StartupRealities

Startup No 171 - StartupRealities 2020 series BarnPartitions  is a construction company that converts rural barns into residential homes by lining the walls with insulation and installing a movable suspended ceiling for heat insulation in the winter. The suspended ceiling is inspired by the retractable lining on heated swimming pools, which conserves the heat of the water during the night. CEO QUOTE " Barns are great places to live in during the summer: spacious and cool. It is the winter that makes living in them a bit of an ordeal. This is where our insulation technology makes the big difference. In the summer you can enjoy the spacious interior of a tall barn, all the way up to the roof. In the winter this space becomes a liability when you have to heat it up, so we install retractable suspended ceilings that keep your heating bill to a minimum. " - said BarnPartitions founder and CEO Barney Pebble . Barn in New England (image source: Wikipedia ) Barn interior...

StartupRealities No 164 CeilArt is an interior design company which has developed specialist equipment and frames that allow attaching paintings to the ceiling of a house. This makes it possible for home owners to utilise the empty space that a ceiling typically offers, while also creating art appreciation opportunities, especially for paintings displayed above the bed in a bedroom. TECHNOLOGY The company installs two perspex (transparent acrylic sheets) on the front and the back of every paining, irrespective of the strength of the frame and the canvas. The back perspex sheet helps attach the painting to the ceiling and also provides protection against damage from leaking water pipes from the floor above. The front sheet helps reduce the weight of the canvas and the pull force it produces on the frame, and protects from falling pieces in case the canvas gets torn. CEO QUOTE " We have had painted ceilings and frescoes in churches and palaces for centuries but ironically th...

StartupRealities No 111 HomeConstitution is a subscription service that arbitrates and adjudicates on family issues and helps discipline children, rein in parents and iron out household conflicts. All members of a household (parents and children alike) are required to sign up to a set of pre-agreed rules, known as the #HomeConstitution, and to abide by the ruling of a panel of volunteer judges when their intervention is requested. LEGAL PROCESS To help draft the rules, templates of common rules are provided, e.g. " Mama Bear will give Baby Boo Boo a monthly pocket money allowance that cannot be spent on sweets" ; or " Boo Boo will write his homework every day" . Once agreed by all household members, these rules are framed and shipped to display on the wall as the family's HomeConstitution. In case of conflict, children or parents can request a hearing and adjudication by a panel of three lay judges. The plaintiff and the defendant select one judge each, whi...

StartupRealities No 87 EmbraceSpace is an interior design company that creates more space in the house by creatively installing shelving and cupboards. The company's speciality is lining with cupboards and shelves the upper end of the walls inside the room, so that the space at all ceiling corners that are not windows is utilised. CEO QUOTE "We all dump things on the floor, on chairs and tables at home. This habit creates clutter. EmbraceSpace helps you declutter your house by creating storage space high up on the walls. Think about a library: how many books can you store on shelves on the walls as opposed to in piles on the floor? The only thing that you sacrifice with EmbraceSpace is the Plaster-of-Paris decorations lining your ceiling...but these are out of fashion anyway," said company founder and CEO Emma Spaziani. Living room (image source: Wikipedia )