Garden life

Cate Burren of Angel + Blume interior design considers the advantages of a well though through garden gazebo.

There seems to have been much talk during lockdown, and in fairness prior to it too, about carving out additional interior space in the garden – call it what you will, home office, garden studio, man-den, she-shed (there must be a better term) or summerhouse – but the outside space that I personally covet most is the open fronted gazebo. I am not referring to the highly useful plastic pop-up variety that has been seen outside many drinking venues as lockdown eased in the bitter winter weather of May, but to the enviable garden structure that is highly inviting, provides views, fresh air, shelter from all sorts of weathers and that, if done well very well, is a place to inspire conversation, contemplation and tranquillity away from everyday life.

In countries with sunnier and more consistent climates, this sort of open yet undercover space is much more common and may come in the form of a veranda, pergola or simply an awning over a seating area which is useable for much of the year. Our British weather used to mean that we considered a place in the garden as a fully enclosed affair but I think that the indoor smoking ban in bar and restaurants helped to develop our thinking on this. As a non-smoker, I felt very much the injured party when friends left the dinner table to go to the smoking hut where the party really seemed to be at. Indeed Hotel du Vin jumped stylishly on the band wagon with their cigar shacks that feature underfloor heating, comfortable seating, antique furniture and WiFi access – really it’s a wonder that anyone ever returned to the dinner table.

The delightful Monterey gazebo from Garden Affairs offers shelter and privacy
whilst allowing fresh air and a view as required

In order to get the design of your gazebo right, the first thoughts should be what you actually want to use it for. Is it for smoking, is it for eating outdoors or barbequing when the weather isn’t quite up to it, do you want to avoid the intense summer sun in favour of a quiet snooze or an hour with a book, or do you want to get some fresh air during the rest of the year without perishing in your own garden? Once you have an idea of the use, you will know better what the structure needs to achieve and whether you require something quite simple, or whether electricity, drainage, a water supply or a flue for a fireplace or barbeque are required.

Which way your structure faces is also important. The direction of the sun (are you capturing the sun or providing shelter?) and whether you face into the wind will make a difference. Also, do you have a view to incorporate, or do you want (or not want) to be seen from the main house. There are also some practical things to think about like how much storage do you want – what will you bring from the main house and what could be on hand – will you need lighting (surely some fairy lights at the very least) and will any or all furnishings in it stay there all year round?

Once you know what you are aiming to create, the joyous process of working out what it will look like both inside and out can begin. I don’t wish to be negative, but I would advocate that the word plastic should be outlawed from the start. Whatever your structure is going to do for you, the one thing it needs to do is embrace the exterior space that it is in – otherwise it might be best just to go inside again. Here, the elements are not to be braved but to be enjoyed, and indeed relished.

This fantastic hip hangout was created by Shackadelic for one of their clients. It incorporates a barbeque, a log burner and space for a tree to grow through the roof

If you are lucky enough to have something in your garden that could be turned into a gazebo, this is a perfect place to start. Do you have a wall, or indeed corner area that could be used to build the structure against? Do you have an outbuilding or garage that could be converted or opened up? If not, do you want to create something with reclaimed building materials that looks like it has been there for ages, or do you want something pristine and new? Neither are right or wrong, it is a question of what really appeals to you and the wonderful thing is unlike areas within your home, you are not restricted by what is already there – you can create something from scratch which means you can decide on the building materials, the roof you prefer, whether you want windows or not, or whether you want to avoid or work around plants or trees that are there already, or indeed incorporate new planting.

The trick with the interior is to get the balance of inside and outside right. Some feeling of an interior space will make it inviting and comfortable but you also want it to be robust enough to not feel you have to take off muddy shoes to enjoy the space. I would advocate that whatever interior style you go for, keep it relaxed, for yourself and everyone who uses your garden gazebo. It doesn’t have to be the same look as your home, but I would suggest that a completely different look will require work, whereas something that evolves in the style of your home, could absorb any additional furnishings or accessories that you have in your home.

The level of protection from the elements that your gazebo offers will dictate to a certain extent what furnishing you opt for but I would try to avoid using only products designed for outside use. Cushions and comfy seating, artwork, accessories such as books, lamps and ornaments make an indoor space attractive and it is no different outside. You may want to bring some of these things inside (or cover them) during the winter but you are much more likely to use the space when there is some early spring or late autumn sunshine to be enjoyed if your outside space is ready and waiting for you.

Whatever it looks like, I think that the more love and attention you give your new indoor/outdoor space, the more you will use it and appreciate it.

