Fantastic with a garden centre, kitchens shop, bathroom section, lightings and furnishings shop as…read morewell as buildings, timber, plumbing and more! Great for Xmas decorations and bargains too! I find the selection and stock quite brilliant! Bargain bins are worth a rummage through too!

The first of the big B&Q warehouses in Cardiff. It's a little worn now and the parking can be…read morechallenging on a busy Saturday or Bank Holiday. What it does have now is little showroomy bits that display their kitchen and bathroom goodies. My builder doesn't reckon much to the B&Q kitchens but a friend who has just got one thinks it's ok. There's also a big new carpet and flooring part, but with the carpets they will just sell you it but not fit it, so if you are doing the stairs it's a bit challenging. Beige is in. Pink shag pile is out.

This is a beautiful little shop that is quite unexpected due to its slightly hideaway location and…read moremodest frontage. When you walk into Hamptons you know that you've found a little bubble of quality in Penarth. They sell a wide range of home, garden and gift ware. Ranging from bath bombs to tables and chairs. The space is decorated superbly, and is a pleasure to be in as you potter around. Their items for sale are all of a high quality, and have price tags to match, but you would get what you paid for at Hamptons. There is a great little cafe upstairs, The Blue Pelican Cafe (which I've also reviewed), so Hamptons is a lovely little place acting as getaway from the hustle and bustle of Windsor Road. However, this is not really the kind of place you could go and relax for hours at a time with a book. This is the kind of place where women take tea; take heed, and be careful not to break anything.

Wowee! This store sells the most beautiful items and as a big fan of interior design, I'm already…read moreplanning my next trip. What I particularly adore about this shop is that most of the pieces available are completely unique, and I haven't seen them available to purchase elsewhere. One word of warning though, avoid buying the birthday cards; at £6 they're far too pricey (there's nothing particularly special about them) and I guarantee the person you give one to will not appreciate it's value.

Other people here have mentioned the hardware store on one side (they mix Dulux paint which is very…read morehandy by the way) but I just want to mention the garden centre which is on the separate building across the pedestrian/cycle path (which reminds me - do note the different coloured bricks and cycle images on the floor and watch out for cycles). The garden centre is pretty well stocked for peripherals, but also has a nice selection of instant colour seasonal plants as well as some fruit and herbs for kitchen gardens. Their willows and topiary are a bit old fashioned and I would recommend going to a specialist nursery for trees (try Chew Valley Trees) but this is great for a gardening hit in town.

This sprawling department store feels like one giant throwback to the 1970s. The design is dowdy,…read morecome here after going to Ikea for a real shock. You'll hear very British muzak plays over the speakers, interrupted occasionally by an announce who kindly reminds you to validate your parking when paying for your goods. Quaint to the point of being weird, and also almost always completely empty. Enough of analysis of the style of the shop, I should probably tell you if it's any good. There are sections for homeware and DIY, as well as a garden centre. You can get more or less anything for the home, a few things you didn't know you needed, and a few things no-one would ever need. There's an entire row of various things for your milkman to leave the milk in, to give you an idea of the range. It's not that cheap unfortunately. I think all there costs must go on the staff (who are very helpful), of which there seem to be a greater number than there are customers most of the time.

This branch of Wilkinson on the shopping street of East Street in Bedminster is popular with locals…read morewanting a cheaper place to find household items and I was delighted to find exactly what I was looking for. They had a great range of Christmas goodies, including real trees, chocolate giftsets, beauty gifts and decorations as well as the usual stuff. I would almost say that this place is like a better version of what used to be Woolworths. One thing I do have to mention is that when I was paying at the till, the cashier accidentally did scan the most expensive item I bought twice, but when I went back to clear up this error it was dealt with very smoothly and efficiently. Do keep an eye on your receipts, I had been charged £5.30 over.

I really like Wilkinson for picking up cheap toiletries and DIY type things. They often have a…read morereally good range of tools and bits and pieces, like picture hooks and draining boards. I came in here once with my housemates to stock up on all the essentials for our home and got loads for very little money. The lighting section in here is particularly good, with a good selection of lamps and shades, it's right in the back in the left hand corner. This shop is massive though, so they'll probably have pretty much anything you want. I definitely will be coming back here for my Christmas decorations.

