STYLE NV - MY WEEKLY SHOP, Friday 20th April

1) Driftwood Stool, £95, French Connection
2) Large round bowl in 'heather', £85, Toast
3) Provencal cutlery 6 peice set, £62, David Mellor
4) Star chair, £129, BHS
5) Prussian cushion, £70, Bluebellgray
6) Umbrella
7) Hunters wellington boots
8) Rain water butt
9) Sweetpea flower seeds
10) Stretch mark body oil

STYLE NV - HOMES WE LOVE

Standing in front of Roberta's home, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was just another traditional Georgian  house in Hampstead. But like one of those delightful Georgian writing cabinets you occasionally see on Antique's Road Show, as you begin to enter the home, secret chambers and interconnecting compartments reveal themselves. Once the local workhouse, the building has been a hospital, a school and more recently converted into apartments. Roberta bought the building and set about converting it back to one beautiful family home with the help of architect duo, Serrano Evans. 
To read more and see more pictures, click below.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/homes.php?path=homes.homeswelove&gallery=27

STYLE NV - RAVE - Sophie Cook Ceramics

There is a human quality to Sophie Cook's vases. Her arrangement in rainbow of tall, short, fat and thin porcelain remind me of a queue of people. Their thin necks holding up the lip 'heads', above a round body. I feel that Sophie herself, to some extent considers the vases to have personalities, when she says that she likes to see them "as a three dimensional still life that when viewed from different angles create new relationships between the pieces".


Each piece is hand thrown on her wheel and because of the fragile nature of porcelain, only three vases can be made a day.

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs.php?path=blogs.read&id=126

My weekly shop

What's on STYLE NV's shopping list this week ?
http://tinyurl.com/3qqkzk2

Friday 26th August - My weekly shop

 Whats on STYLE NV's shopping list this week ?
http://tinyurl.com/3gktp7v

STYLE NV Rant - Moaning about Musac

This is going out to any event producers, shop owners, TV producers, anyone who anything to do with choosing background music or Musac, as it is more commonly known, to recreate interior, lifestyle environments. I’m speaking on behalf of many people when I say

STOP USING SUCH TOSH, WE HATE IT !!!!
The term for elevator music shouldn’t be Musac, it should be Musak a merging of the two words Music and Kak, because is that is way more apt.
This inane, dull, annoying, music, that’s supposed to chill me out, calm me down does nothing of the kind. IT DRIVES ME UP THE BLOODY WALL. It drives me up the wall and usually out of the room or shop, or show, which I’m guessing is not the general idea. It certainly doesn’t make me want to part with any of my hard earned cash.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=33

STYLE NV Review - The Betsy Smith Bar, London NW6

The Betsy Smith opened it's doors recently and STYLE NV went to check it out the interior design. The Design team behind it, Kai Design, have created a fictional Dickensian character, 'Betsy Smith' whom roamed the sreets of Kilburn, north west London, where the bar is located. The design concept is inspired by a fantastical, theatrical, Victorian, fairground. Inside you are greeted with so many topsey turvey wonderland installations, that it is hard to know what to look at first. http://tinyurl.com/2vlef3r

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to Sir Terrence Conran!

STYLE NV Would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Sir Terrence Conran!

It would be almost impossible to work in design and not know who Sir Terrance Conran is. His influence over the design and catering industries in Britian for the past 50 years has been extensive.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=15

STYLE NV Quelquechose - Pom Pom Chandelier

I've gone completley pom pom potty - Jo, my boyfriend has told its got to stop, he keeps finding my fishing out old bits of card from the recycling bin. But now that it's finished even he thinks the STYLE NV pom pom chandelier looks fabulous! Here's the project - enjoy! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=4

Homes that STYLE NV Love - Helena & Bruno Amourdedieu

They say that you can take the girl out of England but you can’t take England out of the girl and I wonder, how much of Helena Amourdedieu’s eclectic Parisian home is French influenced and how much stems from her English pedigree? STYLE NV went to find out for themselves. . . http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=42

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Malindi & Charles Bryce

People, especially estates agents, are forever harping on about the wow factor. “The bathroom has wow factor, the kitchen gives it wow factor” – blah, blah, blah. It’s an overused phrase and few homes rarely have it. ‘Wow’ should be the first thing that comes into your mind when you enter a home. It’s not about expensive materials or furniture in a home, it’s about a sense of drama, something that you weren’t possibly expecting. Space and colour are usually the culprits behind the ‘wow’ and I think Malindi and Charles’s home has WOW WOW WOW in abundance! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=39

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Jules & Marek Middleton

For some it’s shoes, for others, bags, for Jules Middleton, her vice is vintage. There is nothing that Jules loves better doing than whiling away the hours in a flea market, and being a fashion buyer, means that Jules gets to travel around the world and knows to bring an extra large bag with her, when she does!



Jules and her husband Marek, bought this Victorian terrace, on the outskirts of London, five years ago and they have lovingly renovated it, even laying down the parquet flooring that they found lying in piles in the garden shed! I love their genius kitchen splash back idea where Jules & Marek chose cheap anaglypta wallpaper from B&Q and painted it with good quality white kitchen paint. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=36

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Frances & Martin Mace

I confess that when I met Frances and Martin Mace for the first time that I realised I had prejudged. It happens to the best of us sometimes, for I had been already seen pictures of Zinc House. It was slick, very modern and been built from scratch – not exactly the kind of dwelling that springs to mind that a couple in (as the French so eloquently put it) ‘la troisieme age’ would live in, surely? Oh Victoria, Never Judge a Book by its Cover!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=40

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Barbara Brundell- Bruce

I have a love/hate relationship with women like Barbara. This sounds rather harsh as Barbara is very kind and utterly lovely, so let me explain. I wish I could be someone like Barbara who totters around in fabulous designer heels, living the high life, designing interiors and owning a successful lingerie company, Spolyt. The glamorous high life is out of reach for me in my flat pumps. Sadly I pick up a pair of designer heels and think “You’ll have to walk to the pub in those, (my boyfriend is allergic to taxis). I love women like Barbara but hate them because I could never be them – It’s complete STYLE NV!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=34

A Sticky Subject

It's picky, and a titchy annoyance but leaving sticky labels on your plates, bases, glasses whatever and wherever they might be does bother me. Thanks to our lovely HD telly, I see it sticky labels left on everywhere. I even see it on tv in period dramas (set dressers please take note)!!



I confess that I have absent mindedly removed them at friends houses and when I've been styling some of the homes we've photographed (I mention no names), I surruptiously peeled them off. It's a bad habit of mine, which I must try and refrain.


I'm just going say this only once. "Take the bloody labels off!" It looks awful and yes, you lazy lot, it does matter even if it is on the end. The back is as important as the front. It's like the equivilent to wearing a new skirt with the tags left on. You wouldn't do that, would you? Not unless you were trying to follow that ridiculous and thankfully outdated trend of keeping the tags on your baseball cap? (Was it supposed to imply that they'd nicked it or that yhey eanted everyone to know that they were dumb enough to spend so much on a hat)??!


Take the labels off as soon as you get them. It takes a millisecond and If you leave it, the glue will dry and on it will be much harder. If they are particularly stubborn, pour a little bit of lighter fluid (a little stylist tip there) and they will come right off.