Painting Pots

I love old weathered terracotta pots for the garden, but when you've got a red brick house like ours it can just look too much. Finding grey or nearly-black pots is not necessarily easy and painting pots to the desired colour has always seemed like a lot of work. However, there is now a new linseed oil paint on the market designed especially for the painting of pots. It comes in three subtle tints: 'Svart Akleja' (Black Aquilegia), 'Blåsalvia' (Blue Salvia) and 'Himmelsblå Vallmo' (Sky Blue Poppy).

The hitch? It's produced for Zetas, a Swedish feinschmecker-style garden centre in Sweden, which doesn't do deliveries abroad. Drat.

I'm going to have to do some research on how to get my hands on this - it should be something that Petersham Nurseries or Cliftons Nursery would sell, perhaps they can help. I'm on the case but if all else fails I might be able to find something similar at Chelsea Flower Show.

 

 

Photos: Victoria Skoglund / Zetas Finsmakar Trädgård

Ferm Living - Easter Feast

It's Holy Week... I love that term. It's not one I grew up with, I think it's probably Catholic, but it perfectly describes this week between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. When I left Norway to go and live in France, and later England, I lost that sense of peace and relaxation that Easter is to Scandinavians. OK, so a lot of people cross-country ski like mad for the whole week, but it's away from the daily life, stressful work environments and humdrum routines. I think Scandis tend to take Easter Week off en masse, whereas the French and Brits soldier through until Good Friday. Living in London Easter was a huge party weekend every year, great fun but not very restful.

I want to bring back the restful, the meandering, the reading of 'påskekrim' (Easter crime novels), crossword puzzles, slow cooking and general retro relaxation. Which brings me to Ferm Living's rather gorgeous Easter Feast online magazine, which contains inspiring recipes by food blogger Katrín Björk. And then there's the homeware...

 

London Design Week - Easter Inspiration

I had high hopes for my visit to London Design Week at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour a few weeks ago, and it certainly was an impressive collection of interior design shops, but not really an exhibition as I had expected (do your homework better next time Anne...). I struggled to take photos as virtually all the beautiful displays were window displays, and as such behind glass full of light reflections. Tricky, as there were a lot of colours and details that I wanted to capture.

One of the first displays that caught my eye was this one from a shop selling tableware, and I think it illustrates beautifully that plain white china is the ultimate choice, as you can accessorise and style it for any season or event.

The mood throughout was elegant and very highly polished, it felt like wandering through a hotel with lots of beautiful compartments. So this 'casual' display of felt, burlap and damask together in the Elitis window was cute in a 'we don't take ourselves too seriously, mais ne touchez pas' kind of way

A Lunch Box Named Desire

Spotted on inspiring Swedish blog Inredningshjälpen this morning; probably the best lunch box ever. It's called Lunch Box System and is designed by Jacob Strand from The Tomorrow Collective, a group of students at the School of Industrial Design at Lund University.

This would be perfect for bringing my lunch when I go over to work in our new allotment garden. It's practical but most of all incredibly handsome. And I'll admit it, I am a sucker for handsome.

Spring News from IKEA

My favourite Swedish furniture store is releasing a flurry of new designs, ideas and products this spring - so much so that it's almost hard to keep up.

Here are some of the things that have caught my eye recently:

This neat rectangular tray with a playful design by Olle Eksell is part of his ÖNSKEDRÖM collection for IKEA which will launch on April 10th (I love the fact that the tray has a green reverse).

Possibly the most exciting news is the collection of lamps, furniture and decorative items which feature integrated wireless chargers for smartphones. Not only that, they all come with USB ports for charging camera batteries etc. Chargers are some of the most uninspiring objects but here they are turned into practical and discreet features on beautiful, simple pieces for the home. My two favourites are these:

RIGGAD desk lamp

NORDMÄRKE 'charger plate'

Then there is ESBJÖRN, a seductively simple chair with a smart quilted seat cover (non-slip!). Somehow the cover reminds me of something much more expensive... It's the kind of piece I wish we had room & need for, it's so good looking.

And to remind us of birds returning from colder climes, OLUNDA framed art print by London-based illustrator Jenny Capon

Narcissi or not?

