Magic carpet: Why we’re all beginning to embrace carpets and rugs again
Pull out all the stops, the doorstops that is
Hold the front door! Doorsteps are back! There was a time when doorstops seemed a bit stuffy and superfluous, but those days are long gone. These days the quirkier the home accessory (within reason of course) the better. Check out these darling doorstop and bookend characters from Dora Designs. They're fun to look at and what's more, practical too. And the best bit is there's not a hint of
creepy taxidermy in sight. I think this is as close I'll ever get to owning a household pet.
Dora Designs, founded by Angela Stevens, is now in its 20th year and has rec...View more
Pick the perfect pattern with PiP Studio bed linen
Some like cool and calm bedding, with crisp white linens paving the way, while others prefer colourful styles, with bed linens that add warmth and vibrancy and feature all the colours in Van Gogh's art box. Chopping and changing bed linen style from week to week seems like a good compromise. If the surrounding furniture is fairly netural, introducing new bed linen is an easy room update and really makes a stylish impact. The collection at PiP Studio is just one example of how colour can bring a bedroom to life. The bed li...View more
Sneak peek at next season’s hottest homewares
Being an interiors stylist is mostly about lugging chairs around shoots and packing up returns in mountains of bubble wrap. But sometimes, the job is as far away from real work as you could possibly imagine – specifically, at the twice yearly annual shows, where all the stores display their wares for the following season. Traipsing round the collections, viewing products a full six months before they appear on the high street, it’s a chance to window shop, to spot trends and, most importantly, to...View more
Elevenses coffee quiz and competition
Love your coffee like a barista loves their beans? To mark the ACHICA coffee machine promotion this Saturday 18 June 2011, with great names such as Delonghi (above), GAGGIA, Jura, Nespresso and Dualit, ACHICA Living has devised a quick and fun coffee quiz. Answer the questions at elevenses and keep your mind perky - you can enter our competition to win a Classic GAGGIA Espresso and Cappucino machine (below) worth £300 too...
Steven Raichlen’s Crème Brûlée on the BBQ
The barbecue guru explains how to enjoy the scent of smoke and vanilla and the crack of caramelized sugar on the grill…
‘Make crème brûlée the old-fashioned way—with sugar caramelized to a hard candy crust using a fire-heated cast iron salamander!’ says Steven Raichlen, the multi-award winning author and TV host who reinvented barbecuing. With his best-selling Barbecue Bible cookbook and Barbecue University TV show, Steven has helped people all over the world ascend the ladd...View more
Easy Living’s stylist Milly Goodwin dispels some of the myths behind the glossy images
Easy Living’s Homes Stylist Milly Goodwin shares some of the more unusual moments in her career...'About a year ago we shot this decorating story inspired by botanical prints in my flat. I managed to accidentally pack my neighbour's kitten in one of the pink suitcases (featured on the bottom right) after she’d deemed it suitable for an afternoons' siesta. I thought it would be an isolated incident, but it turns out I was wrong….'
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Fab furniture for fido
Can dog furniture really be this fancy? Yes! These rather comfy looking dog beds by Sky Pet Products at ACHICA made me smile this morning. They look more stylish than the battered old IKEA sofa I've got at home, that's for sure. The Chester & Wells Richmond Dog Bed in Chocolate (pictured above) is made form brown faux leather with an inner cushion and wooden feet.
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Get to know leading modern British designer Nick Munro
