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…
After the 10th conversation about what I would do to the kitchen if we had the money and the justification for doing so, I heard the Mad Husband say to a friend: “She’s got that look in her eye. I know that look. She needs to decorate something.” Turns out I have a recognisable decorating…
It’s not news to say that the way we use our homes has dramatically changed over the last six months as we learn to work from home, school from home and get used to all being within the same four walls all the time. And John Lewis & Partners published a report yesterday which reveals…
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…
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.…
I spent years wanting a vintage steel desk. For a long time there was one in the window of our local antique/retro/junk shop but it cost around £1,800 and was way out of our budget. I think perhaps it was way out of anyone else’s too as it was there for such a long time.…
Well here we are again. It’s December already and this year I have decided to make it about the best of the Mad House. This is partly because everyone’s too busy to read blogs at the moment and partly because I was looking up an old post the other day and I thought: there’s a…
So now that both children are at secondary school and I am determined to reorganise the spareroom so that it works as a home office for me (as well as him) the issue of finding a good desk seems ever more pressing. On a trip to John Lewis to buy school shoes last week (now…
Inspired by the clean straight lines of the modernist period, A Desk is the latest piece from the studio of Alex Swain, whose earlier creation, A Stool, has been featured on these pages before and hailed as a contemporary classic by The Guardian. Both pieces owe their existence to the classic entrepreneurial spirit that I…
Made by a Berlin cabinetmaker, this desk has been designed to be like a small office in its own right. It has been created so that you can stack everything in pockets and boxes and yet it is all open and within reach. According to the maker’s website: “The areas for stationery are grouped around…