Lovely Things

New Store: Chairs & Wares

The Cotswold Company has just launched its latest venture, online chair 'superstore' Chairs & Wares. The store aims to offer chairs at around 25% less than you'd find elsewhere and stocks a wide range of popular designs and has a made-to-order line as well.

I've been eyeing up the lovely fat floor cushions which come in a range of fabrics including leather, faux suede, corduroy and, Autumn favourite, tweed. They bring to mind that favourite fantasy during cold weather: laying around in front of a roaring fire on piles of cushions. They're priced at £55 or £70 for leather and come with free delivery as a launch promotion.

Heal's Relaunches Tott Crt Rd Store

This week saw the relaunch of a revitalised Heal's on Tottenham Court Road in London. The new look store boasts three floors with much more of a luxury lifestyle feel than before and includes a lobby with a Peyton & Byrne bakery that opens at 7.30am so you can treat yourself to pastries on your way to work.

The ground floor also houses a spa room complete with water feature for a relaxing backdrop when shopping for luxury toiletries, bathroom accessories and nightwear. You'll also find a gift room (luxury items including jewellery, luggage and bags), lighting and a focus on storage for tight spaces.

The rest of the store is mainly furniture, plus a new 60-cover restaurant, reinforcing the new image Heal's is aiming for - a lifestyle destination, rather than just another homewares shop.

Free guide to independent shops

Thanks to the lovely people at Period Features for the excellent free Get Real Guide to small, quirky and out-of-the-way shops and mail order companies you otherwise might not hear about. The guide covers homewares, antiques, textiles, gardening, food, wine, body and beauty products, art supplies, salvage and restoration, clothing, green living and lots more! I'm personally much heartened by the discovery of an online store dedicated to sticky toffee pudding...

Download the PDF guide from Period Features, and visit the site to browse their fabulous products for the period home (don't forget to enter the Aug/Sept £50 voucher competition).

London Design Festival starts today

Don't miss this year's London Design Festival - celebrating all things design at over 150 different venues.

There's a huge number of participating events including 100% Design showcasing contemporary home products and interiors including lighting, accessories, walls and floors, kitchen and bathrooms and furniture.

There's also lunchtime and breakfast Design Talks to attend, design-led discussions hosted by London Design Festival and Blueprint Magazine at Somerset House and T2 at the Truman Brewery.

New for this year is the I Love Design show at the FuseUK studio, an exhibition showing pieces from 20 up-and-coming designers from the UK. The show features new furniture, ceramics, interior and exterior home products and lighting.

If you work in the design industry, check out the new community launching at Designersblock on 20th September, DesignersAreWankers.com. It aims to be a "place where people can communicate, pick up the necessary skills to further their careers, learn from industry gurus and showcase their portfolios".

The festival starts today and runs until the end of September. There's absolutely loads to see and do, so pick up your festival guide from one of the participating venues.

Autumn Top Drawer show

This week I visited Top Drawer Autumn at Olympia in London to have a nose around what's new.

The link between interior and fashion trends was very clear from looking at the monochrome theme of many of the stands. Lots of black and white, and black and silver - very elegant and understated with a vintage feel.

I hope to show you a selection of products in the next week, but due to photography restrictions, there's going to be a bit of image research needed. One display of products I'd love to show you was Christmas baubles and decorations (yes it's coming up!) from The Original Winters' Tale as their gorgeous baubles were strung on ribbon and hung in curtains or bunches and looked stunning. Unfortunately, the company doesn't allow any photography of their products (even for retail marketing) to protect against design copying.

Great blogs: Shelteriffic

"We also discovered Lovely Things, a British site that can help keep us content with UKdesign between issues of Living Etc. and Elle Decor UK."

Thanks to the fabulous Shelterrific for their mention of Lovely Things this week and welcome to all new readers joining us from there.

Shelterrific is produced by the talented folks at the now defunct Budget Living magazine and covers living, design, renovation and DIY, and of course, shopping online.

Zara Home opens in Regent St

We previously reported Zara's further forays into the homewares market, and can now announce that the first UK Zara Home standalone store has launched at 129-131 Regent Street, London.

Zara's parent company Inditex describes: "the ground floor features the main Zara Home collections for this Spring-Summer 2006, as well as decorative items for the home, cosmetics and lingerie. The first floor houses crockery, household items and other two collections for this season, the Ethnic and Chic collections.  The basement contains table linen, bed linen and towels in fifteen different colours, and the children’s section, with a wide range of textile products and accessories for the little ones".

I'm looking forward to a visit!