Petal power at Hampton Court Palace

I’ve been mentally compiling a bit of a London bucket list and the glorious bank holiday weekend seemed the perfect chance to tick off one of the most beautiful places – Hampton Court Palace. I booked a ticket that included both the Palace and the gardens but as it was such a lovely day I spent most of my time outside. I’m determined to get to grips with my camera and post more original content this summer so here are a few of my snaps.

These photos are a bit misleading to be honest because with such nice light and stunning colours it would be hard to take a really terrible photos. Let’s just say there’s a reason I’m posting these and not the pictures I attempted to take of the equally stunning but badly lit interior!

The really interesting thing about Hampton Court is that it’s been added to by various rulers over hundreds of years, so everywhere you turn there’s a different period of spectacular architecture to admire. I particularly loved the towering Tudor chimney stacks, each with its own design to show off just how warm and cosy Henry VIII could afford to keep his visitors.

Even though it was a busy bank holiday I still managed to find a quiet spot to sit and read (ok, nap) in this pretty walled orchard.

{all Decorator’s Notebook}

If you’re in London and haven’t visited Hampton Court Palace yet I completely recommend you go the next time the sun is shining. The interior is absolutely incredible as well. I’m tempted to do a whole separate post just with photos of the ceilings!

New builds on the bloc

Those clever girls at My Friend’s House have a fantastic nose for quirky design, like these diminutive skyscrapers popping up on the streets of Berlin.

 

{Photographs Evol / Yatzer via My Friend’s House}

Street artist Evol uses detailed stencils to turn drab city structures like telephone junction boxes, bins and concrete blocks into miniature buildings. I’m not usually a fan of street art (and I strongly object to graffiti) but there’s something so unassuming and appropriate about these urban sculptures I really like them.

House tour: tumbledown hall brimming with history

Amazing Welsh country houses are like buses round these parts – wait and age and then two come along at once! This C16th hall is rather more tumbledown than the Snowdonian farmhouse I posted a few weeks ago, but is utterly spectacular in its own very special way.

The wood-panelled dining room has hardly been touched in nearly 500 years and you can almost feel the walls wearily breathing history. Just imagine the feasting and tragedies that have taken place in these rooms over the ages.

I’ve posted about my reservations about rough luxe before, but there’s nothing trendy about this peeling plaster – this is the real deal. Is it wrong to like that calamine pink??

Why is this bed so high?! I’m only 5’1″ and there’s no way I’d get up onto that for my forty winks – weren’t people shorter back in the olden days? I’ve spent a lot of time pondering Welsh blankets recently and I love the one in the first bedroom. In a home with very little pattern the traditional geometric design is especially eye catching.

{all Light Locations}

The hall is one of the latest additions to Light Locations‘ books, so you’re sure to see it featured on glossy pages or the silver screen soon.

Iceland’s tiny churches

Wherever I travel in the world I find myself strangely drawn to churches. The architecture is always so beautiful and there’s something I love about the musty smell of polished wood and the slow clacking sound of people desperately trying to walk quietly on stone flagstones.

I came across these adorable little Icelandic churches in  Home & Delicious magazine… they’re a world apart from the grand cathedrals of Europe. I was immediately charmed and as I couldn’t understand a word of the feature I thought I’d see if I could find out any more about them.

{above all Home & Delicious}

When Iceland adopted Christianity in 100 AD, local landowners built their own personal churches on their farms – presumably so they wouldn’t get frozen to death on the way to pray! As a result, the country is dotted with minuscule places of worship, often only big enough for 20 or so faithful farmhands to squeeze into.

{above Daniel Pivnik}

{above Michelle Leale}

{above Roantrum}

Some of the oldest are built from turf to protect them from freezing winds and volcanic eruptions. This one looks like a cosy little hobbit house to me.

{above Dajbjartur Kr. Brynjarsson}

Many of these little Icelandic churches are simply decorated inside with just a couple of wooden benches, a simple altar and sometimes only packed earth on the floor. However the 25 residents of Skógar village have chosen to go for something a bit more colourful inside their church!

{above Scott Long}

I’ve wanted to visit Iceland for a while and now I’ve seen these sweet little churches I want to go even more. Have any of you ever been lucky enough to go?

Vintage shopping in Bologna

Just before Christmas my Mum and I bagged some £17 flights and headed to the lovely historic city of Bologna in Northern Italy for a few days. By happy coincidence our visit coincided with the twice-monthly flea market in the gorgeous square outside the church of Santo Stefano. Mum taught me pretty much everything I know about buying vintage tat, so the pair of us hot-footed it there straight after breakfast!

That’s the church in the background. I’ll take you inside later but let’s see what we can find on the stalls first shall we?

I love vintage packaging and these old razor blade packets caught my eye. Better than my plasticy Venus I thought!

Mum was tempted by this half-completed sampler, but it was a bit pricey.

You can walk 38km of Bologna’s streets under porticoes or arcades like the ones you can see in the background. Many have beautiful frescos painted inside the arches.

There were plenty of boxes of old photos, pictures, postcards and posters to rummage through. I especially liked this illustration of a circus ringleader training his prancing horses.

Lots of colourful shot glasses looking great displayed on a mirrored tray.

Baby Jesus, shepherds, kings and whatnot.

I loved the twirly font on these vintage name-tapes, all tied up with bright elastic bands.

I really want to create a display wall of pictureless frames (something like this) and could’ve got them all on this stall. Damn the Easyjet baggage allowance!

The Basilica Di Santo Stefano is actually not one church but a collection of seven churches and other religious buildings dating from different periods.

In the middle of all the buildings there’s a lovely courtyard with lots more of those porticoes around the edge.

