MY EDIT: What to buy in the Designers at Debenhams' New Season Sale

I’ve noticed that Debenhams are having a ‘new season sale’ – on til Friday. It’s a great chance to get 25% off almost everything, including their Designers at Debenhams home collections, which always feature a few on-trend gems. Having trawled through the entire range, here’s my personal edit:

Images courtesy of Debenhams

Product information, clockwise from top left:

Rocha.JohnRocha Cream slate large oval platter, normally £12, currently £9

Rocha.JohnRocha Natural cable knit throw, normally  £60, currently £48

Rocha.JohnRocha Green reactive mug, normally £6, currently £4.50

Rocha.JohnRocha Wooden platter, normally £32, currently £24

J by Jasper Conran Yellow chevron boudoir cushion, normally £22, currently £16.50

J by Jasper Conran Grey round wicker bin, normally £16, currently £12

Rocha.JohnRocha Wooden salad servers, normally £15, currently £11.25

Rocha.JohnRocha Yellow reactive mug, normally £6, currently 4.50

J by Jasper Conran Green Carlyle bedlinen, normally  £28-80, currently £21-60 


*Debenhams

MY HOUSE: Diagonal Displays

3

Picture by Kate Jacobs

Being an unashamed interiors geek, I enjoy rearranging my vases, ornaments and general knick-knackery. In the past I’ve always tried to create something balanced - not symmetrical but often with the ‘golden section’ idea of proportion at the back of my mind. But right now I’m going through a slightly odd phase of lining things up from large to small in order to create a diagonal line. It started by accident when I moved a few things to clean and liked how they looked – now I seem to be doing it all over the house. Often I’ll arrange one type of object in a diagonal line, like the white urns immediately below, but with the other pieces breaking the rule. I like it because it brings a bit of modernity to a display and the effect is offbeat and unexpected. It shows that you can have a bit of fun and create something different without having to buy anything new. But only if you’re an interiors geek…

Picture by Kate Jacobs

Picture by Kate Jacobs

Picture by Kate Jacobs

Sitting Still - Matthew Hilton's new Windsor chair collection, made by Ercol for De La Espada

Picture courtesy of De La Espada

I’ve fallen in love with this series of five new Windsor chairs by Matthew Hilton for De La Espada (launching at the Milan Salone in April). Even before I read the blurb I was reminded of a childhood school trip to the High Wycombe Chair Museum (yes, really). Turns out these chairs were manufactured by Ercol in High Wycombe. Sadly, Ercol are the last of the HW furniture makers, though it’s great that at least one firm is keeping the tradition alive and bringing it into the 21st Century.

I feel like the charms of these chairs speak for themselves. They’ve got such an honest simplicity about them,  if there's such a thing as a chair with integrity then this is it! I love the mix of the two timbers - walnut and ash,  the matt finish, the way they link modernism with traditional artisan design. I particularly love the higgledy-piggledy look of the five designs together and would buy them like this if I could – perhaps with a second one of the ‘armed’ designs so that they could go at either end of a six-seater table. And if were going to pick just one, I’d have to test drive them and just plump for the most comfortable.


*Matthew Hilton

*De La Espada

*Ercol

Space to Think... at Ligne Roset's cave-desk

High-end French furniture company, Ligne Roset, seem to be on a bit of roll at the moment. I loved their recently launched Ploum sofas by the Bouroullec brothers (see my earlier blog) and this image of their stand at Paris Maison et Objet, late last month, really captured my attention. 

Picture Courtesy of Ligne Roset

It's a serene and simple look, while the warm woods stop it getting too clinical. But the real scene stealer is the desk. Called Rewrite and designed by GamFratesi, it was first seen in 2009 but only put into production last month. On a practical level it's a great desk if you don't have a dedicated study and work in your kitchen, bedroom, lounge etc . GamFratesi call it an 'isolating workbubble' because while you're working it reduces the visual and aural distraction factor and when you've finished the detachable soft fabric hood hides the inevitable desk detritus. 

Picture courtesy of GamFratesi

There's something of the cocoon or nest about it, concepts that were big interiors trends just over a decade ago. Perhaps these ideas are already due a revisit, because of a desire to escape our troubled times? Interestingly, its designers refer to the shape as 'cave-like' - which ties into the pre-history idea I've mentioned before and really must do a proper blog on. For now though, I salute the offbeat good looks of the Rewrite desk. 

Picture courtesy of GamFratesi

*Ligne Roset

Wood for Good - the medium is the message

Picture courtesy of Ernst Gamperl

My obsession with raw wood was indulged when I stumbled upon German designer Ernst Gamperl’s work. They're simple, unpretentious and draw attention to the unique beauty of the raw material itself. 