Read Full Post »

Lamp love

Cate Burren of Angel and Blume Interior Design discusses the beauty and usefulness of lamps in our homes – an article in Velvet Magazine May 2021

I was completely seduced by a table lamp this week. It was displayed in the ‘new in’ section on one of my favourite lighting company’s website and as soon as I saw it’s beautiful emerald green ribbed base and the wicker shade it was paired with, I knew without even considering where I would put it that I had to have both it and its shade. It arrived the next day (yes, really) and immediately made itself comfortable on a side table next to an armchair in the kitchen. I am delighted with it but much more than that, it has transformed the corner of the room. The pool of light that it throws on to the table and chair really does change the feel of the whole kitchen and makes the chair more inviting to sit in, not to mention being able to actually see what you are reading, even if you are using a back lit device. I should be more embarrassed that I didn’t identify the need for a light there before but I am so pleased with the result that I think we need say no more about that.

Lighting is one of the most powerful elements of an interior scheme and has the ability to completely alter the functionality and the feel of a space. When planning a lighting scheme, it is crucial to have a pretty good idea of how the space will be used because the best lighting lights things – artwork, furniture, decorative features, a dining table, a desk and so on – rather than just randomly providing light. That is why when you see a really well lit space, there tends to be pools of light that draw your eye and provide contrast with other less well lit spaces.

If you are at the stage of planning your lighting scheme from scratch, you will have the luxury of using different types of light – ceiling lights, wall lights, concealed lighting and so on. But if you are not, lamps are your best friend because they can provide a lot of these effects if used cleverly. Depending on the type of lamp you use, they can provide very focused light directed onto a piece of furniture or an accessory for example, but they can also provide quite widespread up-lighting if your room is lacking light higher up in a space. The height of the floor or table lamp makes a difference but more important is the direction that the lamp projects the light. You can get some lights that really do only throw the light upwards onto a ceiling, with very little light, if any, falling down onto the space below.

The brand new Boster light with wicker shade from Pooky.com

If you are planning a brand new lighting scheme, or willing to make adjustments to location of sockets in a room, think about where you would want your lamps in relation to furniture you have and allow for sockets accordingly. Better still, think about installing a 5 amp lamp circuit which all your lamps can be plugged in to allowing you to control them from one (dimmable) switch on the wall. If you have a particularly big room, you might also want to think about floor sockets so that you can place a lamp next to a chair or sofa without having a wire trailing across the floor from the wall. (A word to the wise here, just to avoid confusion with your contractor – when you discuss lamps with your electrician, (s)he will assume you are taking about bulbs which they call lamps – bulbs apparently are for planting in the ground.)

The style of your lamp depends on your own interior taste and there are plenty to choose from. Not all your lamps need to make a statement, some of them can just provide light in the background, but some lamps are so beautiful that they are artwork pieces in themselves. Consider where you want to make a statement and where you just need light and pick your fittings accordingly. As well as there being a huge selection of new lamps ranging from the very traditional to the ultra modern, there are also some fantastic antique lights available with iconic collectors pieces being in very high demand. ‘1000 Lights’ published by Taschen is a great guide and contains something for every taste.

Some lamps are there just to bring joy. There is a lovely lamp originally from Porta Romana that has a highly feathered shade with a base made in the style of a long pair of birds legs and webbed feet which really never fails to get a smile. It has been copied by others but not executed quite as well or humourously as this version.

It sounds a very obvious thing to say but you need to see a lamp when it is lit, as well as when it is not, as they are often sold both online and in the flesh without the ability to see the lamp illuminated. A shade also makes a big difference to this effect – a colourful shade will affect the colour of the light that is emitted, as indeed a very dense shade will reduce the amount of light given off. My new wicker shade gives a lovely broken-up light, and from most angles you can see the bulb so an attractive bulb also had to be acquired.

An elegant tripod lamp from Chaplins is a stylish statement and provides useful task lighting

The amount of light that you want in a room will change during the day, at dusk and at night so it is worth thinking this through when you are selecting the position and style of your lighting. During the day you may need no lights on, or just a couple to light darker spaces. You will probably want a few more lit when it is dusk or during the winter months of gloomy weather. At night, all lamps might be on, but it will depend on what you are using the room for at the time. Also, I am sad to say having experienced this first hand, you do tend to want and need more light as you get older.

The number of lamps that you have in a room, and their positioning, will affect the amount of light in a room, but also the bulb that you use will too. Selecting a good bulb does make a difference and at the very least, think about the amount of light that a bulb emits and the colour of light (warm, cool, daylight etc.) when selecting your fitting.

The good news is that huge changes can be made to the feel of a room and the way that it works for you just by changing some light fittings. An overlit room is as bad as an underlit room, and a poorly thought out arrangement of lamps and light fittings will also mean that you are not doing justice to your interior. I have quite literally had a light bulb moment this week and I can highly recommend it.

Read Full Post »

Plant power

An article from Velvet Magazine that appeared in February 2020, to hopefully distract us for a few minutes from Coronavirus!

Cate Burren of Angel and Blume Interior Design shares her enthusiasm for incorporating flora of all types into our homes.

