If you feel like indulging in a spot of e-tail therapy, check out buy4now.ie, a website with 15 stores including Atlantic Homecare, Arnotts, Kashan Oriental carpets and the Buy4Now store. With over 25,000 products to choose from, you can splurge on anything from a funky pink duvet from the Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen "Beat" collection at Arnotts to a bouquet of tulips and trachelium from Sheila's Flowers.

The most visited store, with 25,000 visitors a month, is Atlantic Homecare, which has just opened an online garden centre and also stocks household furniture, paint, hardware and housewares. While e-shopping has been "a slow burn"in this country, according to Buy4Now's managing director Ali Murdoch, furniture on the site has been "remarkably successful" with products featured on the portal's home page sometimes selling better than those in-store. Ninety percent of non-food items will be delivered to your doorstep within three working days for a fee of £5 in Dublin and £10 outside Dublin. For anyone looking to transform their children's bedroom into a fairytale play area, the Buy4now store's Lilliput range of pink and white Princess furniture ranges from £120 to £350 (€152.40 to €444.50) and includes a carriage bed, blanket box, bedside locker and wardrobe, and for aspiring pirates there is the nautical dreamboat bed complete with anchors.

emorgan@irish-times.ie