Interiors styling and copywriting
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.
I am thrilled that the blog has been nominated for the prestigious Amara Interior Design Awards for the third year running, this time in the Best Interior Design category. The hosts for the awards night will be TV presenter and interior designer, Sophie Robinson with journalist Kate Watson-Smyth who writes the award winning Mad About The House blog. Voting has now opened so I would be most grateful if you and your dog (or any other pet that comes to hand) could please vote. Just press the voting button below for the blog to be shortlisted!
In our house, it’s written in stone that Sunday nights are spent watching the latest period drama or film. When The English Home magazine asked if I would like to recreate three rooms from Downton Abbey to coincide with the forthcoming feature film, you could say it was a bit of an open and shut case – albeit of the vintage prop variety.
Continue reading “Styling Downton Abbey film sets for The English Home magazine”
One of the sweet spots of the summer season is the moment when our calendar gets filled with dates to visit gardens open for charity on behalf of The National Garden Scheme. More exterior than interior I suppose but fairly inextricably linked for floral/botanical design inspiration and for the patterns found in imaginative landscaping. These are usually private gardens and there is often exceptionally fine, freshly baked cake from precious family recipes. If you are lucky, proper tea cups and saucers with the odd plant to buy and a bit of bunting. Heaven really.
Textile design is as much about storytelling as it is about design for me. The storytelling is important because I want to know how the design came about and from whom. When it comes to the plot, the quirkier, the better. Especially when the protagonist has not only worked as a set decorator in the world of film, for at least two of Britain’s most treasured interior brands, but whose debut fabric and wallpaper designs for Lewis & Wood are currently lining the walls of an interior designed shipping container in the Cumbrian Hills.
