As we slog on through this lockdown amid what is clearly some of the most unclear advice I have ever come across I shall try to keep this blog a haven of clarity and sensible information when it comes to your homes. Over the last couple of months I have written about how to work…
Do you remember when grey really took off as a colour? One minute we were all happily sloshing on the magnolia and then, suddenly, we had all, as it were, faded to grey. I wrote a feature for The Independent in 2009 after interviewing a Dulux spokesperson whole told me that grey was the new…
I adore this little flat. From the way it has been decorated to the pretty pink walls outside. It’s a one bedroom flat in Bristol and it’s on the market for £350,000 with The Modern House. If the 19yo were studying in Bristol instead of Manchester…. But he isn’t – not that anyone is studying…
Now I don’t know about you but as we wade through the seventh week of lockdown, I have started to look at the shops again. It’s been a dilemma – should we shop anything other than essentials? Is it wrong to shop when so many people are struggling to buy food? Is it wrong to…
One of the things I am often asked about is ugly tiles – particularly in rental homes where it isn’t always possible to replace them. It can also be hard to change tiles on fireplaces without ripping the whole thing out and even if you own a property it’s an upheaval to rip them off…
Many of you will be familiar with Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay, A Room of One’s Own, which talks about the need for women to have money and a room of their own if they are to write fiction. As we in the UK enter our seventh week of lockdown, I suggest that the 21st century…
On the face of it not a property I would normally consider, but actually I love this. It must be lockdown mania – in the same way I suddenly want to paint my kitchen ochre yellow, it now seems I want to live in a concrete bunker. Well, a very posh concrete outhouse, as it…
The remote recording of the podcast continues and this week Sophie and I repaired to our respective duvet tents for this episode of The Great Indoors in which we discuss ideas for lockdown decorating and I interview Sally Storey, the design director of John Cullen Lighting, on “decorating with light” as well as rounding up…
I thought I would dedicate today’s post to a reader’s question and, if I have more that work, I can turn this into a regular feature. And (small plug for the book) that means readers’s questions that are not already addressed in my 101 Interior Design Answers. So first up a question – well three…
It’s one of the questions I am most often asked: Where did I get my Persian Rugs? So I can only assume that many of you agree with me that such a rug is a vital ingredient in the making of any home. In the same way that a mid-century modern chair will fit into…