close

search for: fornasetti

A House Tour of the Private Home of Piero Fornasetti

Hello everyone, firstly can I thank all of you who have followed me over to the new house on Substack either as a free or paid subscriber. I'm dropping in here to let you know that my first post will be going live this morning. I won't be writing on here every time there is
Read more...

For the love of Fornasetti

It's no secret that The Mad House is a big fan of Fornasetti. Huge. So when I received an invitation to go to Paris for 24 hours to see the exhibition Piero Fornasetti: The Practical Madness at the Les Arts Decoratifs, in the Palais du Louvre, I had my bag backed before you could say
Read more...

Come With Me To My New online House

Well today’s the day. From today you will be able to join me over on Substack where I have been busy behind the scenes hanging the curtains, unpacking the archive and arranging the furniture ready to welcome you in. Some of you will have already seen the email I sent on Monday in which I
Read more...

Come With Us To Italy

fondazione prada in milan
SOLD OUT   Have we got news for you (as the saying goes)! Do you fancy coming on holiday with me and Sophie? A Great Indoors Road trip? Five days with us and 20 other like-minded design lovers? Where to you say? Well, how about a couple of days in one of the most famous
Read more...

The Househunter: A Regency Vicarage in Dorset

Off to Dorset this week to have a look at this unlisted Regency Vicarage with a large Victorian extension which is on the market with Knight Frank for £1,100,000. It has seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, four reception rooms and parking for three cars and is described as typical of properties built to house members of
Read more...

8 Of The Prettiest Bedrooms for National Bed Month

bedding by bedeck1951 and wallpaper by morris and co
I'm not normally one to mark National this and Daily that but given that schools went back yesterday and I discovered it was national bed month, it felt like there was a link. I have kept going by telling myself that as soon as life returns to normal (whatever that is) that I will celebrate
Read more...

Monday Inspiration: When the blues don’t make you blue

The Fife Arms in Braemar in the Scottish Highlands, designed by @russellsagestudio via @yarn.home
And welcome February - let's hope by the end of this (short) month that things are looking up. Vaccination is proceeding and numbers are dropping and, what's more, by the time the 28th rolls round those who have had their jabs should be on the way to being immune. So there are reasons to be
Read more...

Milan Design Week 2018: Top 10 Trends – Furniture

lots of suede at Milan
Every April thousands of people descend on the northern Italian city of Milan for its annual design week. This was the 57th year of Salone, as it is known, and it's the largest of its kind. Last week there were over 430,000 visitors from 188 countries in six days visiting nearly 200 exhibitors. The City
Read more...

Trouva: Shop Local Online

As the internet becomes ever bigger with ever greater enticements to shop online from the comfort of our own homes, a small, but growing, backlash against the dominance of these virtual giants has begun. The High Street is finally fighting back. #shoplocal has over 14 million posts on instagram and customers (that's us) are enjoying
Read more...

The Househunter Room by Room

Three for you this week, all quite different in look and feel so hopefully a bit of something for everyone. First up is this converted piano factory in Camden, north London. Fancy coming in....? There will be 10 flats (the most expensive is over eight million quid - I know!) but the cheapest (I'm using
Read more...

10 Beautiful Rooms

And this comes with apologies to all those who were waiting for it in their inbox this morning - I mistyped the date and scheduled it for tomorrow instead. Here it is now. I'm so sorry. I hope you are all enjoying the long weekend and lounging about in a suitably lazy fashion. As I
Read more...

White Ceramic Umbrella Stand

white ceramic umbrella stand from rockett st george
white ceramic umbrella stand from rockett st george There are some things in life that one can save up for safe in the knowledge that they are perhaps a design classic (come back tomorrow for one of those) or just a designer piece that you will love for ever (hello Prada handbag) and there are
Read more...

Interview with Mineheart

mineheart bookshelves wallpaper; one of their bestselling designs Regular visitors to The Mad House will know that I am a huge fan of Brendan Young and Vanessa Battaglia, the husband and wife team behind the Eccentric (their capital E) British Design House Mineheart. You can see their wonderful trompe l'oeil bookshelf wallpaper in the images
Read more...

The Househunter 15/5/15

This week the Househunter comes to you from Paris, because that is where I am. I'm visiting the Fornasetti Exhibition, so I thought we would take a virtual wander round the estate agents windows and see what's about. This is a one bedroom duplex apartment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris which has been designed
Read more...

Luxecyled Furniture

The buzzword in interiors at the moment is bespoke. We can't afford to have everything made to measure but sprinkled among the flatpack, the vintage, the inherited and the high street, it's great to be able to have one or two original pieces. As many of you know, I'm not a great fan of the
Read more...

Mad About… Murals

Designed for the ocean liner Kungsholm Greta Garbo was one of the passengers on this ship I have always been a huge fan of wallpaper. This has not always been a fashionable choice. In my last house my mother in law walked in, pronounced the paper "heinous" and arranged to sit with her back to it
Read more...

Objects of Design #254: Kitchen Matches

kitchen matches from plumo.com
kitchen matches from plumo.com If you're a fan of candles, then in addition to the sticks to stand them in, you'll also be needing these. Now I know matches are rather dull, useful things but these boxes are so pretty that I would want them out on display (I know children/safety/matches/danger etc but you can
Read more...

(Still) Mad About … Wallpaper

Just when I think I've seen all the fabulous wallpaper there is to see and starting to wonder if, perhaps, wallpaper is a little bit over and it's really all about paint, something new comes along and I fall in love all over again. When I saw this chipped plasterwork in the new issue of
Read more...

All She Wants For Christmas … Ruth Aram

Ruth Aram, the director of the Aram Store, is the daughter of its founder Zeev. She had her own shop in Hampstead until 200o when she joined the family business. Now she heads up the retail side of the business, regularly visiting international trade shows to source new designs for the store. She also works
Read more...

How to Hang Wallpaper

I love wallpaper. Always have. The bolder the better. In every house we have owned, and we are serial movers, there has always been at least one wall of the stuff. From big splashy flowers to flock or metallic and monochrome, wallpaper is the way to bring a room to life. It's not for everyone
Read more...