Worst Christmas decorations ever (or the best?)

Our Christmas tree is looking far too sparse. So sparse it could be mistaken for a deliberate attempt at stylishness, which I think is a shame this time of the year when you can get away with so much more. 

Last year we had these chaps as our tree topper. This year... any suggestions? While I was searching for inspiration (OK, while I was procrastinating about doing my tax return) I found some

On the last* day of Christmas... Matthias Heiderich's photography

Aren't these vivid photographs of Berlin architecture fantastic? They are the work German photographer, Matthias Heiderich.

They remind me a little of Slim Aarons' 70s beach photography – the colours, at least, as Aarons' work is full of people. But Heiderich's work is a bit more financially accessible – and one of his pictures would make an amazing gift, don't you think?



© Matthias Heiderich

Competition: win a limited edition lava lamp in time for Christmas

While we're on the Christmas present tip (I've been posting a different, affordable gift idea a day all month in case you've missed them), this could be the solution for that teenage niece, just-out-of-home-er, or godson on the list. 

A lava lamp: what do you think?



While I probably wouldn't have a lava lamp at home myself these days, I do have a very soft spot for the things, as illustrated

On the 11th* day of Christmas... old-school tea-towels

Have you ever not loved getting a tea-towel as a present? I like a gift that you can use every day – and I know that each time I use one of my own tea-towels, given as a gift, I also think of the person who gave it to me. Which is nice.

Tea-towels are also an excellently easy way to revamp a kitchen: instant (and practical) art. Who will you give yours to – and will it be one of these heavily

On the tenth* day of Christmas... Future & Found's enamel vases

Good for toothbrushes, small bunches of flowers, planting hyacinth bulbs in, worktop cutlery, pencils... or just for looking at, lined up on a nice shelf.



Enamel vase, £15, Future & Found

And if these float your boat, you might also love these graphic Polish bar mugs, two of which I recently bought to display (and use) in the kitchen.

Post by Kate

* It's the tenth day in (this) blog's world

On the ninth* day of Christmas... Ikea butcher's block

I featured the new and stylish Ikea Trendig range when it came out a couple of months ago. 

And one of the standouts for me (among some really great bowls and unusual tea-towels) was this chunky bamboo chopping board. A good unisex present for anyone who enjoys their time in the kitchen.



Trendig butcher's block, £16, Ikea

Bamboo is hardwearing, so it should last the distance too – which is

On the eighth* day of Christmas... give the gift of copper

Its price makes it a little tricky to place as a festive gift: the £60 mark puts a present into the upper bracket of other halves, "big" birthdays and family (or is that just me?). 

So I imagine there may be more of you who'd fancy this for yourselves than have someone in that category on the present list who'd appreciate a beautiful, shiny copper mirror. But do let me know if I'm wrong.

On the seventh* (blogging) day of Christmas... Vanja Bazdulj cups

This weekend in south London the HQ of Cavaliero Finn, dealers in well-curated yet affordable art and art-driven homewares, threw open their doors to host a festive open house/festive shop. 

I was gutted not to be able to make it, but was out of town at two massive car boot sales out of town (more of which to come) and didn't get back in time, alas. Next best thing, I thought, would be to pick

On the sixth day of Christmas... Will Patrons Kindly Refrain print

For readers who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, here's some shameless nostalgia porn...

... and a potentially brilliant present. I bought a version of this print a few years ago for my bathroom and I still absolutely love it.



Pedlars, where I bought mine (for quite a lot more money than this, dammit) sold out of their limited stock of the prints pretty swiftly. For ages I couldn't find the

On the fifth day of Christmas... Anthropologie monogrammed soaps

If you thought you couldn't afford anything in Anthropologie, try these. 

One – or two? – of these beautifully (and differently) packaged, bright soaps each bearing a lone initial could be a good gift for that extra person at your festive dinner table you don't know that well.







You know, a distant aunt, a relative's non Christmas celebrating foreign friend, a stylish waif and stray,

On the fourth day of Christmas... Danish concrete accessories

There's been a leap day: being a day behind made no sense, so there was no third day of Christmas and we're straight onto the fourth to line up with today's date. 

And if you are searching for a gift for lovers of brutalist architecture – this could be the best £7 you spend this Xmas.






This simple concrete house shaped ornament is a very stylish stocking filler or minimalist gift for that

On the second day of Christmas... Folklore slate supper board

OK. So it's not the second day of Christmas, it's the third day of December. But it's the second item on my gift-idea-a-day bonanza that is running until the big day.

And today's affordable present idea is one for foodies, table-styling supremos or people who just like to eat things off something more interesting than a plate.



Someone in my family is very fond of eating his toast off a nice

On the first day of Christmas... Mia Fleur horse bookends

For the month of December, I'll be doing a Christmas-present-a-day countdown here. 

Partly inspired by writing the Independent on Sunday's home and garden gift guide – and having a zillion lovely extras there wasn't room to include – each day there'll be gifts for him, gifts for her, or maybe a little reward for for the busy shopper. Ahem. Here's number one.






Horse head book-ends, £48, Mia

Object of the day: Don't Be Shit print

I love Twitter, and the way you get to e-meet so many interesting people doing brilliant things by a simple re-tweet. 



One such exchange came earlier this week, and led me to discover Lovely JoJo's, an online shop run by sometime copywriter, JoJo Oldham. I thought I was over typography as wall decor. Turns out I'm not. This is excellent, no?






"Life's just better when you're not being

Freestyle Thursday: colour me good

Colour inspiration can come from all sorts of places. 

I've found it before on philosophical book covers, on the Berlin U-Bahn (scroll about half way down), on necklaces and always inspired by the vibrant combinations the excellent Out of the Dark team come up with.



And today, I'm feeling inspired by the Autumn lookbook from Sofa Workshop. They've taken some very beautiful shots of their new

Please excuse a brief absence because...

...we've got the builders in, and my computer's covered in plaster dust. 









We're having the teeny tiny en-suite bathroom made into a more useable sized room, the downstairs loo fixed up and, on Sunday night, we decided we'd simultaneously reorganise the shelves under the stairs completely...



Agh! Their contents are now filling the kitchen table and – due to today having been spent

(Slightly boastful) object of the day: Pedlars' new print – written by me!

The summer before last, Charlie Gladstone of Pedlars called me with an idea he'd had for something to sell in the shop. 

He wanted to produce a historical map of the British Isles, stuffed with fascinating – and geographically specific – facts from the beginning of time right up to the present day that would tell the story of Britain in a visually spectacular, non-dry way. And would I like to

Object of the day: Robert Czajka's mini cardboard animals

Yes, you could buy these for a small child... But would they really appreciate them?

Instead, you could embrace the small child in yourself, and chirp up an otherwise clean and sparse shelf or windowsill with these pleasing cardboard animals.





Designed by Robert Czajka, who also makes entire towns from card, these make-them-yourself beasts come flat-packed in 12 sheets of recycled cardboard.

A bathroom cupboard makeover for £30

We have a lovely, very tall, cupboard unit in our bathroom that holds all our towels and other bathroom gubbins. 

It was actually two units (a wardrobe and drawers) from Ikea that my handy husband stitched together and, hey presto, perfect height storage...






