Ilse Crawford at the Olde Bell Inn

I've been an admirer of Ilse Crawford's stunningly beautiful interiors for a while now. I particularly love her use of muted grey at the Grand Hotel Stockholm:

And this green at the Aesop store in Mayfair, London:

Above images from the Studioilse website.

Believe it or not, I am actually sitting in a room designed by Ilse Crawford right now. It is at the Olde Bell inn at Hurley on the River Thames outside London. When we arrived we were very fortunate to be upgraded to this room:

Decorated predominantly in black and white tones:

This is the bathtub:

And there are Aesop toiletries:

There is a bar downstairs containing this beautiful peacock-patterned chair:

This was the breakfast which was laid out this morning, complete with inn-baked rye bread, and honeycomb dripping with honey :

And then we had to find room for the hot breakfast. We were tempted to sit in the beautiful dining room, where the seating is upholstered with Welsh blankets:

And there are pewter plates on the tables:

We decided to sit outside as the weather is lovely at the moment:

Here is an extract about the Olde Bell from the folder in our room:

"[Ilse] Crawford decided  to reinvent the coaching inn. The key elements are: the building (nooks and crannies and open fires), food (local pies and cheeses and soda breads and hearty puddings), English country materials (reed matting, Ercol chairs from High Wycombe, once the chair making capital of England, and pewter plates), and comfy lodgings (homely and classy rooms) with handmade blankets. It makes perfect sense. Why ship in minimalist chrome sofas from achingly cool Italian designers to enhance a pub stretching back to 1135, when you can use the craftsmen from good old High Wycombe. "Materials are vital in creating an atmosphere,"she says. . . "Design is emotion and practicality". . . "It is more poetic and not just about ticking boxes."

It certainly makes sense to me. Actually, they had me at "hearty puddings". Now to go downstairs and curl up in that peacock chair with a drink.

Ice Cream Palette

Now that it's spring, all I seem to see are ice cream colours everywhere.

Spearmint, Lemon and Strawberry:

Cherry and Pistachio, with Coffee and Hazelnut in the background:

Strawberry, Lemon and Blueberry:

Spearmint, Orange, Lemon and Raspberry:

What happpened to the dark, monochrome palette I was considering? Oh well, changing our interiors with our moods is part of the fun, isn't it?



London Here I Come

In a couple of weeks I'll be going to London, one of my favourite places in the world. I've got a list of stores I hope to visit. The first is Story Deli at Dray Walk. The pizza is yummy, but I mainly go there for the interior and the products for sale:

Image from Remodelista

Then I hope to visit Anthropologie:

Images from Anthropologie website

One of the Shabby Chic stores is also on my list:

Images from Cavania blog

And Rachel Riley to find some lovely little girl clothes:

Image from Rachel Riley Facebook page

And that's only the first day. I'd better take an empty suitcase with me.