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Don’t Forget The Fifth Wall



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Kate Watson-Smyth advises not to forget the fifth wall, also known as the ceiling. Her office ceiling in gold adds interest and bounces light around the room - the ideal backdrop for her large statement pendant light. #madaboutthehouse #homeoffice #goldceiling
Throwing it back to some statement ceilings in honour of a spread in Grazia earlier this summer which included two of mine. And, coincidentally, today's issue of the magazine includes their first ever interiors special for which I wrote a four page special on the seasonal updates you can make now.  It's not that walls
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Mad About … The Fifth Wall



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Often referred to as the fifth wall, the ceiling is so often forgotten when it comes to the decor of our houses. Hands up who's just painted theirs white and forgotten all about it? Which is fair enough if you've got a stonkingly fabulous pendant light and you don't want to detract from it. from
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Publication Day, New Ways with Wallpaper and a Spring Retox



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Kate Watson-Smyth and Sophie Robinson discuss the launch of Kate's 3rd book on the Great Indoors podcast #thegreatindoors #madaboutthehouse #interiorsbook
And it's Happy Publication day to me! Now I wrote all about the book last week so I won't go into it all again here but do follow the link if you would like to know more. And, of course, it's podcast day so if you would like to hear me chatting to Sophie about
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New Shop Discovery: Wallpapers from Jupiter10



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Kate Watson-Smyth selects the latest wallpaper collection by Jupiter10. The Lyon design features an oversized pink and black polka dot creating a modern alternative to a classic print. #wallpaper #geometric #madaboutthehouse
With all the current talk of maximalism elbowing those classic Scandinavian clean lines to one side, I was thrilled when I came across this wallpaper company which sells modernist designs in a riot of colour patterns which sort of marries the two ideas - lots of colour and pattern in geometric patterns. amsterdam wallpaper from
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Monday Inspiration Beautiful Rooms



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Happy Monday to you all and first up I would like to thank so many of you for engaging and responding to the posting schedule dilemma of last week. Looks like we'll be staying at daily posts for the time being - that's four a week (with a fifth on Wednesday if there's a sponsored
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Monday Inspiration: Six Rooms



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internal black framed glass doors through to living room with soft neutral tones. by frank & faber
Last week a friend emailed to ask for advice about her knock-through sitting room. An idea which had seemed good at the time (two small children, too many small dark rooms) was proving irritating in the new lockdown life of 2020 with two adults and two larger children all at home all at the same
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Lockdown Decorating Tips



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gold ceiling at madaboutthehouse.com
Morning and welcome to Wednesday’s Ad Break. It’s been a while since we had one of these, but this week I have teamed up with Barclays Mortgages to put together a list of easy things you can do at home during this period. This has come about following research* carried out by Barclays which found
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Monday Inspiration: Pink is a Neutral



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zebra print rug image via wendymorrison
Goooooooood Morning everyone and Happy Monday - or whatever time or day you are choosing to read this. I thought we would have a little look around the happy neutral that is soft pink today as it's the most perfect background colour that you can tone down or punch up depending on your mood. It's
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Monday Inspiration: Beautiful Rooms



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A look of some favourite beautiful rooms with Kate Watson-Smyth. This bedroom has a black painted ceiling but, in a clever touch, so is the coving all the way round. This has the effect of softening the hard line you get when the wall hits the ceiling at right angles and also bends the ceiling slightly down over the walls making it look higher. The black vanity unit is softened with some cane detailing and gold accents. #bedroom #blackceiling #madaboutthehouse
After the last few weeks of finding a theme to this regular Beautiful Rooms post I decided to just pick some great spaces this week. There is a loose connection, if you want to look for such a thing, in that all of them have one or two great stand out features that make them
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Monday Inspiration: Beautiful Rooms



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Don't forget the fifth wall i.e the ceiling says Kate Watson-Smyth. For a darker shade to work on the ceiling the room needs to have large proportions so the space doesn't feel enclosed. The pale pink walls and olive ceiling make a beautiful scheme in this living room complete with original fireplace. #madaboutthehouse #livingroom #paintedceiling
There has been a lot of talk about the ceiling being the fifth wall and how you shouldn't just paint them white - well all right that last bit was mostly me, but I thought it might be fun to look at a few painted ceilings in honour of the fact that I am about
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10 Beautiful Rooms



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black windows for alexanderwhitesthlm
Morning, morning and welcome to a Christmas-free zone this week. It wasn't a deliberate choice so much as feeling that I'm seeing trees and sparkles wherever I look at the moment and I thought it might be nice to have a little respite from that. Also the recognition that not everyone celebrates it, and finally,
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10 Beautiful Rooms: A Colour Story



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And here we are again - Monday morning and ready to wander round this week's selection of beautiful rooms. Now after last week's pale and interesting look I thought I would explore a more saturated colour palette this week. So see what you think of these. cupid bed from casa botelho Sometimes we forget that
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10 Beautiful Rooms



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Good Morning and happy Monday to you all. Back in the swing of it now? I'm going to start this stroll round 10 Beautiful Rooms with a few images from the Hoxton Hotel in Paris where I stayed for one night last week. It's instagram heaven as you can see from the pictures below. the
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The Househunter: Room by Room



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This cottage in Cornwall proved one of the most popular househunter posts so far this year along with a modern classic designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, who have been described as the among the most influential architects of the 20th century. Both houses are completely different but there are ideas and inspiration to be
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Five Quick Tips To Get Your Decorating Started



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enid's house for jjlocations
There are certain things that are the same for all houses/flats/palazzi when you move in and today I thought I would share some of those ideas to get you started if you have a new project involving either the whole building or just one room. It's about getting the foundations right so the rest will
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The Househunter: Room by Room



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Brrr now that the Beast from the East has finally arrived and settled in, there's nothing for it but to grab a cup of something hot and cosy up for a bit of a read. If you've missed the rest of this week's updates you can find them here and if you're up to speed
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10 Beautiful Rooms



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Gooooood Mooooooorning Everyone and welcome to this week's edition of 10 Beautiful Rooms. This week we are focusing on the work of Architect Your Home. This is a service that was set up many years ago (I first wrote about them for The Independent so it's ages) and offers a pay as you go architect.
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The Househunter Room by Room



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Forget what I have said about any other house ever. This is the one. It's in north London. It has three bedrooms ( I can work with that) and a garden and it's on the market with The Modern House for - slight snag here - £3.5m. Cue background music screeching to a halt. Oh
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Mad About Paint Effects



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Paint is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to transform a room but most of us do little more than pick the colour we like and slap it on the walls. What if we were a little more imaginative? What if we thought a little bit more about different ways of using that paint
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