Alas, a joyous union MDF and steam do not make and so after a few years the doors got blown and warped and generally looked pretty

Introducing... Richard Burniston's haunting photos of Wonder Valley

I came across Richard Burniston's beautiful images of derelict homesteads in the Mojave Desert through the Best Shots exhibition, which is on until next month. Aren't the colours incredible?

And couldn't you just stare at one of these pictures for hours, imagining the people so pointedly missing from it? (And ideally in a frame, on your wall – which is possible: details below.)



All photos:

Object of the day: Urban Outfitters' zig zag rugs

Remember that monochrome rug I wrote about last year? It was one of Ikea's very popular items and, as such, was quite a palaver to track down.

Now Urban Outfitters has got in on the act (but with more colours, see below). And they're way cheaper than the Ikea version...



...However, that is because these ones are lightweight cotton and as such are – yippee – easily washable. But will – boo –

Can't afford the new Sheila Bownas sofa?

What do you think of this sofa/daybed, designed using fabric from the Sheila Bownas archive and created in collaboration with furniture-makers, Parlour? 

It's called the Edwin, and I think the shade of blue, the smooth solid walnut, 50s-ish legs and back and the classic, boxy shape make it very good indeed.



Alas, thanks to rather beautiful details like these...



...it costs £2400. But if

Real homes: my office makeover part II

I've had another office makeover. Only a little one. 

But it's amazing how much difference it's made moving the desk to the window. And I get a view! A very urban one, which I like a lot, and it has bonus trees. Here is how the office looked before...




I wrote about it in this previous post, where you can see the before before images with white walls and everything. And I also dug out some

Introducing... Tali Yalonetzki, Israeli painter

I have fallen in love with this painting. It's called Nature Trail.

And I'm writing about in the hope that someone might buy it, so that I can stop looking at it and thinking: "Should I buy it?" I've been stalking it for weeks, trying to conjure up justifications to splurge.



It's not at all expensive – not for a beautiful and original painting: it costs around£96, and is acrylic on canvas. (I

Object of the day: cable car peg holder

It's kind of childish. But it's useful, and cute. 

And if you can't have a bit of a joke on your washing line to distract you from the tedium of hanging out clothes you'll shortly be dashing out to rescue when it rains... well...



The peg holders you can get made from nice bits of old fabric are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but this is also weatherproof – even if your washing isn't. Cabina

Freestyle Tuesday: a Cuban film poster exhibition at exciting new shop, Triangle

If you are in London town this week, in the eastern vicinity, you might enjoy this mini exhibition of old Cuban film posters on display at a very nice new (ish) shop in Hackney.

They will also be for sale – with prices starting at £75-£95 each (they are originals – unlike these, which I nevertheless also like a lot).






The posters showcase the work of the "Golden Team", the nickname given to

Object of the day: Folklore's breakfast cups

£15 isn't cheap for a cup. Or is it? A favourite cup is a thing you will use every day – and it will make you happy each time you do. 

And with that in mind, fifteen quid is almost a bargain. Especially if you only buy two of them.



The Basic Red Breakfast Cup is from Folklore and they are handmade with grey clay from a Burgundy village with a reputation among generations of potters around the

Kitchen table traumas

OK. So "traumas" is way overstating things. But I'm currently mildly perplexed about the kitchen table situation round my house.



The kitchen, along with most of the rest of the house, is undergoing a gradual upgrade (which I touched upon after Massive Wardrobe-gate a couple of months ago). 

 


The kitchen is where it's all happening right now. All over the house, we're trying to finish all

The perfect gift for an architecture geek?

Unsure what to buy the lover of modern architecture in your life for Christmas? 

Check these rather brilliant monochrome graphic illustrations of modern houses, by the Danish illustrator, Kristina Dam.



Very Falling Water... I discovered Kristina's work via the online store, Nordic Elements, where I was lusting over their fluffy yellow towels earlier this week. The prints cost £75 each, framed

Perky tea towels brighten up rainy days

It's still raining... I'm practically begging the weather to just get on with the winter, enough with the rain already!

Still, I had errands to do and so off I went, umbrella aloft, to my next door manor of Greenwich in south east London. Quite by accident I found myself rummaging around the indoor market which, on a Tuesday, is mainly second-hand stalls. And look what I found...



Aren't they

Can a towel be joyful?

Towels. Can you get excited about towels? I have just discovered I can.

Mine, for years, have been all white – when I first got matching towels I felt like I'd arrived. It was possibly the most grown-up thing I'd ever done around the house.



Then, a couple of years ago I radically introduced some dark green ones to go with the plant in the bathroom (and to hide the mascara I seem to get on

Dollshouses designed by Zaha Hadid, Grayson Perry, Adjaye Associates and more

Look – a dollshouse designed by Grayson Perry! This tiny abode is one of 20, built by some of the world's best architects in collaboration with designers and artists.

The houses are part of a charity auction to raise money for the children's charity, KIDS. Alas, I'll not be bidding in the auction as prices are already between £1,000 and £10,500. But these miniatures are now on display to the

Impulse buy of the week: a toucan shaped lamp

Ah yes, we've all been there: car boot, chucking it down with rain, no bargains in sight when suddenly your 'phone rings; it's the other half: "Where are you? I've found something fabulous..."

So off I trot, past the tarpaulins and rain sodden traders to find the husband. And here's what we bought:



Yes. A floor lamp in the shape of a toucan. Don't ask me why, don't ask me how. I think it was

An idyllic Welsh holiday cottage

We were meant to be in the Isle of Wight. But at the last minute plans changed: we were craving a holiday somewhere remote, blustery and warmed by an open fire.

So we drove for almost a whole day to spend a week on the very beautiful Llŷn Peninsula in north Wales.



After despondency at so many holiday rentals that were photogenic on the outside, but startlingly ugly on the inside we couldn't

Spotlight on... Ingela Arrhenius for kids

Ingela Arrhenius is a Swedish illustrator, who specialises in colourful, graphic and (largely) child-focused designs with a midcentury slant. 

Looking at her work makes me happy – it's got the sort of joyful simplicity of Charley Harper, and the characters she draws are friendly without being sickly.



Lionface poster, £18 from Hus and Hem (details below)

I featured some of her for-grown-ups

A radiator – remade

I've got lots of holiday snaps to share (just back from a blustery cottage break in the country, which featured some very good interiors). Haven't finished sorting through the zillion photos I took yet though. So, meanwhile...

...here's a rather unexciting photo of the radiator that used to be in my kitchen. But why am I showing you?



Because something quite unexpected happened to it. Though (

Graduate art talent to fill your walls

Fenton Art & Design has a business model I admire. The young company (it launched at Tent in 2012) was started by Cherry Anderson and Steve Chapman, who are passionate about finding and supporting new artistic talent.

Each year the pair, who have a combined background in graphics and film/ TV, scour the art college graduate shows, looking for artists to help create their designs, which include

Wishing I was here: the perfect country getaway?

No posts for the rest of this week, as I'm on holiday... on the Isle of Wight. You may have read about black leather sofa-gate the other week, when we were first looking for a UK cottage to stay in. 

Well, we found a decent place with friendly furniture – but it wasn't a patch on this which, typically, I discovered too late. But for anyone else planning a southern British break...



