Lovely Things

Online shopping and mid-century design at Ikea

Hooray! Ikea has finally launched full online shopping for mainland England and Wales, so no more having to go to packed stores on a Saturday if you want your fix of inexpensive Scandanavian furniture. Browsing through several of Ikea's latest ranges uncovers a definite nod towards iconic mid-century design with the 'TIRUP' swivel chair (shown in Eldris black/yellow, £215), and the lovely new button-backed leather 'KARLSTAD' sofa (£499) which, as Retro To Go pointed out, looks very much like the fabulous Florence Knoll sofa from 1954.

Kitchen, dining & home sale at Liberty

Lovely Liberty has just announced a sale of up to 30% off selected kitchen and dining items, and 25% off some of their Liberty of London home ranges. Unfortunately despite the new Liberty of London online shop offering a selection of their gorgeous bags and accessories, there's no online shopping options for homewares at the moment. Pictured is one of the kitchen/dining sale items, a rather pretty blue-glazed cake stand on sale at £13.12, down from £18.75, but you'll have to pop into the store in Great Marlborough St, London to purchase.

Heal's Home Event - 50% off sale

Speaking of Heal's recently, if you haven't already, check out their Home Event, with some great discounts of up to 50% off furniture and home furnishings. 'Mu Mu' funky striped reversible bedding started at £50 for a single duvet set and is now from £25 and the lovely 'Mistral' sofa we featured, has now dropped to £1435 for the smaller size.

Grand Designs Live at Excel May 3-11 2008

Yes, it's that time of the year again - Kevin McCloud fanciers, get ready, because Grand Designs Live starts this weekend and runs til the 11th at Excel London.

New for this year, you can try your hand at some self-build techniques and check out some live building projects in the Grand Village including Kevin's week-to-build-a-house challenge and loads of eco-friendly ideas and five different carbon neutral homes.

There's the usual line-up of celebrity garden and home experts including Diarmuid Gavin and Naomi Cleaver, plus goodies like free seeds for every visitor who submits a personal pledge to reduce their carbon footprint.

Weekday tickets cost £10 in advance and £15 on the door (or £13 and £18 on the weekend), and children's tickets are free.

Mistral sofa from Heal's

Okay, it's official. I'm in love with a sofa...

Unsurprisingly it's green (yes, I'm still in the midst of a green thing), and I really love the modern take on 50s style and the sweet buttoned back. The 'Mistral' from Heal's at £1795 for the small sofa isn't exactly in the cheap and cheerful category, but I'm a sucker for a bit of understated retro glam.

It also looks comfy, which is foremost for me in terms of sofa-love. So I think it's time to meet in person so I can stroke its lovely arms, pat its lovely seat and decide if it's true love and I want to snuggle together forever, or just a passing infatuation brought on by good looks.

Bemz slipcovers for your Ikea furniture

What a clever idea! Bemz is a Swedish company that creates custom slipcovers for your Ikea sofas and armchairs. Trading on the idea that customers might want a different look for their low-priced furniture, Bemz is the only company outside Ikea that makes fabric covers specifically designed for the Ikea range of furniture.

Whether you're looking to update an older piece or are planning a new Ikea purchase, you can browse through the Bemz range to choose a more unique look, safe in the knowledge that your new cover will fit your Ikea furniture exactly. On browsing, I'm also reminded by the site that I can order a 'nude' item from Ikea - that is, one without a coloured cover at all, if I want only a Bemz cover. Register at the site and you can order up to five fabric samples free so you can get a better idea of how the material will look in your home.

The 'Hounds Tooth - dusty rose' from the 'Bohemian Chic' range (above), and the 'Urban Tapestry - real red' and 'Sprezzatura - orange' from the 'Downtown' range (below), have particularly caught my eye, but there are loads to choose from. Prices start from about £20 for a dining chair cover, and they'll also make you cushions to match (or contrast) from around £12.

I just love companies that take something old and make it new again - creating new and interesting products out of utter ubiquity!

Discount codes for Wallace Sacks mirrors & gifts

Wallace Sacks, being the generous souls that they are, are offering special discount codes for 25% off mirrors and gifts.

Just enter MR2 for 25% discount on their full range of classic and contemporary mirrors, like the lovely deco-style 'Greta' mirror (right, £275), or if your taste runs to shabby chic, a vintage French style like the 'Versailles' (below, £150) might suit you. All orders over £20 qualify for free delivery too.

They're also offering a 25% discount on gift items, enter GF2 at the checkout. Be quick, the offer codes only work until the end of March!

Summer garden candles from the Cotswold Company

The Cotswold Company is offering 15% off all full-priced items until 16th April, and what better purchase to make than these very sweet 'Summer garden spike candles'. They come as a set of four in blue or yellow and are 76cm high. I think I'd have to go for the yellow as they remind me of oversized buttercups and would look really cute peeping out from between bushes in the garden. They're usually £29.95, but with the discount they're yours for £25.46.

Spring/Summer 2008 at Zara Home

Spring has arrived at Zara Home and we're seeing a Moroccan theme for many of the looks in the Spring/Summer 2008 catalogue.

For summer there's lots of colour and pattern, but with a cool rather than cosy feel. Like previous collections, there's strong white furniture groupings alongside the colour splashes, and again, a lovely opulent edge, despite the High St price tags. There's lots here with the slight vintage-ness that Zara Home does so well, but keep your eyes peeled for more modern items, with a touch of retro style.