Pretty much everything was, well, pretty. Even the bricks in the walls.

{all Decorator’s Notebook}

Oh, and here are some colour coded buttons I forgot to put in with the other flea market photos. I know you guys will appreciate this sort of thing!

Decorate with sugar and spice

I’m not really into ‘themed’ rooms but I do have a couple of Moroccan-style bits at home, like this carved screen and one of these leather pouffes. I love the juxtapositions that define this look: spicy accents against sugar-white walls and elaborate geometric patterns in pared-back, clutter-free rooms. I haven’t been to Morocco (yet!) but when I do, I’d love to stay here at the P’tit Habibi Riad in Marrakesh.

Yes folks, that’s another shimmery Moroccan wedding blanket. And no, I haven’t saved up enough to buy one for myself yet. One day!

{all Riad P’tit Habibi via Travel Files}

There are only four rooms in the Riad and all have been individually decorated. I especially love the beautifully hand-painted woodwork in each one. Reproducing the trailing motifs at home would be way beyond my skill level but it would be easy to add a similar pattern with a beautiful wallpaper like this one from Zoffany or fabric like the Amanpuri design from Sanderson.

Do you like a bit of rough?

Does anyone remember the TV show Ruth Watson did a few years ago where she helped wannabe hoteliers do up their establishments? It was kind of The Hotel Inspector (which I love) meets Grand Designs (which I don’t).

Anyway, one of the stories she followed was that of The Reading Rooms in Margate, which the owners hoped to transform from a batch of scummy bedsits into a boutique hotel, drawing on the ‘rough luxe’ decorating concept. In fact, The Reading Rooms needed such extensive renovation that a lot of the rough had to be smoothed to stop the whole place falling down, although the finished result is very lovely all the same.

{Clive Sax via The Reading Rooms}

In principle, there’s something I really love about the rough luxe idea. There’s a certain sense of nostalgia in making a feature of the paint and wallpaper choices of residents that have gone before – wearing away the layers to show how materials and tastes have changed – adding your own influences here and there.

The question is, I suppose, is could you really live in a house that was decorated like this? The Rough Luxe Hotel in London is pretty well known now, but I think it’s still worth mentioning as an interesting test of the principle.

{Rough Luxe Hotel}

Yep, I love the faded wallpapers and peeling paints and my mind’s telling me I should be head-over-heels for this hotel. But there’s something about it that leaves me cold. Perhaps it’s because the website declares so proudly that the scheme was masterminded by designer Rabih Hage and knowing that, the whole thing suddenly feels a bit contrived. Like buying distressed French furniture from Argos or torn jeans from Topshop.

I don’t know. I just feel a bit weird about it.

Anyway, leaving my personal dilemmas aside, how about we revel in some gorgeous rough luxe interiors from Inspace Locations?

{via Inspace Locations}

The beauty of location houses is that often they’re not lived in on a full-time basis, so every imaginable impractical decorating choice, from a gloss white hall floor at one end of the spectrum to a dangerously decrepit staircase at the other, is all fine and dandy. So long as you have a watertight liability insurance policy in your back pocket, of course.

{Inspace Locations}

So, what do you reckon?

Am I torturing myself because I’m slightly OCD and the thought of open lathe and plaster collecting dust and spiders strikes fear into my heart? Or am I being unfair on the likes of the Rough Luxe Hotel for ‘getting a man in’ to help them realise their vision?

Ultimately, is there a right time to start renovating and is there a right time to stop?

La Braderie: the day I died and went to vintage heaven

My friend and I had a fantastic weekend hunting for treasure at La Braderie in Lille – Europe’s biggest flea market! There was so much to see, so much to buy and we came away with some great goodies. Photos of what I bought will have to wait until this weekend (it’s too dark for photos when I get home from work now, sob). In the meantime here’s a selection of photographic loveliness to set the scene.

I love how the seemingly random assortment of junk creates the most intriguing combinations!

These gorgeous enamel jars were very tempting. I think I like the mottled blue and white ones best.

I was so charmed by this toy big wheel that I hadn’t noticed the advertising sign in the background until I edited my pictures!

I did manage to tear my eyes away from the brocante once or twice to admire Lille’s beautiful architecture, like this disused pharmaceutical college. We also spent quite some time spotting apartments we’d like to buy / rent. I thought that the one above this antique shop would suit me just fine.

There’s only one thing I find more pleasing than a row of Tolix chairs. And that’s a row of Tolix chairs with a heap of retro typography in front of it.

I went a bit gooey over this shapely 1930s blush pink tea set. Impossible to carry back safely on the Eurostar unfortunately. I hope another nice vintage lover got to take it home for their table.

Lots of the stalls belong to locals who set up a table of household cast-offs outside their garage, some are entrepreneurial kids looking to make a few euros selling home-baked cakes and old toys, others are dealers selling a specialist selection of items. But what brings someone to become a specialist in rickety prams or freaky bits of dolls I can’t imagine!

{all Decorator’s Notebook}

If you could have picked one thing in these photos, what would you have chosen?

Riot protection, 13th century style

South London has been a pretty scary place to be the past day or so. With all the talk of gun violence, stolen trainers and the disenfranchised youth it’s easy to think of all this as a very modern problem. So it made me smile when I stumbled across a photo of this C13th house in Trier, Germany.

{Patrick Ahles}

Can you spot what’s strange about it? Until the 19th century when the lower doors were added, it could only be accessed through the little door on the first floor! During the day a handy ladder would be put in place but at night, the ladder could be hauled up if trouble flared in the streets below. More attractive than boarded up windows at any rate…