Happy Halloween!

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It’s nearly Halloween! We love this mantel display because fun as it can be, Halloween is not always the most stylish or tasteful festival. Orange and black is a difficult combination to pull off, even without spiders, severed limbs and chocolate eyeballs!

So why orange and black? The black bit is straightforward – black means night and darkness. One theory about the orange is that it is the colour of undyed beeswax candles, which were used for church services on All Hallow’s Day to commemorate the dead. Another is that it is the colour of harvest and that with the black, it symbolises the end of the agricultural year, the ‘death’ of the earth and the darkness of winter. The reason that orange is a Halloween colour though is probably nothing to do with pumpkins…

Halloween originated in the Celtic festival of Samhain on 1st November, which was effectively a new year celebration but also a time when it was believed that the souls of the dead could come back to earth. The early Christian church made the same day All Hallow’s Day as part of an attempt to use existing celebrations to help spread Christianity and gradually the more Celtic elements of witches and ghosts found their place on 31st October – Hallow’s Eve. But the ancient Celts did not have pumpkins. Carving lanterns is traditional, but the originals would have been turnips:

 

Not only are they much smaller than pumpkins, they have a hard woody texture and are much harder to carve. So turnips might be traditional and there is something a it spooky about them, but for practical and aesthetic reasons we are more than happy to go with lovely orange pumpkins!

And of course, fast becoming a new tradition: novelty pasta!

Happy Halloween!

Blinding!

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At least one good thing about the nights getting longer is that we get to pull the blinds and curtains and make the house cosy! Time to think about window treatments.

So, what to do about a big window – actually a trifold door – in the kitchen? Firstly, we didn’t want curtains. Fabric in the kitchen collects smells and dirt like any other surface so needs to be washed/cleaned frequently and frankly, with a big window that could be a lot of work. So we had a look at blinds.

With horizontal blinds, the mechanics are the problem. The window is to big to have a single horizontal blind, so would need several next to each other. But then what about the gap between them? And what about the hanging cords or rods? So that led us to think about vertical blinds.

There are really two kinds of vertical blinds: ones that are fixed top and bottom and ones that are made up of panels suspended from the ceiling. We didn’t want ones that were fixed at the bottom because we thought that when the blinds were drawn and the door was open, a track on the floor would be a trip hazard. So by now, we had narrowed it down to vertical panel blinds suspended from the ceiling. They can be mounted on a multiple track rail, which means individual panels can overlap and there is no gap where they butt up against each other. There’s one cord to operate all of them and it is hidden away at the side.

And at that we were just expecting to look at some sample books and pick out a suitable vinyl fabric, but after a chat with the lovely people at Albany Blinds Edinburgh we realised there was another, much more fun option. They can print just about anything on to a panel blind. So you can choose any professional quality image and they can print it! 
Now we know you’re too kind to mention it, but our photography is a long way from professional quality so whilst the idea of a favourite holiday snap on the blind was initially appealing, it didn’t take too long to realise that it wasn’t a good idea! Fortunately, there are whole libraries of beautiful, professional photos and images and for an appropriate (but not expensive) fee, you can buy the right to use them.  Two of the best are Getty Images and Shutterstock. 
So we asked ourselves: what would be a great view from a window? It has to be a nighttime view, because the blinds will only be drawn at night and a daytime view would be a bit odd. Nighttime in the country or at the beach is just, well, dark. The only thing that would really show up at night is a cityscape – and remember how great the view from Frasier Crane’s apartment looked? 
Now we just have to pull the blinds and we’re in Boston! 
Albany Blinds Edinburgh provided a great service and couldn’t have been more helpful.

Happy teardrops

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We heard about this the other day – a very cool concept caravan holiday home with sliding internal doors so that the space is flexible enough to provide bedrooms, dining space, a relaxing area or a cinema for 9! (We know: a cool concept caravan – guess you just never know what you are going to type one day…)

The idea is based on Japanese design and the idea that walls can be moved to change the internal configuration of a space for different occasions. As you can see, the design is as far from the traditional, dark and old fashioned caravan as you could want.

But do you know what? Even though we are not people to whom the idea of camping comes naturally, it just made us remember that we have always really wanted one of these: a retro teardrop trailer.



A teardrop is usually 4 feet by 8 feet and the main body is a sleeping area. Cooking is done outside the trailer from a galley concealed in a lift-up hatch at the back. (This gorgeous picture is from a website called oldwoodies.com which has lots of pictures of and information about wooden framed body vehicles.) Just enough room for two. So really the other end of the spectrum from a cinema room for 9, but still a beautiful design.




