Lovely Things

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.

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...

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.

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.

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. 

Cute camper van tea-towels from Kitty & Polly

Regular readers will know that I do have a bit of a thing for nice tea-towels (blame my mother, she's more obsessed than I and clearly passed on the gene). They're an inexpensive way to brighten up your kitchen, and make, let's face it, a rather boring chore that little bit more interesting. This summery duo from newly-opened online gifts and accessories store Kitty & Polly combines the iconic, charmingly hippy VW Kombi van with a traditional beach scene of beach huts (that very sought-after summer commodity, now out of the price range of mere mortals). Available in baby blue and pink, the towels are 100% cotton, designed and produced right here in Blighty and cost just £4.50 each. As opening specials, Kitty & Polly is offering free shipping on orders over £40, and 10% off your next order when you register for their newsletter.

Wallace Sacks sale: lovely silk lampshades

We've hit the season of summer sales and there are some great homeware and interiors bargains to be had. Everyone I know seems to be looking for new lighting at the moment (including me), so I've been perusing the lighting clearance at Wallace Sacks. These pretty silk shades are available in soft green with a fuchsia leaf print, and brown with a gold print and can be hung from a pendant fitting or fixed to a lamp base. They're just £35 each.