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10 Feature Lights for Under £150

4th February 2021

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whitney cluster pendant from made.com

You ask and I shall (attempt to) deliver. Herewith, as requested, ten of the best affordable feature lights. Now affordable is one of those weasel words that means different things to different people. For some it will mean the cheapest, for others the one that suits their style so well that they will pay extra

The Best Mantel Garlands of 2020

15th December 2020

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Mantle garland by Nikki Bamford-Bowes @andthentheywentwild

There's a new trend in town and it's beautiful. At this time of year instagram fills up with Christmas trees and some of them are lovely but, to my mind, the best tree is the one that holds the most memories - clay figures made by your children at nursery, crackers made from old loo

Five of the Best Gift Guides

8th December 2020

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mantel garland by melanie lissack for red magazine

This year, instead of my own gift guide ( I feel like I'm a bit late to start that party now) I thought I would share some of the best gift guides I have seen for design lovers and that way you can all discover new people and ideas. My philosophy on choosing presents hasn't

Best of the Podcast: how to hide the tv and zone an open plan space

3rd December 2020

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samsung frame tv at madaboutthehouse.com

Today I am rounding up three of the most popular and, dare I say, useful posts of recent times as part of this week's podcast shownotes. For those of you who are new here, or who don't check in all the time (how can that be? There are four posts a week - thoughts on

Five of the best Kitchen Stools

3rd September 2020

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There are certain pieces of furniture that are essential to the functioning of any house - I have written before about the power of the Persian rug, the lure of antique furniture and the flexibility of the console table, but there is another that is so useful in any home and given that the WFH

Five of the best places to buy Bedlinen

30th June 2020

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Mixture of patterned cushions on a bed with linen covers and cobalt blue headboard, bedding by society of wanderers

Well I'm not sure if it's the gradual easing of lockdown - the 16yo has been to school twice in the last three months and is due to go again next week... I know! Or the fact that I have reluctantly taken up running in the form of the Couch to 5K but suddenly now

Five of the Best Soap Dishes

12th March 2020

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Well you know...it just seemed like it might be useful. So I just thought I'd put it out there. UPATE: Do read through to the comments for links to soap leaves (brilliant when you're out and about and travelling) and floating soap as well as an organisation making environmentally friendly soap (plastic and paraben free)

Mad About The House 101 Interior Design Answers: the new book

30th December 2019

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image by by Rekha Damhar copy

Hello and almost Happy New Year. I wanted to finish off the old one, and the decade come to that, by showing you my new book which will be out on 5 March: Mad About The House, 101 Interior Design Answers. It's a collection of 101 of the most common questions that I have been

Six of the Best: Striped Duvet Covers

24th September 2019

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Organic Pyjama Stripe Duvet Cover ORGANIC PYJAMA STRIPE DUVET COVER from toast

I have loved mattress ticking for as long as I can remember - and actually slept on it for years at boarding school - but when, a few years ago, I decided I wanted some for our bedroom there was none to be found. Suddenly now it's everywhere though so I thought I would include

Six of the Best: Curved Sofas

16th July 2019

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isola sofa from heals a/w collection

This is the part of the year where the actual stuff catches up with the endless trend reports. Back in April I wrote, not for the first time, that curves were the new shape. I didn't say then, and wonder now, if they are an antidote to the clean, straight lines of mid-century modern. Be

Five of the Best: Throws

30th April 2019

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waffled navy throw from hmhome

Well I know the odds of a sunny long bank holiday weekend are slim and I know that we had one over Easter - four days of a heat so intense we could have been in Spain, but boy have we been punished for that ever since. It's been so cold we've put the heating

Five of the Best: Rattan Chairs

26th March 2019

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babbington armchair by lloyd loombabbington armchair by lloyd loombabbington armchair by lloyd loom

Now I don't want to be too hasty about this but the sun is out and there is blossom and possible lawn-mowing in the air, so I thought I would do a little round up of rattan chairs as they feel summery, and rattan (or varieties thereof) is everywhere this season from handbags and lampshades

Five of the Best: Foxed Mirrors

28th February 2019

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foxed mirror from antique mirror company

I have written before how about mirrors are an essential feature of any room - especially one that is small and dark - as they will bounce the light around and make the space look bigger. But I also don't like modern mirrors to be too big as they can give the impression that you

6 Of The Best Round Coffee Tables

31st January 2019

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glass side table from rose&grey £195

Today's post brings you six of the best round coffee tables that are around at the moment, but while looking for them I started to wonder why it's called a coffee table in the first place? It's fine by me as I never drink tea but why aren't they called tea tables? I have written

10 Beautiful Rooms

3rd December 2018

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bedroom belonging to Pearl Lowe

Welcome to this week's edition of 10 Beautiful Rooms and the best of this week's instagram, and yes we are, so far, resisting the Christmas decorations for another week. Today is all about warm and cosy spaces and, it turns out, quite a lot of fabulous bedrooms. devol kitchen But while you wander through these

Don’t Move Improve: London’s Best Home Extensions

30th November 2018

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This week we're taking a different approach as New London Architecture (NLA) has just announced its shortlist for this prestigious design award to find the best home extensions in the capital, and I thought you might like to see some of the entrants as it could give you ideas for your own work. There are

Six of the Best Desks

8th November 2018

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hubsch solid oak desk from designvintage for £595

I have been gathering research for the new book over the last few weeks and asking people what their most common interior design dilemmas are. One thing that has come back again and again is how to make a small space feel bigger, or how to create a room than can multi-task. A few weeks

Six of the Best Autumn Throws

18th October 2018

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Well it's definitely the weirdest Autumn I can remember - one minute everyone's shouting that they want the heating on and the next it's t-shirt weather. And I know that October can be changeable, but it's not usually this extreme. Anyway, if we're settling into a pattern of warm days and cold nights (it's like

10 Beautiful Rooms is back for Autumn

3rd September 2018

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Hello and how lovely to be back on these pages. Some of you will have read the newsletter, which went out at the weekend, but for the rest of you welcome back to The Mad House. I thought we would start with some fabulous workspaces seeing as so many of us will be going back

10 Beautiful Rooms

9th July 2018

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pavilion grey by farrow and ball

Morning to you all - are you ready for a stroll through nine beautiful rooms and one garden? Seeing as it's warm (understatement) outside I thought we'd finish up outside for a change. I'm not complaining, but I have taken to leaving the windows open and the blinds down all day to try and maximise