Wild peacock chase

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We have been on a wild peacock chase that didn’t end up on the high street…

We know you’re not the kind of person who goes round looking in other people’s cupboards – we wouldn’t be friends if you were! But if you did look, you would find quite a lot of bed linen in ours. And there’s a reason why that coverlet is still in the dust bag it came in two years ago and has never actually been on a bed. It’s a good reason, too. Really. Just can’t think of it right now…
But anyway, we saw a fabulous duvet cover on Achica a couple of weeks ago. They don’t have them anymore because their sales only last a few days although they do have this rather lovely one from Kingsley


But the one we liked originally was a completely different thing with a very distinctive and dramatic design on it that included a peacock. Searching for ‘peacock duvet covers’ brought up things like this one from Sylvia Cook with a fantastic photographic reproduction of a peacock feather, available from here from Etsy. 


But the one we had in mind was a graphic design rather than a straightforward photograph. And we were sure that the designer’s first name began with a C and the second with an H… Clarissa Hulse  maybe? No luck with a peacock. The closest was this, in a colour called ‘kingfisher’. But a kingfisher is not a peacock.


Do you know, she we thought about it, the designer was almost certainly Italian. A search for Italian bed linen didn’t take us any closer.  Neither did a search for French bed linen.

Then inspiration struck. Once, when something was unavailable on Achica, we tracked down the same thing for sale on notonthehighstreet.com. And, do you know what? We searched for ‘bedlinen’ and there it was! The very one! The absolute same!



The design is called ‘Arrival of the Birds’and it’s by The Lyndon Company, who are based in the UK. So that’s why a search for a peacock design by an Italian or French ‘CH’ didn’t get us far! 

(Really, if you look at the top, in the middle, there are some peacock feathers. Seriously.)

‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson

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We’re all about lovely things and what could be more lovely than a good book? So today we bring you our first book review! And apologies for it not being a new book – it was first published in 2010 – but it is well worth reading by anyone interested in how our homes have come to be the way they are. 

A much read copy!

‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson is subtitled ‘A Short History of Private Life’ and is based on the idea that history is made up of people getting on with their normal activities, most of which take place at home. So, taking his own home (a Victorian rectory in Norfolk) as a starting point, Bill Bryson explores how our modern domestic life has come about.

For example, in the eighteenth century it became possible for people to have cheaper and brighter fabrics than ever before. It was also possible to produce fabric in greater widths and these advances combined meant more upholstered furniture. Now alternatives to leather, previously the best material for upholstery, were available. However, the custom was that meals would be eaten at small tables set up wherever was convenient at the time – and householders realised that this would lead to spills and stains on their new, fashionable, expensive furniture. The solution was to create a dining room, first mentioned in a dictionary in 1755. 

Maybe – and this isn’t suggested in the book – one reason why people don’t use dining rooms so much now is that spills and stains aren’t such a problem. Furniture is cheaper. We have washing machines, laundry detergent and a whole range of fabric protecting and stain removing products. And leather upholstery is fashionable again!

This book is full of information on many subjects: how domestic fridges killed the international ice trade; how construction methods can dictate room size and therefore use; Thomas Edison’s attempt to design concrete houses complete with concrete furniture… The 28 pages of index show the variety. Best of all, the writing is typical Bill Bryson so reading it is like listening to a clever and amusing friend and that’s one of our favourite things. He would definitely be on our fantasy dinner party guest list, wherever the table was.Available, as they say, from all good bookshops – the local, independent ones as well as the big on-line ones!

Fine feathers make fine blinds

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Way back in July, we had a trip to V V Rouleaux and bought this feather trim to put on a blind:

Some weeks later, it still hadn’t attached itself, so we just had to get on and do it. First thought was to sew it on, but that turned out to be a bad idea. The feathers are glued into a kind of ‘ribbon sandwich’ which means that the band at the top of the trim is very stiff. It also means that the needle picks up glue when it goes through, making it sticky and harder to use. When the blind still had no trim but had acquired a small bloodstain on the back, it was clearly time for a rethink…

Fortunately this was one of those times when the lazy solution turned out to be the right one (we love those) and iron-on hemming tape came to the rescue. We cut the tape in half lengthwise to make it narrow enough and then just lined it up on the wrong side of the blind, covered with a damp cloth and pressed with a hot iron for 10 seconds.

Here is the result:

The wallpaper is the very lovely Hackney Empire from House of Hackney – this picture shows more of it.