I am currently rather in love with a giant fiddle leaf fig tree that is sitting in the Colefax shop in Pimlico. Like a splendid work of art, it catches my eye every time I go in there and it is fortunate that it does not seem to be available for purchase as I have neither the cash nor the space in my home to buy a plant that is significantly taller than me and heralds from the heart of Chelsea. However, it is magnificent (and it knows it) as is the beautiful oversized basket that it lives in and it has single-handedly reminded me of what a great addition to our interiors plants of all descriptions can be.

The first things I would say is, because I can hear the mutterings already, is that if you really aren’t green fingered (I am not, an orchid once died in my car on the way home from the shops), there are some very hardy plants around and if that is still too much to entertain, there are some fantastic artificial trees, plants and flowers to be had. Artificial no longer means dusty silk roses that can be spotted as fakes at a hundred paces, modern artificial is almost impossible to call until you touch it and even then, you can be fooled. My own personal choice is to have a number of good fake plants and flower arrangements in my home and to also have a few real offerings that can be replaced as and when death occurs.

The trick with real is to know your plants – I would not insult you by offering horticultural advice but getting the right plant in the right place, and looking after it, I am told, will result in almost guaranteed success. I am currently carrying out just such an experiment with a Swiss Cheese plant (purchased from Homebase near the Beehive Centre in case you are wondering) in the front window of the office where there is plenty of indirect light and as I write, the Swiss Cheese is thriving. However, if you pass by and it is gone, please assume that I have moved it into another room, rather than unwittingly murdered it.

As important as selecting the plants that will thrive, is finding plants that fit with your interior style. The chances are that the flora you are drawn to will naturally work within your home but it pays to consider what you might want before turning up at the garden centre. If you have a modern feel to your home, you will probably want plants with a more contemporary feel – a snake plant or aloe vera for example. A traditional interior may call for something more in keeping such as lavender, hydrangea, cyclamen or camelia.

There are a few very natural fits in the home where plants are concerned. Citrus trees in conservatories or rooms where there is a lot of glass look very at home, as do herbs in a kitchen where they seem ready to leap into a recipe at a moment’s notice. I also think plants look great near a window that looks onto greenery of some description as they seem to naturally blend with the view, blurring the lines of inside and outside.

How you present your plants or flowers will have a significant effect on how they work within your scheme. Pots and vases come in endless shapes and sizes and making sure their look fits with the plant is as important as how they work in an interior space. Try to be creative with your container, thinking about both the plant and the surrounding it will be in. Remember that if you go for something non water or soil proof such as a basket, a plastic pot inside the container is the key. In fact it is often better as it makes watering easier. Remember in addition to look at the scale of the container relative to the plant – an over or undersized pot, basket or other will look odd, so try to get a balance between the two.

While we are on the subject of size, the overall height and width of your plant and pot needs to work with the space that it is in. An oversize plant can look fantastic (particularly in a large posh shop) but the minute it is even vaguely crammed into a space, it will look odd. Similarly a very small plant and pot probably needs to be arranged with other things (books, photos, lamps, other plants) so that it doesn’t get lost. If it is going to work on it’s own, it will probably need a window sill or other smaller space so there is something around it. Grouping plants together can work well but such an arrangement does quite quickly create a small jungle feel so I think it is better to try to find the right size plant for the space in question unless there is a good reason to do otherwise (a collection of herbs for example).

I haven’t intentionally avoided the subject of cut flowers here – my love of the big fig tree has only very temporarily distracted me – I think flowers in a home are wonderful and actually, similar rules apply. Artificial are now very good and it is great for both your time and wallet to invest in some good artificial and treat yourself to fresh when you can. I would also suggest sticking mainly to your style rules about modern or traditional blooms and having a collection of vases that work with your interior. Scent from cut flowers is one of the most delicious aromas in a home so find what works for you and place your blooms in a location where you will enjoy them most.

So as we edge into Spring and outside spaces come to life, think about bringing a bit of that green growth into your homes; it really will add a fresh new feel to your interior spaces.

 

Read Full Post »

Anyone for a Dry Martini?

I thought this article might be appropriate for New Year’s Eve or for anyone contemplating Dry January. Happy New Year everyone!

 

Cate Burren of Angel and Blume Interior Design considers the art of the bar cart

I’ve recently been trying to cut back on my alcohol intake (not for any particular reason than the obvious ones, and it’s not going too badly thank you) and as with cutting back on anything, it does make you slightly obsessed with what you are trying to avoid. What I have particularly noticed is just how many references there are to our supposed love of a tipple in our modern world. Greetings cards seem to be particular offenders – it feels that every other card in the shop has a humorous, or otherwise, reference to celebrating almost any occasion with an elegant aperitif, or by getting completely hammered, depending on what section of the shop you find yourself in. Our interiors are not immune either. There is a sea of opportunity available to pronounce yourself a fan of an alcoholic beverage. I was recently in a largish department store where I saw, all in close vicinity, a money box with ‘Mummy’s Prosecco Fund’ written on the side, a cushion proclaiming ‘Champagne is the Answer’ and a framed poster which somewhat aggressively instructed its audience to ‘DRINK MORE GIN’.