This is The

Geraldine James's new book: Creative Spaces

If you liked Supermarket Sarah's colourful and inspiring book about display, Wonder Walls, you might like this too. 

The spirit behind Creative Spaces (Cico Books), the final in a trio that also includes Creative Walls and Creative Display, isn't far off. It's about beautiful interiors, yes, but not necessarily fashionable ones.



Just clever, inspired and often slightly batty ones (I haven't

House porn Thursday: a space-saving NY loft with space for three generations

There's so much to love about this hallway, featured in NY Magazine's ever excellent Design Hunting section, edited by Wendy Goodman. 

The Manhattan apartment was redesigned by its owners specifically to accommodate visiting children and grandchildren. And it's done some very clever things to maximise the available space, as well as making it flexible, depending on who's staying.



Photo: Frank

The perfect Christmas present?

Oh. I know. I said I wasn't ready to talk Christmas. But I'm compiling a little gift guide for Independent (don't email me! I'm finished!) and remembered loitering in the homeware department of H&M a few weeks ago, aimlessly stroking this lovely blanket. 



A good blanket is near universally suitable gift, I'd say.

It is soft, luxurious and... machine washable. It comes in four colours. Price:

Piet Hein Eek: new wood wallpaper range – over it already?

Piet Hein Eek's Scrapwood wallpaper, which we first covered here in 2011, has now appeared in so many photoshoots and shopping pages that it's almost jumped the shark. Or has it? 



Perhaps that's just what people, like me, who spend every day poring over such photoshoots think. Either way. I still love it: I've long hankered after wood panelled walls – this midcentury kitchen still makes me

Is this the perfect modern pub interior?

Last week I visited the Etsy UK offices in London, to check out some of the Christmas highlights available from its sellers. 

But I'm just not ready for festive, so you'll have to wait for those. Instead, I want to share the beautiful pub I walked past on my way back to the Tube station.



It's nice to spend a few daylight hours in a part of town you're not usually in and enjoy it like a

Domino Magazine rises from the dead

Domino Magazine may not mean that much to British readers, but its fans in the US will already know the great news that this former Conde Nast title, which folded in 2009, has risen from the ashes.






Last week, the magazine relaunched as an independent, with former editor Michelle Adams – who founded another brilliant style magazine, Lonny – in charge.

Domino 2:0 as it was dubbed by Tech

Emma Boomkamp's wallpaper with history

What do you make of this? It's a bit full-on, but I kind of like it – but then I find anonymous old portraits are endlessly absorbing. However, I'm almost more interested in the story behind the wallpaper.





It's almost the perfect design for a downstairs loo or the loos at a restaurant, don't you think? A bit too much to have in your face in the distance, perhaps, but brilliant close-up with

Before & after: a mini makeover

It's amazing how different you can make a room feel with just a little rejigging. I've had the sideboard in the living room arranged like this for ages. But I've always felt that the print on the left, a piece I love by the artist Claire Scully, got slightly lost.



You'd be hard pushed to see that it depicts a giant squirrel climbing an urban tower block. The whole corner had also started

The Pod: New York's most stylish budget hotel?

I wrote about a few of the photogenic places we ate, slept and shopped on holiday in the US earlier this year – in Mississippi, Nashville and New York. Today, a bit more New York, as I never shared the pictures our brilliant budget hotel.



The bar/restaurant downstairs. Meanwhile upstairs, on the 17th floor...







...the incredible rooftop bar. And here's the view from the seating area

Make like an interiors magazine: tips from the pros (but don't take it too seriously)

We've covered both the pros and the cons of styling your house to look as picture perfect as a magazine shoot here before. 



While us interiors obsessives may fantasise about having our homes gracing the pages of some glossy magazine, there's always the risk of over-styling – but there are still some basic aesthetics that can make your place sparkle, without taking it all too seriously and

Ikea's new Trendig range: how long before everyone has some?

When Ikea launches a new range, the cynics among us may wonder how long it'll take for the products within it to become ubiquitous* (like these) – to be the things that elicit an "ooh, Ikea? I've got one of those" from house visitors. 

Nothing wrong with that, mind. But it can really take the shine off your spangly new bit of Scandi design, can't it?



Ceramic tableware, from £2-£8

So some

Un-country cottage furniture

What is it with British country rental cottages – and a near-universally bad choice when it comes to one particular piece of furniture? 

I'm trying to book a last minute rural escape for a few days. We're not too fussy about where – Wales, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, the Lake District. Anywhere quiet that won't take a whole day to drive to, and doesn't mind the dog coming too.





Despite the

Give good gift: featuring Beasties plates, Yoko dishcloths, monochrome letters and more

Today, just a spot of homewares porn. But since these are all things that could make nice gifts (yep, and maybe just for yourself, ahem) I'll tag them in the gifts tab, which appears on your left. By clicking there, you should see all sorts of other things that could delight your dearest as gifts. 



Rockett St George has just started selling this cake plate foursome, designed by
Carola Van Dyke

Le lovely styling of Petit Nicolas

Ever picked a film chiefly because you like the design? It's partly on that basis that I really want to see Petit Nicolas, a sweet-looking French film set in 1950s Paris that came out a couple of years ago. 



The 2009 film, which hit British screens only last summer, somehow passed me by. But it has just been on at my tiny local cinema (Whirledart in Loughborough Junction in case you are south

Lane's lovely prints

Lane, aka Joff Casciani and Ollie Wood, started out as a graphic design company. But last year the Nottingham-based duo branched out into products... 



...launching a range of beautiful things like prints, notebooks (in collaboration with Margaret Howell), lampshades and, shortly, cushions (in collaboration with Kirkby Design, them behind the brilliant London Underground textiles range).

All

Brutal and Beautiful: the exhibition

Oooh, we are most excited about a new exhibition from English Heritage about post-war buildings, and our
love/hate relationship with them.

Brutal and Beautiful: Saving the
Twentieth Century, which has just opened in central London, covers the period from 1945 to the 1980s and features many photographs and interviews with
architects demonstrating the vast amount of post-war architecture the
UK

Tait modernism

I was car booting last weekend and found a little gem. Have a look at this lovely old pot – yes, it's missing a lid and has a chip on its spout, but it's just gorgeous. A modernist shape and a perky hand painted design, perfect for a bunch of jolly flowers to pep up a windowsill as we trundle into autumn.






I found it, as I often find these
things, at the bottom of a grubby old box of stuff

I'm on the radio today...

I mentioned the other week that I was working on a project looking at obsession with domestic chores. Well now I am allowed to talk about it  – it's for the kitchen gadgets people, Beko, who've done research into the topic and come up with some rather startling results. Which, ta-da, I am going to be chatting about on various radio shows today.





Did you know, for example, that the average

Student bedrooms

Last week I wrote about the 50th anniversary of the Mathmos lava lamp (and the surprising character who invented it). I recalled the orange/yellow example I found in a junk shop in my teens and which I managed to transport through several moves around the country. Well this week I've found the photographic evidence. 






And some extras to boot. So here, I am slightly ashamed to admit, are my

Hemingway Design's post Olympic revamp of Athletes' Village

This time last year Athletes' Village in the east London Olympic Park was probably most famous for housing 150,000 condoms. Now it's about to hit London's housing market – with interior design Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway's company, Hemingway Design. 






