilst keeping a period feel so it's good to come across innovative ideas. I'd be keen to see whether the lifestyle wall really does support weight over years but a great idea x

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    1. I'm loving following the progress of your home makeover Lins.

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  3. Oh my word! This is fabulous! I'm following your magnetic wall board, I love that idea. I'd be interested to see the flooring, what does it look like?

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    1. Thank you! The flooring is just the subsurface layer, so you put your regular flooring on top whatever that be - wood, laminate, carpet etc.

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  4. Having just moved I am not wishing my house had ALL of these - I especially love the magnetic wall, perfect for a kids room. I still have pictures waiting to be hung as well, simply because we've not got round to it - this sounds so much easier. And the way Sophie thunders around the house I would LOVE silent flooring!

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    1. I really loved the magnetic wall, the possibilities are endless!

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  5. I really need the magnetic wall plaster in my kitchen - I love the idea x x

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  6. I love the idea of magnetic plaster! I'd love a magnet wall.

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