Drinks trolley from Graham and Green

I am certainly not going to make a (mildly) reformed person’s judgement on the content of these declarations but it does strike me as odd that we don’t celebrate other forms of high living with quite such gusto. You don’t often see a fridge magnet for example that says ‘It’s Steak O’Clock!’ or a birthday card saying ‘Lobster Thermidor Makes Everything Better’.

Given our great love of a little drinky, we do seem to be surprisingly coy about how we house our habit. Wine racks and wine fridges are much more present in our houses than they used to be but other drinks are often still relegated to the back of a cupboard. I grant you that few of us want a Del Boy style bar in the corner of our living room but there can be something very glamourous about a selection of drinks, glasses and accessories that are well-displayed and ready for use.

I think drinks trolleys (or bar carts as the Americans call them) can be very good edition to a sitting room or other interior space as they make such a heartening display. Although they have wheels, they are not designed to be pushed round the room like you are serving on an intercity train although a quick trip to the dishwasher at the end of the evening (or the following morning if we are being honest) is quite handy. They are often rather marvellous pieces of furniture in themselves and look great when fully loaded up and ready to serve.

Cocktail cabinets are more discreet and can look very innocent from the outside. What you find inside can be anything from utilitarian to utterly fabulous. They often feature a rack for hanging glasses, mirrored back or sides, slots for your accessories and sometimes more – mini fridges, a pull-out serving ledge, lighting etc. David Linley, the master furniture maker has a ‘Techtonic Bar’ which is a piece of art as much as it is a piece of furniture and incorporates secret compartments (for your bootleg liquor) revolving columns and a cigar humidor. Its utterly beautiful and should be at a price tag of £130,000.

Gin glasses from Graham and Green

There are also some fantastic antique cocktail cabinets to be had and many of them have a least a whiff of lost days of high living. Unsurprisingly many of the really good ones have an Art Deco flavour about them and look great when either discreetly closed or party ready. I could be wrong about this but I personally think that no good can come from having a world globe that opens into a drinks cabinet but perhaps I am no fun.

Whatever style you prefer at home, it is hard to argue against a large, smart tray that quietly does the job of a drinks trolley or cabinet. This is not to serve the drinks but to keep all your beverage paraphernalia in order. A lovely tray, well curated, on top of a sideboard or occasional table works both functionally and aesthetically and is certainly a good place to start if you are initially dipping your toes into the home bar arena.

Whether you opt for a bespoke piece of furniture or a humble tray, the contents are key. Good glasses, an ice bucket, your desired bottles and mixers, condiments (citrus fruit, olives, tabasco sauce, cherries if you must) and other essential tools – ice tongs, cocktail shaker, cocktails sticks, swizzle sticks (come on, you know you want to) – can all play a part and there is lots of style choices available from grown up glamour right through to party lover.

I think it is important, both in terms of the look of your house but also for your own sanity to remember that you are not actually a bar, neither boutique hotel nor local boozer – you do not need to have every spirit, mixer, soft drink in the world to offer your guests. I think serving a drink or two that is appropriate for the time of year and day, that goes with the food you are going to serve, plus a quality non-alcoholic alternative or two, is perfect. Having a wide selection of dusty bottles, some with questionable sell-by dates, is a bit grim. After all, you select a meal for your guests rather than offering them a menu of choices (I hope) so why would you not do the same with the pre-dinner, and indeed during and post dinner, drinks.

And whilst we are talking about planning your drinking, quantity is as important as quality – sending your guests home plastered is not doing them, or you, any favours. Of course you want to have a great time and be a marvellous host/hostess but part of that is keeping an eye on the intake – serving four large G&Ts before feeding anyone will end badly. In addition, taking as much care over your Mocktails as you do over your Moscow Mules will encourage enjoyment over drunkenness. Lots of people don’t drink alcohol at all, or are restrained, and non-alcoholic drinks really can be delicious but it does take both effort and imagination.

So on that note, and before my best laid plans to drink less and behave better are too challenged, I would like to say it isn’t hard to glam up your drinks stash, so have fun, let your hair down and here’s to all our good health.

Read Full Post »

How big a house do you actually want?

Article by Cate Burren, of Angel + Blume, for Velvet Magazine (August 2018)

Cate looks at the thorny question of whether big is beautiful when it comes to the house you choose to live in.

