My visit to Brompton Design District during London Design Festival 2026 began with the Italian showrooms. At Molteni&C, Kartell, and Cassina, three chairs offered quite different propositions for a room — generous upholstery, an economical metal outline, and a decidedly expressive archive revival.

Beyond them, the exhibitions of “Perfectly Imperfect” opened up the story behind the objects. Moving between the two, I found a thread worth following — the relationship between a designer’s intentions and the materials that give those ideas form.

Molteni&C Gives Softness Some Structure

Introduced at Milan Design Week 2026, Cristián Mohaded’s Corsetto armchair was my focus at Molteni&C. Its generous, textile-covered volumes are held in place by a leather-covered base and bands that rise around the arms, giving the chair its corseted profile. The version I saw paired warm, highly textured upholstery with dark brown leather, making the contrast between softness and structure especially apparent.

Kartell Makes a Fine Line Count

Following its Salone del Mobile presentation, Savoia made its UK debut at Kartell’s London flagship. The brand’s first collaboration with Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby pairs a slender die-cast aluminum frame with seat and back options in recycled technopolymer, curved wood, or leather.

Its open structure offers a counterpoint to more enveloping seating. I’m drawn to the way that fine outline gives a dining chair definition without making a table setting feel crowded. It’s a reminder that furniture can hold its own without taking up much visual space.

Cassina Gives an Archive New Life

At Cassina, I found myself immediately drawn to Dalila. It isn’t an entirely new design, but a return to Gaetano Pesce’s original drawings from 1980, carefully reimagined by Cassina in collaboration with Studio Pesce. Made from flexible polyurethane foam and finished with a thin, colored elastomeric coating, its curved form has the slightly fluid quality that makes Pesce’s work so recognizable. The 2026 reissue also takes Dalila outdoors for the first time.

I have always liked furniture that can interrupt a room a little, and Dalila does exactly that. I can imagine a single chair placed at the head of a more formal dining table, where its eccentric silhouette would make the whole arrangement feel less predictable. That, to me, is when an archive reissue feels relevant — when it can still change the mood of an interior today.

The Most Interesting Ideas Were Still Taking Shape

After the showrooms, I moved into Perfectly Imperfect, the 2026 Brompton Design District theme curated by Alex Tieghi-Walker. Here, the focus shifted toward experimentation — the revisions, material discoveries, and intuitive decisions that happen while an idea is still finding its form.

What I liked about the theme was that imperfection never felt like something to celebrate for its own sake. Instead, it encouraged me to look more closely at how things had been made and to notice where the hand, personality, or curiosity of the designer remained visible.

The Reading Room at 36 Thurloe Place

My first stop was The Reading Room, on the ground floor of 36 Thurloe Place. Presented by TIWA Select in partnership with Tenderbooks, it brought together furniture and objects by 12 queer artists and designers, including Rich Aybar, Tino Seubert, and James Cherry, alongside books exploring art, architecture, design, and queer culture.

I liked that the books didn’t feel like styling props — they were part of how the room was intended to be experienced. It felt less like a display to move quickly through and more like an invitation to pause, look properly, and spend time with different perspectives.

Studio Iron Made a Case for Rooms With Personality

At Studio Iron, founded by Isamaya Ffrench, furniture sat alongside sculpture, textiles, and objects by contributors working across art, fashion, and design.

What stayed with me was the freedom of that mix. The pieces didn’t need to share one obvious style to make sense together — each brought its own material language and personality. It made me think about the homes I’m most drawn to, where objects have been chosen individually over time rather than selected to complete a perfectly coordinated scheme.

Rafael Prieto Looked at the Dining Room Differently

In The Lavery’s private dining room, Rafael Prieto’s On the Sunset, Which Is Only One explored how light and perspective can shape the atmosphere of a room. At its center were six sculptural chairs by Prieto’s studio, Savvy, each responding to a different position of the sun, accompanied by Marrow lights created by Prieto and Loup Sarion.

After spending the first part of my visit looking closely at individual chairs, I found myself thinking here about what happens when several distinct designs meet around one table. The room suggested that dining furniture doesn’t always need to match exactly — a strong shared idea can create just as much cohesion.

TOAST Brought the Focus Back to the Maker

At Hazel Studio, TOAST’s New Makers presentation introduced work by Jacob Marks, Yuichi Romita, Egle Silko, Hannah Watts, and Linnan Ye. The collection moved between wood-fired and wheel-thrown ceramics, pine-resin vessels, and textured sterling-silver jewelry.

These were smaller objects, but they asked for a closer look. I was particularly interested in how much character came from the materials themselves — the marks left by firing, an irregular surface, or the unfamiliar quality of pine resin. These are the kinds of pieces I would use sparingly in a room, giving one object enough space to hold attention rather than surrounding it with too much styling.

Finding Form Let the Material Decide

My final stop was Byron Pritchard’s Finding Form in a garage in Cromwell Mews. During August, Pritchard and his team worked from a single slab of sycamore using only hand tools, without drawings or a predetermined design. The objects developed through their direct response to the timber.

Of everything I saw, this felt like the clearest expression of Perfectly Imperfect. The material wasn’t being forced to follow a finished image — it was allowed to influence what the final object became. I left thinking that good design doesn’t always begin with having every answer. Sometimes it begins with paying close enough attention to recognize what is already there.

Brompton offered only one view of this year’s London Design Festival. For another side of the city’s design story, explore the Chelsea Design District highlights through Maya Glantz’s eyes.

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Tucked quietly away, east of the French capital, the neighborhood known as La Campagne à Paris — 'the countryside of Paris' — reads like a village hiding within the city. And this home, set back behind an ordinary front door, lands with a deliberate "twist" of surprise, like a shock of color set loose inside its sleepy cobbled streets.

For Lyon-based designer Célia Reubrecht, the brief was clear and the collaboration "easy" — owing to her client's confident, design-literate point of view. Reimagining the aged apartment of her late mother, the pair's creative starting point was an existing collection of eclectic treasures, many from the seventies and cast in Memphis-like shape and form.

Much of the remade space — which retains nothing but the same wooden floor — now feels like their rightful showcase, each room staging a different piece of the private trove.

Step inside, and the first thing you'll do is look up — at a deep green ceiling that beams down from above. And then you'll look down — at a checkerboard tiled flooring that spills out across the corridor, luring you beyond it.

The rooms that follow have been entirely reconfigured. Rather than opting for a more standard, resale-friendly two-bed split, the owner — who lives alone — was "determined to design something more bespoke," committing to a single luxurious master suite, with a smaller second room as an office.

A convert from Instagram, and an admirer of Célia's work, she came with clear convictions of her own. It was, in that sense alone, a rather fitting match — the designer, herself, has long backed her individual creative instinct. "I've always had my own way of thinking about design, so I only wanted to work for myself," she says, on founding a studio at an early age.

"Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd be able to work any other way.”

The kitchen is, perhaps, the loudest answer to the brief: cobalt-blue lacquer runs behind the counter, burned-orange cabinetry sits below it, a blush-pink row of units catches the light from a wardrobe-mirrored door. Everywhere you look, there is color — apart from on the walls, which are quite deliberately white, allowing each item of furniture and statement fitting to hold your attention.

And that they certainly do. "You see one detail, before you turn your head and suddenly spot something else," Célia explains.

Indeed, it's difficult to know exactly where to focus — on the centered, tubular pendant, metallic green socket covers, or the scarlet, flower-shaped handles dotted across the cabinetry. Two transparent Ghost chairs, designed by Philippe Starck for Kartell, are the only exception: allowed to disappear from view.

Where the kitchen scatters its colors across a canvas, the study commits to just one. Walls, cabinetry, even the desk itself, are lacquered in the same deep glossy shade of red — an immersive and uncompromising decision in an apartment that otherwise refuses to sit still.

A woodgrain tabletop and shelving have the feel of a deliberate postmodern material reference, while a spindle-back Windsor-style chair, in the same reddish tone, plays the traditionalist against them. But it's the wire pendant, strung with painted birds, that gives the room its centerpiece — and one more surprise.

Already a focal piece in the owner's collection, Célia was honest about her hesitation from the start: "I wasn't a fan at first. I was worried it wouldn't match the style." The light eventually found its way into the office anyway, a rather suitable pairing with the booth beneath it.

"It adds a real pop of color," the designer admits now, "and a twist you might not see coming."

Underfoot, the same herringbone parquet continues into the linchpin — the space an entire apartment has been reorganized around. One continuous suite now holds bedroom and bathroom together, divided only by a partition of red woodgrain with a circular porthole of reeded glass cut into it.

Here, for a moment, the home begins to quieten: an olive-green bedspread, a floral ruffle in soft pink and blue, walls left relatively plain. But step through, and the bathroom beyond picks the noise back up — admittedly in a more muted tone of voice.

A vintage teak sideboard, repurposed as the vanity, holds a molded resin basin, while a checkerboard tile, patterned with circles and stripes, climbs the wall around the mirror. Two scalloped wall sconces flank the sink like a pair of theater lights.

The tucked-away toilet is Célia's favorite room yet, where the smallest space is working the hardest. Blue wraps the walls, floor to ceiling, deep and immersive, almost oceanic. A prominent collection of the owner's shell-shaped lighting features only further that undersea feeling — staged on the shelves like something surfacing from below.

Many of these creative moves find their footing with relative ease in Paris, but would raise eyebrows back in the designer's home city, Lyon. Tastes often veer "quite bourgeois, old-style," she explains — although Célia senses that's beginning to change.

She's one of the few designers on the scene pushing boundaries, from street to salon; three years ago she opened a concept store beneath her studio, selling a characterful and curated selection of interior accessories. The local response has been better than she expected, and Célia is encouraging boldness, rug by rug, tile by tile.

"I can see that people are interested in different pieces, colorful pieces," she says. "Often it's about starting small — with objects and decorative accents — before eventually being tempted into architecture and full-scale renovation."

Two more apartments in Paris are already underway, alongside new work back in Lyon. A hotel, too, is on the cards — though for now it remains just that. "It's my dream project," Célia says. "Thinking about every room, the public spaces, the whole artistic direction. That would be the dream."

But all of it can wait. Like the unhurried streets that shelter this apartment from the churn of the city, this designer isn't in a rush.

Revisit more stories like this in our modern homes archives, or take its playfully iconic atmosphere home with you with this curated selection of interior design buys.

For more Parisian joie de vivre, dig into our edit of the most beautiful restaurants in the French capital, or mark these local coffee shops in your diaries for when you are next in town.

I was just complaining about early Christmas fatigue with all the festive launches hitting shelves perhaps a season too early. However, I stand corrected because the moment I found this 2026 Advent Calendar on Westwing, filled with decor, I could almost hear Mariah Carey's whistle notes buzzing through the air.

Never have I ever spotted a true design advent calendar before. And while I'm all for the glamorous boxes filled with beauty bits and delicious scented candles, I have to say this design-led set might be my favorite advent yet.

And it's not the kind of calendar that'll leave you feeling cheated either. There are no novelty items taking up space in these boxes. Instead, you'll find gifts from Westwing Collection, Aesop, Bloomingville, Audo Copenhagen, Ferm Living, DBKD, Philippi, Vinga, Vondels, WMF, Archivist, and Broste. Plus, if it's anything like last year's stylish advent calendars, now's the time to ready your cart.

Wish List Advent Calendar Decor from Westwing

While this advent calendar has reignited my excitement for the festive season that will no doubt soon approach, I'm still doing some fall shopping for my home. And lucky us, the latest instalment of The Fifty is all things cozy and autumnal.

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It doesn't take more than a handful of weeks into autumn to forget about the sudden buzz every Londoner gets as soon as spring stages its comeback. But to those who claim there is no better place to be when the sun hits than here, I always say the same: few cities look and feel as good dressed in orange leaves as the British capital, and the plethora of openings and events punctuating the autumn calendar may well have something to do with it.

With leading arts fairs Frieze London and Frieze Masters returning alongside another edition of global design showcase PAD London in just a few weeks, it's time for some serious planning. From skyline-blessed jazz concerts and a neighborhood-wide festival capturing the well-traveled spirit of Mayfair's Mount Street to the most discreet new bar we can't wait to get ourselves a table at, here's your fluff-free guide to what to do in London this October.

The Design Moment

Art, Decor, and Furniture Find New Forms at PAD London 2026

Berkeley Square, Mayfair. October 14-18

The 18th edition of PAD London, one of the world's leading art, design, and jewelry fairs, returns to Berkeley Square, Mayfair, October 14-18. Gathering 67 exhibitors from 18 countries, including 12 newcomers, the fair brings together museum-quality historical works, bold contemporary furniture, one-off craft and precious accessories in a dialogue between past, present, and future. A fixture of London's October calendar, PAD is also a chance to discover influential galleries including Carpenters Workshop Gallery and Nilufar Gallery, two of the foremost protagonists of London Design Festival and Milan Design Week, and Friedman Benda. As in recent years, though, it's exhibitions of younger galleries that have caught my eye: I'm particularly looking forward to Initio Arts & Design's historic French and Italian pieces, Pik'd's technicolored ceramics, and Swedish artist-designer Alfhild Sarah Külper's fuzzy textiles at Rademakers Gallery.

Book your tickets to PAD London 2026.

