Plastic plugs/light switches

[Zebra]

Heritage Brass are another brand that might have something. Not very out of the ordinary but a good range of the brushed steel/brass/nickel finishes in modern or retro looks.

 

[Flyfisher]

For those who really dislike light switches, high-tech solutions are available that eliminate their necessity entirely. Control can be via remote control units similar to TV controllers and I'd guess that control via smartphones and iPads is also possible. Probably more expensive than even Jim Laurence switches though.

 

[Feltwell]

For those who really dislike light switches, high-tech solutions are available that eliminate their necessity entirely. Control can be via remote control units similar to TV controllers and I'd guess that control via smartphones and iPads is also possible. Probably more expensive than even Jim Laurence switches though.

That is a vision of hell to me FF, especially if you have children. I spend enough time every evening trying to find the TV remote as it is! It's normally under the sofa, or behind the sofa, stuffed inside a toy of some description or in some other less than obvious place. I once found it in the fridge, a friend of mine used to regularly find his TV remote and car keys on his doorstep where his toddler son had posted them the wrong way through the letterbox.

The thought of staggering around in the dark teaching the kids a whole host of new & exciting words and phrases as I hunt for the effin' lightswitch remote sounds less than ideal!

Even if you haven't got kids - who amongst us still has a drill with a chuck key, and who can honestly say that they've never spent time hunting for that key because they've put it down somewhere............ Now imagine that in the dark and you're looking for the remote to turn the lights on, with a family member stood behind you saying "I know I saw it somewhere earlier" or similar helpful advice :lol:

 

[LadyArowana]

Even if you haven't got kids - who amongst us still has a drill with a chuck key,

I could tell you, but apparently nobody likes a smarty pants, so I won't :wink:

 

[robgil]

I have to admit I've been to jim lawrence's shop and I wasnt impressed, looked like a lot of over priced cheap rubbish to be honest.
I had to laugh out loudly at the photo of the old school blacksmith waving a large lump hammer above his head over an open coal fired furnace and the caption read something like genuine blacksmith made quality or something like that.
Do they have old school blacksmith's in china?

Their cable which is what I was after was twice the price of any other online shop for exactly the same cable.

 

[Feltwell]

Even if you haven't got kids - who amongst us still has a drill with a chuck key,

I could tell you, but apparently nobody likes a smarty pants, so I won't :wink:

Moo, I reckon! But I'd bet that many of the contributors on here have a corded drill with chuck key in their garage/shed, even if (like me) with the advent of cordless drills you only use it occasionally.

Their cable which is what I was after was twice the price of any other online shop for exactly the same cable.

There certainly are stores that aim themselves at the "period" market and assume that everyone has pots of money. There is a very nice shop near me in Shrewsbury, lots of nice stuff but you really pay for the surroundings they are presented in - I saw a curtain pole virtually identical to one I'd bought a few weeks earlier direct from the blacksmith. I paid £80, the one in the shop was was over £300, and I bet the blacksmith made more profit from me than he would do from the shop. Shopping around certainly pays off, and the internet had made it easier to do than ever before. What did we do before it?

 

[LadyArowana]

There certainly are stores that aim themselves at the "period" market and assume that everyone has pots of money. There is a very nice shop near me in Shrewsbury, lots of nice stuff but you really pay for the surroundings they are presented in - I saw a curtain pole virtually identical to one I'd bought a few weeks earlier direct from the blacksmith. I paid £80, the one in the shop was was over £300, and I bet the blacksmith made more profit from me than he would do from the shop. Shopping around certainly pays off, and the internet had made it easier to do than ever before. What did we do before it?

Perception of value can be very much influeneced by surroundings, I was struck by that fact when Joce and I went to the BADA fair last week. Yes, some of the pieces were stunning, but the prices in general were much more than in a provincial shop. I am sure there is an element of people wanting to be able to say it came from XYZ dealer at the fair. Although I confess I was hugely tempted by an elephant. An interesting experiment was done on the psychology of value ... http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Hmmm....I wonder if any of those buskers playing "Imagine" on the Tube at rush hour are the real John Lennon? :wink:

 

[robgil]

Hmmm....I wonder if any of those buskers playing "Imagine" on the Tube at rush hour are the real John Lennon? :wink:

''Imagine no possessions , I wonder if you can''

Sung by a man in an expencive white suit, on an expencive white piano, in an expensive big white mansion in Ascot.....

 

[Flyfisher]

You may say he's a dreamer . . . . :wink:

 

[AMc]

Even if you haven't got kids - who amongst us still has a drill with a chuck key, and who can honestly say that they've never spent time hunting for that key because they've put it down somewhere............ Now imagine that in the dark and you're looking for the remote to turn the lights on, with a family member stood behind you saying "I know I saw it somewhere earlier" or similar helpful advice :lol:

I taped the chuck key to the power cord so it was always with the drill

If you really hate light switches then you can add a Passive Infrared Detector (PIR) in the ceiling that turns the lights on when you enter the room (and usually only when it's dark) they look like a little UFO stuck to the ceiling and are fairly unobtrusive.
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/380405006962?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

Downside is if you sit still for a while the lights go off :shock: Happened to me in a restaurant "rest room" in Spain Probably not sensible in most rooms, but handy for circulation spaces, utilities, larders etc.

A friend of ours had one fitted in their downstairs loo. It's a bit disconcerting as I find I'm looking for the switch and you have to really enter the room for it to see you

 

[Penners]

You may say he's a dreamer . . . . :wink:

But he's not the only one... surely?

 

[Feltwell]

If you really hate light switches then you can add a Passive Infrared Detector (PIR) in the ceiling that turns the lights on when you enter the room (and usually only when it's dark) they look like a little UFO stuck to the ceiling and are fairly unobtrusive.
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/380405006962?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

Downside is if you sit still for a while the lights go off :shock: Happened to me in a restaurant "rest room" in Spain Probably not sensible in most rooms, but handy for circulation spaces, utilities, larders etc.

I once worked in a new office building with those. The problem was, it was a big building that at most had 5% of the space used. I'd be sat there working at my desk, and every 5 minutes I had to push my chair back 4 feet and lean back and wave my arms manically to stop the lights going off. Visitors in the meeting room opposite must have thought they'd come to the local asylum!