Velvet Magazine (August 2018)

When choosing a house to live in, it is tempting to default to the premise that bigger is better. Those forays into the estate agents windows when on holiday or a sneaky glance at Rightmove when you have no intention of buying, tend to end up at a castle with its own fishing rights, or an extensive double fronted Georgian townhouse, imaging how idyllic life would be if one where the master or mistress of such a property. But I think it doesn’t take much of a reality check to imagine the headache of assuming responsibility for such an undertaking. Some years ago, Channel 4 followed Sarah Beeny as she wrestled with owning the crumbling 97 room stately home Rise Hall. The series started with the dream of paying £435k for an (admittedly crumbling) palatial estate where children and friends frolicked in the extensive grounds but quickly moved into revealing just some of the headaches of restoring and maintaining such a home. Beeny was brutally honest and managed to achieve an astonishing restoration, although the property is now used as a wedding venue in order to make it viable. The compulsivity of the viewing was about putting yourself in her shoes, with faint jealousy turning quickly to admiration then private horror at what was entailed, which included time away from family, legal battles, relentless hard graff and the requirement for a bottomless pit of money. This is obviously an extreme case but owning a large (even moderately large) home comes with cost consideration, and not all of them are monetary.

Christ Pieces from Cambridge Council via Pinterest

At the other end of the scale smaller homes and apartments, which make up so much of city centre housing, requires a different approach to living. You don’t have nearly so much maintenance, repairs, cleaning, general outgoings and responsibility for a property. You do however, rely on good public facilities which are vital if you are live in a compact space. A well maintained park nearby can become a fantastic alternative to a small or non-existent garden. My experience of close proximity to Christ’s Pieces is that it is better than any garden I have ever owned, or will ever own, but I had no idea of the investment required by local government to keep it that way. The Lido is a brilliant alternative to having your own outdoor swimming pool – admittedly you would never have to queue to get into your own pool but at the same time, you also don’t have to maintain it throughout the year. The same can be said for going to the cinema versus that fabulous media room you are just dying to build in the basement – and so on.

Jesus Green Lido from Pinterest

There is no right or wrong to how much space you want (I am not talking about the space we need which is an entirely different debate) but I think the ‘bigger is better’ assumption can be naïve and could lead you to a home that is too big and therefore not what you really want at all. So how do you decide how much space you do want to live in?

 

1.First of all, as with designing the functionality of any interior space, the question of what you are going to use the space for is crucial. Many of us have, for example, built wonderful extensions to our property only to find that parts of the old space become somewhat redundant as we gravitate towards the wonderful new parts of the building.

 

2. We all like to think we love the people we live with but how much time you want to spend with each other in the same room is worth considering. My experience is that we all live very differently – some people love being in close proximity at home and others much less so. It’s a personal choice but needs to be recognised.

 

3. How much space are you going to use for storage? Being honest about what ‘stuff’ you have, and want, in life is vital. The honest truth is that if you are a bit of a hoarder, you are going to need more storage and therefore more space.

 

4. I am always interested in how spaces can be used flexibly because I think we often end up with too many rooms (not necessarily too much space which is different) because we assume that rooms can’t be used for different things or by different members of the household. For example, you may well have lots of guests to stay sometimes but you don’t need to have endless guest rooms that are unused when a guest isn’t in residence. If planned well, a guest room can double up well as dressing room, a study, an additional sitting room/TV room and so on.

 

5. What public facilities are nearby and the quality of them makes a huge difference. This is not just true of urban spaces. Recently some friends of mine moved into a similarly sized house to the one they were leaving but with a much smaller garden. They are now in the middle of the countryside rather than the town which they enjoy and use regularly the surrounding rural space rather than a garden they would have to maintain.

A Guest Room/ Study Combo from Terry’s Fabrics via Pinterest

Owning any property takes some level of time, money and headspace, however small. If you are the homeowner, you can’t ring a landlord when something goes wrong. And it is a sliding scale – bigger may or may not be better, but there will certainly be more for you to do. You may well want the responsibility that comes with owning a huge house but it is worth taking the decision that it is what you want before committing to giving up the level of resource required for the ownership of a property without realising what is really involved.

Read Full Post »

Making the best of your art

Art can be an intimidating business. It shouldn’t be because the purpose of art is primarily about pure delight for the eyes of the beholder but I do understand the home lovers’ dilemma when it comes to what to hang on your walls. In the back of most people’s minds, and I include in this even the most confident of us, is ‘what are other people going to make of the pictures on my walls?’. I’m not going to tackle the enormous subject of how to select your art here (although I am gearing up to this topic so watch this space) but what I am going to talk about now is the incredibly good news which is that, and I really mean this, how you present and hang your art is almost, indeed dare I say as important, as the art you choose.

These lovely simple botanical drawings make a huge impact hung in a group and against the backdrop of Fired Earth’s delicious South Bank paint colour. The clever addition of the bench and cushions picks up the colours in the paintings and visually anchors the artwork.

 

When I hang art for clients, which is a task I love because it makes such a difference to how an interior looks, the first thing I ask them to do is to get all the art they have out (and this should incorporate everything – original paintings of worth or not, prints, framed posters, family pictures, sculpture, home-made craft projects and so on) so that we can look at it and discuss what they actually like and what they are less keen on but may have a good reason (or not) for keeping. In this exercise I am primarily interested in noting what their most loved pieces are which should be displayed in key areas (master bedroom, entrance hall, main living room – wherever a household spends time) and what is less loved but can find a home in a lesser used area of a house (cloakroom, guest bedroom, back entrance hall). Once we have had this frank conversation, which is not always easy, I then start to think about where to place artwork in the home.

