Interiors styling and copywriting
Have you ever wondered what City lawyers, bankers and TV journalists do in their lunch hour? Well, it seems more often than not, they are to be found perusing once sunken treasure as well as other ancient artefacts such as the captivating turquoise hues of 12th Century Persian ceramics. These carefully curated treasures are to be found amongst the antique vessels and furniture that make up Hilary Fisher’s antique shop in Gray’s Inn Road, Fisher London.
A very Happy New Year! It’s that crystal ball time of year for trend predictions and, even if you choose to ignore them, I always think it’s fun to keep at least one eye on what’s going on. This January the blog is turning up the heat with a look at the use of primary red in interior decorating schemes. Although it may appear to be more of a micro trend right now, it’s one I believe will intensify as 2019 goes by.
Christmas is the time of year that sends interior stylists into overdrive (even though they have often been decorating for Christmas several times over since July). We can’t resist it! However, nothing quite compares to the effort and scale that has gone into decorating Castle Howard in Yorkshire this Christmas. Respect goes to the three weeks of non-stop decorating that completed months of planning by Charlotte Lloyd Webber, Bretta Gereke and their team of 6. The blog’s Christmas present to you this year is an edited highlights tour of Castle Howard’s celebration of The 12 Days of Christmas.
Continue reading “Christmas decorations at Castle Howard”
Back by popular demand is the blog’s Christmas gift guide. B-Y J-I-N-G-L-E B-E-L-L-S – I hear you cry! The blog’s very own Christmas Fairy has flown from the top of the tree to make light of your Christmas shopping. Dangerous, I grant you, with Panda our beardy mini schnauzer on patrol amongst the presents…
What style Christmas wreath will you be choosing for your front door this year? With so many to choose from, it can be a little daunting but I find myself with the foragers on this one …
Rachel, a busy management consultant, asked me to convert her garden shed into a home office at the end of her Oxfordshire cottage garden. It needed to be a work space that Rachel really wanted to be in but also one she could separate from home at the end of the day. I have had some experience of shed conversions. I once turned our wooden summer house into a home office for a Marie Claire 101 ideas magazine interiors feature. There is something quite magical about creating outdoor rooms and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one!
Continue reading “Turning a shed into a home office”
A perfect storm of social and political events took place in the early 1980s that completely changed the way people lived and dressed. It was the era that waved goodbye to Mid Century to 1970s furniture and beckoned in a national love affair with traditional Country House style. Peter York and Ann Barr wrote the Sloane Ranger’s Handbook and Min Hogg was the launch editor in November 1981 of The World of Interiors magazine. Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles, Brideshead Revisited was on the telly.
Continue reading “Is 80s interior decorating back?”
Where are you on the colour spectrum? Are you more of a neutral Kelly Hoppen fan or perhaps a maximalist colour lover such as Sophie Robinson? A celebration of colour in all its hues is a big interiors trend this Autumn and happens to be the theme of Focus/18 at The Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour in London (16 – 21 September 2018). I am really excited to have been again asked to collaborate on Tissus D’Helene’s window at the centre and the blog is going to share with you some of the ‘backstage’ styling secrets of how it came together…
As the temperature is again set to soar above 30 degrees in London and the South East, it’s high time the blog shared some practical style strategies on how to stay cool in Saharan Britain. Especially if you find yourself wishing to hang out in the refrigerated isles of your local supermarket for more time than is strictly necessary! Here then, to save you from such grocery ignominy, are 7 ideas for keeping your style cool high and your temperature low:
Have you noticed how the idea of a ‘soiree‘ or ‘salon‘ has been emerging as a way of bringing together like-minded people in the worlds of art and interiors? Talks by specialists, dinners with gorgeous ‘grammable’ tablescapes all put together with small groups of people who are, of course, networking – albeit in a much more subtle way. I have to say I didn’t hesitate when PR Georgie Pridden invited me along to meet a group of extremely interesting guests for a Midsummer Night’s supper in June. As a special one-off for Georgie, the venue for the evening was Howe’s achingly stylish showroom in London.
Continue reading “What’s the secret of Howe’s interior design recipe?”
