Blog

Which are the Good, the Bad or the Ugly?

I ask because sometimes it’s impossible to know what you want until you see what you don’t…

There are loads of exciting inspirational design fairs from the vast and venerable Ideal Homes (now in its 110^th year) to the dinky Houzz of 2018 which was held in a single house in Soho. 

This week is a favourite of mine – Clerkenwell Design Week. 

It covers everything from furniture to lighting and textiles to accessories and is set in an area with more creative businesses per square mile than anywhere in the world (plus a lot of trendy coffee shops and foodie hubs).

Just one thing to say this week: Linen.

You may have noticed a nationwide campaign in April called I Love Linen. 

I spotted it at Jigsaw, but it is supported by myriad retailers and designers from Vivienne Westwood to John Lewis. Ethics, quality and sustainability are at the heart of the campaign and I, for one, am thrilled to cheer it on. 

If you missed it there’s a great site you can visit: I Love Linen

I’ve made thirteen wallpaper designs since we launched in 2009.

Dragons and dinosaurs for my boys when they were little, planes and robots for the aerophiles and technophiles, adventurous girls for the little women, stripes and jigsaw pieces in response to requests for something more abstract.  

But this is the only one I made just for me.

I’ve just realised that my two signature wallpaper designs feature sibling relationships.

I shouldn’t be surprised because I made the first wallpaper for my twin sons and I was brought up with one sister but there you are. 

Hadn’t properly noticed until I was looking for a present for my sister’s birthday this week and vaguely wondering if I could get away with a couple of rolls of General Miss Chief (I really can’t).

I’ve always said I love Roald Dahl, and I do.  But I think I might love his illustrator Quentin Blake even more. 

His wonderful wallpaper collection from Osbourne and Little is called Zagazoo and I love his quirky Cockatoos, particularly.  

Blake’s famous for drawing with quill pens and scratchy nibs so his drawings are as full of ‘mistakes’ and surprise as the messy situations his characters find themselves in. 

One of the reasons I started designing for kids was because I wanted to get away from the leery, branded Man Utd type prints so often printed in unappealing, shouty red-and-white. 

So why do I so love PaperBoy’s Spitfire pattern in…red and white?! 

I surprise myself with my love of this fabric but for me it’s all about the quality of the colours and the material.

No stylish person wants to be the same as everyone else.

But sometimes things are popular for good reason – Cartier diamonds, Mercedes-Benz convertibles, Cadbury’s Crème Eggs – and no matter how many people have them, it’s still ok to want them.

I love velvet. 

I always wanted a Weimaraner dog mainly because they look and feel like the most luxurious silver-grey hammered velvet.

I only gave up on my dream of having one when I realized they need 6 hours of running about a day, and chase deer and – long story short - I settled for a pup that looks more like the slut-wool that gathers under the kitchen cabinets but is happy just to trot round the block now and again.

Or is it?