Side tables as art, bold stripes, red walls, the best desk chair

12 home things for the changing seasons

I couldn’t decide how to describe this one and ‘home things’ seems to be the best I can muster at 1am, after three hours of sleep last night. Don’t mind me, folks – professional writer coming through with the fun names.

I reserve the right to spontaneously change the title and sub-title to something clever when I’m recharged and feeling fresh. Which might be tomorrow. Or never. I promise this newsletter gets more riveting as it goes on….

This was intended to be a cheerful list of home-related things I’d seen over the past week with no particular theme, but looking at it all together, there’s definitely an autumn vibe. This reminds me, I really must use my black cat stickers this year. I bought a load of Halloween-themed stationery from Choosing Keeping in Covent Garden a few years ago because I think we’re all powerless to resist a magical stationery shop. Anyway, I don’t particularly like cats and I never use stickers but maybe now’s the time…

I’m actually quite up for autumn as I am not a person whose sickly lilac skin looks radiant in minimal clothing. Ideally no autumn weather until next week though – we’re going to Spain for four days this week to try and squeeze the final drops out of summer. It’s our first fly-and-flop holiday in nine years (I usually make us move from small hotel to small hotel every night or two), and we have no plans this time besides lowering our cortisol levels in the sun. Reader, the forecast is not looking good at all. I’ve seen the word thunderstorm multiple times…

Anyway, scroll down for a few things that caught my eye and don’t forget to like/restack/recommend my publication if you’re into this kind of thing. It makes a significant difference to the potential new readers I’m able to reach. You’d be doing me a huge kindness and as the great Take That once sang in their cover version, It only takes a minute, girl.

Side tables as art

McCully & Crane is one of my favourite places to buy or (in my case, browse) new art in the UK. Their eye for contemporary paintings and sculpture, combined with their perfect framing and hanging choices gives me goosebumps sometimes, it really does. If I were an art gallery, I’d be jealous of their whole vibe because they get it so right.

They’re based in Rye on the south coast of England and it’s well worth a day trip from London to see their current curation in person. If you do, it won’t be an hour on a train to visit one shop, there’s also Puckhaber, Soap and Salvation, Merchant & Mills and various other independent and antiques shops to fill a day. Have lunch at The Union or Tillingham winery (just outside the town). If you’re there in winter, grab an exceptionally good hot choc from Knoops.

This is an excessive caption but I needed to set the scene, you know? Take a look at McCully & Crane’s Instagram because even if you don’t buy anything immediately, you can take inspiration from the composition of their gallery walls and displays.

The tables are by artist and designer Dan Ainsworth and there are only two of them (siblings, not twins). They’re £1,200 each but they’re as much a unique piece of art as they are a practical piece of furniture. Plus, McCully & Crane offers an interest-free payment scheme, which I really need to make use of myself!

Red rum

I’ve always wanted a red room for autumn/winter. Not the AW24 fashion calendar but EVERY autumn and winter. My friend Charley grew up in a house with deep red sitting room walls and they were very similar to the colour above, in a home belonging to Italo Manca, photographed by Guido Taroni.

The living room embedded in my own memory was red when I first visited the house at age 11 and it still is that colour now I believe. Charley’s mum loves Christmas decorating and would start dotting discreet ornaments around the shelves from late October onwards. Because of this core childhood memory, I associate dark red walls with Christmas and being cosy. It’s quite a hard colour to pull off as it’s so intense to live with but if I ever had a house big enough, I’d try and use it in a room where I didn’t spend all my time (in case I found it too oppressive in summer). Also, doesn’t it make such a strong backdrop for art?

They’re not the same shade as above but some deep reds I like include Della Casa by Atelier Ellis, Deep Reddish Brown by Farrow & Ball, Yes Chef by Coat and Bronze Red by Little Greene.

High-street cushion covers

These slubby linen cushions are from Mango Home, of all places. Do you forget they do homeware? I always do. I was actually just minding my own business looking at this leopard print belt and remembered to check their home tab.

These covers are so good for a high-street buy – great colours and the contrast piped trim elevates them without being all fringed and frilly and irritating. What IS quite irritating is me showing these to you when they’re currently sold out and ‘coming soon’. You’ll have to give your email for a back-in-stock notification, or just keep checking the site. They’re a generous size and a decent price at £29.99. Remember to always buy a cushion pad 5cm bigger than the cushion for a plump look, so you’ll need 55cm for these.

