A unique and simple solution...

The idea for Restoration & Beyond was sparked by Christine Pearce and Paula Smith in October 2008. Having both worked together for the previous 11 years as directors of a successful training company, they knew that they had what it takes to turn this idea into a reality. Armed with this wealth of experience and coupled with Christine's frustration of finding suitable products and services for her own Period Home, they set out to take on the challenge to create a unique and simple solution for all other period home owners.

The idea soon grew and while carrying out market research, the links between self-build new homes, carbon-neutral homes and period homes became apparent. Restoration & Beyond brings all of these together and provides every product and service you could possibly need in one place and with one simple checkout. Your days of trawling the internet are over!

We have searched the length and breadth of Britain, to bring you the finest independent retailers and service providers the UK has to offer, saving you the hard work. Using our site also means that you are supporting these independent businesses and keeping them alive for future generations. They share our vision too, and many are working towards providing products and services that have minimum impact on the environment or that support developing communities.

Using our site couldn't be simpler! It is unique in offering both products and services in the same place, and we've made it easy for you by enabling you to choose either the 'products' or 'services' route from the home page. The site has been designed to be intuitive so whatever you are looking for will be where you expect to find it, as we don't limit the number of categories a product or service can be found in. This means that you don't miss anything, no matter which route you take!

If you like the products of a particular retailer, you can view all of their products on the site via their personal shop, within our site. You can add products from many different retailers to your basket as you go along and then pay for them all at the end using our simple checkout.

If you're looking for a service provider, you no longer need to scroll through long lists of company names! We've considered all of our own pet hates when designing this site and tried to eliminate them to make a visit to Restoration & Beyond a pleasurable and successful experience. Life's too short to scroll! Once you get to your search results, you'll be presented with a page of mini-banners displaying each company's logo and a few details about what they do, so you get a feel for them before you choose whose pages you'd like to click through to. You don't even need to leave our site to do this. All of our service providers have mini-sites within our site and you can contact them by filling in a quick and simple email form that sends your query direct to the service provider concerned. You're then free to explore the site further.

Apart from Products and Services, Restoration & Beyond should also be the first place you come for help and advice about projects you're doing or have planned. We have a growing library of guidance sheets posted on our 'guide' pages and you can even ask an expert if you have a particular query. You can check out events and workshops available around the UK in the coming year and we have some terrific competitions for you to enter.

Over the coming months, there'll be competitions, blogs, features, special offers and much more on the site. You can keep up to date with everything by signing up to our free e-newsletter.

We hope you enjoy your visit.

Finally, don't keep this to yourself - please tell your friends!