It's daffodil season and I am starting to wonder whether I've missed a trick in ignoring them... I am not keen on the bright yellow ones and so in my bulb-planting flurry last autumn I decided I wasn't going to plant any. But this week I have changed my mind and I am now putting together a list of narcissi I've fallen in love with. It started off with a Gardens Illustrated article about Thierry Dronet's garden at Berchigranges in the Vosges (France), where the narcissi were anything but stridently supermarket-yellow. I particularly fell for 'Edinburgh', 'Jenny', 'Petit Four' and 'Berchigranges'

Narcissus 'Edinburgh' with its pale salmon pink fluffy trumpet. Photo: Sabrina Rothe

Narcissus 'Jenny', all white and looking a bit like a startled maiden. Photo: Sabrina Rothe

 

 Narcissus 'Petit Four' with shades of clotted cream. Photo: Sabrina Rothe

 Narcissus 'Berchigranges', a sublime double variety and the only French narcissus registered by the RHS. 

Photo: Sabrina Rothe

And having seen this gorgeous arrangement below by Eva Sandner Gravesen on her blog Evigglade I have come around to yellow in a big way - how could one fail to love these?

 

Photo: Eva Sandner Gravesen

 
In Norway we call the yellow daffodils 'Påskeliljer' (Easter Lilies) and the white ones with a yellow trumpet are called 'Pinseliljer' (Whit Lilies or Pentecostal Lilies), but then they do flower later than here in the London region. Come Easter I expect we will be watching our first tulips make an appearance, they are already playing peek-a-boo in the border by the front door...

Easter Inspiration

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, leading us into Holy Week and then Easter proper. I'm planning to decorate with soft pastel still-lifes hither and thither, and while I have lofty intentions of painting eggs by hand (eggs which were collected two years ago, no less, and have awaited my gentle brush strokes ever since...) I am very tempted to order some of these everlasting ones as well

 Photo: Royal Copenhagen

I love this still life by Royal Copenhagen, where they have used pendant egg ornaments and egg bonbonnières teamed with simple green recycled glass. Fill a bonbonnière with Anton Berg or Waitrose marzipan eggs and watch them disappear in a twinkle...

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Fill the bonbonnière with a posy of spring flowers such as anemonies and ranunculus from the garden

 

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

Photo: Georg Jensen

Georg Jensen's feather-light 'Daisy' ornaments appeal to those of us who like the golden warmth of brass...

Photo: Lene Bjerre

While Lene Bjerre has lovely earthy ornaments in soft grey

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

A little arrangement of pearl hyacinths and miniature narcissi in a pretty cup, like here, would make a beautiful decoration without spelling out Easter in capital letters..

 

Photo: Royal Copenhagen

And then there are these pretty Hydrangea vases from Royal Copenhagen, which aren't actually Easter ornaments and would therefore be infinitely useable throughout spring and summer

Into the Blue

So blue hasn't really featured on my list of favorite colours for a while - I was an ardent fan of blue rustic stripes for a long time and then went off it, like you do when you've had too much chocolate... But blue has come back into my life, in our bedroom and in my wardrobe. Suddenly blue is the most appealing and refreshing colour, as in these images below...

 Photo: String

 A String 'Pocket' shelf in blue showcasing blue and white china against a vibrant blue wall

Photo: Contura

The classic tiled white 'Allmoge 523' wood-burning stove by Contura is beautifully complemented by the mid-blue walls and restful blue and white textiles in this bedroom

Photo: French Connection

Ibiza, in a blue haze...

Photo: Lagerlings estate agents, via Inredningshjälpen

This divine sitting room styled by Svenskt Tenn where brass and caramel leather are perfectly off-set against the blue velvet sofa. This photo is from the current portfolio of Lagerlings, a Stockholm estate agent, just like the one below.

Photo: Lagerlings estate agents, via Simplicity

Cat Sitter - Lend Me Your Cat

 Photo source: Pinterest.

I come from a family of cat lovers. Actually no, the cat-loving runs through the female line on my mother's side. My mother, sister and I find cats absolutely irresistible and even though I never knew my maternal grandmother I know that this affection for felines comes from her. My father, though he tolerated our cats throughout my childhood, would quite openly have preferred them to be dogs - and named one of them Rover to make his point. Rover was a beautiful but rather wild rescue cat and absolutely not dog-like in any way.