A new bold stripe

The very lovely Stuart Ellis (head of design at Studio Atkinson and a fellow northerner) shared this new fabric – called the Konya – on his Instagram stories earlier and as a long-time stripe aficionado, it stopped me in my tracks. He described it as an exceptional stripe and the man is not wrong. That colour combination and the wide repeat is a cracker. God knows how much it costs per metre but it’s by Pierre Frey, so it’s not going to be a fabric to slosh around on every surface. The stripe is wide and it’s very hardwearing, so you wouldn’t waste this on a cushion – it’s sofa/large footstool/armchair territory.

It wasn’t a conscious decision when I chose them both but I have to add… this would be so good with the cushions above! And red walls, for that matter.

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Hidden mirror inspiration

As well as writing for House & Garden for work, I spend a healthy amount of time browsing their website for fun (read my articles here if you fancy, just scroll down past my bio). I tend to be drawn to any feature about small spaces as my own flat is a shoebox, and I came across a space that’s even smaller than mine.

It’s the London flat belonging to Benedict Foley and Daniel Slowik and they’ve used some space-saving hacks such as a coffee table that morphs into a dining table. Though in all honesty, I couldn’t be bothered taking everything off the tabletop and screwing the extending bits on, so I’d just eat on my lap I think!

They’ve done lots of clever and creative things considering just how minuscule the flat is and one of them is having a hidden mirror that acts as a sliding shutter, so at night, the window becomes a mirror and it reflects soft light and candles in the room. Mirrors really come into their own in the darker months and I’m currently having a real obsession with large-scale mirrors used in less obvious or totally OTT ways, so the shutter set me off thinking about mirrored pocket doors and now I’ve got that bee in my bonnet…

Anyway, watch their video above for a demo of both the table and the mirror!

A classic for a reason

I recently shared a photo of the ugly little desk in my bedroom window as I hadn’t left the flat or my computer at all this past weekend (had to work) and I felt like I was going slightly mad. It wasn’t a good photo but I had a lot of DMs asking about my tan leather desk chair. It’s the actual chair pictured above. I took it with me to a shoot I was styling for Vinterior (photo by Alicia Waite). It’s a vintage Eames soft pad conference chair – an early Herman Miller model. I happen to think it’s one of the best-looking desk chairs in existence AND it’s comfortable.

People baulk when I drop the Eames name as the chair is over £3000 to buy new from Vitra (who produces the design, ICF has made it in the past too and their versions tend to cost less). I bought mine secondhand from eBay for £450 and office clearance websites frequently shift them for £500ish too, though theirs are usually always black. This is what’s on eBay at the mo and this is what’s on Vinterior, but it’s always worth searching eBay for ‘Eames chair’, filtering by ‘used’ and just wading through the results. Not everyone who owns one knows the chair’s full name / is au fait with the importance of keyword descriptions.

My boyfriend hates this chair as the seat back isn’t high enough for him but I love it. If I could afford a new one, wheels would make life easier than my current shuffling back and forth, but it’s slightly more handsome with the minimal base.

Fun fact; see the room that I styled as a home office in the photo above? It’s the same room (in a location house in Shoreditch) that was styled as Emma and Dexter’s flat in the TV adaptation of One Day. I recognised those blue doors immediately when I watched it!

A great wall light

I don’t have any wall lights in my rented flat – only ceiling pendants in incredibly inconvenient places, such as in the way of the doors to our built-in wardrobe. Also near the dining area but not directly over it, meaning the light’s position always looks like an accident. It’s as cool as it sounds.

Anyway, if I did have wall lights, I’d have to wrestle with myself not to splash out £252 on several of these Comodin lights from Santa & Cole. Super simple and gives a soft, diffused light but also a lil, ‘hey, I’m no plain Jane’ signal with the whip-stitched edge. What more could you want? A slightly wider, rectangular version? Luckily, they do that too.

Return of the candle to end all candles

I know I only just mentioned a Moro Dabron candle in the newsletter before this one but I had to comment on the imminent return of their sold-out Jamb collaboration from a couple of years ago.

It’s wildly expensive – the most expensive candle you will ever buy – but it’s also cast like a sculpture and aged by hand. A piece of art. I liked the video above and even if you don’t buy the candle (I can’t afford to), it’s nice to see how people market their creations. They have another ‘making of’ video somewhere too.

I’m really into Vinterior again

For a while, I went through a phase of saving wishlists of hundreds and hundreds of items on Vinterior. This was even before they hired me as a stylist. I do this for a couple of reasons and I recommend you do the same.

Reason one: when you see the things you’re drawn to en-masse, the overview helps you understand which details you’re drawn to, so you start to see a clear visual of ‘your’ taste. Kind of like Pinterest but furniture-specific. And reason two: I have an atrocious memory so I would never remember makers’ names without wishlists. I save things that I can never afford to buy and I keep things on my wishlist that are long gone because I might need to refer to that shape or search for that maker or model name one day.

