News

Aside from building houses for birds and butterflies, planting trees and of course making our lovely oak doors, we have a bit of a passion for interior design and DIY. We just love keeping an eye on the latest and greatest creations from some of our favourite bloggers and so we wanted to put together some of the best! We’ve been looking at some amazing DIY wall decorations, most of which you just wouldn’t believe weren’t bought from a swanky home boutique! Take a look at our top picks where you’ll find some comments from their creators as well as links to the tutorials. With just a few materials and a touch of imagination you could soon be hanging an eye-catching new piece of wall décor!

A door chain is a simple and effective way of adding an additional layer of security and safety to your property. Door chain kits are quite affordable, and they offer an easy way for homeowners to protect themselves when they answer the door to unsolicited callers.

It’s once again time for our annual photo competition which gives you the opportunity to win some fantastic prizes by sending your photographs to us. Simply send us pictures of your  internal doors, external doors,architraves, skirting or accessories such as handles or hinges purchased from UK Oak Doors.

Congratulations to Luke, Stephen, and Atilla; three of our warehouse operatives who started with us on temporary contracts and have all recently secured permanent positions. Thanks for all your hard work so far and for all your work in the future!

Butterfly houses provide the ideal spot for butterflies to hibernate, and to use as a roosting spot during warmer months. Unfortunately stories of people finding butterflies using the houses are rare, but, even if you’re not lucky enough for a butterfly to take up residence in the house, the box is still a beautiful garden accessory.

Once upon a time, hedgehogs were a common sight in British gardens. However, statistics show that their population is declining fast – so much so in fact, that hedgehog numbers declined by over a third between 2003 and 2012. Many factors have contributed to this drastic decline: new roads and more traffic, new houses being built resulting in habitat loss, and gardens being surrounded by solid walls and fences. To help, you can: - Stop using slug pellets and chemicals as they can poison hedgehogs - Before cutting hedges, shrubs, or mowing the lawn, check for hedgehogs in bushes and long grass -Cover ponds at night as hedgehogs can fall in but struggle to get out - Check bonfires for hedgehogs before lighting - Build a hedgehog house! Click here to view an A4, printable version of this guide, and please feel free to help more hedgehogs by publishing this guide on your own site (just use the embed code below). How to Build a Hedgehog House - An infographic by the team at www.ukoakdoors.co.uk Embed How to Build a Hedgehog House on Your Site: Copy and Paste the Code Below <br /><br /><br /><br /> <img src="https://www.ukoakdoors.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/UKOD-How-to-make-a-hedgehog-house-1.jpg" width="540"></p><br /><br /><br /> <p>How to Build a Hedgehog House - An infographic by the team at <a href="https://www.ukoakdoors.co.uk/">www.ukoakdoors.co.uk</a></p><br /><br /><br /> <p> When your hedgehog house is finished: - Do not varnish or treat the wood as the chemical could potentially be harmful to the hedgehogs - Place it in a quiet location in your garden, surrounded by plants, under a covering plant if possible, and against a wall or fence - Position the box so the entrance is protected from wind. It’s recommended that the house faces South or South West - Clean the hedgehog house once a year in spring, using an organic Pyrehthrum powder. If you’re not sure if a hedgehog is living in the house simply place something small outside the entrance overnight. If in the morning it has been moved, the house is probably being used by a grateful hedgehog! Information is accurate at time of publishing, however, may be subject to change.

As part of our ongoing drive to provide free trees for schools, we recently donated 45 oak saplings to Andover Trees United; a wonderful initiative designed to engage young people with their local community and environment, that we're thrilled to be able to support.

Natural nest sites for birds are depleting fast: each time a tree is chopped down or an old building is repaired or demolished a bird loses a potential nesting site. Find out how you can help and give a family of birds a home in our step-by-step guide to making your very own birdhouse. Please feel free to download and print the guide, or to help more birds by sharing it on your own site using the embed code below!

Upcycling and repurposing is a huge trend right now and it’s not surprising when you look at the incredible pieces being made! Not only is the result fantastic but the experience is wonderful too – from the excitement of hunting down pieces to fix up, to the satisfaction of adding the final touches. We asked some of the fabulous bloggers from our Top Home Design Blogs list about their experiences with upcycling and repurposing.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. Ring any bells? If you’re a fan of 80’s computer games, then chances are that warm memories of many a well spent afternoon full of battling bad guys just came flooding back to you!   For those who didn’t spend the 80s smashing buttons on a NES controller or emptying their pocket money into arcade machines, don’t worry we’ve not gone mad! The sequence above is known as the ‘Konami code’ and is a not-so-secret cheat often used in video games. If the going got tough you could simply punch in the Konami code to unlock exciting secret game features from power-ups to infinite lives!

In July 2013, we released a very special product: the chance for Monsters, Inc. fans to get their claws on Boo’s Door, the portal to the monster-filled world that formed the backdrop to Monsters, Inc. We were so overwhelmed by the response of those wanting to get their claws on a Boo's Door for their little monsters, that it gave us an idea! We rallied the talented UK Oak Doors designers and crafted a real life Boo’s door complete with pink flowers and gold doorknob

Whether you’ve been following the UK Oak Doors blog for years, or minutes, you may have noticed that our DIY calendar series was finally completed in December! That’s twelve months of DIY projects, home improvements, maintenance tasks and advice spread out across the year!