It helps to bear in mind that artwork does not have to match an interior scheme, in fact I like a picture to bring something different and eye-catching to the look of a room, but it does have to look comfortable in the space, not overpowering everything else or being overwhelmed itself.

I often feel rather shame faced when I visit the fabulous Fitzwilliam Museum because I tend to head for the first floor galleries which I love and as I try hard to concentrate on the artwork I find my mind pondering exactly what colour the wall behind the great masterpiece is and examining the way the lighting has been achieved. I know I am supposed to be looking at the artwork, but actually it is the whole experience of those rooms that makes me love the galleries and whilst the rooms are certainly not pretending to be domestic interiors, I find the combination of the artwork with the rich background colours, the dark wood flooring, the lighting and the occasional pieces of furniture is what makes me very happy. The moral of the story is that an interior is a collage of many elements and if you get the balance right, the effect is glorious; out of balance and beautiful things suddenly can’t come to life in the way that you want them to.

Putting a treasured painting in a master bedroom ensures it is regularly seen and enjoyed.

When you have got an idea of where you want your pictures to live, the art of hanging them well starts with checking the space around the piece – they need enough space to be seen and to shine on their own merit but also some reference to other furnishings or pictures. For example, a piece of furniture under a picture usually helps to visually anchor the artwork – you need to leave enough space between the furniture and the picture to allow some accessories on the surface, the picture should not hang so low that accessories obscure the picture and not so high that it is hanging in mid-air with no reference to the things below it at all. The best way to hang pictures is to get someone (one or more people depending on the size of the work) to hold the picture in place and then get them to go higher, lower, right a bit, left a bit until you find the place that the picture looks comfortable and hopefully before the holder’s arms start shaking and a row beings to brew. I generally find that pictures are hung too high – go as low as you dare and try to remember that being able to see the painting comfortably, even when you are sitting down, is also an important part of the exercise.

I cannot emphasise how important framing is and this decision includes whether to frame or not, as certainly not all artwork needs framing. Spend time, effort and money (as necessary) on making the absolute best of your artworks by considering how best to present them. A clever framer is a very good friend of the interior designer and I always make sure that I ask the advice of my framer as a starting point, who will generally consider the right approach to make the best of the picture, but then I may add an opinion on the look that we are creating in the interior. We tend to agree somewhere between the two which should ensure that the final approach adds to both the artwork and the interior.

This very favourite painting is displayed in full view in a well used space

Moving pictures around is a surprisingly effective way of giving your home a bit of an update. I would like to say that I do this regularly but realistically it only really happens when I buy a new picture and move current ones around to accommodate it, but I am always surprised at the impact that a picture’s surroundings has on how the artwork itself is perceived. I recently acquired a lovely bright yellow velvet occasional chair which has found a very happy home in the corner of my bedroom. Interestingly three people who visit the house regularly asked, on completely separate occasions, whether the picture above it was new. In fact the picture has been there for quite a while and features quite a strong dash of yellow and I can only assume that the new chair combined with the painting draws the eye to the corner of the room more than before. Whatever it was, it is interesting that even a small change around can suddenly bring artwork, and it surroundings, to life.

Much as I love to see beautiful photography in an interior, which should be hung with the same consideration and principles as your other artwork, I also like to see personal photographs in a home as they so instantly individualise a space. These will probably not be the beautiful specimens that the great photographers produce and so need to be handled accordingly. Groups of photos (either in standing frames or wall hung) can be a good way to display images of family, holiday or a general hotchpotch of memories and should be thought of as an explosion of emotion, rather than a focus on one particular shot. A group of photos can also be added to and changed as life moves forward, which keeps your display up to date. Don’t feel you have to include every image, or record every event, or heaven forbid, have a photo of every family member (although you may have to swap pictures in on critical occasions so as not to cause a family dispute) – personal photos in your home are not an absolute record of your life, but an accessory that should lift your heart when you glance at them.

This delightful tiny artwork is given a great presence by using a large mount with a simple frame and
being hung on a dark painted wall

Lighting is crucial for artwork (indeed for interiors generally and is a huge topic in itself). Think about what light you need for your artwork in daylight (which might still include artificial lighting) and what you need at night. You don’t have to only consider the traditional picture light – a light from the ceiling or a floor-standing uplighter can work really well too. Just as lighting art well is important for enjoying the work, shielding it from the sunlight is important for preservation purposes and should also be considered carefully.

Finally, I wish to joyfully dismiss the idea that you can’t hang pictures on wallpaper. You can and you should. Wallpaper is a splendid backdrop to your pictures, you will just need to be careful that the wallpaper doesn’t overpower the art either in terms of colour or pattern or both, it should be a backdrop so ensure that your art, not your wallpaper, is the star.

