Will Ramsay, founder of Will’s Art Warehouse and The Affordable Art Fair

It’s a prediction that bodes well for this year’s Spring Affordable Art Fair, taking place in Battersea Park between 11th – 14th March, where 120 galleries will be showing an array of contemporary art, priced from just £50 up to a ceiling price of £3,000 and ranging from firmly established household names such as Sir Peter Blake, Jann Hanworth (solo show currently on at Woverhampton Art Gallery), Billy Childish (solo show currently at the ICA) or Scottish painter John Bellany to hot young talent on show at stands including My Life in Art, Mauger Modern, Bo-lee, Olivia Connelly and Sesame Gallery.

Jann Haworth, ‘Mickeyangelo’, Oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm, £2,850, Olivia Connelly

If it is the new talent that you’re after at this year’s Affordable Art Fair, be sure to visit Land without a Map,  a showcase for emerging artists, curated by jotta, the online and offline community of practicing artists and designers borne from the University of Arts London, which provides visitors with the opportunity to snap up artwork from one of tomorrow’s brightest stars.

To read the full interview with Will Ramsay, founder of The Affordable Art Fair, click here.

And to snap up 2-for-1 tickets, click here.

On Monday, I met the immaculately turned out design guru in a restaurant in Soho to discuss the book. He was characteristically outspoken about what he views as ‘the reign of beige’ that has blighted Britain in recent years, explaining: ‘There was a real bullying element to what the estate agents were saying these last three or four years about homogenising and standardising our interiors, simply because they become very easy to sell. Everything has been personality-less, which is crap in this country because if there’s one thing that we have lots of, it’s personality.’ He continued: ‘I think people are now thinking of what they did two years ago, what they spent two years ago and their values two years ago and finding them quite hollow: not very creative, not very nourishing, not very thoughtful. All of us can remember eleven years ago how we were inspired by doing something to our rooms and making a change. And I think suddenly people want to do that again, so that’s very much where the book has come from.’

And an excellent book it is, stuffed full of practical advice on everything from painting a room or tiling to stenciling onto colourwashed floorboards or covering a lampshade with wallpaper. It’s 2010 – time to roll your sleeves up, pour yourself a glass of wine (Laurence’s tip) and start enjoying your home.

Visit www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/interiors for a guide to the best interiors sites.

Limited edition Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair, designed by Tal R for Fritz Hansen

It all started last year when manufacturer Fritz Hansen celebrated 50 years of Arne Jacobsen’s iconic Egg Chair by launching 50 limited edition versions of them in patchwork. Suddenly patchwork seemed a bit cool again. Now we find Urban Outfitters (America only at the moment) with a range of patchwork quilts and pillows; upholstery artist Ginny Avison launching a new ‘Tuscany’ patchwork design across her range of handmade sofas, chairs and footstools; and fashion designer Lu Flux dedicating her entire Spring/Summer 2010 collection to the design; not to mention the ever wonderful Squint, which has recently launched its Heritage Collection in Harrods.

Patchwork Collection, launching Feb 2010 at ReVampt.

As if that wasn’t enough, specialist handmade accessories and furnishings company, ReVampt is launching a new collection of patchwork items for February 2010. These have been made using a mix of contemporary and vintage reclaimed fabrics – mainly denim – and are being launched to coincide with the Victoria & Albert’s museum’s exhibition, Quilts 1700-2010, which opens on 20 March. Over the course of the exhibition, ReVampt owner and designer, Sarah Baulch will be running a two day patchwork quilt workshop and re-working textile workshop – ideal for those who’d like to get involved. As for me, I’ll be fishing out that Guatemalan quilt again. It’ll cheer me up no end over gloomy January and February.

Visit thegoodwebguide.co.uk for the best interiors sites.

Nina Campbell, Swan Lake double-sided wrapping paper, £1.75 per sheet, available in store, 9 Walton Street, SW3 2JD, 020 7225 1011

Leaving aside the quirks of the rich and famous, the importance of a well-wrapped present can not be underestimated. My feeling is that you can get away with a fairly shoddy gift if it comes nicely wrapped. Meanwhile, much value is taken away from a really top class present if it’s delivered in a Tesco bag and a scrap of old newspaper. In a day and age when all our Christmas shopping is done in a few clicks online, a carefully wrapped gift signifies that time and effort has been spent on the recipient. It’s the same reason why, when I’m given a present, I’ll sit down and write a letter of thanks instead of an email – the time spent writing a letter to this or that relative shows that I’ve appreciated their gift and, ahem, improves my chances of getting another one next year.