The Art Pick

Creativity Abounds at Frieze London 2026 — And Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival

The Regent's Park, October 15-18 (Frieze London and Frieze Masters). Various locations across Mount Street Neighbourhood, October 12-17 (Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival)

October in London wouldn't be half as frenetic without global art platform Frieze putting up a three-part show across Frieze London, Frieze Masters (both October 14-18), and Frieze Sculpture (through November 1). Now in its 24th edition, the appointment, hosted on the grounds of Regent's Park, will see ambitious solo presentations, from Dalton Paula at Lisson and Albert Oehlen at Gagosian to Marina Perez Simão at Pace, alongside a debuting section examining how artists respond to mass culture, consumer goods, and the information flows of mass media, The Code Universe, and regulars like Focus and Artist-to-Artist. At Frieze Masters, the emphasis shifts towards rediscovery with Anthony van Dyck's Portrait of a Nobleman, a 26th-Dynasty bronze of Ptah, and Ampe Kempkes's Queering Modernism, unveiling a manifold archive of queer visual histories.

Elsewhere in the city, and not far from Regent's Park, the third iteration of Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival (October 12-17) injects more inspiration into London with its signature mixture of art, design, food, and conversation. Must-sees include photographer Miles Aldridge's 15 Minutes of Fame, a Hauser & Wirth Publishers pop-up, and a series of intimate talks and breakfasts dotted around the seriously charming district.

Book your tickets to Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Find out more about Mount Street Neighbourhood Arts Festival

The Culture Spot

Ronnie Scott's Takes Over Seabird, the Rooftop Bar of The Hoxton, Southwark

Seabird at The Hoxton, Southwark, eight Sundays from October 18 to December 6

This October, following a sold-out first edition, Seabird, the rooftop restaurant perched on the 14th floor of The Hoxton, Southwark, welcomes back its much-loved Ronnie Scott's series in partnership with GREY GOOSE® Vodka. Across eight Sundays from October 18 to December 6, London's legendary jazz and blues institution will bring its unmistakable sound to the rooftop, where sweeping city views, Iberian seafood, and live music make for a rather dreamy way to ease into the colder season. The lineup is especially tempting, spanning award-winning Scottish vocalist Georgia Cécile and the groove-led Jackson Mathod to Cherise, Natalie Duncan, and Myele Manzanza, while a limited-edition cocktail menu puts GREY GOOSE at the center of the experience with curated drinks like winter Espresso and oyster-paired Bergamot Martinis. Each performance comes with a four-course seafood-focused menu and a Classic GREY GOOSE Tiny Tini, making the program a one-Sunday plan that feels particularly hard to resist.

Keen to know what Ronnie Scott's feels like? Revisit our recent feature on the recently refurbished Upstairs at Ronnie's, or book your tickets for the Ronnie Scott's Seabird takeover.

The Foodie Find

 Labombe by Trivet Goes Even Artsier

Labombe by Trivet at COMO Metropolitan. From October 1

One of the best restaurants in London for gastronomy and interiors connoisseurs, Labombe by Trivet celebrates its first birthday on 1 October with the launch of a new British contemporary art programme at COMO Metropolitan. Created with A Space for Art and Incubator Gallery, the restaurant's first art rotation will overhaul its existing collection with a curated selection of boundary-pushing emerging artists. Confirmed artists include Katherine Qiyu Su, Eva Dixon, and Emma Windsor-Liscombe, with further names to be announced, making the address one to know for people keen to pair standout food and wine with a full immersion in the freshest British talent.

Book your table at Labombe by Trivet.

Where to Drink

Venus Bar Brings France's Joie de Vivre to Chelsea

Venus Bar at Brasserie Angelica. From October 9

Opening on 9 October beneath Brasserie Olivia on the corner of Sloane Square, Venus Bar brings a distinctly 1970s Paris-inspired atmosphere to Chelsea. Designed as a speakeasy-style retreat, the new space features warm oak paneling, a sleek chrome bar, and shelves filled with vinyl and antique objects sourced from French markets. Expect details including glass absinthe fountains, chess sets, antique silver candlesticks, and Chartreuse-green velvet chairs, creating an intimate, richly layered setting beneath the restaurant. An instant contender for our edit of best London bars, the launch adds a new late-night destination to Brasserie Olivia, infusing French joie de vivre and vintage Parisian character into Sloane Square.

Book your table at Venus Bar.

Want to know what to do in London in October 2026 and beyond? Stay in the loop by subscribing to the Livingetc newsletter to get our top stories straight to your inbox. And if you want to get away from it all, check out our five curated itineraries for an artful day trip from London.

In his foreword to Nathan Orsman's debut monograph, Light: Illuminated Interiors and Architecture, trailblazing fashion designer Marc Jacobs writes: "I once visited a house designed by one of my dear friends, the late Paul Fortune, and everything in it was perfect, so comfortable and stylish, bathed in this light that made everything feel positively cinematic. I realized, that's how life should be: you should always feel like you're in the perfect still from the movie of your life. That's what Nathan helped us create."

It is a statement that confirms what the Australian designer, the founding principal of namesake interior and architecture lighting practice Orsman Design, which counts Jacobs and fellow A-listers Oprah Winfrey, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ina Garten among its clients and has collaborated with stellar industry staples like Kelly Behun, Ashe Leandro, Gil Schafer, and Steven Gambrel, has been trying to tell us since 2009, when the studio launched — that lighting holds the power to make us travel through space, time, and, yes, even fantasy.

As Light: Illuminated Interiors and Architecture, a first-of-its-kind, 320-page visual survey of Orsman's projects across cinematic homes, gardens, and commercial spaces, co-authored with architecture critic Ian Volner and published by Rizzoli, releases September 29, we sat down with the Sydney talent and asked him to share an underestimated trick that can make his moody yet sophisticated schemes more easily achievable by all. A hint: it all comes down to (creative) direction.

As the Lighting Designer for Some of the World's Leading Tastemakers, What's One Lighting Trend You Think Is Coming Back?

"I'm particularly interested in the return of the monopoint. It isn't a new idea, but the technology has become so much more refined. The fixtures are now incredibly small, with connections that nearly disappear into the ceiling. Some can even be added when needed and removed afterward, leaving very little behind.

"What I love is the control they give you. A downlight tends to illuminate a space more generally, while a monopoint lets you place light exactly where you want it, keeping the source out of the eye while creating contrast, depth, and a little drama.

"The best spaces have a quality that is difficult to describe. Nothing calls attention to itself; nothing feels wrong or missing. The whole environment just feels incredibly right. That search for visual calm has been a constant throughout my career, and I think the new generation of monopoints gives us another very beautiful tool for achieving it."

What Makes the Monopoint an Especially Desirable Feature to Include in Your Home Right Now?

"The return of the monopoint feels closely connected to the way interiors are being designed today. There is a real desire for more restrained ceilings and fewer visible fixtures, but also for lighting that feels layered, flexible, and intentional. Their small scale keeps the ceiling visually quiet, while the adjustable light lets you highlight art, architecture, or specific areas of a room with precision.

"Advances in LED technology have made this possible, but they have also introduced far more variables. Color temperature, color rendering, optics, dimming, and consistency all matter, and two products with the same specifications can still produce very different light. In our practice, we test and compare products side by side in our Light Lab. For a homeowner, it might be as simple as trying one lamp before committing to 50.

"That flexibility is especially relevant now, as rooms are expected to change and evolve. A monopoint can be adjusted, added, or removed without redesigning the entire ceiling, allowing the lighting to respond to the space while remaining considered."

What Are Some of the Concrete Ways Monopoints Are Integrated in Your Projects — And to Which Effect?

"We use monopoints to focus light on art, sculpture, tabletops, and architectural details where a conventional downlight would be too broad. Because monopoints can be aimed so precisely, we can build contrast into a room and give individual elements their own presence without lighting everything equally.

"I started using them early in my career, when the fixtures were considerably larger and clunkier. Some clients and designers are still initially hesitant about having something hanging slightly below the ceiling, which I completely understand. But today's monopoints are so small and refined that they can feel like an intentional part of the design.

"The real turning point is seeing them at night. Once clients and designers experience how focused and dimensional the light feels, that hesitation usually disappears. After completing a house with them, many of the designers we work with become very receptive to using them again."

What's More General Piece of Advice You'd Give to People Wanting to Get More Intentional With Lighting?

"The biggest takeaway is to think about light and how it interacts with the space. Pay attention to where it falls, how it plays across different surfaces, and most importantly, how it makes you feel in the room. Don't choose a fixture only because it looks good in a catalogue or technically produces enough light.

"We think of lighting as painting with light. It allows you to decide what should be illuminated, what should remain quieter, and where the eye should travel. That balance of light and shadow is what gives a room atmosphere, depth, and a sense of calm.

"Practically, the advice is very simple: look, test and compare. Try a fixture or lamp in the actual space before committing to it, and experience it at different times of day. Technical specifications are useful, but your eye will often tell you what the numbers cannot."

Nathan Orsman's Light: Illuminated Interiors and Architecture is out September 29.

Feel like revisiting some of our previous interviews with designers to take notes on their hot takes? Write down the four questions designer Brigitta Spinocchia Freund always asks her clients that hold the secret to a home that's "rich, personal, and full of interest", or pick up advice for an artful restyle from leading collectors Friedrich and Johanna Gräfling.

For more reflections on the interior space, but not like you know it, explore our ongoing series, The Meaning of Home, for long reads crafted with care to be enjoyed slowly over tea or coffee. Subscribe to our newsletter today to ensure you are not missing any of our stories and become part of our community of culture pioneers, globetrotters, and tastemakers.

London Design Festival has been part of the city's September calendar since 2003, bringing London's creative community together and celebrating the city as a global design capital. More than two decades later, it still works in much the same spirit, spreading across several pockets of London through exhibitions, installations, launches, talks and showroom openings.

This year, though, Soho joined the festival as its own Design District for the first time, so I wanted to spend a morning seeing what that actually looked like through an interiors lens. The area already has such a strong creative identity that it makes total sense as a setting. Soho has always been where different creative worlds overlap, and today that includes some of London’s most established names in furniture, lighting and design, from Heal’s to Artemide, alongside smaller studios, galleries and independent makers.

What really came into focus for me was the difference between what feels new and what has the substance to last — through light, form, materials and the thinking behind how things are made.

Labyrinth Dreams Bethan Laura Wood × Bocci

My first visit was Bocci on Bateman Street, where Bethan Laura Wood created Labyrinth Dreams around the brand’s new Purple 14p light. Bethan is known for her expressive use of color and materials, so I already felt the installation would be visually joyful.

And it really was. The colorful plinths and sculptural arrangements of glass lighting were placed in a way that felt really intentional. What I loved most was the curiosity in how the materials behaved. The surrounding colors seemed to alter how the glass looked, making the whole installation feel almost constantly changing. The Purple 14p is made from Alexandrite glass, which responds differently depending on the light around it. In warmer light, it takes on softer lilac and pink tones, while cooler light brings out deeper blues and smokier shades. In person, the effect felt much subtler and more beautiful than I expected.

When I pointed out the tiny bubbles suspended within the glass, Nora from Bocci explained that they’re part of the beauty of the process. “A lot of products are a result of some sort of accidents,” she told me. “We just play with processes and see how they react or interact with other materials.”

The Purple 14p also builds on one of Bocci’s most recognizable designs. The original 14 Series launched in 2005 as a suspended glass pendant, and the 14p reworks that same imperfect spherical form into a portable, rechargeable light.

Future Icons by Heal's

My next stop had to be Heal’s for Future Icons, an exhibition built around a simple but interesting question: what gives a piece of furniture or lighting enough staying power to become a design classic?

When I spoke with a member of the Heal’s team, he explained that many of the pieces selected are designs customers have returned to again and again over the years. They may not be the newest or most attention-grabbing pieces in the store, but they’ve lasted because they still feel relevant as interiors change around them. Seeing them together made me think about 'timeless design' a little differently. Longevity can actually be quite subtle. It might come down to how something is made, the materials, the proportions, or a silhouette with enough character to feel distinctive without belonging to one particular moment.

As an interior stylist, I’m always searching for pieces that can truly elevate a space, and the Matera sofa exemplifies what I value most in enduring Italian design. It has these elegant proportions, really thoughtful craftsmanship, and the kind of refined silhouette that gives so many iconic furniture designs their staying power.. Its plushness invites layering for a relaxed look, yet its clean lines let it anchor more contemporary or minimal interiors just as effortlessly. This is the type of sofa I recommend to clients because it adapts gracefully as tastes evolve; instead of dictating the direction of an entire room, it supports and enhances it.

Better Living by Design

A short walk from Heal’s, I ended up at The Heal’s Building for Better Living by Design, where I met Yasmin Jones-Henry, one of the exhibition’s curators and founder of The Lab W1. Yasmin is a curator and placemaker with a specialism in sustainability, design and culture, and one of the talks in the wider programme asked a question I found especially interesting: what if the future of design is handmade in the age of AI?

What made the exhibition feel particularly relevant to Soho was Yasmin’s conversations with the local community. Instead of just presenting finished objects, the exhibition opened up the worlds of the makers, materials, and processes behind them. That question about handmade design felt more tangible as I moved through the space. We’ve already seen material innovation become a much bigger part of the sustainability conversation in interiors, and here, overlooked materials had been reimagined into furniture and objects, bringing longevity back to craft. Here, longevity felt like it went one step further, looking not only at how long we live with something, but at the materials, processes and people behind how it was made.

And I think that’s where the conversation gets really interesting. In a world of ever-faster design, looking beyond the finished piece — to how it came to be, who made it, and what we truly want to live with — feels more important than ever.

There’s still plenty more to see from London Design Festival, and I’ll be sharing the moments that genuinely stand out as the week continues. Sign up to the Livingetc newsletter to follow along.

I know what you're thinking, it's still only September. But the truth is Christmas is less than 100 days away, and decorations are already in stores, so if you decide to bury your head in the sand, you're simply going to miss the best things — starting with this Scalloped Seagrass Tree Skirt from John Lewis.

