Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Homes & Gardens

Though rarely the ideal, there’s no denying that small-space living can lead to inventiveness and innovation. You only have to study the interiors of our cover home (page 78) to see this manifested to perfection by interior designer Elizabeth Hay, who works out of Singapore, where the majority of the citizens live in apartments. The masterstroke in this home – and similarly successful modest spaces – is the storage, which is inspired. More than just ingeniously functional, it is simply beautiful too. This issue is dedicated to helping you maximise every inch of your compact rooms, and will be invaluable whether you live in a cosy cottage, are downsizing to an apartment or simply have an awkward spot you have been longing to revitalise. My favourite reads are Space Odyssey…

ARLO & JACOB Launched in 2015 (and named after the founder’s children), Arlo & Jacob’s mission is to create forever-lasting sofas and upholstered pieces ready for family life – the jumping, the fort-making, the spills, the snuggling. The brand’s contemporary designs come in all shapes and sizes, some of which have a trick up their sleeve – hidden inner compartments waiting to house throws, cushions and anything that needs hiding beneath inviting, expertly executed upholstery. As with the wider collection, there’s an entire library’s worth of fabric and colour choices to choose from to conceal your secrets within. arloandjacob.com BIBBINGS & HENSBY With an impressive social media fan base and its own online course (sign up to learn how to craft a three-legged stool), Bibbings & Hensby is bringing traditional…

PRETTY IN PINK This colour-drenched space by interior designer Nicolò Castellini Baldissera has a stunning ceiling, floor and sofa – the patterns and details are pulled together by the soft colours. ‘One of the benefits of living in Milan is the number of industrious people who can help you realise just about anything. On Via della Moscova I found an antiques shop with a set of silverware, an electrician to rewire my lamps and a fabric shop where I unearthed some silk stripes and blue velvet.’ HIGH-IMPACT SURFACES This sweet space by Hannes Peer and Philippe Rinaudo is bursting with small-space ideas, including reflective surfaces, textured wallcoverings and decorative ceilings. The stained-glass sliding doors between the kitchen and dining room were created to imitate a garage door typical in Milanese…

With its layers of colours, textures, patterns and quality craftsmanship, this elegant Edwardian house in southwest London revels in its reinvention from a small terrace that struggled to accommodate its owners – a family of six (and a dog) – to a cleverly designed home where everyone is comfortable and enjoys their own, and communal, spaces. The house has grown in size thanks to a kitchen and first-floor extension but it is still fair to class it as modest, although now it is totally fit for purpose. It works, says interior designer Henry Prideaux, ‘because every room has a daily purpose with storage utilised in each nook and cranny, be it shelves in a doorway, underneath the built-in sofa, hidden behind jib doors on landings, tucked behind the headboard in…

REPLACEMENT CABINET DOORS If rising costs are delaying your plans for a new kitchen, some smart thinking may allow you to move forward without breaking the bank. Replacement door fronts could give your kitchen an instant refresh, especially useful if you are happy with the layout of your room and if the cabinets remain sound – or if you want to use new off-the-peg cabinets and boost their impact with stylish doors. ‘The doors are the aspect you see and touch the most,’ says Jayne Everett, design director of Naked Doors, which makes frames, doors and drawer fronts ready to be fixed to the front of cabinets. ‘They are a fabulous way to meet a certain budget for a savvy, design-driven homeowner.’ CONSIDER PRE-LOVED A second-hand or ex-display kitchen can…

THERE are two beaches that stretch out either side of the big bay windows at Atlanta. One is rocky, full of fascinating finds including a man-made pool that fills with sea water and is accessible only when the tide is out. The other is amber, its expanse of sand arching around the cliff edge towards the deep blue sea. But augmenting the stellar views and salty air with its own aesthetic splendidness is Atlanta’s interior design. The five self-catering apartments, set into two shingle-covered coastal houses, are layered and decorative, boasting plumply cushioned love seats, prettily patterned curtains and shiplap-lined kitchens by Neptune. This is cottage style reimagined by a team who clearly reads Homes & Gardens, taking every decor tenet we hold dear and artfully putting them to good…

