I always look forward to visiting London Design Week in Chelsea. And this year didn’t disappoint. From smart interiors ateliers whose showroom displays extended to pavements heaving with spring planters (of the woven and antique variety) to The Design Centre with its fabulous displays of new interior design. There was much to see, stories to unearth and people to meet. Here, as promised, is just a small snapshot of new interior pattern and colour that caught my eye this week.
Continue reading “London Design Week 2023”Category: Decorating
Garden Room chic
Precisely engineered box pleats, tented ceilings and trellis-inspired walls are just some of the tenets of interiors haute couture being adopted by interior designers for garden room designs. Elegant as well as poised, these chic interior design schemes are not only witty in their use of scale and of trompe l’oeil but also offer the perfect sanctuary in which to connect with nature.
Continue reading “Garden Room chic”Interior design directions 2023
A very Happy New Year to you, I hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas. Rather like the Roman god Janus, interior design style for 2023 looks both to the past and to the future for inspiration. Finding decorative ways to capture the beauty of nature in our homes continues along with antiques playing an even greater role. You can look forward to lighting ideas that don’t require electricity (could be useful!) and inspiring ways from the past on how to use colour and pattern. There are some welcome ingredients of quirky humour as well as new designs from top UK interior designers.
Continue reading “Interior design directions 2023”Renaissance of blue and white interiors
The renaissance of blue and white interior style I wrote about in March 2022 is now growing apace on both sides of the Atlantic. It is like alchemy takes place whenever these two colours connect as together they spark something excitingly fresh and hopeful. And, in an uncertain world, maybe this intoxicating chemistry is another reason why decorating with blue and white is once again proving to be so inspiring.
Continue reading “Renaissance of blue and white interiors”Coastal Grandmother Style
It isn’t particularly usual for a coastal style interiors story to find itself at the centre of international news headlines, especially when there is so much else going on in the world. But in the Spring when I was researching Styling Box schemes for a client’s Greek Island holiday home, and writing about coastal style for the August issues of Period Living and Saga magazine, a curious ‘Coastal Grandmother Style’ story was emerging from a Tik Tok influencer in California.
Continue reading “Coastal Grandmother Style”Russian Style
Faberge in London: Romance to Revolution is an exhibition of 200 exquisite Carl Faberge objets which opens on 20 November 2021 and runs until May 2022. What I didn’t know when I went to the V&A press show and found out after, is quite how closely linked Larissa Miloradovich of Milola Designs is to the Russian Imperial family. Not only were Larissa’s ancestors at the centre of Russian Imperial life but Shuvalov Palace, which was a pre Revolution family estate, now houses the permanent exhibition of Faberge in St Petersburg.
Continue reading “Russian Style”Winter spice decor
Occasionally, the elements for my bespoke interior Styling Box service sound more like the ingredients for a cook’s recipe or episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ than for a decorating scheme! A client’s brief to find a contemporary country scheme for an open plan living/dining room in Wiltshire recently found me doing a bit of time travelling in my research. On the design journey I found exquisite new wallpapers and fabrics whose design DNA comes from the berries of Swedish forests, to the spicy hues of English 13th Century cob houses and Renaissance Italy.
Continue reading “Winter spice decor”Take a bow
Influential artists, interior and fashion designers are inspiring us to dress up this summer and to ‘put a bow on it’. After the success of the Netflix series Bridgerton, Regency fever has well and truly taken hold with flamboyant bows and stripes.
Continue reading “Take a bow”Coastal Style 2021
Each year ‘coastal style’ collections arrive with the jaunty promise of the joys of living by the sea. And this year it is going to be harder than usual to resist the urge to create your very own ‘beach house’ at home. Coastal Style 2021 offers an unpredictable global weave of inspiration from the palaces of India and Spain to West Africa and our own coastal shores.
Affordable interior design service
After the year we have had, does your home need a bit of a refurb? Our homes have nurtured us, been our school rooms, places of work and even our gyms. And just like us, are now perhaps in need of a little care and attention. Maybe you have decided to move house and are looking for some new ideas? For whatever your stage of life, Styling Box is my affordable bespoke interior design service (in person or remotely) that provides you with a bespoke interior design scheme with fabric, wallpaper and paint samples.