Well I know for one fact that IKEA do not allow photos to be taken in less you ask the Human…read moreResources department! Typical or what?! That's the first place that I have told not take pictures of within a long time. I know this because I was told off by the till area for not being able to take pictures without permission, but that was after I had been taking pictures already inside and plenty of staff where around who could have also told me off. Mind you the guy at the entrance did look a bit shifty towards me as I had my camera around my neck, but he did not say anything to me still. It is a very useful and massive shop, based around the Cardiff Bay and it is free to enter. They have several sections of products such as; lights, bed duvets, candles, pictures frames, cloth hangers, plenty of storage items, mirrors, a cafe, a car park, a low deals offer, large lifts, escalators, and a Swedish food market area. Entry is free; the staff do seem a little picky about certain things, but it is a very useful shop and our house and Caravan in Pembrokeshire are both full of IKEA items and products. I would still recommend it as a shop for everyone to attend and buy house items from.

We all know Ikea is a must for furniture hunters on a budget - not just in Cardiff but world wide -…read moredid you know that Ikea is the biggest furniture seller in the world? But this review isn't about the furniture - ohhhhh controversial!!!!! I hear you say. This review is about the food. All I want to say is consider Ikea not just as a furniture store but a quite good cheap restaurant too. Its great value for money. You can get a cooked breakfast for 99p! Where else in the developed world can you get that? Ok the meatballs and the fish and chips are not as cheap but they are as cheap as a chip shop and you have all the sauce you could wish for and a table and chair to sit down and eat it at too! One word of advice I wouldn't take a first date here - I did once and it didn't last long after we left the store - pity really she looked quite nice all dressed up.

The only reason I'm reviewing this store, is they had fireworks, when we needed them. We had…read morealready been let down by Tesco, and had even travelled to Llantrisant Scrapyard on another wild goose chase. Eventually we found Asda Living, next the the Aldi we had originally planned to source our gunpowder based products. Aldi couldn't oblige - extreme confusion about what they did and didn't have, plus a rather extended delay to get keys to the cabinet, all combined to ensure we left before the manager returned with the keys. Asda Living, you little beauty!! Just when we thought our sum total of fireworks would have been 10, plus sparklers..........the kids would have revolted, and thrown us on the bonfire! Asda Living sorted us out with £90 worth of fountains, candles, mines and a 300 shot centrepiece. (over 40 items in all, many were multi shot items) The kids were mighty impressed, so were all the adults. P.S Asda - maybe you want to include this gem of a store on your online store locator - it's not there, that's why details here are limited (the unit no. maybe wrong, but Aldi is definitely unit 3)

It's ASDA without the food. So, in some ways the best bits. Good for kitting out outgoing uni…read morestudents with bedding, warm shoes and underwear. What we don't understand is why the adults clothes seem so frowy and dowdy when the kids clothes are so funky. I spent a desperate hour in here trying to find fun skirts in the kids department in the biggest sizes then going into the changing rooms and optimistically pulling on stuff that didn't go past my hips. If I'd wanted school uniform I'd have been ok but my desperation hasn't quite reached that far.

The home selection is a million times better than the on in the Laura Ashley on Queen's Street. The…read morestore size itself is rather average in size, so don't expect to find the entire home catalogue available on display. I generally find the furniture in Laura Ashley to be incredibly pretty, though perhaps a little too twee for some people. I particularly like their gilded mantelpiece mirrors, which look like they've come straight out of a Venetian Palazzo, and at around £300 they're pricey, but nothing compared to the cost of an original. They also have a small clothing selection, which in my opinion does not really contain many of the best pieces, so if you're after clothing I'd head to their town store instead. I do have a slight problem with this Laura Ashley in terms of their staff. For starters their never seems enough of them, and I also find it's rather hard to get their attention. Bear this in mind when visiting.

Always outstanding customer service. Nothing is too much trouble. Thank you. A surprisingly good…read moreselection in a small Shop.

Another great hardware store on Gloucester Road…read more My girlfriend and I wanted some paint to paint a table we acquired. We popped in as I was sure I'd seen tins of paint last time I went in. Turns out they've got a full Dulux paint mixing machine with a paint chart - sorted! We picked our colours, gave them to matey-boy and then had a mooch while he mixed his magic. The shop is full of nic-nacs from flower bulbs, paint brushes, toilet seats, taps and washing up bowls. if you need it, they've probably got it. There always seems to be a lot of staff. Probably because they get asked lots of silly questions by people like myself, but there was no waiting around. All of the guys were really helpful. One had just come back from his stag do and was covered in fake tan - David Dickinson style - oh how we laughed! Bishopston Hardware is a great shop with great staff. It's so handy that it's at the end of my road!