I have realised whilst I have been writing this piece that there really are a multitude of considerations when hanging artwork so what I say to you is don’t be overwhelmed by the task – get your picture hooks and hammer out and have a go. Unless you are wildly wrong, in which case you will have to get a pot of paint out, the new position for the picture will cover the first (and subsequent) hanging attempts and if you live with your efforts for a few days, you will soon know whether you got it right or not. I have rarely seen an interior that doesn’t benefit from having artwork on the walls so be brave and get those pictures hung.

This post appeared in the July edition of Cambridge Magazine

Read Full Post »

Why are sofas so hard to get right?

In this contemporary scheme, a comfortable statement sofa worked well to bring a relaxed feel to the room. Photography by Simon Whitmore

It’s weird thing that sofas are so hard to get right, but they really are. Furniture is generally easier to select than say redesigning a bathroom or commissioning joinery but over the years I have heard many sorry stories of profound disappointment on receipt of an eagerly awaited sofa. With this in mind, I often find myself using the 3am worry slot to agonise over an impending sofa delivery. However much I know that we have done exhaustive investigation, double-checking and confirming on behalf of, and involving, our clients in the run up to placing a sofa order, it is always a few hours prior to delivery that I decide that we have definitely overlooked something.

There are a lot of things to consider before buying (or commissioning, more on this later) a sofa. Firstly, you need to think about what style of sofa is going to work in your room – do you lean towards a contemporary or traditional feel, mid-century modern or shabby chic? You don’t need to put a name to the style you want but if you are unsure of what look you prefer then you are not ready to enter a sofa shop yet. Fabric choice is important too and hard to consider in isolation. Building up a picture of the final scheme including wall colour, flooring, other items of furniture, curtains or blinds and so on will help you to avoid a fabric choice that you find hard to match to or that is a bland disappointment. There is a raft of other decisions to also be considered and these crucially include size – a measure of the room with consideration to other items of furniture is vital – and comfort levels of which height of back, depth of seat, filling and how the sofa is constructed all play a role. There are lots more decisions that are important but I won’t go into all of these for fear that you may decide that your hand-me-down, battered sofa that you hated when you started reading is perfectly all right. However, I will say that it is better to consider a lot of these decisions prior to spending that nightmare Saturday morning trailing around high street furniture shops and ending up feeling overwhelmed by information, underwhelmed with what you have seen and temporarily less keen on the loved one that you left the house with that morning.

Can I also at this point, strongly steer you away from the idea that buying a cheap Ikea sofa with the plan to bin it in future and get the one you actually want is a sensible decision. This thought has been shared with me in my professional capacity more times than I care to remember and it is a notion that is riddled with flaws, the primary one being that all you are doing is delaying doing the work to get the right sofa and in the meantime putting up with a piece of furniture that isn’t right because you haven’t given proper consideration to what you do want (whether it ends up coming from our fine Swedish friends or not.)

A traditional sofa in a plain fabric looks very happy in this country drawing room. Photography by Simon Whitmore

Once you have done your homework deciding which sofa is perfect for you, there is the possibility that you won’t be able to find what you want on the high street. Retailers are undoubtedly getting better at offering flexibility on size, fillings, legs, fabric and so on but I do find that we often have to commission a completely bespoke sofa in order to get what we want and this route is available to everyone. A good sofa maker is able to make or commission a frame to an agreed size, shape and style and then upholster it to your requirements which means that the world is your oyster. It also means that you are speaking directly to the expert, the person who is going to actually make it, so you should receive excellent advice. I know that you will be thinking that this all sounds very expensive and although it is not a bargain basement option, I always think it is less expensive than one would imagine, which is a reflection of not paying for a middle man and normally not paying for a swanky showroom and a glossy brochure. Although there are many excellent sofa makers all over the country, for historical reasons many are located in and around Nottingham which is where our ace upholsterer is based. There isn’t a chance that I will reveal his name but if you find a workshop with stressed looking craftsmen looking at an order and muttering ‘what on earth are they asking for now’, you may be in the right place.

What I will share with you are a few of my sofa related tips drawn from many years of professional sofa buying, some more painfully learnt than others, that I hope will help you in your quest to avoid sofa disaster:

1. I’ve mentioned checking the size of the room but the other key measurement is the size of the doorway/staircase/sharp turn from corridor to room etc. A beautiful new sofa that won’t go into the room is not a pretty sight and if you think your proposed sofa won’t fit you may be able to have it delivered in pieces (removable legs or arms etc.) but you need to check that carefully.
2. Don’t rule out the idea of an antique sofa that may or may not (if you are really lucky) need recovering. Often the frames (and sometimes the fillings) are well made and antique sofas can offer something a bit different. As an example, there is a company called Pelikan in Haverhill that buy original mid-century sofas from Denmark and restore and recover them. If your style leans in this direction, and you are in the market for a sofa, you should visit them immediately.
3. Sofabeds are much better now than they used to be when neither the sofa nor the bed were all that comfortable. They are a good option if you are short of guest sleeping space but remember to consider how the room will function when it is transformed into a bedroom – do you have to move furniture in order to unfold the bed, where does bedding live, where do guests put their things? – often sofabeds are not used as beds because the room doesn’t really work as a bedroom, so it may be better to concentrate on sofa comfort rather than incorporating the bed facility.
4. I hate hard and fast rules from interior designers because there is normally an exception but I am going to stick my neck out on scatter cushions made from the same fabric as the sofa. I genuinely can’t think of a situation where they are a good idea. The purpose of a scatter cushion (not back cushions or any cushion that is part of the sofa) is primarily decorative and small square cushions that blend into the sofa are apologetic at best.
5. Lastly sales. Panic buying leads to mistakes. It is great to get a bargain but it is not a money saver if you immediately want to change it. There are many sales throughout the year and I guarantee that if you miss a sale bargain, there will be another tasty offer available sooner than you think.

Finally to anyone who has made a mistake with a sofa purchase, and my heart goes out to you if you have, don’t add to the problem by matching to the mistake. I have had customers say to me that they have a sofa they hate but for whatever reason it has to stay so we need to build a scheme round it. This is not a good plan. My approach would be to design a scheme that we love without considering the offending sofa, and implement it, which will hopefully dilute the impact of the mistake. We may add a few accessories that tie it into the scheme and then we wait for the day the right sofa can be put into the room and the sofa mistake can be found a new home somewhere that it is welcome.

This article first appeared the February edition of Cambridge Magazine 

Read Full Post »

Five top tips to a stylish home

Cate was recently interviewed by Cambridge Magazine and she was asked for five top tips to creating great interiors. Here are some of her tricks of the trade.

Be bold with your style

Statement chairs in a contemporary home

This is advice that I give in my classes and that I always try to apply to my design work and what I mean is to know your own personal taste and be confident in it. If your interior style is say neutral, calm, quiet, shabby chic, then don’t be afraid to boldly execute this in your design work. We can sometimes get confused by thinking that there are things we must or must not do in our homes, or that there is good or bad taste in interior design, and when we deviate from our personal style, this is when blandness can set in. Trust your own taste and try to apply it to all elements of your home.

 

Accessories change everything

Flowers, lamps, books and pictures all help to personalise your space

 

Whether you are undertaking a full renovation project or simply freshening up your home, good accessorising makes a huge difference to the final result. Try to bear your own personal style in mind when selecting your finishing touches as it is easy to make a mistake when the purchase is not expensive, and make sure you think about what accessories you need before you shop. If in doubt, add your accessories slowly and see what looks good and the old saying of ‘only have what you know to be beautiful or useful’ is just as true with accessories as with other areas of the home.

 

 

Don’t forget your lighting

Concealed lighting adds glamour to this display

You can create a beautiful interior space but without good lighting, it will never shine. Plan your lighting with the uses of the space in mind – activities like working, reading, putting on make-up need task lighting whilst artwork, favourite spaces and beautiful pieces of furniture need feature lighting and so on. Having some contrasts with lighting will make your home seem larger and more interesting and using separate switching for different lighting types will enable you to change the feel of your home depending on whether you are entertaining, watching TV, working or even cleaning!          

 

Colour is king

Warm blue and cream makes a lovely space of this boot room

 

Colour is an interior designer’s best friend. A coat of paint can add character and personalise a space, create light and dark contrasts, highlight features and create a warm or cool, calm or stimulating, comforting or inspiring impression depending on what you want to achieve. Although the paint on our walls makes up a large part of the colour palette of a room, the flooring, fabrics, furnishings and accessories of a room all play their part in creating a look so consider your colour choices as a whole before selecting your paint or wallpaper colours.        

 

 

Think differently

We are bombarded in the media by images of what the modern home should look like, and we can sometimes lose our own imagination. If you go back to basics and think about how you want to use your home and what you want it to look like, you will start to create a picture of how your home can work for you. Only then will you start to select images, products and ideas from outside sources that will work for you. By using this approach you will be able to create a unique home that truly reflects your personality.

 

A collection of sporting trophies creates a lovely personal feel

 Let us know what you think?

Did you see the article, or do you have some design tips of your own? We’d love to hear from you!

 

 

Read Full Post »

The English Home

Happy New Year to you all and we hope you had a good Christmas break.

The lovely magazine The English Home is out (February edition) and we are rather thrilled that we have a mention in the trade secrets section. Here is our piece – you will have to get the magazine to read what the other interior designers have to say!

Read Full Post »

Angel + Blume project featured in House Beautiful magazine

We were thrilled to see an Angel + Blume project in the December 2011 issue of House Beautiful magazine. This attic makeover was a lovely one to work on and it’s always nice to see one of our projects in print. The magazine is out now, or alternatively click on an image below to take a closer look.

All images: House Beautiful

Read Full Post »