I haven't had a cat for years now, my precious feline companion died before I left Nice and moved to London. I can categorically say that had she stayed alive then I wouldn't have made the move - so in a way it caused a seismic shift in my life. Obviously, living in shared rented accommodation in London it was not possible to get another cat, it was like permanently living out of a room-sized suitcase.

Then, after several years in the big smoke I met and eventually settled down with my beloved. After a while I mooted the idea of perhaps getting a cat..? The response was baffling: 'I find cats creepy, they move so silently. And I work from home, it would make me very uneasy to have a cat slinking around the house'. Pardon? Cats creepy? Never! But there it was , the non-negotiable in our relationship - no cats.

Now that we live in a small town outside London we could most definitely have a cat. But the husband still doesn't like them, so I am limited to frequenting our neighbours' cats when they wander through our garden. I have therefore decided to tentatively start a cat-sitting venture, so if you live in Weybridge and need help looking after your cat(s) feel free to get in touch. I'm available!

The Bulb Slattern

Yes, I'll readily admit that's me. A bulb-slattern...

I have planted a number of tulip bulbs over the last 8 years, ie since my beloved and I moved in together and started renting homes with gardens. First off, several armfuls of gorgeous purple parrot tulips from Avon bulbs. Oh, the joy of picking them and displaying them in the classic Iittala vase we got for our wedding. Heaven.

Tulipa 'Rai'. Photo: crocus.com

Not so heavenly when I scrabbled around in the flowerbed trying to retrieve the bulbs the weekend we moved out a couple of years later, on a chilly autumn evening as night fell. While my husband impatiently waited to lock up the flat and go. They didn't like our new garden, and never showed their frilly purple heads again...

So I left it for a few years, not wanting to waste all that effort again (not to mention money) until we were properly settled.

Then, when we bought our house 18 months ago, and the garden was quite frankly non-garden like, I thought let's try again. In went an armful of 'Angélique' pale pink double tulips.

 

Tulipa Angélique. Photo: johnscheepers.com

 I admit I just planted them without any particular care. Some came up but not nearly as many as I had expected. More went in last autumn, this time pale pink 'Shirley' and dark plum 'Queen of Night'. I live in the hope that one spring we'll have a glorious, romantic display of nodding tulips at the front of the house. Though as I'm a complete slattern when it comes to bulbs I'm not convinced that will ever happen. I've never lifted a bulb at the end of the season, at least not on purpose. Apparently one should. But who on earth has the time?

Tulipa Shirley. Photo: johnscheepers.com

 

Tulipa Queen of Night. Photo: crocus.com

But last week, when I attended a course with Sarah Raven, I discovered that she doesn't lift bulbs either. Hallelujah, I am not the only bulb-slattern! If Sarah Raven leaves her bulbs in the ground then I'm not really a slattern at all. Sarah says the trick is to plant the bulbs deeper than what is prescribed and then to plant something else on top - the bulbs will find their way up from their deeper positions and once they've finished blooming the plant on top can kick into relay action and continue providing interest. This was possibly the most validating (not lifting bulbs) and inspiring thing I learned from the course: being a slattern is OK :)

Friday

is Riverford delivery day - organic fruit and vegetables delivered from Devon. And eggs! I eat eggs for breakfast every day and right now I've run out.

Whenever one of us opens the door to find the little Riverford box it's like opening a present, we never know what we will find. Sometimes we're instantly inspired to cook and sometimes we have to work out what on earth a vegetable is, and how to cook it. But we really like the fact that our fruit and veg come direct from the growers, who have not been shafted by some giant impersonal supermarket. And that the eggs come from happy hens.

The thing about Yellow

is that it leaves me cold... generally. But then I found myself completely seduced by this beautifully simple little handbag in & Other Stories on Regent Street recently. Perhaps it had something to do with the beautifully creative styling of the shop, with a large display of mannequins standing in a field of glass bud-vases filled with anemones. I was enchanted and ever since I've started noticing yellow in a different way...

