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An Interior Design Masterclass with Nicola Harding

25th February 2021

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The Mitre by Nicola Harding & Co

Nicola Harding is one of my favourite interior designers. It was her work that I referenced when I first noticed the importance (and joy) of bringing a disrupter colour into every scheme and she is also fully committed to being as sustainable as possible in her work. So I was thrilled when she agreed to

Monday Inspiration: The Doors Are Opening

22nd February 2021

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blue door frame and panelling by katy orme of apartment apothecary (farrow & ball inchyra blue)

As ever, when I began looking to put this post together I had no theme in mind. Then I looked at my most recently saved posts on Instagram and realised I had been drawn to doors this week. And then, because if you can't become introspective in a lockdown when can you (?) I realised

How To Cope with Lockdown in a Small House

11th February 2021

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pink and green kitchen at sophie robinson house

A post in two parts for you today as part of the show notes for the latest episode of the The Great Indoors podcast which is out today. We spoke to Julia Samuel, a psychotherapist, whose book This Too Shall Pass, came out (with uncanny timing) last March. She specialises in bereavement counselling and dealing

Home Office Makeover Part I

2nd February 2021

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home office with panelling at madaboutthehouse.com

I wanted to show you the first stage of the home office makeover because I have been talking about it for a long time and while it's broadly finished I am waiting for some blinds and also for the gloss paint to fully cure which means I can't put anything on the shelves but I

The Househunter: A stunning warehouse conversion

25th September 2020

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Time for a full on fantasy Friday I think. If the week's news has got you down then come on over and let's go for a poke around this fabulous, huge warehouse conversion and you can imagine filling it with all your fantasy furniture and family as well. And speaking of being down, I found

The Househunter: Room by Room

26th June 2020

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Following on from the interview with Matt Gibberd yesterday, it seemed only right to check in and see if he had any new properties for sale given his comment that, since estate agents were allowed to open up again a few weeks ago, it was "busy, busy, busy". And indeed there is a slew of

The Househunter Room by Room

6th March 2020

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all blue via the modern house

Deep diving into a properly colour saturated space this week and hopefully giving you a chance to see how this all enveloping colour soaking might work in your own homes. This is a two bedroom flat in Tottenham, north London, that is on the market with Brickworks for £500,000. It's worth having a really good

The Househunter: Room by Room

18th October 2019

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Welcome to The Househunter and my selection of a fabulous property that is on the market this week. Each week we take a look around a different house or flat and see where we can take inspiration and what the owners have done that might give us ideas for our own spaces. The price is

Don’t Forget The Fifth Wall

20th August 2019

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Kate Watson-Smyth advises not to forget the fifth wall, also known as the ceiling. Her office ceiling in gold adds interest and bounces light around the room - the ideal backdrop for her large statement pendant light. #madaboutthehouse #homeoffice #goldceiling

Throwing it back to some statement ceilings in honour of a spread in Grazia earlier this summer which included two of mine. And, coincidentally, today's issue of the magazine includes their first ever interiors special for which I wrote a four page special on the seasonal updates you can make now. It's not that walls

What Paint to Use on Which Surface: A Guide.

1st August 2019

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As regular readers know I take a break from blogging in August. This is partly to recharge my batteries and partly because I suspect that since I blog four times a week many of you don't have time to read everything, or you might skip a post because it doesn't feel relevant when it's published

8 Tips To Arrange Furniture

28th March 2019

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Today I thought we would have a look at arranging furniture because it's not just about where the sofa goes but if you are planning a new room - from scratch - you need to know where the furniture will go before you can work out where the lights will go. And your builder will

Room Makeover: The Gold Ceiling Office

5th March 2019

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Kate Watson-Smyth advises not to forget the fifth wall, also known as the ceiling. Her office ceiling in gold adds interest and bounces light around the room - the ideal backdrop for her large statement pendant light. #madaboutthehouse #homeoffice #goldceiling

This is the tale of how a sad and neglected spare room/junk room got its mojo back by acquiring a gold ceiling and becoming my new office. Read on to find out what we did and for a quick room tour as well. When we moved in this room was given to the 18yo (that

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

Podcast Notes Episode 6: Is Expensive Paint Worth It?

13th December 2018

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pink and blue hallway by Sophie Robinson

And here it is. Episode 6 is up and ready to download and here's a summary of what we discussed. In this show, the last of the series, we spoke about how to plan the hallway, whether expensive paint is worth the money, and three interiors books that would make great Christmas presents. hallway at

House Tour: Creating A Master Bedroom En Suite

22nd November 2018

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We have lived in this house for eight years now and it's fair to say that it has undergone a number of changes. This is partly down to the nature of my job and partly down to getting it wrong. Although perhaps there is no "wrong" maybe we should just call it changing my mind.

10 Beautiful Rooms

5th November 2018

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Starting the week with this new kitchen by Devol which is in an Islington townhouse. It's a large open plan space and by keeping it dark and not too fitted the owners have cleverly blended it into the living space so that it has become a room with a kitchen in it rather than a

Watt the LED is a Lumen: Lighting explained

16th October 2018

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capsule alas light by 2LG at Cameron Design House. Prices start at £2,600

It doesn’t matter how many light bulbs you currently have in your house – I have three boxes of the damn things – it is a truth universally acknowledged that you haven’t got one to fit that light that just blew. And if, by some miracle, you do have one that fits the socket, the

If You Buy One Thing…..

26th July 2018

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faux fern from rockett st george at kws madabouthehouse.com

Make it this faux palm from Rockett St George.... I'll tell you why in a minute. But first: When I started this blog, way back in 2012 I did a certain amount of research before I began: Google: What is a blog? Google: Where do I get one? Google: How do I upload an image?

Turn Your Bedroom into a Cosy Retreat

12th October 2017

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As part of my ongoing collaboration with Marks & Spencer, they asked me to look at their bedding range. "Let's make a video," they said. "Cool," I said. "What of?" "You. Making a bed," they said simply. And so we did. It's quite short, as you will see, but it's about how to make your

A Guide to Buying Carpet

19th September 2017

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Timorous Beasties platinum grain du bois from Brintons Now I know that carpet suffers from a slight image problem for many of you but the fact remains that most of us have some of it, and it still accounts for 57 per cent of all the flooring sold in the UK. And some of the