Sunday night rituals in the winter for me entail putting the fire on and settling in to watch the season’s best period drama. I was so excited and, if I am honest, a little worried that I would be disappointed with the current BBC 1 TV serialisation of Howards End. Continue reading “Interview: BBC1’s Howards End set decorator, Tanya Bowd”
There is a bit of a 30s thing going on, not just because of Kenneth Branagh’s new film adaptation of Murder On the Orient Express. My green theme blog last year was about the trend for dark forest greens in fashion and home. Eighteen months on, it has now morphed into what I can only describe as 20s and 30s in hue – more moss than forest green. This flatter green is being showcased in both sophisticated Art Deco schemes (such as at Turnell & Gigon’s pop-up showroom at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour) as well as in its more homely and organic roots from the interwar years.
Continue reading “Mimi Pickard’s debut fabric and wallpaper collection”
Since November 2017 when I first published the following post, B****n has become the nation’s favourite interior design bauble. And even though I don’t wish to fuel the creation of a design cliche, I thought it might be timely this Christmas to see how what might be considered a micro trend can become something much bigger.
If you are one of the dedicated Instagram followers of Gear Antiques (IG @gearantiques), you won’t need me to tell you that the King is alive and er … barking on Lillie Road in Fulham. Elvis has not only been entertaining clients with his gregarious stage presence but he is also proving to be Gear Antiques’ secret weapon, when it comes to marketing. His patch – more regal in style than rock and roll – is an antiques shop run by his owner Marc on Lillie Road in South West London. If miniature schnauzer Elvis isn’t posted in an Instagram photo by Marc – either sitting on a Jacobean chair on the pavement outside the shop or mannequin style in the window – there follows an outcry from IG followers asking ‘where’s Elvis?!’ So you see, he does live on … just in Schnauzer form …
I keep my eye out for new textile and wallpaper designers and one whose work stood out recently was that of Anna Jeffreys which was showcased by Tissus D’Helene at a press show at The Design Centre Chelsea Harbour. Journalists usually keep their own thoughts to themselves at these events, but there was a little gasp of surprise and delight at Anna’s swatches. Anna’s seriously pretty designs stood out for their fresh colourways which mix traditional motifs with more contemporary flourishes. What makes them difficult to place is that the colour palette particularly doesn’t seem like it comes from a British design stable and that’s what makes them so interesting.
Continue reading “Anna Jeffreys – new wallpaper and fabric collection”
It is extremely fortuitous (jammy even) that when Helen Cormack owner of wallpaper and fabric company Tissus D’Helene asked me to style a Japanese window (at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour) that she had chosen a collection of wallpapers in an orange and grey colour palette. Part One of my Marmalade and Slate interiors recipe was well underway as a blog post so it neatly dove-tailed with this trend – just love it when that happens! Continue reading “Tissus D’Helene: Japanese style window display”
If you want to experience a cross between a magical midsummer night’s dream whilst entering the secret walled garden of a genteel country house (one whose Victorian glass house has charmingly ‘seen better days’) – then Richmond’s Petersham Nurseries is the place for you!
Continue reading “Petersham Nurseries: Midsummer styling ideas”
When guests visit Helen and John Worton’s home for the first time, they sometimes find themselves left a little bit speechless! This is due to the fact that to all intents and purposes the terraced frontage of this 16th Century Cornish cottage is not at all what it appears from the village square. You might imagine that what lies behind are low-beamed ceilings with a conventional upstairs/downstairs floor plan and a country-style interior in a neutral Farrow & Ball palette.
Continue reading “House and garden tour: artists’ home in Cornwall”
When I was approached by Helen Cormack of Tissus D’Helene to style her Chelsea Design Week (12 – 17 March 2017) window display, to say I was excited was an understatement! As dream jobs go, this is right up there. When I styled some features for Homes & Gardens magazine, they often used Helen’s fabrics – and I have always adored them.
Continue reading “Tissus D’Helene: styling for Chelsea Design Week 2017”
If you are channelling your inner **Hygge this Autumn, you may wish to join me in worshipping some beautiful log stores from a maker I discovered on Instagram. These are veritable temples to the humble log, kindling and coal store. The photography features log stores installed in cute cottages to more sizeable Georgian properties on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border (but also supply nationwide).
Continue reading “Into the woods … discover the most gorgeous log store designs!”
Charis White Interiors 