Gardens: make a moss wall hanging

How hard can it be to kill moss? This is one the sorts of indestructible sorts of plants that I need more of in my life (OK, I'm cheating - it's a special kind of preserved moss).

I love this idea from the inspiring new book about house plants from Isabelle 'Balcony Gardener' Palmer. And any gardening project that involves gluing the plants in place sounds like my kind of project.





The book

Hinge sprucing #cheaphometricks

We've just redecorated the bathroom, and you can see from the cracked paint below how badly it was in need – but that's a story for another day. 

Because today I just want to focus on one tiny change we made to the room that cost just a few quid, a bit of effort and – in my opinion – has given our bathroom door a bit of a new, design-y lease of life (plus it's a more positive DIY story than last

Object of the day: Kimmy Hogan's sleeping Dachshunds

This is pretty much the cutest illustration of a dog you will ever have seen. Right?

The print is titled The Dachshund. Appendix 4: Sleep Study and it was drawn by (no surprises) a Dachshund-owning artist named Kimmy Hogan.



Sleeping dogs, especially little ones, are particularly endearing and Kimmy has captured that aspect beautifully, in this very simple series of line drawings.

Kimmy, who

Real homes: when DIY goes wrong

It was meant to be a cheap, quick way to give the shower room a spring spruce-up. 

We had a leak in there, and while I was shopping for grout and silicone to fix it, I was dazzled by the grout reviver on sale nearby (everyone else gets excited and over-shops at DIY stores too – right?). A sparkly new bathroom for just a few quid? Yes please. Only things haven't gone quite to plan...





This

Shopping: raiding the antique shops of Lewes

I had a lovely time recently visiting dear friends who have recently moved to Lewes, not far from Brighton.

It was brilliant to hang out and catch up (and eat fantastic fish and chips – well, just chips and a pickled egg for me – from their excellent local chippy). But what was almost as great? THE SHOPPING.



First off, I should highlight the one purchase of the trip (unusually restrained for

Real homes: a designer's £800 total renovation

Bobby Petersen's amazingly thrifty warehouse flat in north London filled me with inspiration when I went to nose around it a few months back.

I was there to write about his place for a piece published in last weekend's Guardian Weekend mag. You can read that here, but here are some bonus pictures of his insanely creative ideas.



The flat was a derelict, one-room warehouse space when Bobby,

Merry Easter

May your weekends also be filled with DIY, spring cleaning, picture framing and hot cross buns!

See you after the bank holidays.

UPDATE: due to extreme DIY-ing over the weekend (in that I only finished painting the bathroom at about 9pm last night), normal daily service will resume tomorrow. Look out for a myriad of cheap tricks from a £3 idea giving doors a design edge, to clever interiors

The Insider: so, apparently carpets are back

According to a reliable source (OK, well not really – it was the PR for a carpet company) wall-to-wall carpets are back in vogue.

But no need to take their word for it: the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) confirms that carpet sales are growing at their fastest rate since 1996.



Do you have carpet? Are you hankering after some? Dreaming of ripping yours up? I live in a house of bare

Object of the day... Louise Wilkinson plates

These plates are just two from a small collection by designer, Louise Wilkinson. 

I'd like them all, but these – marginally – are my two favourites.



Nice aren't they? In dinner plate size they cost £19.50 each. Below are a couple of the sweet side plates, priced at £14.50.



Louise launched her range at Liberty in 2012 and will be exhibiting at Tent London later this year. See more and buy

Spotlight on... the Dala horse

I bought this little chap from a second-hand shop near my house as a Christmas present, but he never made it out of the house. 

I should have known myself better, given my love of all horse-themed house items.





At the weekend, as part of my more houseplants mission, I picked up the leafy example you can also see in the photo below (from the Morden Hall nursery – a very nice place, by the way

Object of the day: M&S melamine

You could of course use these bright and beautiful melamine plates for a picnic, as intended, but wouldn't they look wonderful hung on a drab wall?

They are eminently affordable and available in the Summer range at Marks and Spencer.



Rio Dinner Plate, £3.50

If you follow me on Pinterest, you may already have spotted a mini gallery of plates on walls. If not, and you're after some inspiration

Friday Edit #8: illustrated homes, super shelves, a super-cool table and some surprises

Apologies for last week's lack of Edit, in case anyone noticed. 

But it's back! (And with bigger pictures and everything.)



Still Life Interior blog
Do you know the OK Corral online shop? You must! Run by photographer Holly Joliffe, it's a proper treasure trove. Now her mum, Joy, who designs lovely cushions sold through Random Retail, has started a side project: Still Life Interior blog. It's

Object of the day: Hundreds & Thousands tray by Jonna Saarinen

These colourful laminated birchwood trays by Finnish designer, Jonna Saarinen, are like useful little pieces of art.

I have previously mentioned my tray shelves. They are waiting to be filled. One or two of these mini ones could boost the fledgling collection...



Aren't they cheery?






After spying these trays, I checked out Jonna's website to see what other nice stuff she'd designed. But

Real homes: design envy in the south of France

Today's post is by writer and family travel blogger, Amanda Pollard, who lives in the south of France and has been nosing around this incredible place...



When designers Elisabeth Vidal and Huub Ubbens moved into their Montpellier apartment two years ago it didn’t look like this at all. Uninhabited for five years, it was run down with thick patterned wallpaper everywhere. But they could see the

Sign the sewing petition!

This is the sewing machine I was given for my 18th birthday. 

And I knew what to do with it only because I'd taken compulsory sewing classes for the first few years at my secondary school. I was not, however, a great student.



I kept for years the pencil skirt we were required to make – but which I never finished before the end of term – convincing myself that I would one day, very soon, sew

Spotlight on... Vernon Ward

Here is my bargain of the month. A beautiful Vernon Ward framed print... for just a quid!

I found it in Suffolk countryside, for sale in the on-site shop at an amazing converted barn we stayed in (more of which another time). It's my second print by the same artist.






Vernon Ward lived from 1905-1985 and was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Though he was born in London, many

Real homes: inside an Eric Lyons span apartment

I'm a little bit obsessed with the architect Eric Lyons' work. The 1968-built house I live in is my local authority's version of his celebrated (and now listed) 1950s designs for Span Developments.

If you were a fan of the BBC's Great Interior Design Challenge a few months back, you'll have seen the kitchen makeovers the contestants did on the kitchens in a Span development.






The

Spotlight on... themed playing cards

Contributing editor, Abi, gives very good gift. 

And she's just pulled off a double-whammy with two beautiful sets of playing cards. A while back, she gave me this most excellent John Hinde Cornwall-themed set.







Hinde's studio, in case you don't share my – and Martin Parr's – obsession with it, is the prolific producer of pretty much every British holiday postcard you've ever bought –