RICH IN HISTORY 1838 Wallcoverings has created the V&A Decorative Papers Collection, a series of nine new surface and digitally printed wallpapers made in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum. Choosing from the museum’s rich archive, they have selected documents that speak not only to their aesthetic sensibilities, but also because of the patterns’ enduring appeal through changing fashions. Macaw, seen here, is available in four colourways including Blush, £124 a roll, and was originally created by the influential children’s book illustrator Walter Crane in 1908. VERSATILE LIGHTING Note the sleek, shapely lines of Corston’s Claremont hanging wall light, £86.40, designed to be positioned either side of a bathroom mirror, although this versatile design can also be placed outdoors. Made in the UK, it has a solid brass body…

‘Sky blue shades can add such joy to a space with their inherent freshness but just be careful they don’t appear too chilly as the natural light will have a big impact on their perception. It’s a wonderful shade for coastal living where it will respond to the light you get near water.’ PATRICK O’DONNELL, international brand ambassador, Farrow & Ball 1. ‘Joyful sky blues are perfect for using in spaces you spend lots of time in. If the room gets a lot of natural light the blue will appear quite pale, then when evening comes you get a stronger colour developing, a bit like the perfect day-to-night outfit.’ PANDORA TAYLOR, interior designer 2. ‘A turquoise blue often looks great in an eggshell finish or even a high gloss lacquer…

GETTING RUGS RIGHT PEOPLE’S preference for hard floors has really grown in the last 30 years to a much more European sentiment. I can’t remember the last time we put a fitted carpet in a sitting room, for example, and you would almost never now have a carpet in the bathroom. But we still want our spaces to feel cosy – especially at this time of year. ■ Rugs, therefore, are completely critical to the cosiness and warmth of a room. Because they need to be as large as they can be, they are often the most expensive thing to go into that room. You have to allocate a good bit of budget for them. ■ A common mistake is to go too small, so that it ends up being…

1 CREATE A JOURNEY Designing a winding or circular route through a small garden will make it feel larger, while increasing the visual interest. ‘Break up the space with water and planting to prevent the eye travelling straight to the back wall, and create a route that offers the longest vistas through the garden,’ advises designer Charlotte Rowe. ‘A water feature across the width of the plot will create a lateral break. Using two surface materials such as paving and gravel, which look and feel different as you walk across them, will also separate different areas and make the plot appear more spacious.’ 2 INTRODUCE PATTERN The intimacy of a small garden allows pattern and colour to take centre stage. Kate Gould uses both to enliven her designs and draw…

If you visit Viola Lanari’s southwest London flat, it’s more than likely you’ll find something pressed into your palm as you leave. Full of curios, plaster pieces, fabric swatches, pinned artwork and car-boot finds, items have a habit of finding their way to the right owner after a sojourn here. ‘I enjoy gifting objects,’ says the designer, known for her delicate plaster flower wall lights, sculptural furniture and latterly, printed textiles. ‘A friend of mine recently left with a Victorian perfume bottle shaped like a ladies shoe. Nothing is intended to stay permanently.’ The Milan-born designer, who began her career in the decorating departments of a clutch of British interiors magazines, describes her two-bedroom Victorian flat as ‘a sketch book – designed to evolve.’ Discarded fabric remnants from shoots, gifts…

FRONT AND CENTRE Sourcing stylish doors for basic cabinets is how savvy shoppers are getting an upmarket look for less. For its 2023 collections, door-only brand Husk has partnered with Plank Hardware to take the challenge out of choosing handles. The duo has put together three on-trend looks, styled to complement each other, to show how to achieve maximum impact. This dramatic black scheme features Husk’s Oak V-Groove door in Smoked Oak, paired with Plank’s King and Knight ring pulls, from £9.95 each. Doors, plinths and fronts for an average kitchen cost around £2,284. REFINED FINISH Fluting, the chic statement surface that demands to be seen, has officially hit the mainstream. Victorian Plumbing’s take on this three-dimensional treat lends refinement to simple bathroom storage in modular shapes. The Venice Fluted…

