Still Christmas shopping and need a few ideas for inexpensive gifts? Here's our gift guide to presents £10 and under...
Who can resist snuggling up with a hot water bottle on a chilly night? Especially when your bottle has its own woolly jumper! This rainbow-coloured, roll-neck hot water bottle cover comes with a standard size 750ml hot water bottle inside and costs just £9.
Ah Christmas shopping. It can be tricky finding an interesting gift without having to spend a lot of money, or a lot of time trawling websites and shops. And if you have a lot of people to buy for, the whole thing can really take it out of you. To give you a hand is our gift guide to lovely things for home and living, for £20 or less...
Not a sparkly, tinselly type? If you'd like to inject a bit of retro personality into your festive decor, these recycled vintage vinyl decorations might be just the ticket. Made by New York artist Jeff Davis, the records come ready to hang as a set of three for $18. Given that Christmas is looming large in the calendar, UK readers might need to buy with an eye to next year's decorative scheme. If you're in the US, take advantage of express shipping to have these in your hot little hands this week.
[via Retro to Go]
Next is a bit of a surprise for home decoration, and their small collection of wallpapers has some lovely designs at a great price. Each roll is priced at just 14.99 for 10.5 metres, and all paper is sourced from sustainable forests. Go for the baroque look with the purple or silver 'damask' papers (above), a cooler silhouette with the duck egg blue 'ice' (below left), or 'ice mocha' for a neutral tone, or a subtle retro style with the grey 'stellar' (below right).
This week I popped into Habitat to have a brief nose around the new range in their Habitat Art on Demand collection. As well as a range of posters I didn't have the chance to fully explore, they have some great painted ready-to-hang canvases in a variety of styles.
View more via the link below.
I've been browsing the John Lewis site, looking at their lovely new season's soft furnishings. There are some really gorgeous cushions that have caught my eye, so here's a little round-up of some of the best...
This 'Tessica' floral cushion in chocolate brown is a great example of the trend for 'statement' cushions this season. It's 40 x 40 cms, the cover's a high-percentage wool mix and the 3D roses are felt, so soft enough to lie back on comfortably. It's £30 and also comes in red and a soft aqua blue.
Click the link below for more fabulous cushions...
How gorgeously kitsch is this cushion? It depicts little boys and girls decorating a Christmas tree and is really very sweet. Made from a 1950s inspired vintage-style cotton fabric it comes with a 40 x 40cm cushion pad included and the start price is £9.50. Be quick, the auction only has one more day to run.
Having mirrors around the house definitely helps to make spaces feel larger and brighter. But not all decors suit the traditional square mirror shapes. Round mirrors can give more of a portal effect, and can seem a little more unexpected in a room perhaps dominated by angular furniture.
This round carved wooden mirror from Laura Ashley has a lovely vintage style and comes in either cream or dark gold at £75.
For more mirrors, click the link below...
Unfortunately, like the websites for their fashion stores, Zara Home doesn't show full details of their products, any individual product images or any sort of online shopping. So, we'll have to make do with their gorgeously-styled room shots. It looks like Autumn/Winter from Zara Home sees some differently styled lines. One, a more modern, slightly retro theme, and the other, a real feeling of decadence and crumbling opulence, with luxurious fabrics, mirrored furniture, lots of gold tones, embroidery and the flocked fabric style that I also saw a lot of at the Autumn Top Drawer show (seriously, everyone seems to be doing it). Here's a few favourite shots of the decadent style (click on the link to view)...
Loads of high street retailers have launched premium collections and it seems that Ikea has decided to get in on the act. It's new Stockholm range offers 'super quality' at higher price points than much of their other merchandise. My picks are this beautifully-shaped easy chair in the bright BLAD fabric at £185 and the elegant coffee table in solid oak and veneer at £140.