As part of the redevelopment of east London's Olympic site, the complex that formerly housed more than 10,000 frisky athletes has been

Design Junction – a taster

The Design Junction preview this week was a visually exhausting (but most inspiring) three-storey adventure. The event is on all weekend, part of London Design Festival. Details at the end. Meanwhile, here's what I found out...






Among the new works launched by illustrator artists agency, Outline Editions, is work by the most excellent, often rude and very funny (unless swearing offends you)

Ever wondered how a lava lamp was made?

You might have heard that classic student bedroom accessory, the lava lamp, turns 50 this year. Or, at least, Mathmos, the company behind the 1963 invention does.





 Image: www.mathmos.com

Did you have one of these classic stoner accessories decorating a former bedroom? I delicately hauled the one I owned through many different abodes, none of which – alas – bore any resemblance to the

London Open House 2013

I love Open House weekend – the annual opportunity to wander around other people's houses, gawp with guidance at genre-defining architecture and public buildings generally closed to the public. What nosey parker wouldn't love it? Here are my top three snoops...





 Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire



This privately-owned Grade II listed Palladian mansion, built in 1754 and restored in 1883, is not

Book preview: Homes from Home

Why are small spaces are irresistible? There's something very satisfying about knowing everything has its place, that storage is clever and in use – not just filled up with crap because it's there and was once empty – and, like people, homes look cuter when they're little.



Image: Jacques Delacroix/Alain Dufour




Image: Jake Fitzjones/Claire Peter




Image: Getty




So I was very pleased

Yippee: Poundshop opens full online store

Poundshop is a most excellent concept, and one I've written about before. It is a shop – previously a sporadic, temporary affair – where new and established talent create bespoke items to be sold for less than £5 (and often, indeedy, for just one lone squid). 



The news this time is that they have launched a full online shop. It is brilliant. Here are some great things from it.

Totem blocks, £

Domestic chores: are you obsessed?

I can't say too much about it just yet, but I've been asked to work on a fun project about how we live, particularly with reference to domestic chores...



...so: who does what, how long for and what does it stop you doing – that kind of thing.

I was talking to a friend about it who said that she'd read on a problem page that a woman was obsessed with cleaning her house to the point where it

FLORA + FAUNA temporary shop for London Design Festival

The imminent London Design Festival (it kicks off in two days, running 14-22 September) may be happening in the capital here, but that doesn't mean you can't get in on things if you're nowhere near the city this month.





White Horses Chase Your Dreams, by Beetroot Press, £28



FLORA + FAUNA is a temporary shop hosted by design agency, Designers / Makers to coincide with the festival – and

Put a bird on it

Been meaning to post this Portlandia clip "Put a Bird on it" ever since a friend sent me the link. You – like me – may sense some recognition...



It's an oldie but a goodie. In case you have never caught this "hipster-baiting" cult sketch TV show, Portlandia is a barely fictional place around which the comedy is based; the Guardian summed it up as "the capital of the muesli belt, a place where

Small kitchen? Some modern inspiration

We've covered the beautiful, brutalist(ish) Barbican buildings and flats here before – in an awe-inspiring architecture tour Abi and I took, as well as in various noses around some of the interiors of the flats there and at nearby Golden Lane. 



On the tour we learned that, no surprises, the flats with original interiors and fittings were not only more valuable but also pretty rare. Sadly,

My mad, fat empty wall

This rather enticing photo from the excellent NY Magazine's Design Hunting blog has got me thinking about the trickiest wall in the house.



I love the way those slightly untidy hanging baskets soften the vast, empty wall on the right. Tumbling cascades of soft greenery casting interesting shadows... I want some of that on the vast, empty wall in my life. This one.



The wall in question, at

Leaf sticker cable tidy

Sometimes an idea is so simple it's just annoying you didn't think of it yourself.

These wall stickers designed to tidy up dangling cables by turning them into a foliage-style feature are one of those. Totally brilliant, don't you think?






It's on a par with the clever Pretty Pegs (exciting replacement legs for your Ikea sofas) in terms of simplicity and brilliance.

The brains behind the

The Design Junction Shop

I've become a bit obsessed with window shopping at the Design Junction shop since it opened recently. In case you're not familiar: the new retail outlet is part of London Design Festival, which will be all over the city in a couple of weeks. 

The shop is the perfect place to browse if you can't make it to the festival – it also, reassuringly, proves that LDF is not all about very expensive

Drink more: wine glass holders and other outdoors excellence

You reach the end of summer and belatedly stumble across the thing that would have made the unexpected hot evenings in the park or garden just a tiny bit more civilised. 









The wine glass holder you can spike into the grass on a picnic or other outdoor drinking excursion is hardly a new product.

But simply because this one (from Stripey City on Etsy) is rather nicely made and photographed

Introducing... textile designer Anna Wooster

As London Design Festival draws closer – the city-wide event here that (among other things) shows off heaps of new creative talent – I'm plundering last year's finds...

...all those flyers and cards and notes I scribbled when I saw something I liked. Here's one: Anna Wooster, an interesting, not-long-graduated textile designer with a suitably urban edge to her work.



From Brighton to LDN

A holiday home called FABULOUS...

Abi here. I've just got back from five days in the Algarve – our lovely friend Jarod lives and works out there so we stayed with him at the gorgeous, but very traditional, villa where he's based. 

I did very little except read trashy novels by the pool (I did manage to drive a speed boat which was very exciting; I sang Duran Duran's Rio in my head) but
one day we took a turn around the

August holiday

It's been a lovely, long and hot August. Some people like to go on holiday this time of year. But I like to make a masochistic seven-page list of things that need doing to the house.

And work through it. So plants have been potted, fences treated, comical arguments about fence treatments had in B&Q – though that wasn't one of the moments caught on camera. Among a few other things I did, however,

Wish I was here...

Postcard courtesy of The John Hinde Collection

...but I'm at home in London. However, I am away – kind of, as I'm taking a blog holiday for the rest of August. 

Among other things (like getting finishing painting the door-frames I began four years ago, getting some pictures framed that have been waiting about three years, and picking up an eBay wardrobe from Dartford) I shall be working on

Egg-head stationery from the School of Life

I have never been to London's School of Life, and though mildly pretentious and Alain de Botton-y as it is, I am always drawn to its unusual philosophical seminars and events, in theory at least if not in practice (yet).

Indeed, some of them are more than intellectually diverting: right now, the summer school is hosting How to Find a Job You Love – though plain old How to Find a Job might get

Seventies gardens

This was possibly both the most excellent and the most impractical garden furniture invention of the 1970s.

So unsuited to British weather – think of the mould and rust potential – but so garishly, decadantly glamorous. All that's missing is an artificially tinted drink in a tall plastic glass with a curly straw, a dainty bowl of Skips to snack on, a wafty house-coat with massive batwing sleeves

Shipping forecast fondness

The British fondness for Radio 4's Shipping Forecast is a comforting thing.

And thanks to E. Annie Proulx, even American readers (and I know there are a lot of you) will know what I'm on about. It's why this tiny little pin dish – depicting the evocatively named sea regions surrounding the British Isles – is pretty much my favourite thing in daily use in my house.



