Ages ago I saw an advert for the small white plastic ceiling "roses" that you can just fit over the old one - you don't have to start messing with electrics and new cabling - can anyone help?
Never heard of them, searched the web for a couple of minutes but nothing found.
But changing a ceiling rose isn't difficult - just (a max. of) four terminals including the earth - you just turn off the mains breaker, remove the cover, copy the existing wire locations before removal, then remove the new rose. There's a picture here. http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/lights_an d_switches.htm
You don't have to mess with new cabling.