Birthday Stuff!

Some fabric that I came home with after helping out at a shoot for the Telegraph a couple of days ago; I'm thrilled with it and have been fantasizing about upholstering a chair at home.

La Dolce Vita

Just back from a week in Italy.. and feeling quite morose to be in England, with the rain thrashing down outside.  Capri and Positano were incredibly beautiful - I loved how colourful everything was, from the beautifully kept houses to the food to the ceramic bits and bobs as pictured below.  It's difficult to recreate this look back in England with a climate so different - but I'll definitely try!

Summer at Valentine Cottage

Liberty: A great source of Interior Inspiration

 There aren't many places in London that are better for inspiration than Liberty; I went there the other day for a thorough browse.


I particularly loved the furniture floor - the Visual Merchandisers there have done a fantastic job. These painted tins (left) are so cool and priced cheaply. It made me want to go home and try and make some myself, from old recycled chopped tomato tins!

Elsewhere of course the fabric is unbelievably beautiful; a really great place to browse when you get a day off work.

LOVE this house (courtesy of Design Sponge)

I saw this house on Design Sponge and had to re-post it.. the owner is Emma Reddington. I especially love the top two images: the bright, airy rooms, big windows and repeated use of wood is really fresh and quite Scandinavian. The fluffy white chair (is it a throw on a chair, or actually the design of the chair?) in the second image makes the set-up a lot more interesting - it's cosy and inviting. Again the second pic from the bottom there is a striking but incredibly simple use of wood, alongside white and red. I've always wanted big squidgy floor cushions like those ones! It makes me ache for a proper space to decorate, aside from this tiny bedroom!

Dairy House Antiques, Dorset.... goodies galore

I just had to do a post about this great antiques place in Dorset, called Dairy House Antiques, a sprawling (albeit chilly) building crammed with very well priced goods. I took some hurried snaps of one of my favourite rooms, which featured an antique pram, some great old posters and lots of big, colorful enamel jugs and bric-a-brac. I found a vintage vanity case (bottom picture) for about £11 or so - a HELL of a lot less than any place in London would have it priced at.

If you do happen to be taking a trip to the rolling hills of Wiltshire than do stop by this place for a look; it has fantastic vintage fabrics and enough gear to furnish your aspirational country pad with.

Give me the Brora Lifestyle, Please...

This is the house of Brora founder Victoria Stapleton, as found in an oldish copy of Easy Living magazine. I do find the hallway, pictured below, somewhat subdued (though the peacock feathers are a nice idea) - but LOVE the use of purple and green in the bottom image. I think that the colour palette is similar to that employed for her clothes, and the countryside aspect of the house is really appealing. Clever, clever woman.

World of Interiors: Sneak Preview

Here are some images from this month's World of Interiors. I have been struggling with these all day - my internet has been awful and it's taken about 40 minutes to upload the damn things. I also would have liked to have had them bigger but they go all blurry when I try to enlarge them. 

And speaking of Florals...

Saw these on Krisatomic and swooned; those colours! those colours, I say! I have a real thing for botanical illustrations and these ones really get my juices flowing (sorry, that sounds horrible) - they're from 'Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections' (by Shirley Sherwood and Martin Rix) a book that, frankly, I will be acquiring ASAP.

Florals? For Spring? How original

I love these images, taken from an old issue of Country Living; to my mind, colour and pattern are what make a room look great. I've been thinking about it, and those are the two things that I am always looking for and commenting on when I go into a room. Great colours, great fabrics; a standout screen or beautiful jug full of flowers. At the moment I am fixated with tall, winding branches of cherry blossom  - I love it. And tulips... cannot get enough of them.

I really don't want to completely overdo the floral thing - I think that just one feature (like the antique door covered in wallpaper in the second image) is enough to brighten a room and make the more ordinary, even shabby furniture look pretty and fresh.

Amalfi Coast, here I come!

Hurray! I have booked a holiday to Italy! And, right on cue, I received my Toast catalogue, which has fuelled my excitement further. I love the images in these catalogues (and on the Toast website) - I have begun to imagine myself wafting serenely across balconies, wearing white linen garments and reading second hand novels.

All photos courtesy of Toast...

http://www.toast.co.uk/index.aspx?gclid=CPPO-5jQwqcCFQod4Qodj1gMCw&mscsmigrated=true