Mad About . . .

Right time for some gentle colours this week. It's nearly time to go on holiday and I've reached that point where I'm metaphorically crawling towards the finish line so I want to be looking at restful images and calming colours. all white via stadshem.se Like this for example. I love this space. Right now I

And we're back! The Great Indoors Podcast Series 4 is up now for you to download from your preferred platform. We've got a brand new shiny sponsor, Topps Tiles, and for those of you who don't listen (why not?!) here is what we discussed this week: the enduring appeal of mid-century modern furniture, everyone's talking

Good Morning to you all. Or Hello depending on what time you are reading this. It's proving to be a funny old summer (can we use that word yet) in The Mad House as school finished in June when the exams finished so there is a definite holiday mood in the air without anyone actually

Happy Monday to you all and happy July. We may not be completely in the swing of summer weather yet (at the time of writing it's only just begun) but with both boys starting their longest holidays - post A level and GCSE - things have certainly moved down a gear at The Mad House.

It sounds obvious doesn't it? Bring some of that outside inside and you will feel better. Put a few plants on the side, buy some flowers and bring a smile to your face. It's something that feels so instinctive that it hardly needs saying, but as we now spend up to 90 per cent of

Another house tour for you this Monday, but this time it's a penthouse apartment decorated by the fashion designer Roksanda Ilinčić in her first foray into interior design. It's pink and it's curvy and most of the furniture and artwork was created by women. Coming in...? gasholders apartments First the building. The cast iron frame,

Fancy a little stroll round a virtual art exhibition in aid of charity today? As many of you know I try to support homeless charities whenever I can. In the acknowledgements of my book I ask that anyone who has enjoyed my book, particularly when bought at less the RRP, perhaps make a small donation

Some of you will remember the apartment I helped work on in The Hoover Building a couple of months ago... well today I wanted to show you the last room that I didn't share before. That's the bathroom. I didn't show you because a) I had nothing to do with it and b) bathrooms -

For today's Monday Inspiration we are going on a house tour. To say this incredible house near Belfast, northern Ireland,  was a wreck when Ciara Devir and her husband Peter Boyle first laid eyes on it, is probably one of the biggest understatements I have heard in recent times. image by Shantanu Starick for Image

For this week's podcast we were thrilled to visit the home of broadcaster and author Fearne Cotton, whose book Happy, has been on the bestseller lists since it was published two years ago. We wanted to find out her what makes her happy when it comes to her home and, as she is about to

I don't know why I haven't thought of this as a title for a series before but there we go. I've thought it now and this week for the Wednesday Ad Break it's all about French Connection. Founded in 1972 the company set out to provide well-designed fashionable clothing that would appeal to a large

After all the razzamatazz of the great rooms of the century which has occupied the last few weeks, it's time to return to some real rooms by real people that we can draw just as much inspiration from as those done on million dollar budgets for million dollar owners. I was on a judging panel

Last week Sophie and I took the podcast on the road to record at Clerkenwell Design Week. You can, as ever, listen to the full episode here, but the two key aspects that we discovered were the changing design of the workspace and the increasing attention being paid to sustainability. Clerkenwell Design Week is now

When I was first trying to find a publisher for my book, my agent was told that interiors books weren't really popular. That they didn't sell well and they weren't that interested in them. Well, we persevered and many of you will know how that turned out. However, there has been a bit of a

Morning morning to you all. It's a five day week which feels like a bit of a shocker after the run of bank holidays doesn't it? Anyway, after last week's tile talk I thought I would show you a few more ideas with tiles that won't break the bank. vertical metro tiles at brepurposed Because

A couple of weeks ago I spent the day filming with Velux whose team flew over from Denmark to interview me for their new campaign Living Outside-In. This sprang out of a conversation I had with them earlier this year about about the importance of natural light and the current trend for plants and their

Welcome to the 3rd episode in the third series of The Great Indoors Podcast and a big thank you to DFS for their continued support and to our producer Kate Taylor. You can listen to the full podcast here. This week's episode comes from Sophie's house as I had that big location shoot here last week. pink

There was much excitement a few years ago when H&M first launched its homewares with affordable pared back designs that brought a slightly more rustic feel to the usual Scandinavian interiors fare. To begin with it was all about the small stuff - cushions and chopping boards, bedding and vases etc and then last summer