1 GO GLOSSY ‘Glazed tiles have a reflective quality, allowing light to bounce around, making the room look lighter and giving the impression of a more generous space,’ says Ruth Webber, creative director, Bert & May. ‘The jewel-toned tiles in this shower room maximise light from the skylight, while geometric floor tiles enhance the colour and brightness levels.’ Green Majadas encaustic tiles (on floor), £189sq m, Bert & May. Carnival ceramic tiles in Laredo (on walls), £79.20sq m, Fired Earth. 2 USE HEIGHT-BOOSTING PAPER If your bathroom has decent height, find ways to celebrate it. ‘Wallcoverings are a great way to add depth and dimension,’ says Becky Brown, design manager, Romo. ‘To expand a room, the main criteria is to draw the eye outward. A design that gradually…

LAMB & ROOT VEGETABLE HOT POT SERVES 4 1kg lamb middle neck chops, trimmedAround 4 tbsp plain flour3 tbsp sunflower oil60g butter, half melted450g onions, peeled and finely sliced700ml lamb or chicken stock1.5kg mixed root vegetables, peeled and sliced 3mm thick3 tbsp chopped herbs, such as parsley, oregano and thyme, plus extra to serveSalt and black pepper ■ Preheat oven to 220°C/Gas 7. Season chops and dust lightly with flour. Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat. Brown the lamb (in two batches) until well coloured. Place on a plate lined with kitchen towel. ■ Wipe out the pan and add the rest of the oil with the unmelted 30g butter. Fry the onions for a few minutes, until they begin to turn…

THE homes I design tend to include striking architectural features – or we add them in – but I approach even the smallest rooms the way I do the largest. I always start with the constraints. No matter what shape it is there will always be something that is a little challenging. Perhaps it’s the ceiling height (or lack of ), a weird cupboard in the wrong corner or a window that is off-centre. Ask yourself ‘how will I make this issue as interesting as possible?’ And in that one gesture you take the most challenging aspect and not only give yourself the greatest chance of getting it right, but turn it into something unique. This method also helps you set an intention, an important part of the process no…

TRUE GEMS Small-scale prints have a transformative power to bring harmony to interiors. You can create a calm bedroom scheme with well-considered prints in the same colour family and pattern group – simply offset with neutrally painted walls and carpeted flooring and complete with artwork in complementing shades. On the other end of the spectrum, small prints can cool down any statement pattern creating balance. For example, a bold wallpaper design can be tempered with upholstered furniture in little patterns. LAYERING PRINTS Being confident with pattern is a skill you can definitely master. Begin by considering different styles and how they relate to each other: are they all geometrics, organic shapes, florals or abstract designs? They don’t have to all be the same but should speak a similar design language,…

IN A CORNER Carving out room for a table where floor space is at a premium will often require putting one in the corner. For that to work, there are two rules: firstly, the table should be round both to set a contrast to the right angles of the corner, but also to avoid anyone catching themselves on the table edges and, secondly, to use bench seating. ‘A breakfast nook is such a cosy spot,’ says Tiffany Duggan, founder of Studio Duggan, who created this scheme. ‘We’ve designed lots of these recently and tend to add a pendant light to make it more “hygge”. We often upholster the seat in a hard-wearing fabric such as leather. We wanted this one to feel “loungey”, so we kept the back low and…

BE BRAVE WITH COLOUR “Bold colour is one way to grow a space that physically has a small footprint. In this guest house the kitchen is narrow, so I wanted to make it a star. The colour – Sherwin-Williams’ aptly named Energetic Orange – grabs your attention and allows your eye to travel the entire length and height. The smallest spaces can be the most memorable if you keep the focus strong. Here, the focus was the paint colour and we used it with vigour. ” Matthew Boland, principal, MMB Studio LAYER TEXTURES “Adding texture to a bijou kitchen is a terrific way to make it feel curated and luxurious, rather than just small and underwhelming. It means you can work in special finishes and detailing without too much expense.…

HIDDEN STORAGE ‘Good storage is a vital part of our bathroom spaces,’ notes Hayley Robson, creative director of Day True. ‘Generally, we need to house lotions and potions that we don’t necessarily want visible.’ Given that many bathrooms are compact spaces, well-thought-out and tucked away storage solutions are key to creating a clutter-free, spa-like environment that allows for a peaceful soak in the tub or soothing shower. Consider what you need to store and plan accordingly: in a family bathroom, you might need somewhere to put away the bath toys, while in a luxurious en suite it may be more about extra supplies of fragrant candles and bath oils. Shallow depth storage can often be recessed into the wall, behind a mirror, for example, or as a cupboard tucked into…