This is a sponsored post from department store darlings John Lewis. All products are available from johnlewis.com, where you can also browse a wide range of DAB radios.
The onset of the cold winter months can often prompt the need for home makeovers, and the John Lewis style spotter is here to offer some tips. A successful interior décor overhaul could make you relish spending more time behind closed doors rather than resenting the loss of alfresco living, but tackling the whole house in one go is rarely a viable option. Here we take it room by room, with inspiration from Roberts’ range of retro Revival radios.
Rich red for the living room
Deep reds can warm a living room and work well with many complementary hues such as whites, blacks, yellows, golds and oranges. Take inspiration from bold Mid-Century style, an era in which the shade was propelled to the forefront of home fashion, with Pop-Art prints, retro typography and design classics such as Anglepoise lamps. Naturalistic prints on fabrics can also help add interest to your ruby canvas.
Powerful purple for the bedroom
Strong and sensual, purple is the perfect choice for a bedroom. Choose tactile fabrics such as satins and silks and rich textures to add an air of luxury to your nighttime haven. For a soft glow to help you relax at the end of a long day, look for purple tea light holders, glass ornaments and mirror detailing to reflect low lights.
Beautiful blue for the kitchen
For a fresh, clean yet fun feel in the kitchen – the room where you’re likely to do a lot of your entertaining – try a powder blue colour scheme plus a generous helping of Fifties’ kitsch. Take a leaf out of Cath Kidston’s interior design book with baby blue polka dot set cushions, pretty printed crockery and retro glassware. But you don’t have to buy up the CK shop to get the look – this popular style is available all over the high street at the minute.
A very nice Valpolicella, enjoyed last night in a little Italian joint by the British Museum. The owner kept yelling downstairs at an unseen Massimo, while he charmed all the patrons on the floor. Signorina this, bella that, correcting my pronunciation of gnocchi. It was a lovely evening.
Anyway, I have realised the number one useful thing about having a camera phone is making notes to self. See a nice wine you like, take a snap of the label. Always forget which brand/size/colour widget to buy, use a picture to create a reminder. Menus, vacuum cleaner bags, prescriptions…
I love plums. The smell of them takes me back to being a kid running loose in my aunt and uncle’s orchard. My tribe of cousins and I were forever in trouble for climbing the trees and attempting to scoff all the fruit before it was ripe (hello tummy aches). We’d tear strips of fluffy lichen off the plum trees, and fashion them as beards, and attempt to feed plums to the ponies in the next paddock. These delicious, juicy little fruits are in season now and what better way to make the most of their abundance than by making plum-cake? This recipe/video by Thomas Blanchard is particularly tasty – I love the floating typography.
This time last year Thom told me that blooms of emergency exit green on the canal were a sign that it was sure to be a cold winter. He was joking, but I believed him and fretted about impending doom and urban frostbite.
But now, dare I admit it, I am looking forward to the chilly months. Which is absurd, because I am a bonafide sun lover. But something about micro-fleece leggings, mulled wine, autumn leaves and mittens is tickling my fancy.
Last week I booked a flight back to New Zealand in February, which might be lulling me into a sense of security.
I will get a summer, I will get a summer. Best of both worlds?
Every year in the grounds of Blenheim Palace (the same one we visited earlier in the year) they hold a three-day horse trial. We went on Saturday, the cross-country day, and I have never seen anything like it! Blazing English sunshine, horses running flat tack and then masterfully jumping over hedges, hundreds and hundreds of dogs, and of course, jugs of fruity Pimms to wash it all down.
Just one horse trial and I’ve fallen in love with the fresh country-style of the horsie set. I’m now convinced I need a Barbour waxed jacket in my life!
AM. Coffee at Pitfield (never complete without a look through their excellent homewares) and a walk around our neighbourhood. Stopping and saying hi to all the squirrels is mandatory.
NOON. Dim sum at Gerrad’s Cross restaurant in Chinatown. Smothering spicy chilli on vegetarian dumplings, reading fortunes from the tea leaves, and watching absurd pop videos.
Afterwards we wandered around Piccadilly Circus – where indeed there was a circus! Acrobats, trapeze artists, clowns and leggy opera singers.
PM. A bottle of 2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape – found this bottle forgotten under our bed, score! Polishing off The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht and enjoying excellent conversation.
I spotted this old glass cabinet, from a school science lab, on eBay. And now I have it in my head that this would make a perfect liquor cabinet! From Van de Graafs, horseshoe magnets, capacitors and convection tubes (the actual labels on the cabinet) to St. Germaine, whiskeys and Ricard Pastis…
Hello! My name is Amber Parkin. I'm a writer obsessed with fondue, chesterfield sofas, vintage dresses, foxes, 35mm, and a New Zealander living in London.
Here I like to talk about fashion, design, food, travel, writing & books, and culture. Everything else (including my photography) goes into my digital notebook.
If you'd like to email me the address is amber@codeforsomething.com
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N.B. Due to a most erroneous move on my behalf I recently deleted four years of CFS archives. You may experience some dead links. Please bear with me as content is unearthed and reposted.