It's a bit knackered, and

Another bear...

Yesterday I wrote about a nice antique bear I'd seen at a friend's house (and then hunted out on eBay). Now I'm writing about bears AGAIN. 

I even wrote about another nice bear, I've just remembered, only a couple of months ago too. Lordy, have I no imagination? Come on. They're good bears. Enjoy them! These bears are the work of illustrator, Sandra Dieckmann.



Sandra is a 29-year-old

Two bears

Last week, I was at the flat of friend and artist Russell Loughlan, whose poignant animals-thinking-deeply artworks I wrote about recently. He had a new junk market purchase sitting on the kitchen table. 

As you might imagine, Russell's place is full of animal-related decor and art. So hardly surprising that this one doesn't buck the trend. Isn't he nice?



Funnily enough, my neighbours (whose

Bathrooms have feeling(s) too...

Hello, it's Abi here – sorry for the radio silence but I've been a bit ill and then went off to Marrakesh for a week (expect a post on all things Moorish soon). 

So, after Kate opened up the proverbial can (excuse the pun) when she posted a much-debated picture, it got me thinking about bathrooms. 




You can buy this original, 1956 Briggs Bathroom advert from Arcanium Antiques on Etsy 

Eve Spencer's provocative wallpaper

Well... not only provocative wallpaper. The stuff you'll see below – all created by wallpapers and fabric company, Eve Spencer – that falls under that category is also most beautiful. Though the hawk killing a cat, daddy long legs and "Oil Bird" designs may not be everyone's fancy.

Among some of the other prints, there is just the beautiful – but with a non frilly, girlie angle (so much

Away day

A little post to say there won't be a post today. 

But that meanwhile, you might like to check out some archive posts... see below. (And I'll be back on Monday with some really amazing wallpapers to ogle.)



You could find out from the head of a locations agency how to turn your own house into a film location... Or how to arrange stuff as beautifully as Supermarket Sarah does it... Maybe your

At home in young Japan

Today, I'm handing over to friend and former colleague Andrew Pothecary. We used to work together at the Daily Telegraph, but these days he lives in Tokyo, where he recently photographed and designed a beautiful, fascinating book about the the interiors styles of young Japanese people. Over to Andrew...



A shelf in the home of Youta Matsuoka, aka the artist JonJon Green. More details below

How

Rescued 1970s children's book cards

One of Alison Sye's fans compares her to a Womble in a comment on the artist's blog. It's a pretty good description: since Alison specialises, just like the fictitious 1970s inhabitants of Wimbledon Common, in "making good use of the things everyday folk leave behind"*.

Among a few other things, Alison does a very nice line in unusual, hand-stitched cards. And right now she's doing a giveaway of

Herman Miller, an animated history

Essentially this is a 108-second marketing video for Herman Miller. 

But when your marketing video is also a beautifully animated 108-year history of your iconic design company, and name-checks mid-century legends including Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Alexander Girard and Isamu Noguchi – well, it's kind of worth watching.




And if you like this, you'll probably love the Eames

Ikea's old new table

The first piece of flat-pack furniture Ikea ever sold? Right here.

And now Ikea is reissuing this 1956-designed classic, and selling it again in stores for £40 from next month after designers there recently found the original drawings for it in the company's archives.




The new table, renamed the Lövbacken, is almost entirely faithful to the original design, with its classic midcentury

1950s grocery signs from Pedlars

This lovely set of American grocery store sales signs is for sale as part of Vintage Friday at Pedlars. 


Sold as trios (you can buy prunes/pork and beans/raisins, or palm soap/mayonnaise/evaporated milk) they are £49 a set. Great kitchen wall decor.





Stock is limited (they are originals) so get in quick if you want them. Pedlars.co.uk

Russell Loughlan's emotional animals

I love Russell Loughlan's work. It makes me feel a bit tearful looking at it sometimes. 

He draws animals onto salvaged maps, pages from books or old postcards, and gives them feelings (quite complex ones). Simple. But very beautiful and strangely moving.

















If you're in London, Russell has his first solo exhibition on at the Beardsmore Gallery in NW5, opening tomorrow for ten days

Hurrah for Park Hill Estate

Why? The sprawling 1960s-built estate in Sheffield is one of six British buildings shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize (the winner is announced in September). 

The Grade II Listed estate – the largest listed structure in Europe – which sits high on one of Sheffield's surrounding hills, was nearly demolished in the late 1990s but got saved when English Heritage gave it its listed status.

Before and after in Berlin

I like interiors. I like writing about them, looking at them and creating nice spaces to spend time in... in my own home, at least. Which was what I discovered when I agreed to help a friend do up his new flat in Berlin last year.

Because, oh my god. Doing someone else's interior – a friend's? In another city to the one you live in? Where you don't speak the language or know any of the shops?

Exhibition: Elisabeth Blanchet's photographs of the Excalibur estate

I first read about the Excalibur estate in southeast London in a magazine story by the photo-journo duo, Megan Taylor and Ros Anderson. 

They covered this 150,000-strong post-war mini village of prefab bungalows when news of its impending redevelopment/destruction was announced last year. The portraits and interviews are lovely – you can check them out here. Meanwhile, another photographer,

Pattern porn for textiles geeks

Pattern Box is a brilliant idea: take a collection of beautiful, contemporary textile designs – in this case, a collection of 100 curated by New York City’ s celebrated Textile Arts Center – and turn them into postcards.


The set costs £14.99 (RRP) and is published by Princeton Architectural Press. You can buy it from here. Also included is a booklet about the designers, highlighting their

Owl many?

Are you over owls? They have done the rounds, somewhat (I haven't done a count in my house, but can see three just in my office as I type).

But just as you may have been thinking you couldn't look another retro, line-drawn beast in the feathers... along comes this.



This is a different class of owl altogether. This owl looks edgy. You want to know what he's got going on. You want to hang out

Folklore at Aesop

Do you know the lovely shop Folklore, a place that sells pared down and beautifully-made simple objects? 

I have featured some of their more affordable products here before, but they recently collaborated with Aesop, the Aussie skin-care brand of comparable stylistic leanings, and set themselves up a presence in the brand's north London branch to celebrate Aesop's anniversary.






More than

Boring desk rejuvenator

The product I'm about to share may not have the sort of aesthetics that get me hot under the collar, but there's quite a lot to be said for a product that gives you back some desk space. 

Especially if, like me, you work from home and quite like to tidy things away at the end of the day so your work clutter is a less prominent part of your home-life. But, like me, you also fail...



I've got a

Paul Farrell's black bear cushions: but what about that sweatshirt?

Last week I wrote about the colourful work of illustration company, Kitty McCall – which you can buy from a design company called Unlimited.

While I was browsing through their other stuff, I found a beautiful bear print designed by Paul Farrell, whose beautiful bird prints I've featured before.



I posted the bear on Facebook and the bear was popular. In fact, there's even been a request to

The best fireplace in the world?

Yeah, it's totally the wrong time of the year to be showing you a fireplace, I know. But when I discovered this wonderful work of art (quite literally) I had to give it an unseasonal share.