An oft-overlooked element when decorating a Christmas tree, you could think of a tree skirt the same way you would a rug in a room; it's the grounding detail that pulls the design together. That's why a natural, neutral option like this woven seagrass style works so well, while the subtle scalloped silhouette gives it just the right amount of interest to feel considered without detracting from your tree decorations.

Plus, I feel like tree skirts are a good piece to buy early when it comes to Christmas decorating ideas, particularly when you choose a style like this that doesn't lean traditionally 'Christmas', because who said you can't disguise an indoor pot behind a skirt year-round? Not me.

While tree skirts didn't start as an aesthetic thing — it was originally designed to catch the dripping wax from candles on the tree back in the 19th-century — today, they come in all different shapes, sizes, and materials, which means you can really make a statement depending on what you choose.

That's where I think natural materials like this style work best; they either complement a more pared-back, Scandi-style or ground glossier ornaments, metallic tinsels, and loud, kitschy decorations.

But John Lewis' style isn't the only way to do it. Below, I've found six other woven, organic-feeling tree skirts that will set the tone of your tree this Christmas (and beyond if you so feel).

Can't find a tree skirt you really like? Last year, we saw Christmas trees in pots in loads of the coolest peoples houses, so perhaps that is more the approach for you?

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I was never a 'horse girl' myself, but I grew up with a sister who was a passionate equestrian, and then I moved 'out west' (to Colorado) for university — does that make me horse-girl adjacent? Either way, I love a horse motif or subtle western influence when it comes to interiors. When it's done well, it reads as an elevated rustic style, with a sense of free-spiritedness. And the Felix Rug from the new Anthropologie x Ruggable collection is exactly that, done very well.

Overall, the new drop from Anthropologie x Ruggable has a modern heritage, folk-inspired vibe (which is not surprising from Anthropologie) — think folksy-inspired borders, floral prints, and natural motifs. In this regard, the Felix Rug feels like both a perfect fit and a bit of an outlier: it has an obvious earthy colorway and, of course, the horse motifs, but the overall style is more contemporary and dynamic for schemes beyond your typical cottage-core aesthetic.

The solid emerald green base creates a powerful color statement (and opting for a high-saturation underfoot is very 2027-coded when it comes to rug trends). But it's then balanced by the faded, running horse motif dotted across the piece. It's fashionable, but soft and very easy to style. In fact, it wouldn't look out of place on your wall as a work of art.

The best way to do Western decor or horse motifs in your decorating scheme (it is the year of the horse, in case you forgot) is to go for a subtle and stylized look. Think embroidered pillows, artwork, and yes, even pieces like this rug.

But again, the magic of a rug like this is that it doesn't have to stick to a certain aesthetic. It sits somewhere between a patterned rug and a solid-color rug. And though bold, the green creates a nice grounding base that works in a range of schemes and rooms. But with Ruggable's washable design, I'd love to see this piece styled in a high-traffic area like a living room or as a rug underneath a dining table.

There are plenty of other cozy, colorful floor coverings throughout the rest of the collaboration, too — and they are right in line with some of my favorite trends happening today. Deep burgundy colorways, modern plaid prints, and even a tapestry-esque mural print; below are six more rugs worth checking out.

Ruggable has been hard at work cooking up new collaborations — I still have the Ruggable x Morris & Co. collection on my mind. But nothing's wrong with having more stylish rugs to peruse!

For more inspiration like this and to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest, be sure to subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

Dear Catherine,

Inspired by your brief, I’ve curated a personalised edit of bookcases and shelving that I think would work beautifully in your living room.

As you haven’t mentioned any specific dimensions, I’ve included a mix of different sizes and shapes, so you have a few options to consider depending on the space you have available. I’ve particularly focused on pieces in solid or natural wood, as I think the warmth and timelessness of the material work really well with the minimalist, modern and Scandinavian feel you’re after. I’ve also included a couple of more contemporary options if you’d like to bring a slightly different element into the room.

If you'd like a little more support pulling everything together, take a look at Style, our room design service at Design Lab By Livingetc. We'd have a 45-minute one-to-one call to discuss your space, and afterwards I'd put together a full moodboard for your space, along with tailored product recommendations and a clear design direction.

I hope you enjoy exploring your curated edit, and I'd love to hear which pieces you feel most drawn to.

Best wishes,

Iokasti

"When life gives you a darker space, lean into it, pull in warm elements and go for cozy drama." That's the advice from interior designer Sheena Murphy, who renovated her family's first-floor apartment in an Art Deco building. Situated on an ancient street in Madrid, the apartment has limited daylight — during the winter months in particular.

So began a rather rushed process to get the place up and running as a functional, family-friendly and, crucially, aesthetically pleasing modern home — something that could be tricky, if it wasn't for Sheena's interior design expertise. The result is a space that has plenty of warmth, depth and welcoming energy.

"I didn't try to fight the fact that it wasn't super light-filled," Sheena Murphy says of the project, "and rather than go for the neutral tones of many of our previous projects, I upped the contrast with shades of terracotta, chocolate and caramel, with some green in the mix, too." The palette was inspired by the large-scale artwork in the living room by Paris-based artist Hermentaire.

Sheena and her partner Paul, who is a climate-focused small business advisor, moved to Madrid from London so their 10-year-old daughter could experience life there and learn the language. "We moved here two years ago for a couple of school terms, but stayed as we all love it so much," she says. The family needed to find a home speedily and ended up buying a nearly constructed three-bedroom apartment from a Madrid-based developer. It has a large living room and a balcony big enough for morning coffee.

The time frame for completing the project and fully furnishing it ready for the start of the new school term was a scary three months. "It was very tight, so our options were limited to stocked or short-lead-time items, which is tricky when you're mindful of materials and processes, you're trying to avoid too many large companies with mass-produced items, and you barely speak any Spanish," laughs Sheena.

The first thing she did was incorporate layered lighting: identifying lighting locations and sourcing fixtures, focusing on adding power points for wall lights and pendants in addition to the developer's task lighting. Decorating the apartment became Sheena's full-time job, with mood boards plus complete plans with all the specific furniture items and the physical materials noted, to ensure that everything was going to work and that the proportions were correct.

The facade of the apartment building is protected, but inside most of the Art Deco references had gone. "I wanted to acknowledge its heritage through items of furniture sprinkled throughout," she says. "The curves of the sofa, the round little pouffes and the ceramic fan lights — they are not overly obvious, but subtle nods to the period.

"Many accessories and the microcement dining table came from within Spain, but the choice was limited, so quite a lot came from France, Denmark and the Netherlands, which are all EU, so at least items could be transported by lorry, which made it a little more responsible."

The apartment will be hard to leave when the family returns to the UK imminently. "I don't think Madrid will ever really leave us, though. We've got such an incredible community here and a really strong connection to the place," says Sheena. "And our daughter now dreams in Spanish, so we have a little Madrileña on our hands!"

For more inspiring home tours and design ideas, subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter, and all the latest will be delivered directly to your inbox.

When design weeks around the world open the doors to exhibitions, showrooms, storefronts, and talks from all the best designers, it creates a certain buzz. It sparks inspiration across the interior design world, from materials and textures to noteworthy forms and brand-new collections. While I didn't have time to peruse all that London Design Festival had to offer, I did get to spend the day in one of its more innovative districts — Shoreditch — and let's just say, there was a lot to take in.

Two of the biggest exhibitions during Shoreditch Design Week are Materials Matter and the House of ICON showcases. As I wandered through the old London buildings housing these exhibitions, there were a few themes I noticed continually repeating: sustainability, materiality, and a clear sense of craftsmanship.

As trends continue to cycle and a new year of design lies on the horizon, events like this give us a strong glimpse of what the greatest minds in design are up to. This, in turn, helps inspire people like me and you when planning our next refresh, renovation, or home upgrade. To help, below are five thoughts, feelings, trend spottings, and musings I had while strolling the streets of Shoreditch Design Week.

1. The Simplest Materials Can Produce the Most Beautiful Forms

I started my day at the Wood for the Trees Exhibition, put on by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) in collaboration with Mitre & Mondays and Benchmark. It was a homecoming of sorts. The exhibition explored how we can sustainably source timber from forests on the eastern coast of the United States (including the Appalachian Mountains, where I'm from) by rotating species and giving trees room to regenerate.

An interesting detail of the exhibit was that every piece on display was actually simple Number One Common wood — also known as 'cabinet grade.' This kind of wood sits below the top-tier timber that you would normally see in luxury design, yet it was still striking and beautifully crafted. The point being, with the right designs and approaches, we have materials and resources all around us that can be made into really fantastic furniture pieces.

Recent interior design trends point to a desire to reconnect with the natural world through color and texture, but the Wood for the Trees exhibition shows how we can introduce that feeling through more intentional design — beautiful timber furniture that also has a low carbon footprint.

2. Craft is More Important Than Ever

Moving along, my next stop was the House of ICON — a space for emerging designers to share their work. And let me just say: it was a wonderland for design lovers. There were boundary-pushing pieces around every corner. And while every piece truly knocked me off my feet, I can't say I was surprised to see a central theme of craftsmanship permeating the space.

In the face of AI, more analogue routines are becoming prioritized. Similarly, overly sleek, minimalistic furniture and decor are being swapped for pieces with overt craftsmanship. Think carved wood, fringed detailing, and the drawn-on decor trend.

At House of ICON, many pieces were inspired by personal experiences and cultures and crafted with materials and into shapes that give a one-of-one aesthetic. I left inspired and sure that the next couple of years in interior design will place more value on noticeable craftsmanship and human-centered design.

3. Subtle Texture is Set to Be the Biggest Trend

Texture in design is definitely a contemporary fixation. This includes hairy furniture and fuzzy blankets, as well as the rise of leather alternatives and brushed aluminum. Texture is the base of good layering in design. And Shoreditch Design Week had texture in abundance.

However, the pieces that really caught my eye were the ones where texture felt slightly subtler. Sofas with tonal, textural patterns that blend in from far away but add visual interest when close up, and vases made of glass so delicate that it creates an inherent web-like texture. These iterations of texture design feel very nuanced — we all know and love texture, but this is a way to fine-tune your style.

4. Sustainability is on Everyone's Mind

It should be obvious why sustainability is on our minds more these days. And in many ways, sustainable interior design is leading the charge. We want to make the pieces we bring into our homes (or build them out of) more eco-conscious, keeping them connected to and respectful of our planet, while still feeling beautiful. Well, Shoreditch Design Week definitely reassured me that designers are thinking about the environment ten-fold.

Almost every display throughout the House of ICON and Materials Matter galleries included innovative, eco-conscious materials, spanning everything from seaweed leathers to cement made from bacteria to pine resin blocks. It's slightly hard to imagine some of these, but every material was fabulously executed and had its own distinct character.

I would say these environmental material alternatives look 'just like the real thing' (and they do), but they are the real thing — this is the new way to blend good design with sustainable resources.

5. Nostalgia Can (and Should) Be Translated into Contemporary Design

And lastly, Shoreditch Design Week showed me that the design world is still feeling nostalgic. Whether it was design inspired by an artist's childhood or pieces influenced by design movements such as the mid-century modern style, nostalgia-driven creations were abundant. And this feels like the perfect way to round out the current craving for hyper-personal homes. What better way to show character than through nostalgic colors, fabrics, and motifs?

But how exactly did this manifest throughout Shoreditch Design Week? Well, one example was the team at Tamart, who shared that its entire collection was inspired by the life and designs of the founder's late parents, who dined with the likes of Miriam Makeba and created iconic 1960s furniture. The reimagined mid-century furniture is both nostalgic and contemporary, honoring past designs with present-day fashion.

I must say, I left the Shoreditch corner of London Design Festival with a revitalized spirit and plenty of inspiration. It was a chance to see all the best of ICYMI roundups and monthly musings up close and in person — and, of course, I'm here to keep you filled in.

For more inspiration while we patiently await next year's design week, be sure to subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

Design enthusiasts are no stranger to the beautiful designs brought to life by these two beloved brands. Swyft's plush sofas with structured silhouettes paired with Morris & Co.'s enchanting patterns are a duo to be reckoned with.

And they recently collaborated again, adding three heritage prints from the archives. These rich patterns transform Swyft x Morris & Co. sofas into maximalist anchor pieces that bring a sense of homeliness to hyper-modern interiors lacking warmth.

So, if you're looking for a sofa to cozy up your living room with character, these designs might do just the trick.

Alternative Patterned Sofas to Shop

For Swyft x Morris & Co. fans, the brands are launching four more prints very soon. To shop the next release first, sign up for the Livingetc newsletter to stay up to date on this launch and more design news.

I know a rug is a big decision that can make or break a room, so going bold can be risky. That said, I can't help but naturally gravitate toward saturated shades and bolder prints. A larger part of me favors a solid-sofa/fun-rug pairing over a safer, more neutral route. Feel the same way? Well, a recent scroll through Florida design duo MONIOMI Design's maximalist Miami home provided me with bountiful inspiration, and I can't get the bright green rug from its living room out of my mind.

To cut to the chase, it's from Nordic Knots. And there are a few reasons why it leaves quite an impression. Firstly, it taps into the latest rug trends, which are getting much more characterful. Borders, artisanal prints, and bold hues are becoming the signs of a thoughtfully curated space. But not only that: the punchy green of this bordered rug is also having a moment in design right now. No wonder this rug is ticking all my boxes.

So, if you are looking for a refresh underfoot, now is the time to take a risk. Though this piece was styled in a more maximalist space, a pop of color can work in a range of schemes. It's more about adding that textile that elevates the room, rounds out the color scheme, and, of course, feels fabulously soft.