Picture courtesy of Ernst Gamperl

*Ernst Gamperl

All wrapped up: an eye-catching light from the Stockholm Furniture Fair

Born in Scotland but working in Stockholm as part of design group Made By, lighting designer David Taylor created these rather wonderful pendant lights for the Biologiska section of this month's Stockholm Furniture Fair. Being a yellow nut, I love them first and foremost for that. But I've always had a thing for wrapping in art and design too. These two combine to offset the fact that the lamps are plastic - a material I can't work up much enthusiasm for these days. Anyway, a great little product that I had to feature here.

Picture courtesy of David Taylor / Made By

The latest Farrow & Ball paints: colour combinations for a (beautiful) new Age of Austerity

Some very inspiring images (and what I think they tell us about coming interiors trends)... 

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

Picture courtesy of Farrow & Ball

I was completely wowed by the images that accompany the launch of paint company Farrow  Ball’s new colours. Of course, it goes without saying that Farrow & Ball produce amazing failsafe paints. Almost every room in my house is painted with their shades and I’ve never had any regrets – more than can be said for some of the non-F&B rooms!

Colour-wise the combinations shown here are unexpected, but still easy on the eye. And there’s a reassuring amount of green, which I think is going to be huge in the years to come, as we try to find substitutes for the greenery that is lacking from our now predominantly urban lives.

But what I really admire most is the canny eye that has put these unusual colour combinations together in such cool, yet real, settings. The look reminds me of institutional, civil service type buildings from the Thirties to Fifties. In such rooms there might be a nice old mahogany desk, with a black bakelite telephone, a large utilitarian tea urn, a plain metal ‘coolie hat’ light-shade, plus some incongruous exposed pipe-work, and walls painted mushy-pea-green. It's a look I've always devoured when watching old British films.

To try and get to the core of what makes these pictures so great, I suppose they are an antidote to years of swish, glossy, seamless finishes and suggest a future when we will have to (re)embrace the austere idea of ‘make do and mend’ – but still manage to have beautiful homes. I for one am well up for it – especially after looking at these inspiring images. 

*Farrow & Ball

A moodboard for today: colours, textures, materials and motifs for the 2011 home

Picture copyright of Kate Jacobs

I had to make this moodboard on Thursday night as a prop for a shoot on Friday. It was good because I only had about fifteen minutes to sift through my folder of inspirational images and put it together - which stopped me agonizing and never actually completing it. I particularly love the 'at home with a gimp shot' - that gimp has one beautiful pad! I didn't plan it this way but it seems to contain a lot of interiors trends that are reaching their critical mass.  Here's a breakdown:

Colours: caramel, straw, honey, greige, grey, leafy natural greens


Textures and materials: hair, rope, hessian, woven grass (wallpaper), raw and slubby silks, exposed brick, muted metals (think old coins)


Motifs and patterns: plaited hair, sunflowers, the old master still life painting (and the way these celebrate the beauty to be found in humble, everyday things).

Comfort and Joy! The Bouroullec brothers' newly launched Ploum sofa

Picture courtesy of Ligne Roset

Picture courtesy of Ligne Roset

One of the most exciting things to come out of the imm cologne fair of last week was Ligne Roset's launch of the Ploum sofa, by French design duo Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. I love its simple 'come on, dive in' good looks. It looks like a great place to tumble en masse at a party, nurse the subsequent hangover or cosy up, solo, on a winters day like today.  And in this case, the comfort is much more than skin deep, as the brothers Bouroullec explain, 'We attempted to make a very comfortable contemporary settee. Ploum is a vast shape on which the whole body rests on a soft, welcoming surface. Its seat is relatively low, it seems organic. Perhaps the use of a stretchy fabric is like a symbolic parallel to a contemporary lifestyle, in which flexibility of use and comfort seem to us to be essential.' Ligne Roset elaborate: 'The Ploum settees are the fruit of a great deal of research into comfort, leading to a specific combination of two materials, used jointly: a stretchy covering fabric and an ultra-flexible foam. The combination of these two materials, when associated with the real dimensional generosity of the Ploum settees, offers an extreme level of comfort whilst offering the body the chance to adopt a number of possible postures.'

