Interiors styling and copywriting
There is no getting away from the fact that I was ‘frilled’ to see the New Year’s Day prediction blog realised this week in G P & J Baker’s showroom set. Designed by interior designer Emma Sims-Hilditch, her 21st Century take on an English country house bedroom formed one of the main ‘curated spaces’ at The Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour for London Design Week (8 – 13 March 2020).
I am rather tickled by a phrase that has emerged from the U.S. to describe the return of Old School or English Decorating. It is a favourite blog topic and one that is currently experiencing a renaissance of interest on both sides of the Atlantic. Thanks to Emma Bazilian in her September 2019 piece for US House Beautiful magazine (a much preppier version of Hearst’s UK edition), Grandmillennial style has been coined.
Take the formula of an out of town supermarket, add a few ingredients from IKEA, the precise display skills of a west London prop house and finally a sprinkling of sports store Decathlon to discover the recipe behind Oxfam’s new superstore design. The blog takes a tour of this new sustainable and charitable department store concept to find out what might make us all want to shop there.
I was about to post another story on the blog when this ‘jewel’ caught my eye. The front page was instantly put on hold and the blog cogs screeched to a halt. It was obvious that Emily Gore’s new bespoke jewellery box company Woodbury and Co should be the front page story.
Adopting sustainable interior decorating ideas really doesn’t mean that ‘style’ has to exit stage left! Quite the contrary. I believe a new sustainable approach based on a few old school values means that interior style is having a healthy rejig. With a little inspiration from the past, here are a few sustainable interior decorating ideas with a focus on some inspiring companies who are not only making changes about how they do things but who are sharing it quite vocally too.
A very Happy New Year to you, I hope you have had a lovely Christmas? It is a New Year’s Day blog tradition to take a look at which interiors trends might be making the headlines in the year ahead. Along with the pressing issue of sustainability, ‘Neo Mint’, ‘The Brownies‘ and Pantone’s ‘Classic Blue’ in the mix – the good news for upholsterers and curtain makers is that 2020 is also set to become the year of the sewing machine…
Every which way you turn, exciting new retail possibilities are popping up in the UK. Much of it is in the hands of ‘the people’ – by that I mean, artisans, antique and vintage enthusiasts, independent shop owners, charities, artists and people just simply having ‘yard sales’ or posh ‘car boots’. With this new diverse (and sometimes hidden) retail landscape, the blog gives you an inside guide to where all the chic shoppers are heading this Christmas…
No stone was left unturned this week as I dived in and out of showrooms at The Design Centre for Focus 19. I had the pleasure of attending talks from top interior designers, interviewed creative directors and textile company owners discovering along the way that more than just a handful are several generation family owned. I even managed – on neutral territory – an undercover meeting with the Interior Spy.
In its second year, The London Interiors Show (15 – 17 September) at The Chelsea Harbour Hotel offers interiors companies who don’t have a presence at The Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour a very welcome three-day opportunity to present their new collections to press, interior designers and the trade. Complete with camouflage of West London uniform of tea-dress-and-trainers, I have hot footed it around the show to share with you some interior design highlights…
Ever since it lost out to ‘blond’ wood in the early 90s trend for Minimalism, interior stylists, journalists and antique dealers have been proclaiming that ‘brown’ (antique furniture) is back. I know, because I have been one of them. For interior designers, who don’t tend to pay huge amounts of attention to trends, the notion that it ever went away is frankly considered a bit of a nonsense.
