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  • 15 of the best simple, Scandinavian-style chests of drawers

    15 of the best simple, Scandinavian-style chests of drawers

    January 31, 2025January 26, 2026

    15 of the best minimalist Scandinavian-style chests of drawers, with options for all budgets and sizes of space…

  • 20 of the best timeless wooden dining chairs | These Four Walls blog

    20 of the best timeless wooden dining chairs

    May 24, 2024February 17, 2026

    Choosing a dining chair can be tricky. Here are 20 beautiful and timeless wooden chairs that are unlikely to ever date, along with my top tips…

  • Exploring the legacy of Vilhelm Lauritzen with Carl Hansen & Søn – plus win a ‘Vega’ chair!

    Exploring the legacy of Vilhelm Lauritzen with Carl Hansen & Søn – plus win a ‘Vega’ chair!

    November 3, 2022February 18, 2026

    Carl Hansen & Søn has teamed up with Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects to celebrate the legacy of the iconic Danish modernist and relaunch some of his furniture designs. I travelled to Copenhagen to find out more…

  • Home tour - a sustainable Catskills cabin with a minimalist interior | These Four Walls blog

    Home tour | A sustainable Catskills cabin with a minimalist interior

    October 10, 2022February 19, 2026

    Located in upstate New York’s Catskills Mountains, this contemporary cabin showcases minimalist Scandinavian design that’s totally in tune with its natural surroundings…

  • Versatile autumn-winter launches from Northern

    Versatile autumn-winter launches from Northern

    September 27, 2022February 24, 2026

    A look at the latest launches from Norwegian brand Northern, which blend versatility and functionality with innovative touches and timeless Nordic design…

  • Highlights from 3 Days of Design 2022 - part two | These Four Walls blog

    Highlights from 3 Days of Design 2022 | Part 2

    June 30, 2022February 25, 2026

    The second half of my round-up from Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design, with plenty of inspiring Scandinavian interiors and some very interesting new product launches…

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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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