Category: Interiors

  • The Home-sewn Home

    Cover of book The Home-sewn Home by Vanessa Arbuthnott with Gail Abbott.Vanessa Arbuthnott needs no introduction to fans of modern country interiors. From its beginnings on the kitchen table 10 years ago, Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics has grown to include the current fabric collections featuring natural and classic motifs, stripes and spots, plus co-ordinating wallpaper, rugs, runners, sofas, chairs and quilts.

    The Home-sewn Home uses Vanessa’s fabrics as a basis for 50 projects – from curtains and blinds through cushions, chair covers, tablecloths and runners to hot water bottle covers and lavender hearts – providing step-by-step instructions so you can make them yourself.

    For complete beginners, some instructions might prove somewhat challenging on first reading. A little more hand-holding on the basics, such as curtain and blind measuring, is helpful for those who have never tackled their own projects before, and a glossary would be a great addition to a future edition. For British readers, the US spellings and terms – cozy, miter and shade rather than blind, for example – can jar a little.

    However, the projects themselves have generously sized illustrations as well as fabulous photography that make them easy to follow, and the range of soft furnishings covered mean there’s something for every confidence level.

    The photography of the completed projects – beautifully styled by Gail Abbott and Sally Denning – is a great prompt to use the fabrics shown, but there are useful tips so you can select and team fabric designs with the same attractive results if you’re shopping elsewhere.

    A resurgence of interest in making your own interior furnishings, and a desire to create the traditional comfort associated with country interiors wherever your home happens to be located make this book a timely addition to the sew-your-own section – and the interiors are inspiring enough to make this a great buy for your room design library even if you don’t fancy getting out the sewing machine.

    The Home-sewn Home by Vanessa Arbuthnott with Gail Abbott, Cico Books

  • Mid-Century Modern

    Mid-Century Modern book coverIt’s hard to turn the pages of an interiors magazine these days without spotting an iconic piece of mid-century design inside a real home or as part of a decorating scheme. Eames chairs, Ercol tables, Lucienne Day’s textile designs, Poul Hennigsen’s ‘Artichoke’ lamp for Louis Poulsen – shown on the cover of this book – are all familiar elements in 21st century homes.

    Many of these celebrated designs have remained in production since they were launched, but mid-century modern was derided for many years, Judith Miller’s book reminds us. Thoroughly rehabilitated and objects of desire once more, your originals might now be worth a bob or two, as you’ll discover using the price guidelines here.

    For those of us buying or admiring the newly made examples of these classics instead, this book will still prove a great guide to the work of designers from Alvar Aalto to Frantisek Zemek. And if the furniture and lighting of the late 1940s to the 1970s are more familiar to you than the glass, ceramics, metalware and textiles, it’ll sharpen your skills in spotting the designs of the period and its continuing influence.

    Miller put this period in design history in its context as a reaction to what went before, and an antidote to post-war austerity. She examines how the availability of new materials and techniques also inspired designers, and how the forms visible for the first time through electron microscopes were reflected by the patterns of the period.

    But if you want to feast your eyes on the designs as well as learning the history, there’s plenty for you, too with generous illustration of individual pieces.

    Mid-Century Modern, Living with mid-century modern design by Judith Miller, Miller’s

  • Winning wallpaper

    Teasels wallpaper, Earth InkeFor October’s Country Homes & Interiors, I wrote about the winners of the magazine’s country business competition.

    Among the runners-up was Katherine Morris, who has launched her own wallpaper range, Earth Inke Wallcoverings.

    Katherine’s designs are inspired by the landscape, including the hamlet where she grew up. Pictured here is her fabulous teasels design.

    The wallpapers are all hand-drawn and printed in England, so you can invest in great design, a fledgling business and UK manufacture in one go.

  • Stuck for storage?

    British homes don’t offer storage for essentials, such as the vacuum cleaner, reveals an Ipsos MORI report for the Royal Institute of British Architects, released today.

    The report, called ‘They way we live now: what people need and expect from their homes’, looks at how people use their homes, what they look for when they’re choosing, and how they think the experience of choosing a home can be improved.

    People like to have an element of open-plan living, the report reveals. The downside of this desire, of course, is less walls can mean less opportunity for storage. If you’re going open-plan, think about low room-dividing storage for your possessions that won’t block the view but will create a place to stash your stuff.

    Hemnes bookcases, Ikea

    Look, too, for whole wall units that will make use of the area floor to ceiling on the remaining walls.

    When you’re looking for a new home, don’t forget to view with the place you’ll put your vacuum, ironing board, clothes airer, the rubbish, the recycling and all your shoes in mind. These places don’t need to be there already, but you do need the potential to include them.

  • Pale flooring

    Porcelain floor tiles from CP Group
    Portia porcelain tiles, CP Group

    Light coloured flooring is an easy way to make your room feel bigger – but the thought of keeping up with the cleaning can be off-putting.

    I investigated the latest pale options for the May issue of Beautiful Kitchens and discovered that there are plenty of space-expanding choices that won’t have you cleaning marks off every five minutes.

    The best advice? If you’re going for tiles, think about a design that minimises grout lines as this needs to be kept looking good, too. Large format is a great solution, as are tiles with rectified or super straight edges.

    The beautiful polished Mono White porcelain tiles, pictured, have a contemporary high gloss finish. They’re from the Portia collection at CP Group.

  • Jubilee colour

    There’s an extensive choice of Diamond Jubilee-themed buys for your home on offer this year. But if you’d like a more understated take on the celebrations, what about a regal purple for your walls? Teamed with grey, it makes for a sophisticated scheme that will continue to look fabulous long after the bunting has been taken down, and the last cup cakes eaten.

    The beautiful Velvet above the dado in this room is part of the 2012 range of paint colours from Wickes, and is teamed with Slate, below the dado.

    And while you’re on a royal theme, there’s also a Royal Sapphire shade that will remind you of last year’s big event.

  • Buy British?

    The summer press previews are in full swing, and there are no prizes for guessing that with both the home Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee coming up, both Union Jacks and all things royal and vintage-themed for the home are plentiful.

    An investigation in the Daily Mail found that 91% of the London 2012 souvenirs were made abroad with two-thirds of them coming from China.

    If you’d like to support British manufacture and design while indulging in a little light celebratory fervour, how about supporting a traditional British industry? Emma Bridgewater has its own factory in Staffordshire where these Diamond Jubilee ceramics – along with other designs – are made, helping to keep alive a traditional British industry.