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

Thrift-store Scrounging

I have a fiendish number of these - old magazines, music books and sewing patterns. I keep them in a large box next to my bed, ready to have a quick rifle when the mood takes me. The image below, and that at the bottom are the covers of magazines I found in a Vintage shop in Stockholm - I could have bought all of them, but only came away with three or four. The 'Sunshine and Flowers' one is pretty girly; I had it framed above my bed at one point, but have substituted it for a black and white (possibly Edwardian-era) print of a lady holding a baby. 

At some point, should I eventually have my own flat or house, I want to frame all of these old prints and have them hung. I also plan to have a second-hand magazine rack for the many, many old mags that I refuse to throw away - and a better space for my shoes (at the moment I have one of those Ikea shoe things that you hang from your wardrobe). 

I found this old music score book in a charity shop in Dorset. There were sooo many, each for a quid. In retrospect I should have got more. Pah.