Saturday 26 February 2011

new house*


Somewhere, in between all my other projects, I need to find time to design our new house. I always think this is harder than any other design. Because you are the client, you don't have time pressures, and I could happily daydream up a million different schemes, making no progress in the meantime. Our house is a generous three-bed edwardian in a leafy street. I fell in love with it because of the 3m ceilings and it's shabbiness [it's in need of some serious love]. The dark London nights are getting lighter so it's time to draw up some plans.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

The Dylan Amsterdam**







Ok, I had a bit of a splurge last week... It was my birthday, moving up age groups makes me officially older, so there was only one thing for it - a trip to Amsterdam in a dead swanky hotel!! Stay at The Dylan if you ever go to Amsterdam. It's an old townhouse in the traditional Amsterdam merchant style, but Anouska Hempel has transformed the inside into a luxurious, dark, contemporary bolthole. We blagged a room in the Kimono style, the interior giving a nod to the city's golden age and colonial past. The room was a duplex and so had stairs leading to a bathroom mezanine with bath underneath exposed black lacquer beams. This is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in - not only because the design was beautiful but because it conveyed exactly it's past while it's design was 100 percent in it's time.

Monday 7 February 2011

I heart Delft glazed tiles*

Have just been on a birthday trip to Amsterdam. I never realised how beautiful the Delft glazed tiles are. Antique shops in the Nine Streets have beautiful examples for sale if you have deep pockets, or H and E Smith have just brought out a sweet, glazed range.