£10 for two organic cotton scarves with matching tags from Liv

So, what gift wraps to watch out for this Christmas? There are a couple that have caught my eye. The first is a new double-sided gift wrapping paper (£1.75 per sheet, available in store) by Nina Campbell, which features her very lovely Autumn 09 Swan Lake wallpaper design. As an alternative to paper wrapping, I also like the idea of using a cotton scarf, which can be tied around gifts in a variety of styles and is a great second gift in itself. Organic cotton brand, Liv (from the Dr Hauschka people) offers some attractive scarves suitable for this purpose that come with matching tags (available from 1st December online or by phone now on 01386 792 642).

Oh yes. Back in 1959, Rams designed the first portable record player with a detachable radio – you could plug in some earphones and walk with it. He was also the man that made German electronics manufacturer, Braun, a household name in the 50s, designing audio equipment, calculators and shavers – as well as furniture designs for Vitsœ – that are as modern and relevant today as they were 50 years ago. His design ethos was based around a refusal to pander to the whims of fashion (“I hate everything that is driven by fashion,” he said), and the timeless notion that less is always better. His designs for Braun reflected this, and were marked by simplicity, a paucity of colour and materials, and a loyalty to function and durability of product.

Rivals in the 50s might have sneered at these principles – his clean, white, minimalist Braun SK4 of 1956 (the world’s first proper hi-fi) was dubbed ‘Snow White’s Coffin’ – but it is those same principles, set out as a list of ten ‘design commandments’ by Rams himself in the 80s, that are so prized and closely adhered to by Jonathan Ive for Apple and countless other modern designers today.

Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles of Design

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little as possible.

Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams is open at London’s Design Museum until 7th March 2010.

Quick Step Linesse LUF1245, Dark Varnished Walnut Laminate, yourfloors.co.uk

FOR YOUR FLOORS… yourfloors.co.uk is a fantastically intuitive and clearly designed site, bringing together an  extensive collection of flooring.  Research, plan and buy your flooring online, choosing from all sorts of different options, colours and style, and have it delivered free to your door via a nationwide network of Independent Flooring Retailers.

FOR YOUR WINDOWS… creativelydifferentblinds.com offers a choice of high quality, waterproof blinds, which can be printed up in a variety of digital images. For a personal touch, you can upload your own photos and select your size and options online, after which CDB will take care of the rest.  An extremely easy to use site, which makes choosing fun, personalised blinds a breeze.

Porcelain Milk Jug, Handmade by Hanne Rysgaard Ceramics, £45, notonthehighstreet.com

FOR ORIGINAL HOME ACCESSORIES & GIFTS… notonthehighstreet.com supports over 1300 British small businesses, providing them with an attractive platform on which to market and sell their wares. There’s a huge spectrum of categories across this site and if you despair at the run-of-the-mill and the mass produced, then this is the place to come for something genuinely original and creative.

FOR THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK… thehousedirectory.com is an extremely comprehensive online directory for interior and garden design and decoration. Companies and categories are listed A-Z to make everything easy to find and you can store notes and details about the products and services you find along the way.

To view the full list of The Good Web Guide 2009 Website of the Year Award’s shortlisted sites, click here.

Cool Coast Fabric by Simon Hart for Liberty, £19.95

But these days, you don’t have to fork out thousands of pounds to bring the work of top contemporary artists into your home. Recently, I updated a review for Liberty Department Store on thegoodwebguide.co.uk and couldn’t help being seduced by its newly launched range of fabrics, which fuse the work of six established British artists with creations from the much famed Liberty Design Studio. The contributing artists include Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, Paul Morrison, Mike McInnerney, Michael Angove, Anj Smith, and Simon Hart. I’ve got my eye on the Cool Coast fabric (£19.95) by Simon Hart, based upon the brightly coloured fishing boats and houses of Cornwall’s harbours and villages. It would look fabulous on a bathroom blind.

