Spending time on your garden doesn’t have to be time spent away from your children, and in fact getting your kids involved in gardening can be just as much fun for you as it is for them.
Read More
Using garden planters to create a stylish display
Have you spent hours maintaining beautiful and eye catching plants and flowers, yet have nowhere to show them off? Or perhaps you have painfully crafted and teased your perennials into show stopping topiaries, to find that your garden planter just doesn’t do it justice. Precious Design have got the answer to all of your horticultural problems.
With planters in all shapes and sizes, finishes and design styles, Precious Design offer a range of pots and planters to suit your needs. Individual and commercial buyers will find high quality and well finished planters for both indoor and outdoor use that will really show off your displays. Whatever you choose, your stunning topiary or display will look fantastic sitting on your patio, deck or balcony in one of our equally beautiful planters.
We know that you work hard on the maintenance of your plants and want your displays to do them justice, which is why our range of planters are of high quality and suit any garden design, from traditional to corporate to rooftop city gardens and small undiscovered nooks. Your displays look good, and our garden planters only serve to intensify this. We have troughs, to display those smaller plants, or the tailor range of planters would be perfect for your taller displays.
The shop offers standard sizes of all of our range and custom sizes are also available for order if your topiary or display requires something personalised. For corporate customers we can personalise your garden planters by laser cutting logos into the planter, or if you’ve crafted your topiary for a gift you could add a personalised message.
Precious Design pots and planters are made in a variety of different materials and the benefits that the range will offer to your garden and to your plants are exceptional. You are faced with a choice of colours which can make your displays stand out or accentuate a specific flower; perhaps you want to bring out a certain colour that is sparse in your display by matching it with your garden planter. With our custom colour selection you can choose almost any colour you wish!
We make all of our products out of high quality materials from zinc galvanised steel to brushed stainless steel and finishes from a ribbed texture to a mirror polished stainless steel. Open up your garden by reflecting the rest of your planters in your product from Precious Design, or add a more distinguished look with a ribbed finish that will also protect your planter from corrosion.
No matter where they’re positioned, these garden planters offer design style and will accentuate the hard work you have put into your displays or topiary, really showing off your skills, and your garden.
Window Boxes – Alternative Garden Pots
What if you don’t have any outside space but you’d love to see plants through your windows? The answer lies in window boxes: containers that sit either
on or just below your windowsill. Read more here …… Read More
How Metal Planters Can Prove A Selling Point for Builders
A new government scheme is encouraging large scale house builders such as Barratt, David Wilson and Persimmon to plant more green space in an effort to enhance living environments for new householders. This includes the strategic placing of metal planters, specifically those made using galvanised steel, trees and other forms of living ‘greenery.’
Metal planters are ideal for adding an attractive finish to a building project, read on for more details.
The ‘green’ agenda fits into one of the criteria of the government’s ‘Building For Life 12’ (BfL12) initiative which states that the design of new homes and their neighbourhoods should be as “attractive, functional and sustainable as possible.”
In February this year, five of the first developments in England were accredited under the scheme, which is backed by the Home Builders Federation and is the result of collaboration between house builders, councils, architects, planners and academics. The ‘12’ stands for the number of criteria which makes housing schemes “good places to live.”
As such, putting in painted steel planters and other green options to new build developments doesn’t just mean that house builders are pleasing the government and the Home Builders Federation by abiding by their rules. No, the developers are also improving their own chances of making a sale by ensuring the houses are attractive to look at (or, in terms of house developer jargon, “boosting kerb appeal”).
Meanwhile landscaping in new housing estates has other benefits too such as:
+Increasing the value of a property
In a world of concrete, greenery with living shrubs and plants doesn’t just enhance the environment but also adds to the selling price of the property when a family is looking to move on. That’s because a touch of greenery will make a property or development more attractive to look at and encourage people to spend time there.
+Doesn’t take a lot of time to maintain
In our increasingly hectic lives these days many people can’t afford the time to maintain a garden, or pay for the services of a gardener, but they could manage a few hours tending to a small patio, balcony or terraced garden. House builders are becoming increasingly aware of this and as a result the use of planters, in particular large cubes or tapered pots for new housing estates is growing in popularity.
+Planters are a flexible option
Unlike having to chop down a tree or unearth a huge bush, new homeowners who don’t like the terrace or patio arrangement they’ve inherited can simply unearth the current shrubs or flowers in the planters and put in their own, move the planters around or even replace them with planter designs of their own choice.