Here at UK Oak Doors we are big fans of all things DIY, design and décor - especially when it comes in blog form! We've compiled a list of our favourite interior design based blogs which include everything from home renovation to crafty interiors projects. So without further ado, here is our top 30 for you to enjoy

Today we are joined by Carly, a writer for SofaSofa.co.uk.  Carly loves reading about interior design and watching home makeover shows on TV! When not leafing through design magazines, Carly loves walking her two doggies.

Thwart unwanted visitors and keep nasty, disturbing, and potentially uncomfortable adventures at bay with the newest addition to our catalogue..... a perfectly halfling sized, hobbit door.

Our solid oak external doors are handcrafted with care to ensure stability and warp resistance, but to ensure they last you a lifetime they must be correctly treated and cared for. The effects of harsh weather conditions like wind, rain and snow can all contribute to rot and damage. Because Oak is a natural product, we do not recommend the doors are directly exposed to the elements, ideally the door will be enclosed within a porch or under a canopy. To further ensure they last for as long as possible, you must treat them before fitting them, and then clean and re-treat them every two or three years. Here is our guide to correctly treating your external oak doors.

Winter has definitely arrived, and while I hate the cold and can't wait for Spring, I also can't deny that this time of year is ideal for making the most of our homes. Summer is all about enjoying every glimpse of sunshine,  while Winter is about wrapping up inside with roaring fires, hot stews, and cosy chairs for company.

The year is almost over!  December should be a month for celebration and relaxation, so put away those paint brushes and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.  You will, of course, spend some time putting up the tree and the other decorations, but you can do this at your leisure.  If you've been working hard on renovating your home over the last few months then you should have a house to be proud of, and this is your chance to show it off. Getting the Whole Family Involved Why not share the load this month and get the whole family involved in making Christmas decorations?  Young children can have fun with cardboard, coloured cellophane and paint (making window decorations), while older children may enjoy doing some "adult" DIY by cutting and sanding balsa wood to make ornaments. If you have more than enough Christmas decorations to go around, there are still things that your children can do to get involved with the feeling of Christmas.  Making a festive candy-cane is a quick and easy job (all you need is some candy canes, and some pipe-cleaner or ribbon to tie around the long part of the cane, along with perhaps some mistletoe for a little festive flair), and they make a great table decoration. Candy Canes. Photo: Steve Nakatani Older children that have dextrous fingers, and a lot of patience, could make special embroidered handkerchiefs for family guests.  A white handkerchief with a red initial embroidered on it is a stylish but simple gift, and the knowledge that it's hand-made makes it even more special. Last-Minute Tips for Christmas No matter how organized you are, it's inevitable that something will go wrong during the festive season.  Perhaps guests will arrive a day earlier than expected, leaving you scrambling to clean up the bathroom.  Or, perhaps you'll run out of chilled wine or beer and have to scramble to find something to quench the thirst of your guests. When things go wrong, the important thing to remember is to remember the Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy's core phrase: "Don't panic".  While the empty shampoo bottle and soap box in the bathroom may leave you crimson with embarrassment, there's a good chance that your guests won't even notice.  A temporary delay in the flow of liquid refreshment at your Christmas Eve party might raise a couple of eyebrows, but as long as you keep the party moving, it will be forgotten by the end of the night. If you have some last minute cleaning to do, don't worry about doing it well - grab some boxes, stuff the "stuff" that you need to clean up into them, and put them on top of a wardrobe in your bedroom.  You can sort everything out properly once your guests have gone. Box of toys. Photo: David If you need to cool some wine or beer quickly, put the warm beverages in a bowl, and cover them with ice.  Pour some water over the ice, and then add some salt (make that a LOT of salt) to the mix.  Stir the saltwater mixture and let the drinks sit in it for a few minutes.  Your drinks should go from warm to ice cold in just three or four minutes.  Be sure to rinse the bottle off before serving it

Thank you to everyone who entered our competition to show us what they have done to #SaveTheDay and be in with a chance of this real life TARDIS door! We have shortlisted the entries to fifteen of the best and are handing the vote over to you! Choose carefully since you have just one chance to vote, and a Tardis door in the wrong hands is a dangerous weapon to all of Gallifrey’s enemies. Just scroll to the bottom of the page to choose who you think is most worthy of winning this 99.7% real TARDIS door, and all the adventures* it will bring. Each photo is numbered - you will find its corresponding number in the poll below. The votes will close on the 3rd of December. Let the adventures in time and space begin!   One Baking Cakes and dressing up to #SaveTheDay Partying with this gone wrong regeneration of the doctor as the guest of honour #BowTiesAreCool Three Going on adventures in time and space #AdventuresAreCool Four Eating fishfingers and custard Saving the world on a mission to Mars #SpaceAdventuresAreCool Six Painting with kids to keep them entertained Getting out of a tricky predicament Eight Keeping an alien race of camouflage catouflaged cats at bay! Nine Taking it in turns to paint our faces as scary as we can, ready for hiding behind the sofa during the big show Ten Making space related outfits for the programme tonight! #savetheday Eleven Rescuing and giving a permanent loving home to ex battery hens Building another Tardis to help #SaveTheDay Fighting the Daleks Fourteen Telling Sonic bedtime stories Fifteen Turning invisible to #SaveTheDay *All adventures in time and/or space are undertaken at owner's own risk. UK Oak Doors cannot accept liability for encounters with monsters, aliens, parallel universes or other potentially unpleasant timey-wimey stuff resulting from ownership of the TARDIS door.