I write Design Soda, a design blog with a focus on interiors. My blog aims to be an unpretentious, stimulating, fun and naturally curious delve into inspirational design and Londoncentric culture. I describe my style as boho-eclectic and am open to most design which doesn’t look too serious or composed.
As a design geek with a love of vintage and upcycling, I am passionate about my home and love blogging ideas and looks that I find inspirational. Since the time when my teenage bedroom was an Aladdins cave of upcycled furniture, Cecil Beaton photography and Situationist slogans I have been interested in the way the home environment can make you feel and inspire your inner life.
As a new mummy, trying to negotiate my passions with my lovely new baby's schedule can be difficult, but in my spare time you will often find me snapping the things that catch my eye in my wonderful home city London. Or, reading, upcycling, spending longer on Pinterest than I should, baking and watching old movies. I have a lifelong passion for French New Wave cinema.
There are so many posts I want to write at the moment that remain stuck in drafts as I hectically decorate the new house (unbelievably there’s not too much left to do now!) so I thought I’d share an easy post today of things that have inspired me out and about around London that I’ve snapped on my phone. Through the aperture:Read More
It’s been a while since I last posted on wallpapers and there are so many eye catchers on the market. I saw some great ones at London Design Festival in September, patterns are a bit of a weakness for me so this was truly testing ground, but I haven’t got round to sharing them all yet. Some are pretty neutral, others perhaps more fitting on the ubiquitous feature wall which I’m a big fan of, it can be a great and inexpensive way to feature art in a room, and some high end ones really are like pieces of art. It seems fitting that I post this today as I am going to use Ted’s afternoon nap to remove some anaglyphta from the hallway in our new house. I include a few American papers as some people are happy to shop internationally (or are reading from other countries) and in fact I have ordered the wallpaper in the main image for my downstairs loo from Anthropologie’s American website. Here is my smorgasbord of favourites, Enjoy!Read More
Now, I have design crushes and design crushes, this one, the brogue table, definitely falls under the category of capital letters DESIGN CRUSH. I could not shout my love for this table more strongly. It is perfect. It comes in many colours and is a wonderful design, but this design in this one colour, I may just sell my own nanny for it (and would probably have to given the price). It is by multi-award-winning British designer Bethan Gray who has designed products and lines for Habitat, John Lewis and The Conran Store. It is the quality and detail of this piece that is so stunning, that cut work edging which is hand tooled on leather is exquisite. The cut work, which is perforated and stitched as on a brogue would be (hence the name!) also looks, to me, almost like a doilly, mirroring something of past, a celebrational trim in a totally modern way, it is incredibly beautiful whilst being, dare I say, almost a little kitsch.Read More
Love, love, love. I am totally in love with the tile trend that is everywhere at the moment. I have spent a large part of the last year, maybe more than I care to admit to, drooling over tiles, non-committaly but emphatically in love with so many. I may be a bit late to the party, as 2015 really was the year of tiles as design statement, but I am so taken with them. The trend had been creeping up for a while, maybe it’s because I spend too much time on Pinterest Read More
Happy New Year! A little late, I know, in my usual tardy fashion, but now all the hullabaloo of Xmas and moving are out of the way I’m taking 2016 as a fresh start to return to blogging. I don’t tend to write personal posts but as I haven’t posted for a while I thought I would. 2015 was a pretty big year for us, it was our first full year as parents,Read More