If I'm being honest, the color of this rug immediately sold me. Green color trends are going bold this year. We are trading dull olives for a more vibrant variation — that subtle, zingy yellow undertone brings instant warmth. And it still feels grounded, because no matter what shade of green you decorate with, it will always be the most prominent nature-inspired color.

For instance, even in this maximalist, tropical-designed living room, the bold rug sits harmoniously. The teal and green in the rug are reflected elsewhere in the room, and everything feels balanced — nothing is shouting too loudly for attention. And that's a wonderful example of how even bold rugs can be a natural addition to a space. Plus, the wreath motif is said to be inspired by the history of garden design — yet another nod to grounded, yet fashionable design.

So, have I passed on my love for this rug yet? I know a rug can be a big-ticket item, so to make sure you're investing in the right one for your space, I've sourced several similar styles in a range of prices and patterns. Whether it's the color scheme or the whimsical border you like, below are some stylish alternative options.

I have to say, border rugs have really grown on me this year — they are such an easy way to add a little color and pattern without getting stuck with something that may overwhelm your room. And so far, the Color of the Year announcements seem to be predicting blue and green as some of the most favored interior colors going into 2027.

For more inspiration like this, be sure to subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

Would you believe that Christmas preparation has already begun this year? Halloween hasn't passed yet, but advent calendars are already on the shelves. And if it's anything like last year, then they'll be sold out long before winter begins.

So, I am going to keep track of the launches worth your time this season so you can treat your home to a beautifully curated home fragrance advent calendar while they're still up for grabs. And although they're meant to make your home smell like Christmas, I appreciate the more evergreen fragrances looped into these bundles that will set your home up for the rest of the new year.

Without further ado, here are the sets everyone's talking about, and which one suits your vibe best. Plus, if you're not keen on an entire calendar, we've included some honorable mentions for a little treat nonetheless.

Bookmark this page so you don't miss advent calendars that still haven't hit shelves yet this year. And sign up for the Livingetc newsletter to keep up with the best launches in the lead-up to this festive season.

Usually, my job entails looking at hundreds of pictures of beautiful homes and interviewing designers about them, but never setting foot inside. And while that still offers me inside access to what makes a home really work, it's not the same as being in a space and really getting to grips with what it's like to live in.

However, this past week, we held Livingetc Unlocked, our new event where we offer our readers access to some of London's best-designed homes. Experiencing a home from the inside is something special — and there are so many details that can get lost in a photoshoot that you can really engage with in real life.

So, across the four homes we unlocked the doors to for, well, Unlocked (you can find them in their full glory here, and sign up to the newsletter to hear about next year's event), what were the details you might have missed if you weren't paying attention? These were our favorite ideas to steal.

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

"We’re in the business of inspiration, and inspiration is good for business," were the words of Claire German, CEO of the Design Centre, on the first day of FOCUS 26. And if we take her at her word, business must be booming.

While the annual London Design Festival has spread across the city, with showrooms everywhere opening doors to the public to explore the new beauty and wonder they're planning for the year ahead, at the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour, FOCUS 26 is in full swing. And with over 700 brands and 140 showrooms all in one place, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better place for design inspiration.

Walking around the sprawling Chelsea Harbour complex, there was a new idea in every corner, something beautiful to get distracted by at each turn. While there’s never a shortage of gorgeous designs to ogle over here, it must be said that for the first day of London Design Festival’s FOCUS event, the quantity went from plentiful to borderline overwhelming. Luckily, I could dedicate a whole day to getting lost in the maze of design, and I can tell you all the best things I saw.

1. Tom Dixon's Sculptural Headboard at Vispring

My first stop of the day was Vispring, a heritage bed brand currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. There, I got a glimpse of its exciting new collaboration with British design icon Tom Dixon.

After first previewing the collection at Milan Design Week, Vispring has now placed one of the five beds on full display in its Design Centre showroom, especially for LDF. The Rainbow is, in true Tom Dixon fashion, a sculptural masterpiece; an arching, swooped design that would be sure to be the centerpiece of any bedroom.

While it will soon be available in a wide range of colors and finishes, the rusty-colored silk brought some beautiful warmth to the showroom.

2. Whimsical Practicality at Armac Martin

From there, I headed on to hardware specialist Armac Martin, where there was seemingly endless newness to get excited and inspired by. Take the soft, fluid forms of the Sketch collection, created in collaboration with industrial designer Jake Soloman, with its lovely, minimalist effect and bronzed finish.

A crowd-favorite was the adorable kitschiness of the Whimsical collection, complete with ballet slipper handles and tutu cabinet pulls, perfect for chic kids' rooms. There were also plenty of options for grown-up spaces, too, with the same touch of whimsical wonder. A particular favorite was the citrus-inspired designs, with speckled peel handles and lemon slice pulls, as well as a collection of honeycomb-style designs, too.

Perhaps most notable, though, is the brand's upcoming foray into the wider world of home hardware, with a soon-to-launch collection of door handles, sockets, and switches on the horizon.

3. Intricate Embroidery at Zimmer and Rohde

Whimsical themes made an appearance at the Zimmer and Rohde showroom, too, where I was blown away by the delicate craftsmanship of the embroidered Celestia trim, with sparkling moons and stars dancing along the edge of the lush curtains.

The showroom was overflowing with gorgeous materials, handcrafted by specialist artisans from across the globe. Silk fabrics with hand-painted motifs and embroidered designs emblazoned with koi fish were a few personal favorites, though I'm sure I could've spent a few more hours working my way through the collection.

4. Artistic Excellence at Jaipur Rugs

But that was far from the only display of stunning artistry. At Jaipur Rugs, where an upholstered, pink-rimmed motorcycle welcomes you into the showroom, I was mesmerized by the detail and intricacy of their designs.

The Princess Pea collection, which is on display during LDF, is a stunning collection of four rugs, each inspired by a different stage in the menstrual cycle, honouring the female experience in the most beautiful of ways.

5. The New Blueprint for Modern Luxury at Collection Seven and Collection Noir

There weren’t just new collections to explore either; there were whole showrooms opening their doors for the first time, too. One of my favorite stops of the day was at the brand-new Collection Noir and Collection Seven showroom. A collaboration between two female founders, this shared space displays both the designers' products at their best.

In contrast to the brightly lit showrooms lining the design centre, this space feels like a cozy escape, where Jessica Hubner’s softly curving sofas are complemented perfectly by Samantha Santini’s luxurious marble designs, in displays that feel convincingly like home.

I was particularly taken by Samantha's use of Calacatta Monet, a lesser-known relative of Calacatta Viola, with an equally transfixing quality. I expect we'll be seeing far more of this gorgeous green-veined stone in the months to come.

6. A Change of Atmosphere at Studio HÁM's General Store

Studio HÁM's General Store pop-up was another highlight. Setting itself apart from the rows of brands lining the ground floor of the Design Centre, Studio HÁM chose to swap the standard box stand for a wooden-fronted recreation of an American general store, complete with an in-store barista and coffee station.

But it's not just the novelty factor that pulled me in; the studio's new wicker vanity is worthy of highlighting alone, though the delightful setting certainly helped.

7. Lights to Love at Arteriors

There was, of course, no shortage of beautiful things to lust after in the Arteriors showroom, from some of the most stunning outdoor furniture I've seen to gorgeous finishing touches. But the thing that really caught my attention was the beautiful lighting options scattered across the space.

I'd been keeping my eye out for the textured glass light trend, and it was on full display at Arteriors. From delicate wall sconces to dramatic chandeliers, there were countless interpretations of this retro-inspired trend.

And I'm not the only one who is a fan of the brand's lighting; the gorgeous Eclipse Accent Light even made an appearance on Disney's All's Fair series.

This week is the best time to spot the next biggest interior design trends before they are everywhere, and judging by what I saw at Focus, it's going to be a good year.

The US Open may have just drawn to a close, but that doesn't mean tennis season is over. In fact, the just-launched collaboration between tennis icon Venus Williams and Crate & Barrel means you can embrace that sporty spirit year-round. And that you absolutely should.

I'll be honest, a ball sport becoming the next hottest interior design trend wasn't on my bingo card for 2026, but having browsed this collection, I'm glad it is. It makes sense too; for years we've been embracing the sporty fashion look, so it's about time our interiors got the same treatment. And there's no one better for the job than Venus Williams. Although best known for her on-court performances, her interior design game is just as strong. She established her own studio, V Starr Interiors, back in 2002 and has spent the past two decades developing her own distinctive style. This 200-piece collection could just be considered her latest grand slam.

Tennis-inspired, it's certainly not kitsch. "Each piece was intentionally designed to feel artful, timeless, and design-driven, while still working cohesively together," she shares. "We had fun including a few nods to tennis, inspired by the geometry and elements of the sport, while keeping the overall aesthetic that feels elevated, effortless, and enduring." It never feels gratuitous or to the detriment of the design; with touches of Milanese elegance and mid-century modern influences, sport has never looked more luxe. Here's what to shop.

If this collection is anything to go by, I'm predicting that this sporty-chic style will become one of the most popular types of minimalism, and I can't wait to see it take over.

Stay on top of all the coolest new releases and chicest trends by subscribing to our newsletter, where we cover all the unmissable moments in design.

Dear Ellen,

Inspired by your brief, I’ve curated a personalised edit of some bedding and cushion finds to help create that cosy, wintery bedroom feel you’re after.

I’ve kept the palette very neutral and soft, with a little pop of pink to make the scheme feel more romantic. I think a really nice way to build the look would be to use beige or chocolate-brown bedding as your base, then layer in a throw or a couple of cushions in blue, green or pink to add some colour and personality.

As you haven’t provided me with your bed dimensions, I’ve included some pieces that are available in both double and king sizes, so you can choose what works best for your bed.

If you'd like a little more support pulling everything together, take a look at Style, our room design service at Design Lab By Livingetc. We'd have a 45-minute one-to-one call to discuss your space, and afterwards I'd put together a full moodboard for your space, along with tailored product recommendations and a clear design direction.

I hope you enjoy exploring your curated edit, and I'd love to hear which pieces you feel most drawn to.

Best wishes,

Iokasti

More Bedding Finds

Hi Amanda,

I’ve pulled together a few different directions for both the rug and pendant, keeping your large dining table and the wider open-plan space in mind.

For the rug, scale was the first thing I looked at. With a 289 x 110cm table, I’d ideally want something around 300 x 400cm so the chairs can still sit comfortably on the rug when they’re pulled out. I’ve included a mix of wool, jute and flatweave options, with pattern and texture doing some of the practical work too. In a busy family dining space, I’d much rather choose something with movement and tonal variation than a completely flat pale rug, as it’ll be far more forgiving day to day. Where a rug is slightly smaller than ideal, I’ve flagged it and would recommend taping out the dimensions first.

For the pendant, I wanted it to feel connected to the Neptune bronze and glass lighting you already have without making everything feel too coordinated. Because the table is so generous, the light needs enough presence to anchor the dining area, but I’ve kept the focus on softer shades and concealed bulbs so you still get that warm, diffused glow you mentioned.

I hope the edit gives you a clearer sense of how the dining area could come together, and I’d love to know which direction you’re most drawn to.

Warmly,
Miaad | Stylist

Rugs

Pendant lights

Fashion icon and ultimate tastemaker Lucinda Chambers does not believe style is something you either have or you don't. "I think style is something you absolutely can learn," she says. "It's like a craft, like anything else. You try it out. You make mistakes. You learn from those mistakes."

After decades at British Vogue and now as co-founder of covetable shopping site Collagerie, hers is one of the most recognizable eyes in fashion and interiors, but the way she talks about taste is refreshingly unprecious.

For Lucinda, it comes from looking, trying, getting things wrong, changing your mind, and staying curious. These are the rules she has learned along the way.

1. "Try Everything Out"

Lucinda's mother gave her one of the most useful pieces of creative advice she has ever received: "Try boyfriends out, try makeup out, try hair out, try everything out."

Lucinda took it literally. "I used to dress in a crazy way, but it was experimental." At one point she put a wicker wastepaper basket on her head, tied it with a bow and convinced herself it looked like Stephen Jones. "No. I looked like I had a rubbish bin on my head."

That willingness to get it wrong became fundamental to how she developed her eye. "If you don't try things out, how are you going to learn?"

Her route into fashion was just as improvised. She and her mother made art-school portfolios together on the kitchen table when money became tight. Lucinda initially felt hopelessly outclassed, until she discovered the Perspex room and started making jewellery. A pair of earrings she had made eventually appeared on a model in a free London magazine. "I remember thinking, oh my God, I held those and made those."

Later, one of her Vogue mentors told her: "Darling, you've got lots of furniture in your head, but it has to come out." The instinct may be there, but the skill is learning how to use it.

2. "Always on the Lookout"

Lucinda's eye has been trained by looking. Constantly. "I am always, always on the lookout."

Travel played a huge part during her Vogue years, but inspiration can come from almost anywhere: exhibitions, films, art books, car boots, shop windows, or something completely accidental. "It could be a plastic bag caught in a tree that's the most amazing color, and you think, oh my God, that could be a whole collection."

Marrakech remains one of the places she finds most inspiring, particularly for its color and craftsmanship, but the bigger idea is to keep your brain "on receive mode". Car boots are particularly good for this because, as Lucinda puts it, every stall is "somebody else's point of view".

3. "It's All Storytelling"

Lucinda sees very little distinction between the way she approaches fashion and interiors. "It's all about decoration. Whether it's decoration on the body or for your home, it's storytelling."

The same elements matter in both: color, proportion, pattern, texture and, crucially, comfort. "You have to get dressed every morning. You have to put yourself down on the sofa every evening."

