Lovely Things

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.

Glass worktops

We covered the very nifty Chop 2 Pot chopping board from JosephJoseph last week, and now another of their products has caught my eye. These glass worktops provide a work surface for food prep and can also do double duty as a trivet for hot pots. I think the best thing about them is the gloriously-coloured whimsical designs. The square variety includes an Elvis and a Marilyn Monroe made of vegetables and a really cute 50s inspired mixer motif in pink and green shown left, which would go beautifully with your pink appliances if you followed our lead last month.

I also really like the round worktops that include fresh fruit and veg inspired options like watermelon, kiwi, orange, tomato, cucumber, onion and a load more (not all are food images). The worktops are around £10 each.

Faux leopard throws & cushions

Animal print's never been my thing, but here at Lovely Towers, we're not ones to judge! So, if you like a bit of the luxury leopard look, Debenhams has some huge reductions on their leopard and plain faux fur throws and cushions by J Jasper Conran with the throw at just £39, down from £130 and cushions for just over a tenner.

Bedding bargains

Now's the time to stock up on bedding classics with the department store sales winding down. These sateen striped sheets and pillow cases are 100% cotton with a threadcount of 220, and have been reduced by 70% in the Debenhams sale to just £5.40 for a pair of pillowcases, up to £10.50 for a superking sheet. White and cream are always a good choice to co-ordinate with your coloured bedding, but they also have pale pink, aqua and lilac.

eBay watch: shabby chic cupboards

A few nice pieces of shabby chic style furniture available via eBay...

Victorian Painted 'Shabby Chic' Corner Cupboard

French Style Shabby Chic 3drw Chest & Cupboard

Victorian Painted 'Shabby Chic' Cupboard on Turned Feet

Beautiful Brand New Cabinet Cupboard French Shabby Chic

Victorian Painted Pine 'Shabby Chic' Tall Cupboard

SHABBY CHIC Sage Green Colour-washed Cabinet/Cupboard

Victorian Painted Pine 'Shabby Chic' Cupboard

Victorian Painted Pine 'Shabby Chic' Tall Cupboard

Ingenious chopping board

I'm a big fan of kitchen innovation - anything that can make cooking life easier is fine by me. What we often end up with though is gadgetry, which is all very well and good when it works, but sometimes kitchen gadgets serve only to complicate things without actually saving you much time. Enter the simple, designed-with-a-human-in-mind, Chop 2 Pot board from JosephJoseph, designed by Mark Sanders. Made from polypropylene, the board lies flat while chopping, but is hinged so when the handle is squeezed, the board forms a chute to guide the food into the pot. Ingenious! I know I'm forever having to retrive bits of chopped carrot, mushroom and the like from around the stove (or worse, the floor) when they haven't quite made it from board to cooking pot. The Chop 2 Pot comes in a range of bright colours, plus white, and costs £9.99 from homewarestore.com.

Sleek wooden vases

Fans of sleek modern style will love these black mango wood vases from John Lewis. Reduced to clear in the sale prices start at just £5, with the mid-size vase shown at £7.50, the vases are designed to hold one or two stems in the small aperture. Unfortunately, being wood (though they look ceramic), they're for dried arrangements only. Something other than flowers would keep with the modern look - perhaps a pine or twisted chesnut branch, ikebana style.

Brass dragonfly lights

These dragonfly lights are just so pretty! Perfect for outdoor entertaining, they're made of brass and are extra-safe low-voltage so you can string them through trees or around a patio. Length is 15 metres and they're on sale now at Debenhams at £14 (were £20). The only bugs you'll want at your barbecue.

Ceramic hanging tealight holder

Check out these very funky retro-style hanging tealight holders. They come in red, blue, yellow and green glazing, and have a very tactile, smooth ceramic 'shell' that makes me want to reach into the picture and stroke them. Available from Stylish Life for £9.99, marked down from £16.50.