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  • A soothing beige & green guest bedroom makeover | These Four Walls blog

    A soothing beige & green guest bedroom makeover

    July 2, 2021July 2, 2021

    [Advertisement – this room features PR products from Crown, Fredericia and Quick-Step. As always, words and opinions are my own] We’ve finally completed the remaining bits of our first-floor renovation,…

  • Profile | Ceramicist Reesha Zubair

    Profile | Ceramicist Reesha Zubair

    June 29, 2021January 22, 2026

    Today I’m continuing my series of interviews with independent designers and artists by talking to ceramicist Reesha Zubair, whose work has captivated me ever since I first stumbled across her…

  • Design project: a warm yet minimalist living room in white, beige and walnut, with String shelving and contemporary modular sofa | These Four Walls blog

    Design project | A minimalist living room in beige, white & walnut

    June 23, 2021June 24, 2021

    It’s not often I get to share my finished client designs. Many people (understandably) are reluctant to have their homes featured online, and in any case lockdown has made it…

  • Home tour - a Scandi-inspired Victorian renovation in London | These Four Walls blog

    Home tour | A Scandi-inspired Victorian renovation in London

    June 21, 2021June 21, 2021

    I’m always impressed by people who renovate period properties to make them suit their needs, taste and lifestyle, without losing any of their original character in the process. It’s a…

  • How to design a lighting scheme that works for you

    How to design a lighting scheme that works for you

    June 17, 2021June 17, 2021

    Along with layout (which I’ve covered here), lighting is one of the trickiest aspects of interior design – and one I frequently get asked for help with. In fact when…

  • Home tour - a beautiful combination of warm wood & cool grey | These Four Walls blog

    Home tour | A beautiful combination of warm wood & cool grey

    June 8, 2021June 7, 2021

    In the last couple of years grey seems to have largely been replaced by beige as the neutral of choice, but I still think grey interiors can be beautiful –…

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A heatwave combined with fibromyalgia and the peri A heatwave combined with fibromyalgia and the perimenopause isn't exactly fun... Along with iced coffee, here are four tried-and-tested things that are getting me through the soaring temperatures in the UK this week:

1. Temperature-regulating bamboo bed linen from @laud_sleep. It's super-soft, easy to care for and it really does keep me cooler on hot, sticky nights. 
2. The @duux ' Whisper Flex' fan, which is quiet and energy-efficient yet very effective. It can be adapted to sit on the floor or a table, and it has a remote control. It's also portable and rechargeable, so you can use it in areas without a nearby plug socket. 
3. 'Birch Water & Neroli' cooling facial mist from @findubiety, which I take with me everywhere during summer. It smells and feels wonderful, and all profits go to support my local hospice charity @dorothyhousehc.
4. My traditional Spanish fan, which I've had since I lived in Spain in my early 20s. It's now very tatty and missing a few rungs, but it still does the job. I sometimes get strange looks when I whip it out on the bus in the UK, but it works so I really don't care! 

For full disclosure, I've worked with Duux and Laud in the past, but this isn't a paid or sponsored post and I haven't been asked to share it. These are items that I use myself on a daily basis in weather like this, and I thought other people might find them helpful, too. 

#heatwave #uksummer #summermood #simplehomestyle #seasonalliving
They say the journey is as important as the destin They say the journey is as important as the destination, and that's certainly true of my trip to Bergen in Norway with my friend Becky earlier this month. Rather than fly straight there, we decided to use it as an opportunity to do something that's been on my bucket list for a while - a classic itinerary dubbed 'Norway in a Nutshell', which goes from Oslo to Bergen by public train, boat and bus (including two of the most scenic railways in the world). 

It was a spectacular experience encompassing mountains, plateaus, fjords, lakes and waterfalls, taking us from spring to winter and back again. Here's a taster from the many photos I took along the way, but there's much more on the blog - including tips on how to book tickets, where to sit on the trains for the best views, and where to stay overnight if you have more time than we did and want to split it over more than one day. 

It's a journey that will linger in my memory for a long time, and one I'm very glad I got to do. 

#visitnorway #norwayinanutshell #fjords #divineworldplaces #postcardplaces
More kitchen progress! The cabinet that sits on to More kitchen progress! The cabinet that sits on top of the worktop (which hides the boiler and some storage) is now finished, and the perfect little freestanding island unit has arrived (I wanted something quite gnarled and rustic to contrast with the pale units). We're just waiting for the window blind to arrive and for the electrician to come out and install the pendant light, and the whole room will be done. Scroll through to see a 'before' shot - it's a big change! 

#cottagerenovation #minimalistkitchen #shakerkitchen #neutralkitchens #simpleinterior
From a beautiful evening mooching around Oslo wate From a beautiful evening mooching around Oslo waterfront last week. I was in Norway for a short break with a friend, and we were treated to an amazing spring sunset. It made a wonderful start to our trip, and also an opportunity to catch up with the fabulous @dimakaterina. Our stay in the Norwegian capital was only very brief, though, as early next morning we headed off to do something that's been on my bucket list for a long time. More on that (and a full blog travel guide) later in the week...

#visitoslo #norwaytravel #theprettycities #divineworldplaces #sunsets_oftheworld
Photos from a spring visit to Great Chalfield Mano Photos from a spring visit to Great Chalfield Manor, a 15th-century National Trust property not far from our new home. It's a beautiful, fairytale kind of place, especially at this time of year when the blossom and wisteria blooms. And see if you can spot the image where I may have captured a ghost... I mean, it was probably just a smudge on my camera lens, but a ghost is a far more interesting explanation. And intriguingly it didn't show up on the frames taken a second beforehand and a second afterwards...

#thisprettyengland #wisteriahysteria #visitwiltshire #springgarden #visitthecotswolds

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