She will not wear uncomfortable clothes, and she will not buy an uncomfortable chair. A room has to support what actually happens there: somewhere to read, somewhere to put your feet up, somewhere to put a coffee cup. "I always start with what am I going to be doing in that room?" That question comes before the color, pattern, or furniture. Her electric yellow dining room works because she wants the space to feel energetic and sociable. A bedroom can be calmer because it has a completely different job.

4. “You Can Creep Color in”

Lucinda loves color, but she does not think confidence has to arrive all at once. "You can creep color in. Start with a lamp, cushion or rug and build from there." In her kitchen, green emerged gradually through cushions, ceramics and eventually a reconditioned Aga that she's just bought from Range Exchange. "If people aren't confident about color, then I always just suggest having a thread running through your home."

When she chooses colors more deliberately, she carries a small notebook, cuts out paint swatches, and moves them around. "I do in my head go, are they talking to each other?" She does not necessarily want them to be talking too politely. Her recently redecorated bedroom is a soft lilac-grey, but she matched the ceiling to a muddy tobacco-colored candle because the room needed something to "throw it off a bit". "If they're living all very harmoniously, then probably to me that seems boring."

5. “I Like to Throw a Curveball in”

Lucinda becomes suspicious when something looks too tasteful. Her husband calls it "ghastly good taste", and Lucinda calls the antidote "the grit in the oyster".

In one restrained room, that meant introducing an orange chair purely because everything else was getting along too well. The same instinct guides the things she buys. "I'm sort of attracted to things that I'm not really attracted by." At flea markets and car boots, she looks for objects that make her feel a bit uncomfortable: a strange 1960s lampshade, an awkward ceramic, something she has never seen before. One of her best finds was a five-foot Murano glass lamp bought for about $25 in New York. "It sat on my lap in economy for six hours."

"If it makes you feel a bit jaggy, I quite like that. That slight discomfort stops a room from becoming predictable."

6. "I Can Just Look at It, Appreciate It, and Walk Away"

Lucinda has spent much of her life collecting. She is now learning the opposite skill.

"I've spent thirty years accumulating stuff, and I'm going to spend the next 10 years getting rid of it." Her rule now is simple: if she cannot imagine where something will go, she does not buy it. "I can appreciate it, clock it mentally, then walk away."

She learned the value of editing after returning from a long trip and seeing her own hallway afresh. "It was electric pink, there was a pom-pom on almost every doorknob, and every surface was full. I just thought, oh my gosh. I've overloaded, and I haven't noticed." She cleared the decks and repainted it. "Now it looks like a German urinal."

7. "To Hand Over Something to an Expert Was an Absolute Revelation"

Lucinda is instinctive, but she is not precious about doing everything herself. One of her best investments at home was a professional picture hanger. After repainting her hallway, she took all the art down and gave him complete freedom. "I just said, you choose whatever you like and can leave stuff out. I'm going out."

The result completely changed how she saw the collection. "He hung all my pictures in a way that I would never ever have dreamt of. There's not a day that goes past when I don't walk up the stairs and just think, wow."

She feels similarly about framing. "You can buy something that's £5, but if you frame it really interestingly, it just elevates it." This isn't necessarily expensive. She has just bought IKEA frames, painted them with Annie Sloan paint, and attacked them with a nail file.

8. "You Don’t Have to Get It Right Straight Away"

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to developing personal style now, Lucinda thinks, is the pressure to find an answer immediately.

"I think people feel very, very pressured that their houses become either Instagrammable or perfect." Her own home has evolved over 35 years. One son's room was once completely covered in graffiti by an artist she spotted working on Portobello Road. It is now a calm spare bedroom. Rooms have changed as children have grown up, things have been repainted, collections have expanded and then been edited back.

"I think there is a pressure to get everything right all at once, all at the same time." Lucinda is much more comfortable with trial and error. Even at Vogue, she learned that not every detail needed endless perfecting. Some things demanded obsession; others were, in her words, "good enough for jazz". That balance between caring deeply and knowing when to let go is part of developing an eye too.

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

British interior designer Sophie Paterson has built a distinctive interiors business around a clear point of view, but she is just as thoughtful about what sits behind the finished rooms as the rooms themselves.

Talking at Livingetc Unlocked last week, the designer explained a little about her career history, and how she built her brand from scratch, inspired by a passing comment on the design of her own home.

She started with no formal interior design training, no team and very little confidence. Nearly two decades later, she runs a 20-person studio and has expanded into product, education and community. Along the way, she has learned how to recognize the right opportunities, protect a creative vision, listen properly, build an audience, and create a business that can keep evolving.

These are the lessons that shaped it.

1. "Trust Your Gut"

Ask Sophie for the best piece of advice she has ever been given, and the answer is immediate: "Trust your gut." Ask for her biggest career mistake, and the answer is just as quick: "Not trusting my gut."

It now informs everything from the projects she accepts to the people she chooses to work with. "There are some clients that I said yes to that ended up being some of the most difficult situations, and I did know on some level they weren’t the right fit."

Experience has taught her to recognize the warning signs, from unrealistic expectations around budget to a reluctance to respect the studio’s process. "That doesn’t mean they’re a bad client. They might just not be a good fit for me."

There is also a cost to saying yes to the wrong thing. "When you say yes to that client and that project, you might be missing out on one down the line that would be a better fit for you."

2. "You’re Not Going to Get the Projects That You Want Straight Away"

Sophie’s first interior design commission came almost by accident. A developer visiting the first home she shared with her husband asked who had designed it. She was 23 and so unsure of herself that she did not want to admit it was her. "My husband was elbowing me in the ribs saying, 'It was you. Tell him it was you.'"

She eventually agreed to take on one of his projects, although with so little confidence that she initially offered to do it for free.

Those early jobs were not necessarily the projects she dreamed of, but Sophie quickly understood that an opportunity does not have to be perfect to be valuable. "You’re not going to get the projects that you want straight away. There’ll be something wrong with them. They might not have the budget. It might not be the most beautiful project."

The question is what you can get from it. "You need to just find something that you can photograph or some value, something that you’ll learn."

On one early project, there was no budget left for art, rugs or accessories, so she borrowed pieces from suppliers, hired a van and stripped objects from her own house to style the shoot. "You’ve just got to make it work."

That same instinct led her to invest early in photography. "Without images, you really can’t have new projects. You don’t have a brand." Her advice now is simple: "Take site photos, before photos, after photos."

3. "You Can Become Pigeonholed Quite Quickly as a Designer"

There is an obvious advantage to having an identifiable aesthetic. Clients know what they are buying into. But Sophie is wary of the point at which a signature becomes a formula.

She describes her own style broadly as "classic contemporary" and remembers the moment clients began arriving with images of her previous work, asking for versions of particular rooms. "It was really flattering."

But it also made her cautious. "You can become pigeonholed quite quickly as a designer, and you don’t want to just replicate the same design time and time again."

One of her earliest clients actually told Sophie she hated her style but liked her enough to hire her anyway. The project pushed her somewhere completely different and remains on her website almost 18 years later. "I’m always trying to get clients that actually don’t want to do something that I’ve always done because it’s more fun for me and my team."

Her own homes have become testing grounds for that evolution too. Her current house helped establish the look many clients now associate with her, while the next will be more pared back, architectural and antique-led. "I love antiques. I think it’s really sustainable. I think it adds a lot of character. I think the quality you get for the money is brilliant. It’ll be quite interesting to see if my clients get on board with that."

4. "Listening Is a Really Important Skill of Any Designer"

For all the attention placed on having an eye, Sophie thinks listening matters just as much.

"Sometimes we’ll be practicing a presentation and someone on the team will rush in and say, 'I’ve looked at the floor plan; we should do this, this, and this.' I’m like, hang on. We don’t even know how the client wants to use it yet."

The job is not simply to arrive with the best idea. "Really make sure that not only are you listening to your client, but that they feel heard and they feel listened to."

Renovating her own home has made Sophie even more conscious of how the process feels from the other side. Clients are spending large amounts of money and handing over control of something intensely personal. When something goes wrong, the designer is often the person delivering the news.

Her rule is simple: "Never respond straight away. I’m very calm, always. Inside, I might not feel calm, but I always give myself a moment so that I seem it. You don’t have to respond to everything straight away."

5. "I Undercharged for a Long Time, and I Didn’t Even Know I Was Doing It"

One of Sophie’s most important business lessons came when the studio started looking properly at time.

"I undercharged for a long time, and I didn’t even know I was doing it."

The fees sounded substantial, but so were the projects, and nobody was properly accounting for the hours involved. The turning point came when a new finance director asked how much time the team was actually spending on each job. I was like, I don’t know. We just do what needs to be done."

When they finally calculated the hours on one major international project, the answer was sobering. "We probably hadn’t made any money. It cost us money."

Her advice now is to quantify time from the beginning: work out what your hourly rate needs to be, estimate the job, and then track what actually happens. "You won’t get it right, but at least you’ll start this process. Everyone underestimates how long it takes to design a project."

6. "Build an Audience"

Asked what she would do first if she were starting again now, Sophie does not hesitate: "Build an audience."

She began using Instagram partly because working alone was lonely. "I didn’t have a team to bounce ideas off. I didn’t have like-minded friends to talk about beautiful designs with or difficult clients."

Social media gave her community before it gave her clients. It also offered something traditional PR could not at that stage of her career. "PR and press were really intimidating to me. I didn’t have the budget to hire a great PR firm. Whereas I did have the time, I did have the energy and the inclination to do social media."

The platform has changed since then. "Back in the day of 2012, I could put a picture of my shoes, and I’d get 5,000 likes. Now we literally sell our soul for likes and follows."

But Sophie still thinks the opportunity lies in showing more of the real work. "Show the not glamorous moments." The site visits, samples, decisions, setbacks, and practical details designers may take for granted can be exactly what audiences want to see. "Share that, and you’ll build an audience."

7. "You Can’t Take on More and More Clients"

Building an audience opened the door to something bigger than simply attracting more interior design work."You can’t take on more and more clients. There are only so many people you can service at a high level."

Sophie is equally realistic about the emotional cost. "I really pour my soul into my clients’ projects, but you can only do that so much before you burn out."

That made diversification a deliberate part of the business. Product collaborations allowed her aesthetic to reach far beyond a relatively small number of private clients. Education followed through the Sophie Paterson Academy, while The Moodboard created a membership community for designers looking for advice, support and connection.

The thinking behind them is consistent: take the expertise built through the studio and find other ways to share it. "I think a rising tide lifts all ships. If I share my design process and that helps another designer, that doesn’t take anything away from me."

For Sophie, community is not just another revenue stream. It grew from the same thing that drew her to Instagram in the first place: not wanting creative work to feel isolating.

8. "Please Make a Different Mistake Next Time"

Sophie has no interest in pretending that building the business has been a flawless process. "I’ve made so many mistakes."

But she is equally clear that the aim is not to eliminate them altogether. "I don’t mind if someone on my team makes a mistake. I just say to them, please make a different one next time."

That willingness to learn has shaped the way she approaches opportunity too. "I always think you need to go after what you want."

"With pretty much all of my product collaborations, I went to them with a proposal and said that I’d love to do this. Plenty of brands said no, which is fine. You just sort of dust yourself off and move on to the next one.If I just sat here and waited for all the amazing brands that I want to work with me to come, it wouldn’t have happened."

One piece of advice from early in her career still guides which opportunities she accepts. When Sophie was considering a well-paid partnership that did not feel quite right, a marketing mentor asked her to think about the person she admired most in the industry. "If they said yes to this, would your perception of them change? Whatever your answer is for them is what you should apply to yourself."

It changed the way she thought about building a brand. "You don’t want to just be building towards where you are. You want to be aspiring to the best version of you you can be."

To discover more about our Livingetc Unlocked event, visit our hub, or register your interest for next year's event online now.

The chef and award-winning cookbook writer Yotam Ottolenghi has changed how we all cook today. It’s thanks to him that ingredients like harissa and preserved lemons are common on grocery store shelves, and that we all know the difference a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds makes.

But his best hosting advice is surprisingly little about culinary pyrotechnics. For him, a great dinner is about giving yourself time, lowering the pressure, and creating a table where both you and your guests can relax.

These are the hosting rules he actually lives by.

1. "I Just Want To Be Present"

"I always make sure that, first of all, everything is prepared in advance," Ottolenghi says. "Really, as much as possible. It’s not that I can’t multitask. I just want to be present. You know, I can cook and chat, but it’s not real chat."

He says that good hosting needs to involve a little prep, but that some forethought goes a long way on the night. "I try to do everything I can beforehand," he adds. "So when you sit down, I maybe warm up something, or I finish it off with a drizzle of dressing or a scattering of nuts. But essentially everything is prepared."

He is equally firm about leaving himself enough time.

"I never want to be in a situation where I’m coming back from work at 4:30 or 5 pm and have people coming at 7. That is the nightmare. I don’t want that. I want to give myself time."

2. "I Like To Prepare Lots of Food That Is Really Good to Eat at Room Temperature"

Ottolenghi describes the abundant food displays you find in his delis as a useful way to think about hosting.

"I like to prepare lots of food that is really good to eat at room temperature, that I can prepare in advance and just finish off before I bring it to the table," he says. "I always try to keep to a maximum of one or two things that I have to cook last minute."

Fish is a favorite because the sauce can be made beforehand, and one he returns to again and again is what he calls "The One Sauce," a new recipe from his brand-new book Simple Too.

"It’s been serving me really well all summer for formal and informal events," he says.

The method is deliberately simple: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs are roasted together until soft. "After forty-five minutes, you take it out, and the garlic has got all soft and squishy. You squeeze it out, and you whisk it so it emulsifies as the sauce. That’s it. You don’t do anything. It’s the easiest thing in the world. It’s a great pasta sauce, but it’s a sauce for everything."