The fireplace is designed by the Cincinnati-based Rookwood Pottery Company, founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols and the first female-owned US manufacturing company. And I can't imagine liking a

New Designers 2013

Yesterday afternoon I popped into the preview of New Designers, the annual exhibition in London showcasing emerging design talent. 



3,000 new graduates are selected to appear and share their wares with the public during the two-week period the show runs. It happens in two parts, and Part Two is the one I was interested to see, as it has a big interiors and illustration focus. It runs until 5

Introducing... Kitty McCall

These colourful, geometric prints remind me of a cross between the Jean Helion painting I saw in the Tate Modern recently, and Collier Campbell's 1983 Cote D'Azur fabric design, which I think my mum once had as curtains.  

The prints are the work of design company Kitty McCall, aka Catherine Nice, whose inspirations includes cubism, and whose background is fashion and textile design (now it

House porn Tuesday: buy Richard Rogers' 1968-built home

Rogers House, in Wimbledon, southwest London is a snip at £3,200,000. A tiny bit out of reach? Oh well. 

You can still steal some spectacular ideas from the – original – colour scheme in the modernist home, which is still owned by the family of its designer, Richard Rogers, the architect behind landmarks including the Pompidou Centre and the Lloyds building.



Images © Richard Powers


Richard

Terrible estate agent photos

Anyone who's ever trawled property selling websites, or even the flatshare ones, will know how important it is to see a good set of photos...

...and how wrong the people selling or renting out a place will sometimes get it.





This beauty, which ingeniously employs a racy red basque and a tray of champagne in an attempt to sell the rather dull looking flat, was the spark for a very funny

Wooden walls and other uses for old planks

I have written before about how much I love the Retrouvius approach to decor. 

The salvage-focused company has two halves: a shop, selling well chosen, rescued furniture and lighting, storage accessories and more, while their architectural interior design arm, puts their talent for reusing old things to practical use. They are particularly good with wood.



Their latest design project was a

The USB typewriter: would you?

Well, would you?




Old typewriters are beautiful things. And recycling beautiful old things is a beautiful thing. And this Smith Corona Sterling isn't the only old-school machine that Pennsylvanian techy inventor, Jack Zylkin, has transformed into a fully-functioning USB keyboard for any PC, Mac or iPad.

Look, here's another one he's pimped.




They go for around £400-700, depending on the

Small luxuries: Robert Shadbolt postcard set

I've just found these very nice limited edition postcards by illustrator, Robert Shadbolt. They're gocco (a Japanese technique, sort of a cross between screen-printing and rubber stamping) and are themed around the artist's impressions of Tokyo.

They will set you back the grand sum of a fiver for the set – a special yet marvellously affordable present, especially as each is numbered and

Storage as art, by Note for Seletti

I'm in the middle of an extended spring clean... Actually, I'm always in the middle of an extended spring clean. Where does all the mess and clutter come from? It's not me. Definitely not me.

So on that theme, do you ever fantasise that a new thing for your home will change your life? I get it lots about things from Lakeland. But today I'm having it about this.










As far as I can tell,

A 1950s colour palette in Memphis

Just been trying to file the rest of my holiday photos from the epic US road trip we did last month. The filing has been as epic as the trip, as I'd just bought a new camera – new toy and all that. 

Anyway, just came across the photos of the 1950s interior at a cafe we went to in Memphis. The Arcade Cafe is the oldest in the city, so the menu informed us (relatively modern by British standards,

Poundshop!

You might have read about Poundshop before – this brilliant design initiative, where new and established talent create bespoke items to be sold at £1, £5, and £10 in a temporary shop – has been going since 2010.

And there are just two days left of Poundshop 7, at the Chinese Art Centre, Manchester  – as it ends on 22 June. There's also an online version of the shop if you're not local. I think

Excellently unusual portraits

This morning I saw a particularly brilliant Facebook post by Emma and Sarah, my lovely neighbours that they have kindly given me permission to share.

Their friend's mum – Bath-based Liz Ladd (contact details below) – has knitted them a pair of dolls in their images. Sarah, on the left in the photo below, is a barrister – and so is knitted wearing her courtroom wig and gown. Emma has a swish of

Rop van Mierlo's animals

Cheapskate decorators never waste a good postcard. And these unusual and endearing animal watercolours, by Dutch graphic designer Rop van Mierlo, would make a lovely collection of framed prints for a child's bedroom wall. 


Don't you think? Or just a wall in the room of someone who likes nice depictions of animals – and from the number of animal-themed items that crop up here, you may rightly

Off the wall

A mini post from Abi today.

Remember my zingy apple green kitchen makeover? Well thanks to the lovely Kate giving me this rather splendid Hatch print poster for my birthday...



...I now have another print to put up on the walls. I had it framed and it's going to look lovely in there don't you think?






And another ace birthday present came courtesy of my fabulous husband – also for the

What's the most provocative thing in this picture?

As I've mentioned recently, I've joined the world of co-habitation. Because he's moved into a ready-made house, rather than us finding somewhere jointly, decisions about furniture, re-painting or what to put on the walls could have become unfairly loaded (or just unintentionally insulting).

But it's been great. I'm enjoying changing things around together – and want it to feel like our home, not

Introducing... A Place Called Home, by Jason Grant

We've just moved bedrooms and there's now a trail of furniture to swap about and all sorts of things to be looked at with fresh eyes – but no budget for buying anything new. So I'm most inspired by a beautiful book just out last week, A Place Called Home, by Australian stylist Jason Grant (Hardie Grant).

It's perfect since the ideas – presented with barely any accompanying text – are all about

Matt Sewell does Mini Moderns – competition!

Do you know Matt Sewell's birds? I first discovered the artist/ ornithologist through Pedlars, who were selling prints of his beautiful garden birds illustration.

That, alas, was a limited edition, though you can still buy his lovely individual drawings in the same style (scroll down to see one). But today we're all about his charming, Charley Harper-ish wooden birds, below. And this new set of

Introducing... Crafty Magazine (and a great flat I wrote about for them)

I have been meaning to post up some snaps of a new magazine I've recently written for – it's called Crafty. 

And if you like making stuff, you might like it. I like DIY and fixing things, but I'm not the biggest crafter, so my contribution was about what I do better – nosing around other people's homes.



But sticking with the magazine generally, for a bit, here are a couple of teasers. It's

The joy of a tidy kitchen cupboard

Did anyone else have as unglamorous (yet deeply satisfying) a weekend as I did? I spent it reorganising the kitchen cupboards. 

God it felt good when it was done. But less so when we started...



And phase one of the improvements is this...



There are more changes coming, ones that will make better photos as they involve replacing shelves and moving cupboard doors several – key – millimetres

Ikea's unusual new Huset range

What's unusual about this new range of Ikea living room furniture, below? Well, for starters, the whole lot costs just over a tenner.

But there's a catch...



None of it is big enough to sit use – unless you're a doll.

Isn't it surprising Ikea's only just thought of selling teeny tiny versions of some of their furniture? Even that rather plain stalwart of a sofa looks more exciting when you

Hatch Show Prints Nashville

I've already plundered a few of my holiday snaps from the recent US road trip (did you see the amazing Shack Up Inn in Mississippi? Loved that place!). There will be more plundering – we just saw sooooo much great stuff.

