"sophie robinson" - Mad About The House

close

The Best Mantel Garlands of 2020

15th December 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

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

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

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

From My Radar To Yours: What’s New in Interiors this month

24th November 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

recycled plastic chair from & tradition

This idea of a news page seemed to go down well when I did it for the first time last month so here's this month's round up of events and general newness that you might want to know about or investigate further. In no particular order but starting with the first one to land in

Book Review: De Gournay Wallpaper and Scandi Rustic Interiors

29th October 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

St. Laurent designer Greg Natale photo Anson Smart

Suddenly there are new interiors books coming out every week after years of it being a massively unfashionable subject and it's becoming hard to keep up. Today I'm going to show you two books from either end of the spectrum - in a vain (probably laughable) attempt to try and keep all of the people

How We Live and Work Now

22nd October 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

home office designed by @home_at_brookes and built by @createescapeshome office designed by @home_at_brookes and built by @createescapes

The last six months have dramatically altered how we live. Aside from the Government’s advice, neatly summed up by Matt Lucas as Go to work. Don’t go to work, it seems that many of those who can work from home are doing so and a survey in September found that 30 per cent of adults

An Interview with Skin of Skunk Anansie and the Dulux Colour Of The Year

10th September 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

Portrait of Skin sitting on a stool with large grey folded top. Photo by Marco Ovando

Two big topics for you this week on the podcast with an interview with Skin, singer with Skunk Anansie as well as discussion of the Dulux colour of the year. Now, by the time you read this the colour will have been announced so I'll come to that at the end. First up Skin, whose

Planning the Perfect Kitchen and Bathroom (podcast notes)

27th August 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

Kitchens and bathrooms are the two biggest investments you are likely to make when it comes to refurbishing your house. They are also the most disruptive jobs to carry out, so for that reason you need to get it right first time. On this week's podcast, Sophie and I discuss some important planning tips to

Podcast Notes: Designing for Accessible Living

13th August 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

hidden stair chair lift by Pati Robins

Now one subject we haven't touched on in The Great Indoors Podcast is accessible living and we thought it was time we did. This was sparked, in part, by an email we received from a listener who said: “I’ve listened to all episodes (some twice) and I’ve got my red thread, crystallised my vision and

Styling a Bathroom with Geberit

5th August 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

kate watson-smyth in geberit bathroom she styled

Back for another Wednesday Ad Break and this was such a fun job styling a bathroom with our former podcast sponsor Geberit. It had to be done completely in lockdown too with lots of messages and product links going back and forth and neither Sophie nor I got to see the finished rooms until we

Design For Diversity: The Pledge

18th June 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

It’s three weeks since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis. It’s three weeks since the world woke up to the fact that it wasn’t enough to be passively “not racist” but that it needed to be actively anti-racist. And it’s three days since the writer Reni Eddo-Lodge became the

Lockdown Lighting Tips and Decorating Ideas

30th April 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

swachbox by sophie robinson

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

Happiness At Home: A podcast special episode

16th April 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

my mantelpiece is a collection of family souvenirs and happy memories

Now this might be quite a timely - if long - post. We planned to focus on happiness at home for this episode of the podcast several weeks ago (well before all this) but it turns out that this might be just the thing for now. So today on The Great Indoors, Sophie and I

10 Ways to Work from Home

24th March 2020

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

the loft studio at madaboutthehouse.com

Now I sense this is a subject we will be returning to over the new few weeks but for now I wanted to share a few things that have helped me work from home over the last 20 years with babies, toddlers and now teenagers. Sometimes I had a dedicated space and often I didn't.

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

30th December 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

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

Small Space Decorating, how to create an Insta-worthy tree and the enduring appeal of English Country style (podcast notes)

14th November 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

I promised you a chunky post to make up for missing the other day and this one has a lot of content in it. Now it's a sort of written version of the podcast for those who like images to go with their listening but I also try hard to make sure they work as

New Releases: Interior Design Books

31st October 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

A new season means new book releases and October is a big month for publishers - the first Thursday of the month is known as Super Thursday when hundreds of books are released at the same time in a bid to hit the Christmas market. This year, on the 3rd, there were 426 hardbacks published,

An Interview with Michelle Ogundehin (podcast notes)

17th October 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

Kate Watson-Smyth and Sophie Robinson take a house tour with Michelle Ogundehin for the Great Indoors podcast. The dining room features floor length dusky lilac velvet curtains, a antique mirror effect wallpaper and anaglypta. #thegreatindoors #madaboutthehouse

Michelle Ogundehin needs little introduction; the editor of Elle Decoration for 13 years (from 2004) she is now a regular television presenter, creative consultant and is just finishing off her first book. Notoriously private about her home, Michelle posts only corners of her rooms and has said she will never, ever, invite a magazine into

Beautiful Rooms: A splash of green

7th October 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

In this room the ceiling is gold which matches the French bed perfectly while the walls are a soft creamy pink. The wall behind the bed has been panelled to create the look of a giant bedhead while the freestanding wardrobe has been painted to match so the room looks cohesive and pretty. #greendecor #bedroom #madaboutthehouse

Green is all anyone is talking about at the moment; whether it's colour of the year, our impact on the planet or new paint ranges so I thought we would use that as excuse to look at some greenspiration today and perhaps if you are thinking of incorporating this colour into your space it might

London Design Festival Round-Up and Colour Trends (podcast notes)

3rd October 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

In this week's episode of the podcast Sophie and I report back on London Design Festival and what we found there. This event gets bigger every year and more and more venues now take part. Set up in 2003, over a million people from 75 countries now visit the capital to see both new products

House Tour: Laura Jackson

19th September 2019

AD / MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS

laura jackson bathroom

This week on the podcast we visited a house that is, or will be, done up in the style of my dreams. Supper Club host Laura Jackson is midway through the renovations of her East London home and is a firm believer in buying nothing new unless you absolutely have to. laura jackson sitting room