For dinner, he will often put fillets of fish straight into it, return the tray to the oven and finish with tahini.

"That’s dinner. And it’s beautiful. It feels very impressive."

3. "I Like to Make An Effort With A Nibble"

Sometimes that is simply roasted nuts. Other times it might be crostini or the fennel tarte Tatin from his new book, made with fennel, grapes and fennel seed, plus a layer of puff.

"It’s a really lovely recipe. It’s very easy because you just put it all in. You let it all do the cooking."

And he is entirely happy to rely on bought puff pastry. "We live in a world where there’s so many great things that you can buy in the supermarket," he says. "Give yourself a break and use supermarket ingredients. As soon as people come over, you flip it over, and it looks absolutely great. And it’s a really nice nibble."

4. "You Need To Love What You Serve Your Food In"

"I think whatever serving bowls you have to hand are fine. But I also think you need to love what you serve your food in. The dishes that have had a bit of a history at home are actually the nicest things to serve in," Ottolenghi says.

"If you’ve got an old Le Creuset or an old roasting tin that you want to present at the table, then I’d rather do that than necessarily decant the food into a very fancy new ceramic pot or dish that you bought."

He also collects pieces from friends and on his travels.

"I do have some beautiful things that I collect, a nice salad bowl or ceramics that maybe a friend has made or bought for me," he says. "Or if I travel, I tend to come back with a beautiful platter. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It can be just something beautiful with a bit of patina on it."

5. "I Want to See the Food"

There is one piece of tableware Ottolenghi feels rather more strongly about.

"This is important," he says. "The typical deep salad bowl I find really useless because you don’t really see the food. I want to see the food."

He prefers something wide and shallow, with enough of a rim to catch any sauce or dressing.

"Even a lettuce salad is really nice on a platter as long as you’ve got a little bit of lip. You can spread all the lettuce there and then drizzle it. So you can see the dressing. You can see the leaves. You can see their shape, and it makes a whole lot of difference."

6. "The Things That Are Practical And Beautiful Really, Really Help"

Ottolenghi prefers table decor that feels considered without becoming overly formal or fussy.

"If you have made a lot of effort and you do one of these pick-and-mix situations, and you have lovely platters to serve on, you almost don’t need anything else."

He likes useful objects to do some of the decorating. A beautiful pitcher might hold still or sparkling water, while his glassware is deliberately mixed.

"I have a collection of things that I like to mix. I’ve got a bunch of Moroccan glasses that I use, sometimes for wine, sometimes for water. I’m not strict about those things. I think it’s quite nice to have different coloured glasses. All these things just make it a richer experience. Even my cutlery is a bunch of mismatched silverware, and they’re not really a set, but it looks nice on the table."

"Flowers can be in the way," he adds. "And I don’t love small pots of flowers. I love bigger gestures.

What I often do is, if I want to make it a little bit more formal, I put something beautiful out before people sit down, then I remove it because it’s in the way if it’s in our eyeline. Candles are really nice on a table. I like the lighting to be muted."

7. "Everything Can Just Wait For the Potatoes"

For the Christmas table, Ottolenghi applies exactly the same prepare-ahead philosophy. "If you think of the traditional Christmas meal, it’s made out of a lot of things. So many of them are fine just warm rather than piping hot"

His Brussels sprouts can be roasted and dressed with vinaigrette as soon as they emerge from the oven.

"This is a trick that I use quite often in my cooking: hot brassicas, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages coming out of the oven, a bit of vinaigrette, and they sit down, and they soak up that richness, the acidity and the sweetness." Carrots can be handled in much the same way.

"You roast them. You dress them. They’re ready to go. I use a lot of chopped-up coriander, a lot of pomegranate seeds, and they just sit there. Don’t dress it till before, then dress it with some lime juice, with olive oil, and put it all over the carrots, bring it to the table. People will be happy." But one thing deserves your full attention.

"The roast potatoes are the thing of my life. They always take way longer than you think. If you cook potatoes, you parboil and put them in the oven; they take an hour and a half, or an hour at least, to get to the right crispy situation that you want them in."

He saves herbs and garlic until the end so they do not burn. "Everything can just wait for the potatoes."

8. "Who Doesn’t Like Roast Strawberries and Cream?"

And finally, dessert. If he had to suggest one thing that can make hosting easier, Ottolenghi chose his brown sugar cake with brown sugar cream and brown sugar roasted strawberries.

"This is a marvellous dessert. Every one of these elements is great on their own. You can just eat the cream with the strawberries or the cake with the cream or just the strawberries with granola and yogurt."

But served together, layered onto a big tray, it becomes something else.

"We were just cutting pieces and giving it to everybody. And it just made everybody so happy. Who doesn’t like roast strawberries and cream?"

The fruit can change with the seasons.

"When strawberries are not in season, you can use plums. They’re also super delicious when roasted, or rhubarb roasted with brown sugar as well."

Or even more simply: "Brown sugar cake, brown sugar cream, and just passion fruit. So good."

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Hi Melissa,

I’ve taken three slightly different approaches to the bed, from quiet texture to a softer botanical print and a more graphic geometric pattern. With minimalist, Art Deco and bohemian influences all in the mix, I’d avoid trying to represent every style too literally. Instead, I’d let the bedding set the overall mood, then use a decorative cushion to add a little more personality and finish the look.

Decorative Cushions | Pink

I’ve also added four pink cushions as a finishing layer. Rather than matching the bedding too closely, I’d use the cushion to introduce a softer contrast and a little more personality.

With the geometric bedding, I’d lean towards something tactile or slightly sculptural so the bed doesn’t become too pattern-heavy. With the quieter waffle or botanical options, you can afford to be a little bolder with shape, texture or tone. The pink also works nicely across all three directions, bringing warmth and helping tie the minimalist, Art Deco and bohemian references together in a more relaxed way.

September is probably the biggest month in the design world, especially in the UK. There's not only London Design Festival, running right at this moment (and at which the Livingetc team is currently out of the office doing the rounds of), but it's the time when a lot of brands launch new ranges, collections, and activations.

These ideas are the ones that will define a lot about how we create our homes in years to come. Interior designers will take inspiration; those resulting projects will be posted online; and those ideas will filter down, month by month, year by year, into the wider design vernacular.

London, maybe more so than the design weeks of Milan, Paris, even New York, has a reputation for creativity, innovation, and that slightly rebellious spirit that sets the tone for interiors that are bold, invigorating, and atmospheric.

But I'll have more of that to share with you in next month's Zeitgeist Edit — here's what I want to tell you about for now.

↑ Going Up — The National Trust

What do you think of when you think of a National Trust property? Most likely a heritage country home with a tea room, but the National Trust actually cares for several exceptional modernist and 20th-century properties that break away from the traditional stately homes for which it's best known.

22 Parkside in Wimbledon, a modernist home that has in turn inspired the likes of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, is now among them, having been given to the trust. Designed by architects Richard and Su Rogers, it's been described as 'one of the most significant homes in British architectural history', an early example of Hi-Tech architecture using materials that exemplify the architects' style, and recognizable for its brightly colored interiors.

The home is open this week for Open House London, specifically, but is only planned to be opened to the general public in stages in time to come.

↑ Going Up — Next Generation Tech

Early September sees IFA take place in Berlin, one of the world's largest consumer fairs for home electronics. To coincide, you'll often find some of the biggest technology brands launch their new releases at this time, too.

This year, I'm most excited by Sonos. Not only has the home audio brand launched new Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra devices (the last generation of the Beam was released back in 2021), but also launched the new Sonos 27 operating system, its first new system in some 20 years.

The new system introduces Sonos' own voice assistant for the first time, but it also introduces AI integration (if that's your sort of thing) in a way that sounds genuinely helpful.

↑ Going Up — Blue Stone

There's something so interesting about blue as a color, especially when introduced in hard materials like tile and stone. It sometimes feels 'unnatural', but in the best possible way. It creates an unexpected moment that makes you pause in the scheme and creates an intriguing dynamic with the other materials in the scheme.

I've had a couple of product launches in my inbox that have caught my eye this month. Tile brand Marazzi's Grande Lume, a supersized version of the brand's Crogiolo Lume, has been released to mark the occasion of Tile Week in Italy this September. It comes in a few colorways, but this rich, deep blue, with the fluid movement captured inside, feels particularly ethereal.

September also marks the Italian marble fair Marmomac in Verona, and for this, Italian natural stone manufacturer Antolini is platforming its Blueroots marble, a rare and exclusive stone that captures the essence of the blue stone kitchen trend.

↑ Going Up — LDF Launches

As I already mentioned, we're in the midst of London Design Festival right now, and with it come some fabulous installations, exhibitions, and shows that you won't want to miss. The good news? If you're busy this week, a lot of them extend their run beyond the week itself.

Take, for example, the showcase of Italian furniture brand Arflex at furniture showroom Aram. It's a big, beautiful display of the iconic furniture brand, and a great way to get up close and try out both its design icons and the latest releases from 2026's Milan Design Week. Whether you're an interior designer or considering investing in one of these luxury designs, it's a chance to experience this furniture properly in the UK. Plus, it's open until January 2027.

↓ Going Down — Fine Dining Aesthetics

Are we seeing the return of the diner aesthetic in restaurants? What was once an undeniable design trend in the hospitality sector has made way for a more elevated aesthetic in recent times, but projects like this from Parisian design studio Atelier HA prove there's a middle ground to be found between diner charm and fine dining elevation.

Designers Hugo Vince and Adèle Nourry have created this new restaurant in their vision of a space 'somewhere between a retro-futurist diner, a Parisian neighborhood canteen and a late-night club'.

The color palette is sophisticated, yet playful, while the materials and silhouette of the bar definitely deliver on the Americana fantasy, without ever feeling too kitsch. Vanilla and chocolate color banquette seating sits alongside chrome, brushed steel, polished concrete, mosaic tiles, and mirrors for a design scheme that avoids feeling like a scheme.

For more inspiration for the month ahead, why not sign up to the Livingetc newsletter, where you'll receive the Zeitgeist Edit, and more, direct to your inbox.

The Upper East Side is one of Manhattan’s most architecturally established residential districts, where late 19th-century townhouses coexist with apartment buildings, museums and the landscape of Central Park. Located just steps from the park, this seven-storey home belongs to that history. Built in 1899, its Beaux-Arts façade is articulated by neoclassical window surrounds, scrolling foliate trims, and decorative panels. Behind it, however, interior designer Rob Johansen has created a home less concerned with returning to an idealized past than with accommodating contemporary family life.

"It was unclear exactly how many lives this townhouse had lived, but it was evident it had lived many, based on the layers we encountered when we first visited," says Johansen. "Despite its magnificent bones, previous renovations did not match my clients’ vision for living there."

Restoring an old house does not necessarily mean preserving the domestic routines for which it was originally designed. Working with architect Nicholas Deramo and his team, Johansen retained the building’s grandeur while reconsidering how its seven floors could function for a family as a modern home.

The clearest example is the primary suite. In the inherited plan, separate bathrooms occupied the front and rear of the floor, leaving the bedroom in the center with little natural light. Rob moved the bathroom inward, returning the windowed rooms to sleeping and bathing. A custom bathtub now sits beside a fireplace and window — a quietly indulgent gesture that required the floor to be reinforced with structural steel to support the marble.

Throughout the house, technically complex interventions make daily life feel intuitive. An existing skylight draws daylight down through the stairwell, while pale walls and floors connect rooms with very different orientations. In the living room, Farrow & Ball’s School House White takes on a creamy, almost spectral quality. "For me, the color has hues of green that evoke a very surreal and haunting feeling," Rob explains, comparing its atmosphere to interiors in Hitchcock’s The Birds and Vertigo.

Rob describes the result as a ‘happy haunting’: rooms that feel familiar and strange at once, without becoming unwelcoming. Historic paneling and Art Deco furniture coexist with contemporary art, curved upholstery, and pieces from the 1960s and 1970s.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey informed the formal living room, but the reference ultimately raises a question: how can objects from different periods live comfortably together?

Part of the answer lies in refusing to treat provenance as the only measure of value. Two works by Maria Pergay — the Drape cabinet and Marronnier coffee table, sourced through Demisch Danant — share the living room with a concrete Totem lamp by Rick Owens and the sweeping Landscape Sofa by Nina Edwards Anker. Rather than existing as isolated showpieces, they participate in the room through their materials, silhouettes and everyday use.

"As much as color and texture are important to consider, so is the idea of age," Rob says. "The goal was to make it almost impossible to decipher what was original and what was new." Unlacquered brass is allowed to develop a patina, stone is sandblasted to soften its surface, and timber is selected for the character of its grain. Luxury here is not only visual; it is something touched, lived with, and gradually altered.

This approach becomes especially personal in the kitchen. One of the owners is half Japanese and had long imagined her future children growing up with a traditional Japanese kitchen. Rather than reducing that request to an aesthetic theme, Rob worked with people who could bring deeper knowledge to the project. "I am not an expert on Japanese design, nor have I ever been to Japan, so I had to rely on collaborating with exceptional artisans who had greater knowledge," he says. "In many ways, we studied and experimented with ideas and materials."

That process led to some of the home’s most distinctive decisions. Slow-growth pine from the American Northwest was selected for the cabinetry — paradoxically, a timber prized in Japanese kitchens because its slow development produces an exceptionally fine, tight grain. Hardware was eliminated so that the millwork would read as calm, uninterrupted planes. Automated Gaggenau ovens and a dishwasher activated by knocking on its front preserve that visual quiet.

