Every Sunday morning rain, hail or shine flower and plant sellers set up in Columbia Rd. My last day in London happened to be a Sunday and just before leaving I snuck in a visit between photographing...
Last Friday I spent the day in the fabulous home of Abigail Ahern. Yes, the interior designer extraordinaire, who also has an interiors store, writes a captivating blog, appears regularly in magazine...
Hello, all! I’m Mari, a writer for Design Shuffle, a fabulous social networking site where interior designers share their work and where design enthusiasts find inspiration for their projects. ...
Today was the reason I am in London: I attended Abigail Ahern’s Design School held in her home. To start the day, I dropped into Nude Expresso just off Brick Lane. Another antipodean (this time...
Today I picked up my new business cards from the amazing company moo.com. Their Shoreditch office is (literally) just around the corner from where I was staying, so I dropped by in person to collect ...
I live one hundred metres from one of the best cafes in Melbourne. This is great when I am at home, but when I’m not, it’s hard. I am not a coffee addict: even worse, I am a fully-fledged...
It’s been 8 years since I last was in London and going on 14 since I lived in this remarkable city. Being without any responsibilities for an entire 8 days I just wandered the streets of Spital...
The most enjoyable part of flying First Class from Singapore to London on the Qantas A-380 last night was not the champagne nor the bed made with linen nor the rose scented Payot hydrating spray nor ...
This week I am coming to you from London. The main reason I am here is to go to a Masterclass with the wonderful Abigail Ahern. For those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know ...
I sat on the deck of Harvest Moon Villa with friends last night, a Gin and Tonic in hand watching a spectacular sunset over the rice fields and decided that this was really the most perfect end to a ...
I have blogged about my living room before (here and here) and am now posting some new photos, taken with my newly acquired skills courtesy of a Council of Adult Education photography course. I reall...
Wallpaper has undergone a renaissance over the past years. Many traditional patterns are being put back into production. Moreover, new wallpaper designers such as Fromental are reinventing traditiona...
The reputation of the tiny Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy (St Barts) as a playground of the rich and famous, has kept me from that part of the world – and not just because of the cost. Ne...
What is not to love about a comfy and well-positioned window seat? Designed to fill a recess in a window they became popular in the late 18th century when tall sash windows were a common in the house...
The 17th century apartment of fashionista turned interior designer, Josephine Gintzburger, embodies her penchant for “contrasts between clean, modern lines, and softer antique and vintage eleme...
A huge thanks to Apartment Therapy for featuring Jasper’s Room. A huge honour. It’s always interesting to read the comments and there was one which I found particularly curious. A reader ...
Large chains are only occasionally featured on Urban Kaleidoscope, because they are rarely the most interesting spaces, but the Hilton Pattaya Hotel in Thailand is an easy exception to make. There is...
Staircases are usually neglected spaces, usually sparse and clinical. If you have them, how many times do you use them in a day? At my place, it’s at least a dozen. In other words, I use the st...
The Wishbone Chair was the first designs of Hans Wegner’s for the legendary furniture manufacturer Carl Hansen & Son. Also known as the “Y” chair or CH24, its frame comes in ash...
The recently opened The Town Hall Hotel in London is 100 years in the making. The building first served as Bethnal Green’s town hall, opened in 1910 in a grand Georgian style, reflecting the Ed...
I am so over industrial lampshades. Yeah, they were great for a while, but part of what makes a space pop is the unexpected. Unfortunately, industrial lampshades are now so over-exposed that they hav...
Just taking a moment or two. I’ll be back next week. Image {1}
Here is the second instalment of the amazing studio apartment of Melwitz Folino: the bath and bedrooms. Yes, even these private ‘quarters’ are a richly decorated art installation paying ...
The newly opened Grand Central Stockholm, part of the Scandic super hotel chain, is not just a nice place to stay, but a hotel that’s at the forefront of design. Certainly this is not what we t...
“La Boudoir Dada” are the private rooms of the mesmerising Melwitz Folino. Like all interesting people, she cannot be easily categorised: she is an artist, illustrator, teacher and a muse...
While the earth is warming up in the northern hemisphere it is cooling down here. Today was our first real autumnal day for 2012. The heaters are not on yet (but it won’t be long) and I have ch...
As it’s Good Friday, today’s destination is not Golgotha, the supposed site of Jesus’s crucifixion, but is in some ways more fitting: Rome, the heartland of Christianity. The last t...
The post is a little late today. I have no excuse other than enjoying the beautiful autumnal weather in Melbourne: sunny and 26C (79F). Given that the days are rapidly getting shorter and the morning...
I once had a metallic pink dining room. It was kinda crazy, but I loved it for a few years and then I needed a break and went crisp white. Every so often I remember that pink dining room and it makes...
Nestled in a side street, Seniman Kopi in Ubud, Bali is a place for coffee connoisseurs but also for people who just love good service in well-designed surroundings. Seniman takes pride in serving or...
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