What's fascinating about all this is that designers are making comfort, rather than looks, their first priority. I've long been known as a comfort bunny, the one lugging a pair of feather pillows into my festival tent. But now it feels right for the wider world. It's part of a 'substance before style' idea that must inevitably gain momentum in the mixed up world we're living in. People need their homes to comfort and cosset them, to bring them solace, rather than merely look great. Of course, style needn't be ruled out, but surely we'd all be a little happier putting substance first and sharing our home with a settee that's a pleasure to sit on. 


*Ligne Roset

*The Bouroullec Brothers

MY EDIT: brand new online store Skandivis:

'Skandivis', which loosely translates as 'the Scandinavian way', is the name of the brand new online store launched by Toni Kay, who comes from Denmark but has lived in London for many years. While the store unsurprisingly specialises in unearthing exciting Nordic designers, Kay fuses these with products from around the world that sit happily with the Scandi aesthetic. Here's my pick of favourite things from the site...

Remix - Yellow Silk Cushion £55

Adjustable Shuffle Table £399 (see below)

I love the Spring-evoking, slightly acidic colour palette in both of the above products. Interesting information on the Adjustable Shuffle Table from the website: 'Mia Hamborg gives new life to the old Nordic craft tradition of turning wood by adding the colour and playful forms from old painted wooden toys. You get to decide how to use the shapes and colours to create your own unique table. The main aim with this piece of furniture is to create joy so whatever you do please remember to have fun with it!'

 

Ferm Living Elle Elephant Kid's Cushion
£29

Ferm Living Aristo Cat Kid's Cushion
£29

The above ultra-cute cushions are from 'The Marionette Collection', by Norwegian design duo Darling Clementine. I'd like to see a row of them along the back of a little wooden or wrought metal sofa bed in a child's playroom. 

Cork Tray Large £24.95

Cork Coaster £14

Cork is a natural, renewable and recyclable material. Use the tray for serving or as a centerpiece or placemat, while the ‘coaster’ would be useful when putting hot pots and pans on the table. I like the ultra-simple and natural aesthetic of these products.  

Hand Knitted Off White Wool Throw £440

Icelandic Sheep Skin Cushion £198

Extremely expensive (by my budget standards!) but, to me, these kinds of products (the above cushion and throw) represent true, new luxury. I’ll do a separate blog on this subject at some future date. 

Hand-carved Olive Wood Salad Servers £15.99

Tree Double Bed Linen £159

This last is more about the image than product. I'm a sucker for a bed outdoors (think of the cosy bed on a frozen Montauk beach in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which made a big impression on me) and I love the twisted wood and natural greens in this shot. 

www.skandivis.co.uk

MY HOUSE: Introducing some new (and affordable) pictures and frames

I got some great pictures for Christmas. Not being one for surprises I chose them myself! Here they are, framed up and ready to go for a little show-and-tell...


I've got a few sculptural type things on my walls, but very little in the way of pictures* so I've spent a few months researching prints-I-can-afford-to-buy-now, looking for things in the £25-£65 type bracket, with frames of similar prices.

The first one is a 'Spoon (Austin, TX)' music poster from Animal Rummy for a music event in Austin, Texas. They sell lots of amazing posters, concentrating on works related to the various musical projects of the wonderful Mr Jack White. I loved the unusual mix of old photograph and modern graphics in this design, the aged-looking paper  (French sand speckletone paper) and the metallic copper coloured printed lettering. Amazingly, given my lack of awareness of modern music, I actually have the album of one of the acts mentioned, The Strange Boys, which makes it feel nice and personal. I'll be hanging it in the lounge above one of the sofas.

 In the same room, I've also got a Wayne Pate silkscreen print called For the Birds. This will hang above the fireplace and be my main focal point when sitting in this room. I like lounges to be quite tranquil so I wanted something fairly simple here, that wasn't a constant distraction and this piece, reminsicent of a Picasso drawing, does the trick beautifully. Because of their irregular sizes, these two needed special frames. I'd love to shop local at my brilliant local framers, but I needed a budget solution. I used the bespoke / design-your-own frame and mount service at eFrame.co.uk. I was really pleased with the choice of frames and mounts and you can even upload your image to get a better idea of the finished effect. I chose a skinny flat white frame and a 'granite' (but actually medium grey) mount. I am taking a gamble here and writing this before I've seen the finished results but I will update this if I'm less than delighted (in the name of journalistic integrity I have NOT opted to for the money-off-in-exchange-for-website-mention offer on their site). 