At the center of the room, a sculptural stone kitchen island designed with Deramo combines Brutalist mass with an angled silhouette that makes it appear almost tilted. Limewashed walls evoke Japanese paper, while another surface is wrapped in handmade Japanese paper. A parchment-and-painted light sculpture by John Wigmore commands one wall; nearby, Fernando Mendes Re chairs are upholstered in wasabi-green leather treated to resemble crumpled paper. The references are cultural and artistic, but their effect is sensory.

Elsewhere, Loro Piana cashmere covers the bedroom walls, an Ayala Serfaty Cloud light hangs overhead and a Studio Drift fixture made from preserved dandelions illuminates the dining room. Yet the house never relies on collectible pieces alone to establish its identity. Bespoke elements respond to the architecture and the family’s routines, while established designs are chosen for their contribution to the wider material language.

This balance prevents the interior from feeling like a gallery. Its identity comes not from fixing every object in place, but from allowing rooms to absorb use. The foyer is conceived as a modular living space rather than a ceremonial entrance. Brass records touch, timber retains its irregularities and furniture can move as the household’s needs change.

For Rob, that evolution is not a disruption of the completed scheme; it is part of the scheme itself. "I want pieces and furniture to move and evolve. There are no rules," he says. "Interior design has to reflect its custodians. Life continues. Families grow. Layers unfold more and more as you add or relocate."

Within an Upper East Side streetscape associated with continuity, the house offers a more flexible understanding of permanence. Its history remains visible, but is neither reconstructed nor placed behind glass. Instead, it provides a framework for new habits and objects drawn from many periods.

As Rob puts it, "Nothing is forever. Change is the only constant." For all its rare materials and significant designs, that may be the most liveable idea in the house.

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Dear Cynthia,

Inspired by your brief, I’ve pulled together a small selection of blackout curtains that I think could work well with a contemporary, modern or mid-century-inspired bedroom.

As you haven’t provided any further details about the existing colour scheme or the particular colour you’re looking for, I’ve kept the selection quite focused and included a few different tones and textures to give you some starting points.

I’d also recommend having a look through a few of our Livingetc guides, which might be helpful when deciding what direction you’d like to take. You can explore our edit of the best-reviewed blackout curtains, as well as Pandora Taylor’s Little Black Book of interiors for more inspiration. If you’re unsure which curtain finish or heading would work best for your space, our guide to the different styles of curtains is also a useful place to start.

If you'd like a little more support pulling everything together, take a look at Style, our room design service at Design Lab By Livingetc. We'd have a 45-minute one-to-one call to discuss your space, and afterwards I'd put together a full moodboard for your space, along with tailored product recommendations and a clear design direction.

I hope you enjoy exploring your curated edit, and I'd love to hear which pieces you feel most drawn to.

Best wishes,

Iokasti

Dear Francesca,

Inspired by your brief, I’ve pulled together a selection of compact benches that bring a little more personality to the hallway, while still being practical for everyday life.

I’ve looked for pieces with playful shapes, colours and textures, as well as options with storage for shoes, bags and those little things that tend to gather by the front door. As it was a bit of a challenge to find benches within the exact dimensions you requested, I’ve included a few options that are slightly larger — around 10–20cm over the maximum length.

If you don’t have the extra space, I would also suggest considering two small round ottomans with storage instead. They could give you a similar practical function while adding a fun, more playful feel to the hallway.

If you'd like a little more support pulling everything together, take a look at Style, our room design service at Design Lab By Livingetc. We'd have a 45-minute one-to-one call to discuss your space, and afterwards I'd put together a full moodboard for your space, along with tailored product recommendations and a clear design direction.

I hope you enjoy exploring your curated edit, and I'd love to hear which pieces you feel most drawn to.

Best wishes,

Iokasti

Dear Charis,

Inspired by your brief, I’ve pulled together a selection of round dining tables and chairs that capture the warm, mid-century feel of the Santoria table you had in mind, while working beautifully within a smaller living space.

I’ve focused on natural wood, cane and warm leather finishes to complement your existing Cary chairs, with a mix of more pared-back options and a few with a little more character.

If you'd like a little more support pulling everything together, take a look at Style, our room design service at Design Lab By Livingetc. We'd have a 45-minute one-to-one call to discuss your space, and afterwards I'd put together a full moodboard for your space, along with tailored product recommendations and a clear design direction.

I hope you enjoy exploring your curated edit, and I'd love to hear which pieces you feel most drawn to.

Best wishes,

Iokasti

Dining Tables

Additional Chair Inspiration

Gardens might technically be 'outside' of the house, but they're undoubtedly a vital extension of it. And, as the UK only just begins to recover from its hottest summer in history — a season marked by soaring temperatures, drought, and wildfires across western and southern Europe — our bond with the outdoors is fundamentally shifting. Green spaces are rapidly emerging as the protagonists of a global revolution we can and should no longer ignore.

With the ability to heal, repair, and nourish, gardens can provide solutions for many of our maladies — from health epidemics and social divides to the climate crisis. Although often treated as an apolitical escape, gardening is becoming a powerful tool for environmental activism, inclusivity, and community organization in the modern world.

For some, that realization of the importance of the garden came during COVID-19, when are world became more limited to our personal spaces and a shortage of food in grocery aisles made growing your own seem like a sensible solution. Watching plant life grow and change also felt like an antidote to lockdown-enforced monotony. In their book The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing writes: "I was exhausted by the perpetual, agonised now of the news... I wanted to move into a different understanding of time: the kind of time that moves in spirals or cycles, pulsing between rot and fertility, light and darkness."

It is a sentiment that, I am sure, resonates with most of us even today. Aerial images of the unprecedented dryness that turned entire slices of the world hay-gold over the past few months are still vividly impressed in our minds, alongside those of the destructive wall of water and mud that, triggered by the collapse of a melting glacier, tragically took the lives of at least 1,287 people at a remote Nepal-China border crossing on August 26. If Laing was right, and gardening could help people find new balance in the bleakest times while also encouraging us to preserve what lies outside, then we should know where to seek fresh comfort this autumn. For too many of us, though, a garden remains an out-of-reach luxury, not a given right.

Gardener and activist Colin Stewart knows that all too well. He spent 2020 caretaking the grounds of Cambridge Botanical Gardens, where a plethora of colorful blossoms greeted him daily from the windows of his cottage.

"I was under strict instructions to maintain plants that preserved human and animal life, which essentially equated with plants kept in the glasshouse, and the activity was limited to watering," he says of his duties in that role. This meant that parts of the garden which were previously mowed regularly filled up with wildflowers like cowslips and red campions — "something incredibly beautiful to wake up to every morning."

Colin looks back fondly on those months because now that he is based in London, despite spending his days tending private gardens for a living, he has no access to a garden himself.

In temporary rental accommodations, gardens can help tenants feel at home; caring for plants or creating a green space can ground you, injecting a familiar atmosphere into a place that would otherwise be rather anonymous. Yet it's precisely in cities like London — where a feeling of groundedness is most needed — that many young people still lack the opportunity to spend time in gardens, whether private or shared with others.

According to GOV.UK's England Biodiversity Indicators (People and Nature Survey), in 2020/21, 92% of respondents based in the country reported owning, sharing, or having access to private or communal outdoor space — including balconies, patios, allotments, and terraces, as well as actual gardens — versus London's 79%. This remained steady through to 2024.

Although the vast majority of people currently benefit from some personal or shared outdoor space, access is unevenly distributed: a 2014-2019 Natural England study found that Black people in England were nearly four times less likely as White people to have access to outdoor space at home (37% vs. 10%), and that people in semi-skilled or unskilled manual jobs, casual work, or unemployment were almost three times as likely to be without a garden as those in managerial or professional occupations (20% vs. 7%).

There's also growing evidence linking this lack of access to a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancers in urbanized populations. These illnesses disproportionately impact lower socioeconomic and non-White members of society.

The consequences were starkly evident during the pandemic, which registered worse clinical outcomes for infections in these demographics. Access to a garden or green space, then, isn't simply a perk or a pleasant addition to a home: it's a public health issue. Over the years, though, it has increasingly become a privilege.

Gardens and outdoor space didn't stop being a widely enjoyed feature of everyday life overnight. Parliamentary Enclosure Acts, which intensified from the 18th century (with roots in earlier informal medieval and Tudor enclosure), privatized a fifth of the formerly open land of fields and commons in England, stripping those who needed it most of the ability to grow their own food. The Allotments Act 1908 tried to reverse this, creating a legal obligation to provide residents with land to grow their own produce.

Although the law remains in place today, the appetite for green space has meant that waiting lists can span a generation. Luckily, in recent years, smaller organizations, charities, and individuals have stepped in to provide communities with a place to cultivate, learn, and connect with nature and each other.

These include Earth Tenders, a Black-led gardening organization based in Dulwich Park, South East London. Its goal is "strengthening local food systems and community health for the long-term," founder Ali Yellop tells me. "At the core of our work is a deep celebration of land practices, traditional knowledge systems, and relationships with the earth."

Co-led by community grassroots organizer Idman Abdurahman, Earth Tenders views "reconnecting with the Land as an act of resistance, healing, and self-determination," Yellop adds. It is a place where soil, culture, and storytelling naturally entwine.

Their BPOC Growers Club invites growers, culinary artists, chefs, and craftspeople from the Global Majority to curate a diverse and rich educational program. Past activations include a journey through Potawatomi botanist, author, and former director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass, putting ancestral plant knowledge of the Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash — into practice through planting, culinary artist Safiya Robinson (aka sisterwoman)'s sessions on spice blending, recipe exchanging, and collective harvest cooking, and community food grower Eyram Dzotsi (Gardens of Afruika)'s deep dive into ancestral dishes and fermentation practices.

While most of their programming unfolds in their Dulwich garden location, the organization has also brought similarly minded initiatives to the Barbican and Somerset House, spaces traditionally less accessible to BPOC. The reach and relevance of Earth Tenders' cultural calendar are thus far from confined to the borders of its SE London grounds: instead, the project demonstrates that a garden can carry forward indigenous knowledge and keep one's home alive even in a distant land. "I believe that by connecting with the earth, we can deepen our connection to our true selves and our communities," Abdurahman says. "This is the essence of Earth Tenders: finding our way back to what truly matters."

A desire to tackle inequality in access to home gardens also drives the Design Museum's Growing Together, a volunteer-led research, learning, and social collective rooted in sustainable design and horticulture. Launched in 2021 as part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Biodiversity Action Plan 2022–2027, the initiative runs annually under the guidance of programming curator Naomi Zaragoza and urban gardener Mandy Lee. Each year, stewards from the project's founding cohort of volunteers are joined by a new intake, recruited by the museum among artists, anthropologists, culinary professionals, curators, designers, herbalists, gardeners, and researchers, to sustain 12 months of gardening, intergenerational skill exchange, and public programming.

Among the highlights are seasonal garden salons, held in spring, summer, and autumn, which bring together talks and workshops exploring nature through a design-led lens by alumni guest speakers and facilitators like natural dyer and textile artist Studio Kuhu, The Gardening Drawing Club founder Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, gardening technologist and activist Kalpana Arias, multidisciplinary artist Renata Fernandez, and Hackney Herbal.

In 2025, the garden's first design-led exhibition, Dwellings, Rehomed, featured a series of 17 experimental designer birdhouses examining our coexistence with other species in the face of non-stop urban development and human activity. That same year, The Nest, a tranquil, sensory installation crafted by the design MA students of Kingston University with natural and recycled materials in a peaceful spot on the museum's grounds, offered a safe space for people with dementia and their carers to immerse themselves in nature. Both are exemplary of how Growing Together has evolved into a pioneering think tank that's redefining what gardens look and feel like today while stressing the difference they can make in shaping our everyday.

Ying Ruo, one of this year's Growing Together volunteers, suddenly realized what it feels like not to have a garden when she arrived in London to attend a master's in anthropology at UCL last September. Throughout her childhood in China, she had always been able to spend time in the shared garden of her building. To make up for the lack of one in her student accommodation, she began to plant herbs in pots in her dorm, adding them to her food because it "reminded me of home," Ying tells me. She learned about the group through a talk at university and applied to join the cohort.

Ying's initial idea was to secure access to a garden, but it was only through gardening with people from different backgrounds that she realized how much the activity can help reduce the social isolation that comes with moving to a new country. Growing Together brilliantly captures the sense of belonging that tending plants with others can nurture in those who share that experience.

I am another one of the initiative's 2026 volunteers. The garden has been a space for me to share ideas across cultures and to learn about plant life cycles, soil, and climate change while growing spices in one of the raised beds. It has also allowed me to advance my ongoing research and writing project, Stories of Spice. My time with the team has allowed me to reimagine what growing spices means and has made me more aware of the importance of informal learning through social exchange.

If there's a London-based reality that understands the garden as a social project, it's OmVed Gardens. Based in Highgate, North London, they describe themselves as a "small garden with big ideas", interplaying between science, gardening, art, and ecology.

Founder Karen Leason is passionate about the revolution of the seasons and the magic of photosynthesis as the basis of life on Earth. Inspired by the summers of her childhood, spent in the woods under a sea of stars, she wanted to create a greenscape for people to convene and "spend time with each other and the more-than-human," Leason shares.

Earlier this year, I spent two days with their team learning more about the gardens and the projects hosted within them. On my first visit, head gardener John Gaffney led a tour of the space, talking through ways his team is tackling the effects of global warming and climate instability.

Some of these strategies include planting species more resilient to unpredictable weather fluctuations, like wetter winters and ever-warmer summers, encouraging pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and creating irrigation pathways during drought through indoor growing in a greenhouse-like space.