And here comes a tip of the kind that we only share with friends: For the last couple of years, House of Hackney has had a sale in the run up to Christmas with big savings on all their products, including wallpaper. There’s no guarantee they will do the same this year, but we’ll be keeping an eye out just in case. 

Oversize footstool – Leisure Footstools review

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Do you remember a while ago we got new sofa covers? Well, what they really needed was an oversize footstool to set them off and above is the one we chose. Actually, we commissioned it – doesn’t that sound fancy?

There are lots available and they are all very nice but nothing was quite right until we discovered Leisure Footstools, who sell through ebay (check out their ebay shop here). They came close to what we were looking for and a couple of emails, some fabric samples and a phone call later, the lovely Chris had agreed to make just what we wanted – 130cm x 80cm in pewter coloured crushed velvet with wooden legs and brass castors. About 10 days later, here it is!

We’re delighted with the end result and the service was great – helpful, friendly and quick. The parcel arrived very well packaged to protect it in transit. (Oh, and let’s not forget the price – excellent value for the quality of the product).

So if you’ll excuse us, these feet aren’t going to put themselves up…

Tiger, Tiger…

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Tiger, Tiger selling bright
Lovely things for our delight




We couldn’t resist this laptop case from Tiger! Who doesn’t sometimes want to look busy and important and online? 

Tiger is a Danish company which opened in 1995 and now has shops all over Europe and in Japan. As they say themselves, ‘Tiger is a place you go to explore, a place where it is fun to shop’. All their products are simple, colourful and reflect Scandinavian design but there are two important things that set them apart from other retailers.

The first is the range of things available. On our visit the other day we found stationery, kitchen goods, huge bags of herbs and spices, toys, batteries, dressing up kit, candles. door knobs, nail varnish, glasses, lamps… The second is the price – 80% of its products sell for £5 or less! All the pricing is in whole numbers, so for example £1, £2, £3, 2 for £3, 2 for £4 etc which could be why it has been described as a posh pound shop – and what’s not to love about that? (The laptop case was a whole spendy £7).

It came in this carrier bag, which shows some of the herbs and spices Tiger sells (4 million bags a year!):

The shops  themselves don’t look particularly exciting from the outside. To be honest, you can see Tiger’s discount store heritage – but it’s always worth popping in to see what’s inside. Unfortunately, Tiger doesn’t sell online but their website gives a good idea of the products available. Hundreds of new ones are introduced every month.



Chai latte or organic coconut water? Skinny flat white please – unless it’s a double espresso day!




True colours of early autumn

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So that’s it then. September has started, summer is over. People usually associates this time of year with a subtle palette of browns, reds and golds, but we’d like to suggest a rethink, prompted by Smythson, the luxury leather goods people.

This picture is a mood board for the Autumn/Winter collection from the blog on their site (so just to be absolutely clear, Smythson own the copyright for it):

Love the purples and greens – always been a favourite combination of ours, but they are not the traditional ‘autumn’ (or ‘fall’ – we’re bilingual!) colours. They do give a better reflection of what is happening in the natural world right now, though. Right now, the leaves might be starting to turn but it’s going to be a long time before their colours really show. The vegetable shops are full of delicious seasonal produce in gorgeous hues of purple, acid green and sulphur yellow:

They look good together and not just in the vegetable rack. So just for now, step away from the terracotta. Eschew the ochre. Leave the stone unturned. Summer might be over but there are plenty of vibrant colours and exciting combinations from which to take inspiration!


Gorgeous stair risers

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First of all, an apology because we could just as well have called this ‘The One With The Bad Photography Part II’. But here’s the background…

We saw this lovely staircase at the Edgartown Bookshop in Edgartown, MA on the way to dinner one evening and had to grab a picture then and there because there wasn’t going to be a better opportunity!

If you look at their website you can see a much better picture (turns out that good lighting, a decent camera and adequate time does wonders for photography – who knew?).

Anyway,  the idea is that the risers (the parts of the stair that go up, as oppose to the treads, which are the flat bits) are decorated like shelves. Their are piles of books on them and in a variety of suitable fonts are the department titles, like ‘travel’, ‘mystery’ and ‘historical fiction’. It looks great and is a clever way to decorate a staircase which really dominates the view from the door of the shop.

Inspired by this we checked out Etsy and a search on ‘stair decal’ or ‘stair sticker’ brings up a few other ideas such as chevrons, numbers, inspirational sayings and patterns that look like ceramic tiles. There are also some clever people who can custom-make decals for you! But even just painting the risers in a colour that contrasts with the walls or different shades of the same colour could look good too. Lots of possibilities for one of the most used and under-decorated parts of the house!