Low-priced art is an investment we can still afford 16 February, 2010
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: art as an investment, Billy Childish, Bo-lee, Emily Jenkinson, Jann Hanworth, John Bellany, Mauger Modern, My Life in Art, Olivia Connelly, Sesame Gallery, Sir Peter Blake, The Affordable Art Fair, Will Ramsay
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Now in its 11th year, the Affordable Art Fair is going from strength to strength with low-priced art proving an increasingly attractive investment for homeowners contending with a still-shaky economy. According to its founder, Will Ramsay, last year’s October fair was the best attended ever, and the third best for sales out of a total of 17 London fairs, with £4million worth of art bought. In a recent interview with The Good Web Guide, Will said that, this year, he predicts “further pick-up as confidence returns.”
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.
An outspoken Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen talks decorating 13 January, 2010
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: decorating, Decorating with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Emily Jenkinson, expert advice, how to tile, how to wallpaper, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, The Good Web Guide
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Love him, or hate him, flamboyant celebrity interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen seems to be having a moment. His BBC One series, Hidden Houses of Wales (7.30pm, Mondays) is apparently smashing all viewing records; this Friday his new series Popstar to Operastar launches on ITV1 (9pm); Matalan Homeware is launching his new Opera collection in the next couple of weeks; and, if that wasn’t enough, he’s got a new book out, Decorating with Laurence Llwelyn-Bowen, which aims to provide a comprehensive guide to DIY (Decorate It Yourself).
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.
Can patchwork ever be stylish? 9 December, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Arne Jacobsen patchwork Egg Chair, Emily Jenkinson, Ginny Avison, Lu Flux, patchwork trend, Quilts 1700-2010, ReVampt, Squint, The Good Web Guide, Victoria & Albert Museum
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About seven years ago, on a trip to Guatemala, I purchased a colourful hand-made patchwork quilt. It livened up my student bedroom no end, but once the student days were over, it seemed a bit dated, a bit budget, a bit scruffy – something you might find in an old aunt’s house, a Louisa May-Alcott novel, or student digs. Fast forward a few years, and dated, budget and scruffy have transformed into thrifty, eco and crafty. In other words, bang on trend: patchwork is going to be big news for 2010.
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.
It’s a wrap 27 November, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: alternative gift wrap, Candy Spelling, double-sided wrapping paper, Emily Jenkinson, gift wrapping, Liv, nina campbell, Swan Lake wrapping paper, wrapping room
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A £9 million mansion in Northumberland has gone on sale equipped with 93 rooms, one of which is dedicated solely to the gift wrapping of presents, says The Times. A ‘wrapping room’, if you haven’t come across one before, is an American foible favoured by Candy Spelling (wife of Aaron), who earlier this year admitted to People magazine that she has not one, not two, but THREE gift wrapping rooms. One is for small everyday gifts, one (in the attic) has a shrink- wrap machine and another (in the basement) is devoted solely to wrapping Christmas and Easter presents. A small to medium business could operate comfortably out of this set up; the woman must spend her life giving presents.
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).
The principles of fine design 19 November, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Emily Jenkinson, Dieter Rams, Design Museum, Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams, Braun, Vitsoe, iPod, Jonathan Ive
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No journey is complete without my iPod, which was firmly plugged in on my tube ride from Notting Hill Gate to Tower Hill yesterday. I thought that we had Jonathan Ive (head of design at Apple) to thank for this sleek, simple but utterly brilliant modern wonder, but a visit to London’s Design Museum, where Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams has just opened, soon proved me wrong. Turns out that Dieter Rams is the ‘designer’s designer’: a man that the likes of Jonathan Ive take ideas from, and the creator, if you like, of the first ‘iPod’.
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.
Highly recommended 11 November, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Creatively Different Blinds, Emily Jenkinson, Not on the High Street, SimonSeeks.com, The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award, The House Directory, Website of the Year 2009, Yourfloors.co.uk
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Last week, alongside a panel of judges, The Good Web Guide picked its Website of the Year 2009, choosing new concept travel site Simonseeks.com as the winner out of a shortlist of twenty-five. Simonseeks.com is an excellent site and will no doubt fulfill its ambition of becoming one of the top ten travel sites by next year, but in the context of homes and interiors, I thought it worth mentioning the four excellent homes-related sites that also made it on to the shortlist.
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.
