Highlights from the Melbourne Home Show

When thinking about what products we’d like to use in our homes, nothing beats seeing the items in real life. Here are the highlights from the Melbourne Home Show we visited yesterday.

The aim was to arrive early and power through the many stalls, looking for ones that we felt would be relevant.

Double glazing was popular at the Home Show.

Rylock windows and doors are made locally

Rylock had an informative display of their double-glazed windows and doors. We need to plan a visit to their Clayton showroom so we can see the complete range. Their frames are made from powder-coated aluminium. Attention to detail is very good. For example, water that collects at the base of the doors exits via a sump system which minimises the amount of air that can leak back into the house. Not something we would have thought about.

paarhammer base their designs on European technology

Large sliding doors are possible with the excellent sealing system

Towards the end of our journey up and down the aisles, we came across a company that David had been talking to a few weeks ago. He said the owners were Austrians so we felt confident the name paarhammer would be a likely candidate for this company.

They are passionate about making products for sustainable houses. Window frames are made from locally sourced wood with the option to go to triple glazing for improved insulation. Wood waste is compressed into briquettes which are used as an energy source. Seals are based on German designs which minimise any air leakage, even with the sliding doors. Everything works in a precise manner. We were invited to visit their factory in Ballan to talk more about the products and see how they are made. There’s going to be a Saturday morning road trip in the near future.

Different ways to add fly screens to our windows.

A concern with having windows for natural circulation and sliding doors to enhance the view of the landscaped garden is that flies and mosquitoes can easily find their way into the house. Fortunately, there are lots of different ways to install fly screens so we can enjoy those balmy evenings without being pestered by insects.

Screens that fold away

Freedom Retractable Screens make a handy system that just sits at the side of the door until you need it.

Magnetic strips hold flexible fly screens in place

A neat solution for window fly screens was to add magnetic strips. Magicseal showed how their screens fitted to a variety of windows.

Home show provided ideas on how to use concrete.

Different finishes available with concrete floors

The folks at Policrete explained how they could create a variety of finishes on polished concrete floors. The trick will be ensuring the appearance of the floor doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the room. At the moment, we are thinking it might be best to just polish the floors, but not take them back to the aggregate finish where the rocks show through. An excellent suggestion we were given was to consider putting a feature into selected parts of the concrete floor (eg bricks) just to add some character.

Thinking about using concrete benchtops

Speaking of adding features to concrete, we came across aringo polished concrete who custom-make benchtops at their factory in Ballarat. The benchtop finish is smooth and hard wearing. Being custom made, it’s possible to add features such as the leaf pattern. These benchtops could be an alternative to granite as they are locally made, thereby avoiding the transport costs associated with a natural stone imported from overseas.

Something different for the bathroom.

Libby couldn’t go past the Natural Stone Bath Factory once she saw their display of hand basins.

Beautiful colours and texture with the shaped hand basin

Clever way of concealing the plumbing for a hand basin.

This could be a way of adding a natural look and some character to the bathrooms.

Not much cladding on show at the Home Show.

Cladding ideas were high on our list of things to see at the Show. There wasn’t much on display but, fortunately, we came across Scyon Walls and Floors. They make a cement composite material in a variety of styles.

Hard wearing cladding that has a range of feature finishes.

The attraction here is that the cladding is low maintenance and the feature finishes mean it adds character to the exterior.

Just because …

Just a little feature for the garden

How could we go past these garden features from the Stony Creek Gallery? Always interesting to see creativity like this. David is mulling over ideas for creating a feature item for our back garden that could be seen from the living area.