Visit Lovely Things again next week to check out our picks from the spring collection and the fresh green-themed Zara Home outdoor dining looks. Click below now to view more colourful Moroccan S/S 2008 looks from the catalogue...

Christian Lacroix for La Redoute

Designer collaborations with High St brands are everywhere these days in fashion, so it's not surprising to see more crossover of this type in home furnishings as well. The Christian Lacroix pour La Redoute collection has just launched and includes a range of homeware items such as tables, bedding and rugs.

Most items are designed around a bright print theme, though, despite being a major print fan, I rather like this simple 'Gloriette' perspex and steel table in orange (£165). It reminds me of the lovely little Eames side table, with its wire frame base.

More unusual are items like the 'Noctopatte' table (below, £255) with its nine (count 'em!) mismatched legs.

Click through below to see more of the Lacroix collection...

Midcentury.Modern Show, Sun 30th March 2008

If you don't already know about the Midcentury.Modern show, you're in for a treat. This Sunday 30th March gives you the opportunity to check out items from some of the top UK dealers of well-known mid-century designs from the likes of Eames and Aalto, plus furniture and other stuff from great young British designers.

The show takes place at Dulwich College, London SE21 and is open from 10am to 4pm. See you there!

New home interiors store, Amode

It's always exciting to hear about new homewares and interiors stores opening, and the most recent online shop to come to my attention is Amode. The store aims to offer quality, design-led home items at lower than designer prices.

There seems to be a strong focus on modern and retro-styled products, and a few home accessories that have caught my eye include the red Pendulum Wall Clock (£14.98) and the simple elegant (and well-priced at £19.98), Seed Lightshade from Black & Blum.

Zara Home to sell online from October 2007

I know this news will make Lovely Things readers extremely happy, Zara Home recently announced plans to open an online store next month. Woo hoo!

Around 2000 products from the current line will be available in 13 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

More news as we have it...

Dwell furniture opens in Manchester, special offers

The new Dwell store in Manchester at 231-233 Deansgate is now open and they have some great offers available for their opening weekend. As well as 10% off all full-price products in-store, they have a limited number of their top-selling items available at huge discounts. The spider-leg swivelling office chair in brown is available at just £20 (usually £79) for the first 20 purchased at 11am on Saturday 1st Sept, and the first 20 cream bonded leather dining chairs sold at 1pm on Sunday 2nd Sept are priced at just £15 (usually £69). Sharpen those elbows!

Haier compact pink refrigerator

One of our most popular features on Lovely Things is the piece on pink kitchen appliances. Here's a little something for our pink-crazy US readers: the Haier pink refrigerator. The Haier 'Color Cube' is a mini fridge with just 1.7 cubic foot capacity and a tiny freezer section. At under 20 inches tall, it's perfect as a drinks fridge, for the office or as a personal fridge if you're in a shared house or dorm, or if you just have a teeny tiny apartment and don't have a lot of room for electrical appliances! The best prices I've found to buy online are at Provantage for $81.46 in pink, green or black, or just $76.32 in blue. According to the Haier US website, it's also available in orange and red.

Colour and pattern - Next wallpaper

Sumptuous, vintage-style wallpaper is still really popular and there are some well-priced options available at Next. Several of the styles we featured last year are still available, and they've expanded their range into new colours and patterns and upped the price point slightly. Above is 'Elizabeth' in turquoise (£17), also available in bronze/brown, and 'Midsummer' in black (£17). More Next wallpaper via the link below...

Gorgeous autumn-coloured bedding on sale at Argos

The recent rain's been making me think about cooler nights and autumn colours and now is a great time to take advantage of the sales to stock up on bedding for the coming season. Argos isn't the first place I think of for bedding, but they currently have a range of sale duvet sets and bedspreads in great autumnal colours at bargain prices. Click below for the details...

Discounted solar power garden lights at Woolworths

Now that the evenings are starting to get a little darker, it's a good time to think about lighting in your garden. Woolworths has a range of garden products in their summer sale, and these attractive stainless steel solar-powered outdoor lights are a bargain at £19.99 for a set of ten, saving you a huge £60 on the original price of £79.99. Even better, Woollies is offering an extra 10% off Big Red Book sale purchases (including these lights), until 9th Sept so enter ISOAugust07 at the checkout to save.

Heal's up to 70% off bank holiday warehouse sale

Brace yourselves people! Heal's is having a bank holiday weekend, up to 70% off, warehouse sale. It starts at 9am on Saturday 25th and finishes at 4pm on Monday 27th August at the Heal's distribution centre in Edmonton, London (N9, near the A406 and the Brent Cross Ikea). Discounted items include this nickel and acrylic Malabar lamp reduced from £100 to just £30, and the Louis black lacquer console table by John Reeves (we featured the outdoor range in June), half price at just £248. 

Vitamin's funky urban gnomes at Onedeko

Looking for a garden ornament that's a bit outside the norm? How about a gnome? Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. Forget your kitschy (and faintly creepy - you know they're watching you) jolly-red-hat brigade and check out these funky urban gnomes by Vitamin. The bone china gnomes stand at 21cm high and come with a variety of patterns from a cute-yet-menacing skull to something more gardeny like a pretty dandelion print or 'undergrowth' (pictured). Available from Onedeko for £48.50 each.