All tagged interior inspiration
The Standard, London is housed in the former Camden Town Hall Annex built in 1974 in true Brutalist style, and it’s been on my hotel wish list since it opened in 2019. With it’s jaw-droppingly cool interior, sympathetic to its 1970’s exterior, great restaurants and bars within its shell, and bedrooms with a view of my favourite building in London - I thought it was time to visit The Standard.
As well as the usual ‘physical’ side of trends, in my opinion, 2020-2021, more than previous years have given rise to what I’m calling ‘emotional’ trends. These are what I believe to be the common sentiments and attitudes of the public, in terms of how we’re approaching general life, working life and home life as a result of Covid-19.
2020 just may have cancelled the ‘trend’ as we know it and for many months to come, but as the very meaning of the word trend is ‘a general direction in which something is developing or changing’, I think there’s a whole new way of looking at the direction of things, in general.
Deeper into lockdown we go, and my mid-January birthday is on the horizon. All I want to do is eat comfort food, but I’m trying to impose a health kick on myself to boost my system post festive season richness. The daily walk is helping my sanity and I’m appreciating the air in my face, even if today’s was fuzzy rain.
I realised that reading really is one of my favourite pastimes. Not only is it soothing and luxurious, but so enriching; actually being able to gain knowledge, insight and inspiration all at the same time. Spending time surrounded by my books, hot drinks, snacks, a blanket and, in our case, a log fire bought to us by Now TV, really is my happy place, and for this reason I love to invest in beautiful books that will continue to bring me endless joy over the years.
As 2020 gave the word ‘bubbles’ a whole new meaning, many businesses are finding themselves back within the tight reigns of Tier 3 after the second lockdown came to an end. I’ve been thinking about the businesses that I’m so used to visiting and supporting each day when working from the office, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
Our physical environments have a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing – which is why it’s so important, now more than ever, to cultivate home environments that support us to feel happy, comfortable and secure.
Velvet is my personal fabric of choice, and it’s currently everywhere. Donning cushions, curtains, upholstery, stationary, handbags and even jewellery, the fabric that was once the preference of grandmas UK wide, has now become a designers go-to texture.
Discuss: Why not create the ‘set’ of your liking by buying separates, instead of what the buyer has pulled together for you? We buy separates for our wardrobe all the time so why not apply the same thinking when buying for our home, after all, we’re ‘dressing’ it for ourselves! So let’s add our character and individuality.
When artist, maker and creative producer, Sally Gilford asked me if I’d like to photograph her cushions in my home, I jumped at the opportunity. Shooting these sumptuous colourful creations amongst my own favourite pieces was absolute play-time and it gave me the opportunity to learn about each pattern and exactly where they derive from.
With flexible working becoming more opportune, and in a lot of cases mandatory since the Covid outbreak, we’ve had to evaluate how and where we set up our work stations each day in order to concentrate, be comfortable and most importantly, able to disconnect from it all when ‘leaving work’. So where possible, it pays to have a designated area at home that’s set up specifically for work.
So, ‘Do You Like Good Music’? I have a print in my bedroom with these opening lyrics from the track Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley, and it got me thinking about the importance of music and how what we listen to influences our design aesthetic.
And now as I’m flicking through the current magazines and researching what’s new in my favourite stores online, we’ve arrived at an object that will remind us of walks along the beach, holidays and souvenirs, yes the new micro trend is shells.
We love our home, and over the years we’ve really made it our own but it hasn’t come without its obstacles. We have very strict landlord rules of no painting, no hanging pictures, no nails, brackets… nothing in the walls. We had to practically petition to get curtain poles put up.
I have a stack of design books that I’ve collected over the years and I often don’t get around to reading them for some time, for whatever reason. Maybe I’m finding ‘more important’ things that need to be done in the limited time I have after a long day at work and at the weekend. Maybe I choose to zone out to Netflix with chocolate and a brew instead, which is of course, totally OK and deserved!
