I’m Loving It – Fabulous London Home

Over the weekend I spent some time going through the stack of interior design magazines that had accumulated on my coffee table – leafing through them, ripping out the pages with images that I particularly liked, and then filing them in my super-duper dog-eared inspiration folder.

I’d like to share some pictures from a gorgeous house in London, which are taken from one of my favourite magazines, 25 Beautiful Homes. This is an English magazine (that oddly doesn’t have a website) which, I’m sure you will be astonished to hear, features, um, 25 beautiful homes every month. I guess it’s kind of the Ronseal of interior magazines. The following images are taken from pages 42-45 of the September 2009 edition:

Here’s the kitchen – I like the contrast between the contemporary white cabinets, the polished concrete worktops, and the rustic (yet smooth) wooden floors:

The dining room has somewhat of a wow factor – and is particularly dramatic (and unexpected) when contrasted with the simple lines of the kitchen. While it’s a little too dark for my taste, I love the crystal bead chandelier (which I totally think you could DIY with some wire or thread and beads for a fraction of the price):

I adore the Indian carved screens, and also the teal and white images on the blinds:

The blinds are making me ponder over the possibility of doing something similar in the Nest – perhaps on the doors, which are currently painted a plain ivory. Our Nest has quite a simple design, especially on the ground floor, so I think the space down there could take something more dramatic. I wouldn’t have pictures of women from the twenties, however – I wouldn’t particularly want the eyes of the lady on the right following me round the room Mona Lisa style – but I do like the idea of introducing more organic images (landscapes, flowers) on unexpected surfaces, like blinds and doors.

The bedroom is fabulous – acres of organza and vintage lace. Sadly I can all too well imagine our two Jack Russells getting hopelessly (and deliberately – the little monkeys!) tangled up in all that floor-length material. I like the clever way that a regular bed has been sneakily transformed into a four-poster by hanging curtain poles from the ceiling and draping fabric from them:

So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Inspired by it? Wish you could move in just to sleep in that gorgeous bed/re-wallpaper the dining room immediately/become the proud owner of that glorious chandelier? I am definitely liking the idea of adding some floor-to-ceiling mural-type images to the Nest – and also something similar to those carved Indian screens.

I'm also thinking that I might have a go at re-recreating this look on a budget - always one of my favourite features from interiors/fashion magazines! In fact I might even have a go at making a similar chandelier. Watch this space....

I'll be back tomorrow with the details of some of the gorgeous things I brought home from the Northern Contemporary Craft Fair at the weekend - there were some seriously awesome designers there; I could have bought the entire contents of the marquee. If it weren't for the, ahem, awareness of budget (refer to fondness for cost-saving ideas above). Or the fact that I live in a dinky little two-bed Nest and with the best will in the world would be hard pushed to incorprate hundreds of ceramic vases in to the existing decor, however splendid they are. Unless of course we move the vases into the Nest, and then move myself, Andre and the dogs into the back-garden teepee that I have made previous reference to vis-a-vis my go-to 'if we ever need more space' solution.... stay tuned!