D-Ring Crossbody Bag £65. Photo: & Other Stories

 

Photo: Bonytt

Vintage kitchen units painted in yellow gloss and matte grey. One of the most striking kitchen photos I have seen - hats off to Synne Skjulstad for the bold choice. Click here to read the full Bonytt article.

 Photo: H&M Home

Pretty little trays and bud vases from one of my favourites: H&M Home, where you'll get 25% off online orders until the 15th March

Photo: Bemz
Fresh new fabric covers for IKEA Henriksdal dining chairs by Bemz, an ingenious firm that supplies covers in all kinds of wonderful fabrics for those chairs, sofas or beds that could do with updating instead of being thrown out

 Photo: H&M Home

Velvet, linen and cotton cushion covers by H&M Home

Photo: Isidore Montag

Floor-length dress from Giambattista Valli's SS2015 collection

Photo: IKEA Livet Hemma

This cute little 'Knopparp' sofa by IKEA

...which is of course inspired by Ligne Roset's 'Ruché' sofa below

Spring has sprung!

Trust the Timing of your Life

Photo: ellos.no

Sometimes I stumble across images that slot right into where I'm at there and then... Like this one.

Sowing Seeds

Having gardened very moderately for a few years now I have come to the conclusion that I would like our garden to be a haven, a place to step into and feel surrounded by a profusion of flowers. We have tried vegetables, and they are fun (when they're not decimated by slugs), but nothing gives me as much joy as lots of dreamy scented flowers.

 Photo: sarahraven.com

When we bought our house 18 months ago the garden wasn't exactly in a dreadful state but there certainly was nothing lovely about it either. The grenery in the estate agent's brochure was simply a thick carpet of weeds which had been given a buzz-cut in preparation for the viewings of the house. As a long-term renter I had never really appreciated the effort it takes to build up flower beds. I thought I could transplant my potted flowers and 2-3 flowering shrubs and add a few plants here and there to fill in the gaps. But although our garden is not big it just seems to swallow up plants - I had no idea I'd need quite so many. And believe me, I just kept on ordering plants and adding them in throughout last summer, yet the garden still didn't look as lush as I wanted it to. So this year I've decided to make a big effort with annuals, which I admit I rather ignored last year in the perhaps misguided belief that they are a bit of a waste of time (my thinking was that perennials go in once, whereas annuals have to be planted every year). Time to rethink my thinking...
To give myself a good start I went on a 'cuttings garden' course with Sarah Raven at Perch Hill Farm yesterday. And I am so glad I did - it's too easy to sit in my own bubble and noodle on what little I know - attending a course like Sarah's is so informative and inspiring. I now have a much better idea of which flowers to sow in order to get more height and volume in our flower beds. Height and volume, it sounds like what ask the hairdresser for... but it's true, I want tall flowers to screen the obligatory 6-foot fencing around our garden and mid-height flowers to add volume. Thanks to Sarah I know more about which flowers to plant together, and most importantly: how to keep up a succession of flowering throughout the year. It's about planning, as simple as that.

Photo: sarahraven.com

I already have a number of flowers germinating cautiously (some actually rather vigourously) in various trays in a cool and light bedroom at the top of the house, and I've brought quite a few more seed packets back with me from Perch Hill. Poppies, for example. I used to love their crinkly silk-tissue look when I was a child, but here in Surrey they grow like weeds, and so I had rather gone off them. But now I'll be sowing the flamboyant, pink Papaver Paeoniflorum 'Venus'.

 

Photo: sarahraven.com

 I think it will work with both the pale pinks & whites in our front garden and also the purples in our back garden - I like the idea of weaving the two gardens and colour schemes together with a few of the same plants, a bit like a watercolour painting where the colours bleed into each other. Another rediscovery is cornflower, which I had become a bit bored with but which I saw which fresh eyes as Sarah showed us her slides. I'm planning to add the lovely dark plummy red Centaurea Cyanus 'Black Ball' dotted through a pale pink flowerbed in the front garden. They are apparently very easy to grow and quick to flower - irresistible!

 Photo: bbc.co.uk

 I went a bit crazy in the seed racks in the Perch Hill Farm shop, so I will be a very busy bee indeed for the next few weeks. I can't wait.