And you don’t have to feel restricted to just placing planters on the balcony, terrace or patio either. Other areas where a touch of greenery does no harm and can in fact enhance existing features by adding drama (or disguise unwanted features) include:
+Entrances – two planters either side of a front door can add a regal touch
+Walls – lined along a wall a group of identical planters mirroring each other can look extremely effective and even make the wall look longer
+Indoors – container pots inside a dull unused fireplace can really brighten up a room and add character
For more ideas on how planters can enhance your landscaping project take a look today through our collection via the gallery to obtain some inspiration!
Prepare your Pots and Planters for Summer!
Prepare for Summer: Get some hints and tips for planting into Pots, Troughs and Window Boxes from Precious Design, and learn how to use your planters to maximum effect!
Put in Planters to Liven up Your Corporate Event
Despite the recession prompting cut-backs in company spending (and the public sector in particular) corporate hospitality is still one of the most popular and effective ways to network and get your brand known. Learn how you can use our corporate planters to liven up your event or location.
Read More
Growing Herbs in Garden Planters
Garden Planters are perfect for growing herbs, whether you want to grow a large amount of an individual herb, or start a small variety garden in a small space. Our range of garden planters are perfect for this!
Is it an urban myth that when selling a house, you should bake bread or make coffee when you have people coming to view? Whether that’s true or not, it’s certainly not a myth that supermarkets use the scent of their instore bakery to encourage us to purchase baked goods, or that scent is the sense most closely linked to memory. And the scent of herbs can be one of the most evocative, linked as it often is to summer, sunshine, and cooking indoors and out.
It’s also easy to grow herbs, because they are very good plants for growing in plant containers, window boxes and garden planters, both indoors and out.
Herbs like mint, rosemary and lemon balm can be thugs in the garden. They are very vigorous plants, often invasive, and so can take over a herb patch, pushing out less vigorous competition and spreading around your garden. But in plant containers, you can control their size much more easily: they behave beautifully, and with suitable care, will live happily for years. Of course you need to water them more than in a garden bed, but these herbs are pretty tough customers, and will survive a bit of neglect better than most. And in one of our coloured metal planters, they will look great too, with the soft green of the foliage perfectly complementing the vibrant painted finish. And in winter, when the herbs are underground, you will still have the pot to admire!
Mediterranean herbs, like basil and parsley, which really don’t like cold, are perfect for garden planters. They can be started from seed indoors in small plant pots, and then moved to a larger planter either indoors or out once they are big enough. Growing several herbs together, perhaps in one of our mirror stainless steel garden planters, will make a mouth-watering display of culinary herbs that will last all summer.
Steel Planters Bring Life to Car Showrooms
Steel galvanised planters are a common design element in many car showrooms – and it’s not difficult to see why.
Car show rooms tend to be large, roomy spaces and large, tall planters can act as attractive room dividers, segregating particular areas ie the reception, foyer etc. They can also add an element of style, particularly glossy black or gleaming mirror stainless steel planters filled with cultivated greenery.
- Flexibility
The great advantage of using steel planters in the design of a car showroom is their flexibility. For instance, if the planters have castors attached onto the bottom of them then it’s easy to move them around and alter the design – certainly it’s much easier than removing a purpose-built partition or desk area. And if only the one variety of plant is used throughout the car showroom then it’s possible to move them around without worrying about interfering with the original design. Stones can also be put into the bottom of the planters to improve their stability and ensure they remain put when needed.
- Design
Greenery in the form of shrubs, plants and flowers can be added to cubed planters, coloured planters etc to enhance the overall design element. For instance antique gold planters are often used for a room aiming for a more classic theme while high gloss neon coloured planters are more contemporary or even look great in a sixties or seventies themed design. Meanwhile an exotic and eye-catching single plant or flower can fit in well in a modern minimalist environment. Planters can also look impressive simply filled with sand and glossy or natural looking stones and pebbles.
- Colour
Not only can the planters themselves add colour but the plants can as well of course. For instance planters with bright flowers or leaves can be used to liven up a dull and gloomy entranceway or a corner in a car showroom which doesn’t receive a lot of light and needs a bit of an enhancement. Sometimes a touch of greenery is all that’s needed to add a bit of a boost to an area with a monochrome colour scheme.
- Environment
Who doesn’t like to see plants and an expanse of greenery in what is traditionally a rather sterile, masculine environment? Not only are plants and flowers nice to look at, but they also add a more natural and lighter touch to all that gleaming steel and rubber. Then there’s the health benefits of course, plants improve the air quality of a room by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. Depending on the type of plant, they can also remove harmful elements from the air such as benzene and formaldehyde.
