Christopher Hodsoll is leaving Core One. Which is terrible news, but the good news is he is having a sale tomorrow through Saturday 19th May. Core One is one of the best antiques shopping destinations in London, round the back of the Gasworks which is to the right of the bend in The New Kings Road.  

This is probably one of my favorite stores. A few weekends ago I went down to Columbia Road having not been there for years and years.  After buying flowers I headed over to Cheshire Street to go to Labour and Wait only to find they had gone!  The street lined with poor imitations; shops filled with this current trend for repro fifties or Danish kitchen stuff and prints.  I left feeling a bit sad.

For no reason!  Turns out Labour and Wait moved around the corner to Redchurch Street to the most beautiful, larger and perfect building for them. It makes me burst with pride to see two such incredibly nice people do so well.  They have stayed true to their look, they have improved upon it and grown and as usual I wanted almost everything in the store.  It is the perfect place if you are in the middle of decorating a kitchen or laundry or live in a cabin of any sort, or wish you did.  

I really want to get this sink and the soap:

I did buy a couple of these lights in elephant grey which i am planning on hanging in my kitchen with bright yellow flex.  

They have a very good website so check it out and if you are in London and this strikes a cord with you then I can’t recommend you visit more highly.

I have just read the new LonnyMag and have fallen in love with this garden.  I literally want to steal it.  I went over to my building site today, another wall is down, this time between the kitchen and the bedroom - seems a shame to put it back up but there are limits to open plan.  The sheer mess in there that is apparently going to be all done in a month and a half leaves me unable to get that into the decor just yet, but am in full fantasy mode on the garden…

The Ford’s place is in Charlotteville N Carolina which is a far cry from W10, London but i would love to climb ivy up the house like this, maybe mixed with clematis and i love these paths with pots and a chair for a rest on the way in or out.  Check out the story in this month’s Lonny…

And finally

I must have this tea pot!  And I wouldn’t mind a couple of the cups either….

I have been put on to salty liquorice by my friend Sarah Standing.  I have always loved liquorice, one of those marmite style love or hate treats, but I never liked the salty only the sweet.  Her powers of enticement got me hooked.  First it involved going down to Columbia Road to Suck and Chew and small old fashioned shop lined with vintage Coronation biscuit tins and jars of sweets for sale by the ounce.  I now have cravings for it, usually by association when I am on the phone with sarah (most days).  I have just ordered a stock online at AllThingsLicorice.co.uk, destined elsewhere.  There is a whole liquorice world out there and the sweet/candy market online is quite vast.  I think it is something the online candy market is something I want to start dipping into and using for gifts.  Finding old boxes at Kempton or flee markets and then filling them with candy for presents is going to be my new gift.  You can find so many pretty boxes in markets, old cigarette boxes and endless tin, silver or china ones that we no longer really have any use for - unless possibly filled with sour apples, jelly beans or salty star fish and brought out after dinner. 

In January I went to the newly opened Gunton Arms in Norfolk for WSJ magazine.  It is a fabulous place, a delicious restaurant, comfortable rooms designed by Robert Kime and a proper English Country pub.  The place is owned by the fabulous London art dealer Ivor Braka and his wife Sarah, so the walls are covered in a mix of good things.  If this wet spring ever gives way to summer it is a great place for a weekend, and even in the cold it is awfully cosy indoors. Click on the image to read the story. 

I had dinner last night at Nathalie Farman Farma’s house.  She is one half of the fabric house Tissus Tartares.  I am a fan.  And since seeing Nathalie’s house and the way she uses the fabrics I am an even bigger fan than before.  The house was featured in The World of Interiors and I recommend clicking the link here to check it out.  The fabric in her bedroom (you can see in the Interiors story) is by Madelaine Castaing and Natalie’s style is very much a young Castaing.

In her sitting room she had a pair of little chairs, like the one below: 

But instead of making a little squab seat (like the one you see in her kitchen) she upholstered the seat, very generously almost a dome.  It looked terrific.  Her use of her fabrics is so feminine, old fashioned but not at all dusty and also she doesn’t over crowd her rooms, which is wonderful. 

Été Muscovite is a favorite of mine as is: 

Casse Noisette.  I am longing to use them! 

I found this really pretty table last weekend.  I am trying to work out my bathroom and how it is going to look.  Contemporary bath? Traditional? Freestanding? Undermarble? So many things to think about! 

You think baths are problematic and you move onto the basins.  I don’t really want a pedestal and it would be lovely to have a cupboard underneath although in my experience they become filled with a ton of stuff you never use - other than the loo paper.  So I went back and took a look at this table and wondered if I should use this and put a basin in it?  Is that criminal given the table is 1830 or something?  It is pine and could have a marble top put on it.  I think it could be really pretty.  Any thoughts???

I have just ordered new shades for my office.  I absolutely adore these Chik Shades.  They are made in India and their hand made quality makes them so much more desirable to me than the more usual split bamboo shades that are so easily available.  I first got these from John Robshaw who subsequently stopped supplying them and it was a while before I rediscovered them at Joss Graham.  

These pictures show a few examples of where I have used them.  When they are pulled down they cast such a pretty diffused light which you can see below on the desk. 

Joss Graham is a wonderful shop, they specialise in Asian textiles and most delightfully, I think, sometimes have vintage turbans which I first discovered while in Robert Kime’s shop where he had made the most beautiful lampshade from them.

Here is another group: 

I am sorry the photographs aren’t better, but i do think these are so beautiful.  Joss Graham are the organisers of The Asia House Fair, which is at Olympia next week and there will be all sorts of fabulous dealers ranging from textiles to jewelry.  Starts Friday 27th.

I am fully aware that the inspiration pictures for my cellar have been quite lofty!  Popham Designs make the most beautiful encaustic tiles in Morocco.  I have wanted to use them for ages and never had the opportunity until now.  

I am going to use them in my cellar which will be the laundry and will have a wet room at the far end.  The trouble is I can’t decide which.  I have whittled it down to a few combination of one pattern. 

I love this palette and the colours are called honey, milk and lavendar which sound delicious! 

But then this is very smart and I just love this bright green.  Would love some opinions.