In the kitchen, over the dining table, I have a 'Carousel' print from the brilliant Elphick's on Colombia Road. Sharon Elphick sells a few of this 60s illustrator David Weidman's prints. I love the colours which will work great with my dining area window seat shades-of-green curtains and the sixities folk-y style of the piece which sits happily with the nearby four season plaques by Bjorn Wiinblad. This print is a standard size so I've framed it in a white 'Bacall' frame from Habitat. I love these because you slot your pic between two panes of glass, meaning you can use your wall as the mount colour. Great if your walls are anything other than white - in this case mine is a very strong cream - 'Farrow's Cream' by Farrow and Ball. Sadly, Habitat have reduced the range of sizes available. I have a few but wish I had stocked up when I could. I'm really into skinny frames and think the days of outsized frames and mounts are over.

*I'll have to do a blog on my existing pictures including pieces by James Brown / General Pattern and Modern Toss as well as some amateur / bootfair pieces, some other time. 

UPDATE: OK, so all the prints are framed and hung and I'm pleased with them all. I was surprised that the eframe frames come with some sort of plastic rather than glass but as this is good news for our fragile old horsehair plaster walls, I can't see a downside. Here are some snaps I took today:

Fabulous film interior from Sweet Bird of Youth

All pictures from Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Warner Bros.

I was just going through my photo library and saw these screen shots that I took a while back, from the 1962 film Sweet Bird of Youth. It's classic Tennessee Williams stuff; regrets, secrets and sex, all soaked in bourbon. Much of the action takes place in this rather fabulous St. Cloud hotel suite where gigolo and wannabe actor Chance (Paul Newman) is holed up with washed-up movie star Alexandra (Geraldine Page). I was putting my house together when I saw this film and it captured a lot of what I wanted to do there, specifically using white painted furniture and objects against a backdrop of rich neutrals on the walls, as well as that slightly unspecific colonial look for the furniture. I particularly like the peacock chair - I've a bit of a thing for them - and the carving around the bed. I love the way it manages to be sumptuous and indulgent, while remaining tranquil and easy on the eye.

The good life. A New Year's resolution in magazine cover form...

US Vogue May 1946 cover by Irving Penn

Picture courtesy of Wayne Pate (waynepate.blogspot.com / waynepate.com)  

I saw this image last month on the blog of New York illustrator Wayne Pate and I've not been able to get it out of my mind since. I’ve been a fan of Pate's for a while now and am fairly confident that Father Christmas has organised one of his prints for me for Christmas, assuming I can keep up this ‘good girl’ business til the 25^th. Anyway, this is one of Pate’s ‘Prized Possessions’ and it’s easy to see why. It's a US Vogue cover from May 1946, by Irving Penn and, despite being well over sixty years old, it’s as timelessly beautiful and inspiring as ever. Being a yellow nut, I love the warming colour palette so much. But to me, it’s more than a slightly surreal collection of wonderful images. Viewed as a group, they perfectly balance health and indulgence, luxury and austerity. This cover speaks of finding beauty and pleasure in life's simple things - something that feels just right for the times we're living in now, when we're all having to rein it in a bit. It’s almost like a new year’s resolution in a cover. I want to get my hands on a copy and hang it on the wall. Father Christmas, please take note for 2011.

waynepate.com

waynepate.blogspot.com

The most stylish Christmas cards of all time...?

What the best-dressed mantelpieces should be wearing this Christmas…

I love the Paperchase mother-ship on Tottenham Court Road in London. It’s absolutely massive and full of inspiration. I always go there for my Christmas cards because they have more stylish cards than any of the smaller boutiques I’ve tried. I always want to do a Mary Portas and drag my local giftshop owner into Paperchase and show her exactly where she’s going wrong with her tame little offerings… but I digress from my point and, quite possibly, from the spirit of Christmas too.

This year I found some cards that are not new, or even newly re-issued, but I was so captivated by them that I had to show and tell – even at this late stage in the Christmas countdown. They’re by textile designer Walter Erhard, who created a huge range of cards under the name of 'IMP Press' from the late 1950s through to the end of the 1960s. In 2002 Vigo (tagline: ‘design led stationery from around the world’) bought his back catalogue and have been rolling it out to great success ever since. Although it is hard to unearth much information on him, according to Vigo, Erhard won many awards and was considered to be one of the most progressive designers of the day.


I’m more or less over the whole rinky-dink, Mad Men thing but in my opinion Christmas will always be a time for Dean Martin and the clink of drinks – and these cards fit perfectly with that mood. I think that they embody everything Christmas should be about: fun, beauty, goodness, simplicity and nostalgia. Best of all, they evoke that long lost sense of wonder and over-brimming excitement of one’s earliest Christmases and you can’t really beat that.

www.vigocards.com

www.paperchase.co.uk

All pictures courtesy of Vigo.