In today's post, may I introduce you to Nashville's legendary poster shop, Hatch Show Prints. Our friend Ashley used to live in Nashville and has some of their bright screen

Fabric of the day

It's been a while since I browsed the Ikea fabric department. And I'm rather liking these new-ish designs...



HÄLLEKNOPP, £4 per metre



STOCKHOLM, £6  per metre





TRÅDKLÖVER, £7 per metre



Because I'm a very lazy sew-er (I have a machine I was given on my 18th birthday. Back then I was an enthusiastic sew-er. It is currently rather dusty) I'm thinking the top and the bottom ones would

Father's Day gifts

Last week, I wrote a thing for the Independent about the difficulty of finding good house-y man-gifts – what with father's day (June 16) looming and all, it's chap-friendly one could be a thing to consider. 

There wasn't room to publish all of the nice things I found in my research. So I thought I'd share the lot with you here. 






For snap-happy chaps, or just fans of lovely looking antique

Visual Contrast (or how to make like a stylist)

"What makes some visual combinations more exciting and dynamic than others?" asks interiors stylist and graphic design lecturer, Tim Rundle, in his beautiful and inspiring new book Visual Contrast.

And then, with gorgeous images, he fills the pages of it by explaining. I totally love the styling and examples he uses. A bit like the excellent Wonder Walls, by Supermarket Sarah, his book

Turning Japanese...

Abi here again. I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo last
October and came back even more enamoured of Japanese design, culture
and general obsession with all things kawaii (that's "cute"). 



I
discovered the delights of the 100 Yen shops (or 78p shops if you do the exchange rate thing); nothing like our depressing pound shops
they are multi-storey caverns of absolutely everything useful,
useless

Lovely Pigeon

Hello there; it's Abi posting today while Kate's still dusting off her her stetson and catching up after her recent trip to Mississippi. It's all about the very lovely Lovely Pigeon today though.

Lovely Pigeon is one of my favourite websites and it's not hard to see why. There are gorgeous prints, delightful stationery and even a smattering of
vintage wares for sale. I found Lovely Pigeon when I

Clerkenwell Design Week: last day

If you're in London, and skiving off this afternoon – or around before 9pm this evening in the Clerkenwell vicinity, you still have the chance to check out the CDW exhibitions before they close, tonight.

There are three major ones in different buildings. And if you only do two, I would recommend first, the one in the Farmiloe Building... but mainly for the building itself.



This former

Brooklyn style

I hope you're up for a few more holiday snaps. As well as seeing so many beautiful things, I also got a new camera... and you know how it is with a new toy. So from Monday's snaps of The Best Hotel in The World, deep down in the Mississippi Delta, to...

...Brooklyn. Yes, we drove like the clappers from Clarksdale up to Nashville (which is a whole other post) and flew to New York for a few days.

Mississippi style: rustic Americana

Well hello again. So I'm finally back from a pretty epic holiday in the States: a road trip from Nashville via Memphis, down to Clarksdale, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues – with a few deviations en route including a tranquil log cabin on the edge of a beautiful lake, a mental casino village that scared the life out of us and a long weekend in New York City. 

I'll be writing a full travel

Out of office

Hello! Except I'm not really here. All being well, I'm on my way here...



Yep. I'm off for the longest holiday I've had in years, on a road trip from Nashville Tennessee, down through the Mississippi Delta and then up for some luxury and a family reunion in New York City. We are actually staying in the place pictured above for a few days, even though (to my urban, British eyes, it doesn't look

Giving good gift

It was my birthday this week. My friends are very kind. I have already shared the beautiful early birthday present I got from Abi in this previous post...

...and now a few other very nice surprises (and this isn't even including the hugely surprising and marvellously great bicycle that came careering down the hill in the park at me, festive ribbons flying from the handlebars – but a photo of

One-bedroom? No problem. My stylish neighbours' bijou flat

My neighbours have style. And I've been meaning to commit their flat to this blog for several years. Finally, I coerced them into inviting me over and got in there with my camera.

I first encountered one half of Emma and Sarah (the Emma half) the day I moved in. I was hauling furniture across the threshold when she appeared, explaining she'd been watching out of her window  to see what sort of

Fuck your piles of books with things on top...

Hello, it's Abi posting today. Kate's recent post on colour-themed
shelves (and the nod to the witty FYNC website that knowingly mocks such interiors mag leanings) got lots of "yep, guilty as charged" reactions. Including my own. 

With permission, we'll post up some of your own excellent over-stylings shortly (so keep them coming) but meanwhile, browsing through FYNC again, I was reminded that,

Introducing... Objects of Use

If you like the long-standing utilitarian London shop, Labour & Wait, you'll love Objects of Use. The shop has both a physical presence (in Oxford) and a cleanly designed online shop.

I came across the shop while writing my monthly page for (gorgeous) magazine The Simple Things, all about slowing down to enjoy... you guessed it. It's about as different from your average women's magazine as you

Colour-themed shelves part II

My good friend Vinnie has just moved into a new house. She's just assembled and arranged her new shelves there, to decorate a large blank wall. 

Our mutual friend Paul used to be my lodger; he's good at order (I'm less good) and so while he lived with me he was the technician behind my colour-co-ordinated shelves. So Vinnie heard about the shelves and decided to give the idea a go too. Here's

Man gifts and Swedish illustration

I've only recently discovered the Hambledon. It's an online shop that sells old and new things, and it is reasonably priced and well curated. 

I was going to write about their rather good fake green hydrangeas (oops, I have). I want some of those. They are my favourite ever flower to look at in a vase – so elegant. Abigail Ahern does them too, and John Lewis as well. But instead, I thought I'd

New Pedlars' procrastination print

In praise of procrastination? Well. Why not? We're all either vastly under-employed, or hugely stretched these days (or, worst-case scenario: both). 

Apart from those clever types who have cracked life's code and got the balance just right, of course. You're out there tending to your chickens, having a non-rushed breakfast (of freshly-laid eggs), spending enough time with loved ones, not getting

Introducing: Retropolitan

Hello, it's Abi posting today. In case you don't know it, I want to tell you all about Retropolitan, a very fabulous online vintage store my stylish friend Scarlett pointed out to me the other day. 

And I'm very glad she did – it's a feast of unusual vintage pieces with a slant towards glass and vases (but it's by no means only glass and vases). Like these...



Above left, Riihimaki vase by

Well hello, Donkey

I was given a really nice present at the weekend, it's this little silver-plated donkey, who doubles as somewhere to hang your small jewellery.

He's brilliantly odd-looking which is what, I think, makes him so nice. It was the excellent Abi who found him in a bit of a tarnished state on eBay (along with a twin, so now we both have one, hurrah!) and buffed him up with some Goddard's to this

Illustrator: Jennifer Lewis (and her Wes Anderson posters)

I've just come across the work of American illustrator, Jennifer Lewis, thanks to the brilliant culture website, Flavorpill, who commission her regularly.

The series she has just done, is of floor-plans for the homes featured in Wes Anderson films – Moonrise Kingdom (more of which below), The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr Fox. Images are exclusive to Flavorwire, so I'll

Exhibition: Saloua Raouda Choucair at the Tate Modern

Today's post comes from Abi.

