Design Storey Shop is Open

And it’s live. I am loosely calling it a shop but Design Storey is more of an all round platform with collections of the best of the high street, styling tips and links to blog posts helping you to make the most of your space.

As I mentioned in the launch post – when you saw the homepage but weren’t allowed through the virtual doors (!) the idea is that you visit the relevant room and have a look through the items that are there. So in the sitting room you will find sofas, tables, rugs and lighting.

In the office there are desks and task lamps with some storage that is suitable for the WFH space.

But, of course, some of us wanting so called dining chairs for our desks, and table lamps instead of task lamps so if you don’t see what you want in the room you can always go into the complete collection and look there.

There will never be more than 50 items per collection, ten on a page, five pages, so you don’t have to worry about setting filters because it won’t take you that long to sift through. Also, I find filters can be a) glitchy and b) you can rule out something you might have liked because you rejected it on principle. You might think you want a brass desk lamp but while you look through you fall head over heels for a gorgeous table light that would work perfectly and really make your space sing. This way you won’t miss the chance of a coup de foudre.

In addition to all that, I have sprinkled design tips throughout the pages because I thought it would be fun and useful (as opposed to beautiful and useful although clearly hoping for that too. And finally you will find links to useful blog posts culled from the last nine years of The Mad House. Long-standing readers will have read them before but, for others, they will be new and of course there is always that thing where discount something because it’s not relevant at that precise moment you are reading it but three months later you need to know it.

So for that reason I have included posts on everything from which paint to use and how to get the lighting right to the importance of buying vintage (that will be coming to the site soon) and how to make your home support your well-being.

There is, in short and I hope, plenty to get your teeth into.

And that’s before I add that each piece on the site comes with a short description about why it has been included, how you might style it and why you might want that particular item over a different one.

When it comes to bathrooms and kids rooms I have created only one collection of the 50 best. This seemed, for the moment, the best way to round up these two rooms although there is, obviously room for expansion down the line. There will never be more than 50 items in these rooms but as the shops change their range so things will drop and be added to this basic collection. That way it remains fresh and you will see new things.

But there may be micro collections within – 10 best nursery rugs, 15 best mini desks etc.

Finally, a word about how it works. It’s an affliliate system so rather than it being an actual shop it’s more of a platform that takes you to the shop itself. Essentially, if you like an item having seen the picture and read the description, and you click on it you will be taken to the store where you can buy it. The link shows that you came from Design Storey and, if you buy it I receive a small commission. If you click and don’t buy I don’t. It’s that simple and there’s no obligation on your part, nor does the cost change.

As a final point, there is a weekly newsletter which will include more design tips, new uploads to the site, ideas on room styling, links to the blog and exclusive reader offers. This month there is 20 per cent of Bisley office furniture, which has just created a new collection – conceived during the first lockdown and built in their Welsh factory – for small spaces. You can sign up to the newsletter here and it will land on Saturday mornings. If it doesn’t turn up do check your spam folders as things can end up in there.

I hope you will like it and find it useful. I was thrilled with a five page spread in the The Telegraph magazine at the weekend, which I have linked to although there is a pay wall (you can have a free trial).

And it also appeared in The Times too:

And if you do Instagram you can follow @designstoreyshop here: