House porn Friday: Grand Designs' Slip House hits the market

It was one of Grand Designs' more controversial builds: a glass box bang in the middle of a Victorian London terrace, designed by the architect Carl Turner.

And now it's on the market, in case you have a spare £1,350,000 to hand.






I don't live far away from Slip House – as it is known due to its construction from "slipped" or cantilevered boxes – and have passed it many times: it really

Freestyle Thursday: Voyage round my grandmother

Where do you think this is? On the fringes of a Home Counties golf course, perhaps? Looks that way, and yet the mock Tudor exterior and very English 1950s hotel interior are deceptive.

This very familiar looking architecture is in fact in Malaysia, and while sorting through old photos I was reminded of the trip I took there a few years ago to retrace a significant journey my grandmother had

Freestyle Wednesday: mix colours like a pro

When I visited Home 2014 a couple of weeks ago, I finally met Tania James, one half of colourful design duo, Quirk and Rescue. 

It reminded me that I've long meant to post a photo of Q&R's rather amazing geometric Wundt wallpaper.



For starters, I like the paper itself (more details of which below). But also, I love how their photograph of it in situ is styled. It throws out all preconceptions

The Insider: the madcap world of Fornasetti

We're still searching for something to put in the 1950s glass-fronted cabinet from my grandma's house (which you can see, in need of some love, here). 

It's in the kitchen and, with its location in mind, my boyfriend sent me the photo below as inspiration.



It's a rare 1955 pizza recipe plate by the Milanese designer, Pierro Fornasetti. It was listed on a Knightsbridge-based antiques website,

Object of the day: H & M new season cushions

One day, I'm going to get around to making my own cushion covers. I've even got my 1980s sewing machine out. It looks nice on the new under-stairs alcove shelf arrangement. So far that's as far as it's got. 

So hurrah for H&M's new season cushion range. You may remember their excellent horse cushion from last year... this year they've gone graphic and colourful. And prices start at just £3.99...

Object of the day: Russian nesting dolls

Meet Panda, Penguin and Raccoon. Monochrome nesting dolls hand-painted in Russia.

Aren't they nice? You could get them for a child, but who'd appreciate them more?




They're from a sweet little online store in Canada (check out their sheep cushions!) and cost $38 Canadian dollars, around £34. Find them at Babasouk.ca. International shipping available. You could also try US-based Wee Gallery,

Real homes: a mini kitchen makeover

I've been at the kitchen already here this week, with the great table revelation. Now for another recent update.

This is how the back wall in the kitchen looked for a very long time...







As well as the obvious repainting, which took me about a year to get around to, I thought it needed a shelf above the bin. After about three years of talking about it, the shelf finally happened – by which

Architectural porn: Cities and Other Ruins – Reflections on Astley Castle

Witherford Watson Mann, you may remember, were the architects who bagged last year's RIBA Prize, for their spectacular transformation of the 12th century ruins of Astley Castle into a Landmark Trust house.

Now you have the chance to nose around a decade of the practice's other work in an exhibition opening next month in London. Meanwhile, Astley Castle and a reminder of why they won...









Kitchen table sorted?

You might have seen a post late last year about the kitchen table situation round my house. 

The kitchen looked as it does below, which looked OK, but when we had lots of family over for a Sunday lunch, and moved the table temporarily over to the bench so we could all fit in, it transformed the room dramatically. Made it feel nicer. And put us on a mission.





We tried out about 100 different

Streetart Monday

Been meaning for ages to post up a photo of some of the wonderful street art springing up in my neck of the woods.

I walk past this giant painted chaffinch, by the artist Mark Wydler, most days on the way to my nearest decent-sized dog-walking park, and it always puts a spring in my step.



The area in south London that I live in – between bustling Brixton and Camberwell – has its issues. A bit

Objects of the day: alternative alphabets

It's been an alphabetty kind of a week. At Home 2014, I loved illustrator James Brown's colourful new letter linocut prints. 

I also came across Anil Mistry's excellent alternative A-Z print via Design Week (where you can see lots of close-ups).





His Icons Alphabet goes something like: D is for David (Hockney), X is for XTC, Q is for Quincy (Jones), K is for Kenneth (Williams)...







...

(Unattainable) object of the day: Royal Crown Derby new Equus collection

Prices have yet to be announced for this new range of tableware by Royal Crown Derby. But know this: it launches at Harrods, and some plates on the RD website cost over 400 quid.

Not all of them mind. Some are on the kinder side of £50. But whether we can afford them or not, please do take a moment to marvel at the beauty...



Don't you love the way the body parts are split between different

Objects of the day: from the Home 2014 show

I made flying visit to Home 2014 yesterday, a big interiors trade show at Earl's Court in London if you're not familiar. 

Snapped some nice things. Here is a small selection, with more to come anon.






Danish design company, Ferm Living, have some nice new cushions (54 Euros) and a range of prints (30 Euros).






Hemingway Design have some gorgeous fabrics coming soon. Really like the blue/

Freestyle Tuesday: who works in an office like this?

Oh Google, you thought you had the amazing office thing sewn up, didn't you? 

Well check out the rather incredible working environment below. Which big international company do you think it belongs to?



Now that is a civilised meeting room.









Top marks if you've already guessed it is the home of Air BnB.

The company, which of course specialises in allowing home owners advertise their

Real homes: a 50s hilltop bungalow surrounded by deer



Having been born and raised in the city, I often think I could never live in the country. 

But when, late last year, we went to stay at the house of some of my boyfriend's oldest friends in the Wye Valley, I was almost swayed. In our bit of London, we often hear drug deals being done outside our windows. There, as we discovered when we stayed, the noises outside are usually inquisitive deer.

Shopping: Branksome china

We've had a beautiful, teak glass-fronted display cabinet up on the kitchen wall since before Christmas. We still can't decide what to put into it.

All the stuff that actually needs to go in it for storage, doesn't add up to much of a display (as you can see here). So the pondering continues for now. It needs to combine practicality with beauty. Like this...





I love this bit of styling from

Freestyle Thursday: The lovely Llangollen Railway

And now for some shameless nostalgia. I've just had a photo downloading binge and had totally forgotten I'd taken all these pictures of the restored Llangollen steam railway. 

Check out the beautifully designed 1960s British Rail interiors. Couldn't you just move in?




We took it on the nine-and-a-half mile trip from Llangollen, in north Wales, to Carrog late last year when we stayed at this

Shopping: The Wire Poster Project

I'm preposterously late to the game, but have finally started watching The Wire. I know. I'm still only on series two and have only just stopped being traumatised about Wallace. 

It is as brilliant as everyone has always said it was, and so with the fervour of a new convert, I present something else – a themed design off-shoot – that's been around since October. But maybe you haven't seen it

Real homes: a central London houseboat, frugally styled

Living in central London is fast becoming impossible on most people’s budgets, that is unless you live on a houseboat. Over to designer and blogger, Sarah Fox, for today's story. 

Boat owners, illustrator, Sophie Jamieson and her boyfriend Kendall Gilmore, on the Department of Health's graduate scheme, live a 10-minute stroll from Baker Street station on a peaceful stretch of canal edged with a

Competition winners: kitschness wins prizes



Hello and merry 12th day. Great to be back at work? Broken any resolutions yet? Mourning your Christmas tree? Distract yourself with these photos sent in by entrants to a competition I ran at the end of last year.

The prize was a limited edition lava lamp and so, naturally, I asked people to send in photos of the most kitsch things they had in their homes. Here are my favourites...



This