It's likely you won't have heard of Saloua Raouda Choucair. Which is a shame because this Lebanese artist has produced some beautiful, striking and wonderfully modernist pieces throughout her career as a painter and sculpture. The good news is that a long-overdue exhibition of her work is opening at Tate Modern soon.



All images: The Salouda Raouda Choucair

Some nice old green, blue and wood things. All together.

I've written about this spectacular secondhand and architectural salvage shop before. And a new Retrouvius stock list is always a cause for visual celebration.

And this lot features a favourite colour palette (green, blue and wood), so I am now mentally refurnishing my house.



And as my home is about to change quite a bit, because my boyfriend is moving in, I'm in the mood for switching things

Karin Akesson: gifts for drinkers and marriers

And while I'm at it, another typographical print that I have been drawn to today.

While there is such a thing as too much typeface on one's wall, there are also the good and the twee – and I think this one falls into the former category. Well, it made me laugh.



Alcohol print, £25 (30cm x 40cm – so fits into a nice off-the-shelf frame), from CultureLabel.






The print is a limited edition,

River Wandle Alphabet

I came across this colourful and unusual alphabet print because it was on display in a restaurant near my house (Brick Box in Brixton Market). 

It is by children's illustrator, Jane Porter, and it's made up from something quite surprising – photographed and then turned into this artwork. Can you tell what the letters are made from?



Jane lives close to south London's River Wandle, and as part

Orchard Cafe, London

I was tipped off a while back about Orchard Cafe in central London by contributing ed, Abi, who not only said the food was spectacular, but that the interior was pleasing too.

Since then, I have interviewed its head chef/co-owner, Andrew Dargue about his food twice for the Independent and the Simple Things, but have yet to actually go. Crazy, as I am vegetarian and Andrew is also the founder of

The Kitchn is doing a cookbook!

A tiny post for anyone who doesn't read The Kitchn, the excellent off-shoot of the ace American interiors website, Apartment Therapy.

I can't get enough of its mix of totally do-able daily recipes that use everyday ingredients (and not too many) in interesting ways and lovely – homely not hi-techy – kitchens (like this beauty). If you don't read it I urge you to sign up to the daily emails; it

I heart Maria Westerberg

It's a couple of years since Swedish designer, Maria Westerberg, launched her brilliantly clever T-shirt chair – where recycled textiles are woven onto the frame, rag-rug style, that she designed especially for that purpose.


But this colourful version of it just popped up in the spring round-up from E-Side (an excellently stylish shop with impeccable green credentials, if you don't know it

Alice Mara's urban architecture ceramics

I've written about London-based ceramicist Alice Mara before – I particularly loved her plates decorated with tiny synchronised swimmers, and cups adorned with the pleasing geometry of urban architecture.

Now she's launching some new designs, and I love them too. What do you think of these salt and pepper pots?







The set is named 'Affordable Housing’ and features a series of twenty

For the love of car booty

This bank holiday weekend, contributing editor Abi did this...



I've just got back from the Ford Airfield car boot near Chichester; a not too big market of some of the hands-down best junk you'll ever get to rummage.

I'm feeling very pleased with myself as I've scored a load of treasure for under a tenner and had a joyful couple of hours rootling through boxes and bags and wallpapering tables

Happy Easter

Your Home is Lovely is having a long weekend off (glamorously, to cart most of the contents of the garage to charity shops...). 

We'll be back on Tuesday. Until then, hope your weekends are even more stylish – but if not, enjoy these stylish neon wooden eggs.



Neon Dipped Eggs, around £20 (plus delivery, they are on sale in the US). Find them and other beautifully bright, hand-made homewares

Abigail Ahern's fake flowers

If you know Abigail Ahern, you'll probably know she is mad about fake flowers (as well as gorgeously cosy, dark interiors and lovely lamps shaped like dogs).

She's now just started selling the full range of her everlasting blooms via her brand new online flower shop.



'Banbury' bouquet (lavender hydrangea, two gelda snowballs, one green mimosa, and one purple lilac) £55

The bouquets (see

From my grandma's house

Today's post is a little late – I've been travelling back from deepest Cornwall. As some of you may have seen yesterday, I was in St Ives, where my grandma lived for many, many years until she died last year.

The hearty sea air, steep walk to the top of the hill her house is on (and a LOT of brandy) are all what kept her going until 101 years old. So she had a good, long stretch. This weekend, I

Away day

Apologies for today's lack of proper posting... I am here at my grandma's house in St Ives, Cornwall. She died last year (at the spectacular age of 101) and I've come to tackle the mammoth task of sorting through all her wonderful things and working out what to do with them.

It is sad – but also lovely to keep finding letters I wrote to her when I was 10 (big bubble handwriting and mainly a lot

Two dogs in a (wood-panelled) bath

Yes. On one hand it's a shamelessly gratuitous photo of two cute Jack Russells in a bath. And more so because the one on the right is Reggie, and he belongs to me. The other pup is his special lady friend, and she's called Pepper. And the reason it's not entirely gratuitous...

...well, it is really. But taking the photo (which I did for this story about how Reggie and Pepper got so dirty)

Little Nan's Deptford

Last week, Abi reviewed this unusual bar in southeast London for Below the River, a new website I've just launched (for those of you south of the Thames in London, and friends of, I'd love to know what you think).

There wasn't room to feature all the images of the bar's excellently quirky domestic interior designed, literally, to replicate the owner's "nan's front room". So here are some more.

Camille Walala: exclusive prints

The weather's getting worse! And I've got a horrible cold! I can't say I'm looking forward to those long rugged cliff-top walks planned for this weekend's jaunt to Cornwall. In fact, I'd rather stay in and eat cake for three days in front of the wood-burning stove in the cottage we've hired.



But the tiny hound needs his walks come freezing fog or icy winds. Anyway. I'm digressing because what

Cloakroom decor ideas: crazy tiling?

The one room in my house that has never been decorated is the downstairs loo. After five years, the excitement of even having a such a room is wearing off – a bit – and the hastily executed white wash – damage limitation rather than re-decoration (it was lime green and acid yellow when I moved in) is now flaking off.

The "smallest room in the house" feels like a good place in which to be bold

Over-sofa drinks rest

A month or two ago, I included a simple but superbly useful device in a round-up of 'ingenious objects'; it was a u-shaped piece of wood designed to slot over your sofa arm and provide a flat surface to rest your drink, book or small plate upon when the table is to far and the floor too low.

It wasn't cheap – over £160. But it was beautiful and despite the simplicity of it, something so useful

Some good things for your house

Today, just some very nice things that I've lusted after this week. 






I have some very nice charcoal, rib-knitted cushion covers by Nkuku, the Devon-made company that sells these lovely glass and iron picture frames. They come in three sizes, landscape or portrait, and the hanging fabric pieces are recycled sari ties. A sweet present with a special memento inside – and the best thing is that

Wooden panelling: another Retrouvius refit

An interior made from salvaged materials – especially lots of beautiful wood – was one of the most popular posts here in recent months. 

The team behind the design of the place were Retrouvius, whose work and architectural salvage and furniture shop I really love. They've just completed another interior design project, this one still all about reclaimed and reused materials, but far slicker