300 years and an AGA saga 8 October, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: 300 year anniversary, Abraham Darby. Coalbrookedale, AGA, aga saga, Emily Jenkinson, Emma Bridgewater polka dot aga, George Monbiot, Joanna Trollope, Terence Blacker, William McGrath
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It is 300 years since Abraham Darby first melted iron using coke at the AGA headquarters in Coalbrookedale, sparking the Industrial Revolution and changing the country kitchen forever. This weekend marks the final few days of a month long celebration of this anniversary, which has seen events and activities held at AGA shops across the country.
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.
Brazilian design tells a story 29 September, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Brazilian Design, Daniela Martins, Emily Jenkinson, Hugo Franca, Pedro Petry, Sergio Rodrigues, Silvia Nayla, The Good Web Guide
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What comes to mind when we think of Brazil? Is it Gisele Bunchden sashaying her way down a catwalk? The appalling crime and poverty of the favelas, as depicted in cult film City of God? The destruction of rainforest? Perhaps it’s the beautiful beaches? Or the carnivals? Or capoeira dancing? Or maybe it’s that rather frightening hair removal process you’ve heard people talking about? One thing that perhaps won’t come to mind is Brazil’s sophisticated clutch of top class furniture designers. But, thanks to the ambitions of Silvia Nayla and her business partner Daniela Martins, this situation is slowly starting to change.
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.
Interactive interiors 28 August, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Charlotte Man, David Byrne, Emily Jenkinson, Graham & Brown, interactive wallpaper, Playing the Building, The Good Web Guide
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I played at the Roundhouse this week. Not due to my musical prowess, but as a result of David Byrne’s interactive sound installation, Playing the Building, open until 31st August. He’s rigged up an old pump organ, positioned in the middle of the Roundhouse, with a series of low-tech cables and wires attached to various parts of the building. An orderly queue forms while people wait to for their turn to play. As they do, sounds rattle and ping against the pillars and beams, turning this impressive building into a giant musical instrument. If there hadn’t been so many people behind me, I could have tinkered on it all day.
Interactive art and installations are great as they not only appeal to children, but help bring out the child in adults too. Indeed, in Byrne’s installation, there was little difference in the way that children and adults responded to the strange noises that they made as they explored the keys of old organ. At home, you might be cross to find your four year old drawing on, wait, I mean interacting with with your freshly decorated walls, but these days, there’s nothing to stop you getting involved too. It’s why I love Graham & Brown’s Frame wallpaper (£25 a roll) by Taylor & Wood.
Graham & Brown, Frame Wallpaper, £25 per roll
A completely interactive design, it lets you to paint directly into a frame or simply add photos, without it looking too messy. And if this still seems a bit scary, why not enlist the help of a professional wall scribbler? Times journalist, India Knight is huge fan of Charlotte Mann, a gifted muralist who takes inspiration from your personal possessions before taking a black marker pen to your walls and recreating the clutter. Of course, if you like your walls as they are thank you very much, but want to get involved, there’s nothing to stop you taking a wooden spoon, a pot and a pan and joining your children in the creation of some home-made music. David Byrne would no doubt approve.
To find the best interiors sites, visit www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk
Christmas comes early 15 July, 2009
Posted by emilyjenkinsonmydecoblog in mydeco guest blogger.Tags: Christmas, Emily Jenkinson, The Good Web Guide, Webstie of the Year 2009
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The Contemporary Home, Rustic Merrry Christmas Sign, £19.99 from Christmas 09 collection.
I went for dinner at a friend’s last night. She’s off to Yorkshire this weekend, where she grew up, to put in some family time after months of guilty neglect. She’s hoping not to bump into ‘Norman’, a playground bully who tied her to a tree for wearing Christmas socks when it wasn’t Christmas. Hers was no great crime, as I think most of us would agree, but Norman was so incensed by this show of mid-winter festivity in July that he even made up a little song: “It’s so posh at your house that it’s Christmas all year long” he taunted as he danced around the poor girl, tied pitifully to a tree in her little red socks. With a name like Norman, I said, it was her who should have been bullying him, but I suppose he’s got his come-uppance now: with Christmas press shows such as Heals, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer starting to kick off and a trickle of Christmas press releases beginning to creep into my inbox, old Norm can expect to start being ‘sold’ Christmas around mid-August. Perhaps he had a point afterall…..
On another entirely different note, it’s been a rather exiting week for us at The Good Web Guide due to the launch of our first Website of the Year 2009 Award, which we hope will attract lots of small businesses whose websites deserve recognition. If you know of a good interiors site that you think deserves to win, make sure to enter it into the competition before 7th October 2009!
