Category Archives: Design Favourites: Sourcing & Inspiration

Trends: Spring Summer ’17 Home Trends at Top Drawer London

January 20, 2017

Image: Design Soda

I can think of no past time more cheerful on official ‘Blue Monday’ than surrounding yourself with Spring season homewares(!), so, as Top Drawer London was in town I hopped along to have a peep at what’s on the horizon in the world of interiors for Spring/Summer. Having seen a few previews in November from high street chains, the main things that resonated with me there – velvets, smoked glass, craftsmanship, and blues were all in abundance at Top Drawer too. And it may just be because I ventured out with a heavy cold unable to smell my own perfume, but my eye kept getting caught by gorgeous blankets, candles and soft pastel colours and I don’t think it was just because I felt like hiding under a duvet! The overall vibe I took from the show was one of understated luxury, craftsmanship, small details and if there was one message that was pretty hard to miss it was BLUSH PINK IS STILL HERE! And hooray for that as I’m not tiring of it any time soon. I love pretty well all dashes of pastel in spring time, they are like little drops of optimism for a new season in the home. Some of the blush is also turning to coral this year which I welcome gladly as a slightly punchier tone to offset the whites, blacks and greys that aren’t going anywhere either. So this is my roundup of favourite looks and inspiration from the show, with so many thousands of stalls I’ve narrowed down to just a few but as you can imagine there was an abundance more available to be seen. Let me know what you are swooning over, I have all the heart eyes for the knitted textiles at the moment.

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Shopping: Tile Choices & Home Design

January 16, 2017

Image: Design Soda

So we are now halfway through January, and as it’s the first month of the year the accompanying clarity in relation to getting on top of things and to-do lists for a fresh start means that quite a few of you have been discussing your renovation plans online with me. So, today, I thought I’d do a piece on one of the big areas within renovation – tile choices. The nuts and bolts of a room, from kitchens to bathrooms, and even flooring, tiles are one of the most impactful decisions you’ll make in the home. There is such an abundance of wonderful products on the market these days that it can be a little daunting trying to narrow down your search and get just the look you want and which will outlast trends (drooling over competing looks on Pinterest is a bit of a past time of mine!). And tiles are such a big investment, usually in cost but also longevity, once those tiles are in they’re usually staying there for quite a while! I’ve been planning our kitchen for nearly a year now and keep changing my mind (luckily no tiles have been purchased or adhered). So, with all this in mind, today lets talk tiles!

Decorum Tiles Marble and Mother of Pearl interior bathroom kitchen ideas and inspiration

Tiles: White Carrara Brick Mosaic Tiles & Shell Mystic Circle in White

Image: Design Soda

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Colour: Pretty in (architectural and design) Pinks

January 6, 2017

Image: Casa Horta, shot by Jose Hevia for Sight Unseen

Good morning! Not many words today as I have 30 killer images for us to collectively swoon over! It’s been 3 years since I first blogged about the new trend for pink, and boy did it really take off last year, 2016 was a year of blush tones everywhere, I loved all of it and in particular when clashed against bold colours or on outside walls. There’s a lot of talk of dark jewel tones taking centre stage this year, and of course green as the new grey, will pink disappear from our radars in 2017? Who knows, I’m not tired of it yet so I have a feeling it won’t. Today I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of my favourite pink inspirations from the last year, the ones I’ve been lusting after the most, some are harder and bolder than the blush we’ve seen so much of, some are even neon, almost dreamlike where Wes Anderson meets David Hockney! From faded-sherbet pink to ever-so-bold pink all of these spaces inspire me with major heart eyes, perhaps the Jewish deli in Berlin (image below) the most of all, I’m almost booking my flight just so that I can take up a seat at that table and never leave! I’d love to incorporate some of this boldness into the Design Soda home this year. What colours are you craving at the moment? Drop me a note in the comments below.

Image: Louis Pretty Jewish deli in Berlin, shot by Steve Herud

Inspiration: My Absolute Favourite (Must Read) Design Blogs of 2016

December 20, 2016

Images: No Glitter, No Glory

As 2016 draws to a close I thought I would take a quick moment to focus on the blogs which have really inspired me this year, you may well know many of them, some may be new discoveries, but allow me to introduce to you 10 fantastic interiors bloggers with distinct voices and styles who have made blog reading a wonderful space for me this year. I’ve seen these kinds of post from time to time on other blogs, often they seem to be one of those chain mail things where a certain number of bloggers all choose each other for favourites and run a kind of co-promotion. I have nothing against this, just letting you know that this is not that. Some of these bloggers I’ve met or speak to online, some I would even call buddies, but this is my, truly objective, absolute real line up of 10 favourites. There are so many great voices out there and people working really hard to produce original content it’s really hard to narrow down to 10, I have included an afterword on another 10 I love but here below are the big guns that make my life brighter:

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Design Crush #12 – Murals wallpaper

December 14, 2016

Image: Denim Drift Grunge by Murals Wallpaper

As the byline to the blog denotes – colour, pattern, patina – I am pretty keen on all things with interesting surface design or colour (forget the patina bit, that’s more my love of vintage, we’ll come to that another time). When both colour and pattern come together and are truly nailed, my heart usually sings with joy. And, since Jordan from Two Lovely Gays installed a beautiful mural wall in an apartment in Brighton on the first series of The Great Interior Design challenge a few years back, I’ve had a bit of a thing for mural walls. There is now a pretty spectacular range of them on the market, and because they are designed for a statement wall or space, they tend to be writ larger than wallpaper, bolder and with more aesthetic punch. Read More

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