Anyway, I got v despondent with our grotty flat and for the last year or so, I haven’t looked for homeware once. Not even to browse. The imminent replacement of our old carpet has given me a little energy burst though, so now I’m back in the game with my Vinterior wishlist saving! The rug above btw, I saved it as it’s a neat little size for an office or small dining area (you’ll need good quality non-slip underlay) and it’s fairly priced at £232. Good colours, too.

If anyone’s interested in this kind of thing, I can do a future mood board post showing the things I’ve saved on there.

Secret home office

I spotted this cupboard on House & Garden the other day, it’s in the home of RIXO co-founder Orlagh McCloskey. The house as a whole isn’t 100% in line with my personal taste but I thought the desk cupboard above was great. As a small-space dweller with no room for a dedicated office, I’ve designed many concealed desks over the past few years (none have made it beyond rough sketches on paper and conversations with furniture makers).

The reason I keep drawing iterations of my own is the frustration of not being able to find exactly the right new or vintage version. Well, Orlagh made her own too – the above computer cupboard is her own design, custom-made by her carpenter husband to look like a retro Brutalist piece. Clever, eh?

Rechargeable table lamps

Instagram keeps showing me various lamps by In Common With and I can’t say I’m mad about it. I am slightly mad about some of the prices / them being in the US but that’s my own cross to bear. I don’t only like this one style, there's a handful of their lamps I could happily live with, though I’ve picked this style as I don’t often like rechargeable lamps and I really like these!

A leaf print for petal avoiders

I’m sharing this new Soane Britain fabric as much for the general vibe/colour palette as the fabric itself. I don’t know if I’ve put this out there as a personal statement but I do not like floral prints. I love actual flowers – I’m not a complete savage – but floral prints anywhere in my home, it’s a no. My boxy ‘70s flat doesn’t suit them and I’ve never loved that classic English style for myself. The same goes for a ruffled trim of any kind. A low-key knife pleat on the corner of a sofa cover or valance I can just about get on board with but that’s it. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate florals in other rooms and other buildings, just not my own home – my style isn’t feminine enough.

I can, however, stretch to a leaf. It’s why I love Beata Heuman’s Nettle wallpaper and Howe’s Cypress wallpaper. I also stopped scrolling in a recent email from Soane, announcing their new collection launch, as I had to look at this particular fabric in more detail. Their Burdur Leaf linen has a repeated leaf print that’s just enough for me without overstepping into overt romance, and both the deep indigo blue and brown colourways are very much my colour palette. I love the way they’ve used it on the headboard in the image above with the red cushion. It’s also a more affordable way to dabble in a fabric that’s over £200 a metre.

A few more things before you go…

• I’ve opened a home and interiors ‘suggestions box’ thread on Chat and it’s just for my paid subs. If there’s an item you’re looking for and you’d like me to whip up an edit (said very casually, when we all know it will take me three business days to scour the shops), or perhaps there’s a subject you’d like me to write about, or a job in the interiors industry that you’d be interested to know more about – put it in the chat. If it’s homes/interiors related and you’re a paid subscriber, use the suggestions thread whenever you like!

• I saw my friend Julia yesterday who runs Collins & Green – a brilliant website and London studio showcasing and selling vintage art. Julia always has a wide selection to choose from and she shares lots of useful styling ideas on her Instagram. I’m telling you this because she’s running a giveaway with Louise Roe at Sharland England to win a £500 art voucher and some tableware, it’s just a simple email address situation and it ends tomorrow, Weds the 4th. You might as well enter if you haven’t already!

• And another giveaway that you would be mad not to enter and it’s open worldwide! Dom at Kopp is celebrating an Instagram milestone by giving away the beautiful vintage Swedish flatweave rug below. The size and colours are excellent and tbh I think he’s being wildly generous to give such a beauty away. Details here on his Instagram post and you have the rest of the month to enter this one.

  

  

Right, I’m off to pack for our few nights in rainy Spain because I usually do it an hour before leaving for the airport and it gives everyone – including me – an anxiety attack.

I would be very grateful if you could like this post (if you actually liked it) and/or hit the recycle button to share it and tell your mates as it’s seriously hard to connect with new readers otherwise. Be the hero A Considered Space needs!

Coming up in September, I’ve planned a personal essay about the struggle with freelancing / lone working and also an edit of ridiculously good-looking hotels that I’ve saved because their interior design made me want to jump on a plane.

Catch you all soon, assuming I survive tomorrow’s flight in a thunderstorm. xx