- Brand enhancement
One car dealership in Canada even used the planters and greenery to enhance their brand’s overall message. “Our design goal was to achieve a symbiosis of nature and high design which is a key driver of the Lexus brand identity,” explained General Manager Mark Worbeck for Open Road Lexus Richmond.
To take a look at the type of planters available for today’s car show see Precious Design
Interior Designer Tips When Using Steel Planters
Large containers for plants always seem to have been around in gardening terms, whether we’re talking galvanised steel planters, fibreglass pots or coloured planters. The fact is though these living containers are becoming even more pronounced for landscaping as time goes on – thanks to the fact that our gardens are becoming smaller. Many apartments for instance only have a balcony so that the green-fingered resident’s garden is restricted to what he or she can design via a range of planters in a limited space.
In this way then, often the steel planter itself is more important to the design than the actual greenery that’s about to go in them. It’s all about perspective in a limited space and using tricks such as repetition and texture.
Repetition
Today the trend is for simplified rather than elaborate designs. In other words, one single plant in a container rather than filling it to the brim with different species.
This simplistic theme lends itself well to the other favourite theme of contemporary landscape and interior design, which is repetition. The simpler the items the better this looks eg each planter and item of greenery should mirror its neighbour perfectly. A design like this can also make an area seem longer than it actualy is.
Another way of bringing in repetition and adding drama is to group together similarly coloured and textured small to medium-sized containers. This creates a far larger impact than if the containers were displayed individually, especially if they contain foliage which is matching in colour. It can also provide a sense of harmony and perspective in a small space, dividing areas in a simple way.
Admittedly a single planter can make an excellent focal point but there is no doubt that it can get lost in the overall scheme of a design.
Texture
In most cases the steel and coloured planters will blend in to the existing environment rather than make a statement in their own right.
Often the colour of the planters will be chosen to match a particular element of the landscape such as the patio paving or a fence. The choice of plant too is crucial. For instance, large flamboyant grasses would overwhelm a stark, minimalist theme – which is fine if you wanted to make the planter and grass the focus of your design but a failure if you were looking for it to just blend in.
Thinking about the type of plants and planter you want in your design – whether for a garden or balcony – right from the start, will ensure your containers and greenery look integral to the overall design, rather than a hasty afterthought.
You can learn more about how planters can boost interior design and take a look at the various types of galvanised steel planters on offer at Precious Design.
Planters add Life to Corporate Environments
The buildings of large corporate organisations tend to be constructed from huge sheets of metal, glass and brick and as a result can seem rather imposing and even daunting to anyone entering the environment who doesn’t work there. But one way to make it a friendlier place and to brighten up a huge lobby or waiting area for visitors is to install dazzling galvanized steel planters with plenty of bright, natural greenery.
This won’t only help to enliven the area for your visitors though, your staff are bound to appreciate it too. In fact it’s been proven time and time again that installing plants and flowers in a work environment can enhance staff morale. Not only are steel or coloured planters with greenery nice to look at, and remind everyone of the nature and the outdoors, but they’re also beneficial for health. This is because they can clear the air of toxins, help with humidity and provide a nicer atmosphere all round.
And we’re not the only ones who think so. Since the appointment of the Coalition government in 2010 the Ministry of Defence has spent more than £14,000 on pot plants and the Department of Health nearly £12,400 in just 10 months – according to an article in The Guardian newspaper.
The British Council for Offices – an organization for promoting workplace design and improving productivity – agrees that plants are an asset in a corporate environment. Its director of research Jenny MacDonnell said: “Having plants in offices is a good thing. It makes people more productive, happier, reduces stress, and helps reduce dust particles in the air.”
Many designers in fact believe galvanised steel planters with greenery are no longer an afterthought to office design rather they are very much an integral part of it. Architect Kate Mason, for instance, pointed to the number of indoor gardens in London’s The Shard and believes the trend is for the most part down to a “blurring of boundaries between home and work.”
Other benefits of using steel planters in a corporate environment include:
+ Higher productivity
Research has shown that employees in an environment with planters and greenery get higher levels of work done and achieve more. This is because it’s believed plants have a calming effect which in turn aids focus and concentration.
+ Reduced Absenteeism
The health benefits of plants (eliminating toxins from the air) can alleviate the symptoms of so-called sick building syndrome. They also make the traditionally stuffy work environment a more pleasant place to work in by improving humidity levels.
+ Extending corporate image
This is another benefit of using planters in large corporate offices – for branding purposes. For instance cubed planters can be developed in corporate colours and with logos, or particular wording to reinforce a campaign or theme.
To look at the design and style of impressive galvanised steel planters available today take a look at Precious Designs. Planters are available in corporate colours and tailored wording or logos can be added.