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…
Watlington is a small Oxfordshire market town that is blessed with that rare species – a thriving independent high street. Nestled amongst farmland at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, it has ‘a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker’. The butcher is called Tom, the 14-year-old baker (as featured in The Sunday Times) regularly creates queues halfway up the street for her pop-up bread sales, while the candlestick maker has show-stopping designer lighting. Oh, and the town is also about to launch its first Art Week.
Whilst the cost of high street rents is changing the way vintage and antique furniture is bought and sold in the UK, it turns out that Madrid is a city with a thriving retail secondhand scene. Last weekend, with just over 48 hours to spend in Spain’s capital, I came across the El Rastro street market (La Latino metro) with more vintage and antique shops than even I could speed-prop my way around! Here’s a few that caught my eye along the way…
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 …
If you aren’t one of her followers on Instagram, then there is every chance that you won’t have heard of artist and decorative painter, Flora Roberts. For fans of surface pattern, Flora is the artist behind many highly successful floral wallpaper and fabric designs for companies such as Lewis & Wood.
Continue reading “RHS Chelsea Flower Show inspires artist Flora Roberts”
During these late January days when daylight is still in short supply, it seems more than a little appropriate to share a great lighting idea. Coldharbour Lights‘ theatrical feathered bicycle wheel chandeliers are where Art Deco design meets Baz Luhrmann with just a dash of Boho chic. The perfect concoction perhaps to spice up the darker days of midwinter?
The art world has seen some eye-wateringly expensive pieces being sold at auction recently but Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler’s current Art for Living exhibition (6 – 21 December 2017) at their Pimlico Road showroom is exciting for two reasons. Firstly, the selling exhibition shows how to use contemporary art in room sets with both antique and contemporary furniture and secondly, the prices are in the more affordable region of (£1,500 – £15,000) – think high street sofa to budget kitchen.
Continue reading “Art for Living exhibition at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler”
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”
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”
Charis White Interiors 