Perceived as an icon of the middle classes, the AGA has been the object of much sneering. In 1992, the term ‘aga saga’ was coined by Terence Blacker in Publishing News to describe the works of English writer, Joanna Trollope. It was meant to denote a type of novel, set in middle England and populated by the middle class sort that typically own AGA cookers. It was not taken as a compliment. In January 2005, Trollope was quoted in The Telegraph as saying: “I just cannot believe that anyone is still using that term. I used to be vehemently fed up with but now I’m just tired. It’s patronising and it’s inaccurate.” Oops.

The ‘aga saga’ novel might conjure up pictures of homely farmhouse kitchens and Labrador dogs, but earlier this year a less bucolic sort of ‘aga saga’ was played out in The Guardian between journalist and environmental activist, George Monbiot and the chief executive of the AGA Rangemaster Group, William McGrath. Monbiot started the tussle by declaring war on the AGA, raging about its middle class owners, whom, he said, clearly couldn’t give a monkey’s about climate change. McGrath replied saying that his views on class were outdated and that a home with an Aga cooker could use less energy than one without. They continued their fight in a fully transcribed interview on The Guardian website.

Monbiot clearly feels very strongly about Agas, and their owners. So one can only imagine his reaction on learning that, to celebrate AGA’s 300 year history, another symbol of middle class prosperity, Emma Bridgewater, has decorated one of these controversial cookers with her famous polka dots.

* On 9th & 10th October a Cast Iron Cooking Weekend will take place at AGA shops across the country. To find out more, visit www.aga-  web.co.uk.

* The Good Web Guide recommends several sites for AGA lovers including Aga Links and This is My Aga.

In 2007, the enterprising duo opened a combined shop and interior design service on Notting Hill’s Westbourne Grove, showcasing the work of Brazil’s most iconic designers, including Hugo França, Sergio Rodrigues and Pedro Petry, alongside designs from Brazil’s most vulnerable communities. I had opportunity to learn more last week when I went along to the shop to interview Silvia and Daniela for The Good Web Guide. Shamefully, it was my first introduction to these designers, but I left feeling inspired. In a refreshing move away from the high gloss, sleek, synthetic look of so much popular Italianate contemporary design, Brazilian design, it seems, really speaks from the heart. Whether that’s in a França chair, magnificently crafted from a fallen tree, the sustainable wood rich with a darkly hued grain;  or in a framed flower, created from fish scales by an inmate in a tough Brazilian jail – this is design with character and poignancy.

At Silvia Nayla, there are works that sit proudly in New York’s Musuem of Modern Art or sell at Sotheby’s for thousands of pounds next to more simple designs, priced under £20 and created by those living in favelas. But each design tells a uniquely Brazilian story. This might be one of environmental concern at a time when the destruction of Brazilian rainforest continues;  one of a growing impetus amongst artisans living on the bread line to formulate their designs into a finished and marketable product; or one of an oft underestimated Brazil that is growing in wealth and which has the capacity to produce sophisticated, world class design. I, for one, am hooked.

To read The Good Web Guide’s full interview with Silvia Nayla and Daniela Martins, click here.

Since we kissed goodbye to the consumer-driven 90s however, the tides have been turning. Young, hip twenty-somethings have formed networks such as Stitch ‘n’ Bitch, I Knit London or Cast Off and meet in groups to spend an evening knitting together. The hugely popular 70s textile brand and home sewing company, Clothkits has re-launched after 17 years of inactivity. People feel poor again. Resources are dwindling. At the end of a long day sitting at a computer we want something tangible. We want to make things ourselves, or know that they have been made with care, and because they have value, look after them.

It’s why, this month, after year on year rises in haberdashery, fabric and craft sales, John Lewis has published a modern reworking of the classic war-time pamphlet, Make Do and Mend, complete with an array of handy domestic tips and tricks provided by its own employees. First published in 1943, when food and clothes were rationed in the Second World War, the new version has been adapted for the 21st century, incorporating advice on the maintenance and use of gadgets and appliances alongside more traditional household hints, tips and money-saving advice for the home. Many of the tips are geared towards prolonging the life of furniture, electrical equipment and clothes. It’s what our grandmothers have been doing for years.

Limited quantities of the Make Do and Mend will be available at all John Lewis stores from 1st September 2009, priced at £3. To support the revival of the make do and mend mindset, John Lewis is also offering a range of Make Do and Mend classes in its stores nationwide. Subjects include dressmaking, bag making, knitting and sewing and details on courses can be found on the John Lewis website.