One way OmVed Gardens is championing a better plant future is through its brilliant Seed Saving Network. Started in 2020 as a way for growers across London and the UK to share seeds, growing tips, and preserve heritage crops, the network has expanded into a library and archive for future generations. On my second day at OmVed Gardens, I returned for a volunteer day with this network, harvesting lavender, roses, and seeds. The garden also has an enviable kitchen garden that grows produce for their culinary team, which experiments with fermentation and preservation and hosts regular plant-focused themed supper clubs.

Currently, it is the only garden in the country to have a 'groundfridge', a fridge of the future built on design principles from before the advent of electricity. Like a cellar, it nestles into the ground, using natural materials to stay cool in summer, plants around it to insulate in winter, and a solar ventilator to help retain a constant temperature of eight to 15 degrees at all times. The kitchen team uses the fridge to store their ferments for supper clubs.

Proving that it is truly a small garden with ideas, OmVed Gardens is also a place to imagine new ways to create art through its residency programme, with a rotation of artists invited to participate in nature-led projects and installations. The most recent installations featured artist Vivienne Schadinsky's Seeds of Time, which explores beans as seeds of hope for biodiversity, resilience, and planetary health, and Arran Gregory's Rammed Earth Bio-Sculpture, created using clay to live in the garden grounds and change with the seasons.

And yes, a garden may be a construct that serves health, but the garden as a place for inspiration to create art is not a novel concept, nor less important. Throughout time, gardens have played a role in artists' lives as a way of creative expression. In some ways, a garden that an artist leaves behind becomes a way of communicating with future audiences.

A breathing work of art set against the coruscating sea in St. Ives, Cornwall, late sculptor Barbara Hepworth's home, studio, and garden make her legacy immediately tangible to those visiting. When I last did so on a clear blue winter day in December, stepping into it felt like entering an oasis of serenity. More than the interiors, I was captivated by the sculpture-dotted garden and her greenhouse workspace, which feel like an extension of the outdoors, still kept as it was in her time.

The same is true of the garden at Charleston House, the Sussex home of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, which I traveled to in early spring this year. There, my eyes naturally turned to its flushed-with-tulip estate, which Bell's studio and bedroom overlooked, a reminder of just how much joy a garden can bring inside.

Most recently, I managed to secure a highly sought-after but rarely secured visit to 575 Wandsworth Road, the London residence of British Kenyan's poet and carver Khadambi Asalache, who created a garden where he planted trees like the mimosa that reminded him of his East African home and a workspace to carve the intricate fretwork covering the inside of his South London home.

On a balmy summer day, the roses, planted by Asalache, were in full bloom, facing London's heatwave with grace. Come autumn, I plan to visit filmmaker and gay rights activist Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, where the landscape garden is set wild, without any fence, directly on the shingle headlands.

All these artists are long gone, still, their genius lives in the portal of time they carved out of the trees, flowers, and fruits they planted during their lives, which constantly reveals glimpses of the past.

Creating a garden that responds to shifting environmental conditions and the anxiety resulting from them can be an intentional way to restore agency and contribute, albeit in small ways, to the fight against climate change. As the saying goes, you have to start somewhere — and where better than by restoring the ecology of your immediate surroundings by fostering a deeper interaction with the plants and people who inhabit them?

Louise, a freelance creative working with horticultural design studio Palais London, took up the challenge of developing her dream garden with the planet and beauty in mind. When she first moved into her flat in the British capital, her front yard was paved with concrete slabs. Earlier this year, with a little help from a landscape designer friend, Louise set about bringing it to life.

The garden theme began before the plants went into the soil, with a green painted patio door and window panels. She split it into sections, including herbs and edible plants like strawberries and flowers, and is considering throwing some trees into the mix. All that grows from it will be her legacy to this patch of land under her stewardship.

The seeds Louise has planted have been passed down from friends and family, like the poppies, which she inherited from her father's garden in Belgium. Perhaps that's why, although still in its infancy, the garden feels as if it has already lived several lives. As the sun makes room for dusk, there is a peacefulness to it that only comes in a place crafted with conscience.

Throughout the summer, my feed teemed with updates from friends sharing what they had been growing in their gardens or on their balconies. Sungold tomatoes, courgette flowers, strawberries. The season might be coming to an end, but people keen to make the most of spring-flowering bulbs (think daffodils and tulips along with garlic, onions, and hardy perennials) know that a fresh start is just around the corner.

Now more than ever, as public concern grows over AI data centers taking over precious green space and drying up already compromised water reservoirs, choosing to take to gardens — whether private, shared, or communal — instead of retreating to the digital world feels like the most logical and life-affirming pathway to safeguarding our future. In the words of essayist Rebecca Solnit, "a garden is what you want (and can manage and afford), and what you want is who you are, and who you are is always a political and cultural question." Turning a blind eye to shrinking green spaces, then, is a decision that could compromise more than we can imagine.

I began gardening this year, determined to learn more about the life cycle of spices. Earlier in August, the coriander, fennel, and fenugreek seeds I planted completed a whole lifetime, turning into seeds once again. In this process, I found solace in the garden and its changing rhythms, a community among the women tending the plants with me, and new reasons to imagine a life in an increasingly fractured world.

Like seeds growing into mature plants that flower and, eventually, return to their original state, we too are always finding our way back to ourselves. Some days that's the only order I can trust in an age where, despite us being chronically online, it's far too easy to feel disconnected. So when everything else fails, you'll know exactly where to find me: hands deep in the dirt, quietly hoping for new beginnings.

Dive deep into another story from our The Meaning of Home series, or subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on everything from expert advice to the most extraordinary restaurant and hotel openings.

Travel may broaden our world, but home remains the place we return to for grounding; an intimate refuge shaped by comfort, memory, and the rituals of everyday life. For the husband-and-wife owners of this 110-square-meter apartment in Rome, that sentiment rings especially true. After years spent traveling, the couple was ready to put down roots, and their evolving ideas of belonging and home became the starting point for Marco Rulli, cofounder of 02A Studio.

“We imagined the apartment as a kind of treasure box; a home that could be both a refuge and a reminder of their roots, while also containing and showcasing the objects, memories, and experiences that are part of their life elsewhere,” shares Marco. The resulting modern home became a richly layered canvas for color, bespoke artwork, and carefully considered spatial interventions.

Rooms are shaped and connected, some without relying heavily on doors, creating a sense of enclosure and intimacy while still allowing the apartment to flow — a balance that gives the owners both a feeling of cocooning and a reassuring sense of groundedness.

The entrance was originally a dark, dull space, which Marco and Matilde Masi, also of 02A Studio, transformed with a specially commissioned mural by artist Chiara Cataldi. The beautifully yellow hallway paint is layered with images of botanicals: cypress-covered hills unfold alongside palms, fruit trees, and banana plants, creating a dreamlike landscape that captures the spirit of the apartment itself.

"The home originally had a beautiful old solid timber parquet floor, nailed rather than glued, although it was quite worn," shares Marco. "We decided to preserve it in the kitchen and bedroom, while replacing it throughout the rest of the apartment. Here, we laid the new parquet in perpendicular bands, almost like a carpet. This allowed us to avoid creating a single dominant direction, which would not have worked well with the various curves that characterize the floor plan."

The passageway opens onto the modern kitchen. In fact, the apartment was originally conceived as one expansive, open space, with rooms flowing into one another. The challenge, then, was to carve out distinct functional zones without compromising the home’s sense of ease and continuity.

Anchored by a large Klein blue pantry wall and a central kitchen island topped with Jakarta Pink marble, the space is deliberately kept free of technical functions. "Seen from above, the marble’s veining recalls a satellite view of remote landscapes, forests or mountain systems, reinforcing once again the project’s themes of travel and inner geography," adds Matilde. Used more like a table, it serves as a place for food preparation, casual meals, and conversation.

"The kitchen, which was previously used as a study, had these original ceiling moldings," shares Marco. "We decided to preserve them and emphasize them by painting the ceiling in a desaturated terracotta tone, giving the space a stronger sense of identity while highlighting one of its original architectural features."

Right next to the kitchen, the tiny dining room feels almost tucked into a corner. "The dining area, positioned between the opening to the kitchen and the wall of the guest bedroom, is quite limited in size," explains Marco. "We decided to make the most of the space with a round dining table, whose shape responds to and echoes the curve of the surrounding wall."

Overhead, the Gropius Lamp Hula Hoop Dolce Vita XL in velvet brings a playful burst of color and energy to the petite space.

Rather than oppose the home’s original curving layout, the architects embraced it as a soft, defining gesture. "It generates a narrow passage between the dining and living areas, almost like a natural isthmus: a fluid constriction, as if carved by the wind, preserving the organic continuity of the apartment," shares Marco.

Following that logic, all of the bespoke joinery was designed to trace the apartment’s existing curves and rounded forms, avoiding rigid interventions or geometries that might feel imposed. Here, the guest bedroom, separated by a thick curtain, functions as a hybrid space: part study, part guest room and, when the large velvet curtain is drawn back, an extension of the living room itself.

In keeping with the home’s continuous, uninterrupted flow, the modern living room opens directly onto the guest bedroom, dining area, and kitchen. This is, in many ways, the heart of the apartment. "Like an internal piazza, it has been shaped by placing the sofa at the center of the room and freely arranging the seating around it, allowing circulation paths to remain fluid," avers Matilde.

A ceiling painting, commissioned by the apartment’s former owner, Italian director Ettore Scola, from an artist friend, adds grandeur to the room. To heighten the artwork's presence, the architects introduced a custom-designed mirrored coffee table that reflects the scene overhead.

"The approach to the living room, as throughout the apartment, was to enhance the existing elements that are part of the home’s history — such as the wooden window frames, the original ceiling moldings and the old painting — while integrating the various pieces of furniture and objects collected by the owners during their travels, particularly in Asia," says Marco. "Rather than following a specific style, we wanted to create a dialogue between these different elements and allow the owners’ personal history to emerge through the interiors."

A subtle shift in floor level marks the transition to the primary modern bedroom, a remnant of the room’s later incorporation into the apartment. Instead of concealing the difference, the architects turned it into a deliberate design moment, introducing an open-pore lacquered timber platform that doubles as both a step and an informal seating space in the living area.

"This bedroom is dominated by a large built-in wardrobe covered in wallpaper that once again evokes distant landscapes and exotic imagery," shares Marco. "Inside the wardrobe, both the air-conditioning system and the entrance to the ensuite bathroom are concealed."

Petite but highly functional, the small bathroom has an almost cinematic atmosphere, shaped by its richly veined surfaces and delicate lighting. Practicality was equally important: double basins make the compact space unusually accommodating.

"We worked with glass, polychrome marbles and more precious materials: pink onyx and Emperador marble for the vanity top, clouded Bardiglio marble framing the shower, molded sanitary fixtures and Murano glass lamps," adds Marco.

Close by, the lush, leafy urban garden is grounded by terracotta flooring and relaxed seating, creating an easy connection to the outdoors and a quiet sense of being immersed in nature.

Deeper into the apartment, a suite of service spaces and storage is concealed behind velvet curtains. Clad in blue timber paneling and punctuated by mirrored surfaces, the area feels considered rather than purely utilitarian, with reflections helping to visually expand its compact footprint. "One of these panels also conceals the second bathroom, which once again incorporates the decorative motifs and exotic suggestions found throughout the apartment," adds Marco.

Ultimately, the home feels less like a collection of rooms than a deeply personal map of the owners’ lives — one where travel, memory and familiarity are joined together into a place that finally feels grounding.

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Rechargeable lighting is a game-changer — no two ways about it, in my opinion. Not as the main element of a lighting scheme, of course, but as a complementary companion, adding versatility, flexibility, and much-needed warmth and cozy ambience to your space — no electrician required. Aside from the well-known portable variety of lamps we've become most accustomed to, the lighting trend gaining traction in interiors right now is bookshelf lighting, and Pooky's new Bookshelf Lights are the crème de la crème.

Pooky is known for stylish, clever lighting pieces that are customizable to suit your style, and this latest 'clip-on' range for shelves, bookcases, and mantels is no different. You can choose from five base colorways in a reeded finish, including brass, bronze, and turquoise, to pair with one of over 200 interchangeable shades, meaning there are at least 1,000 unique combinations. Jo Plant, Pooky's chief creative officer, says, "It's versatile enough to work beautifully with a playful animal print, a traditional floral, or something completely unexpected."

Bookshelf lights are a stylish way to add a warm glow to dark shelves, making a feature of your books and decorative elements while adding functional lighting. Plus, this particular type of 'clip-on' portable lamp is so great because it doesn't actually take up space on your shelves; the design clamps to the edge of the shelf or mantel, so that the lamp sits on the outside of it, meaning more light and no interruption of your shelf styling. Easily move it to wherever you need it, from your kitchen to your living room, for unique charm and cozy warmth.

A Few Fave Combos

"I’m always looking at spaces in my own home that could use a little extra glow, and my shelves aren’t tall enough to plonk a cordless lamp in amongst the books and knickknacks, so I started to wonder about clip-on styles. It needed to be cordless, of course, to avoid the hassle, cost, and clutter of wiring," says Jo.

And it's this stylish iteration of the 'clip-on' lamp that sets it apart from anything else on the market right now, which is decidedly less design-forward — this versatile design would elevate any bedroom, kitchen, or living area with an intentional design moment that’s also wonderfully practical.

As we head into the cozy season, if you're looking to buy new lighting that adds warmth, personality, a pop of color, and a delicate glow to your space, all in fuss-free fashion, then these bookshelf lights might just be exactly what you're after.

More Rechargeable Lamp Styles to Shop

If you like Pooky’s bookshelf lamps, you'll likely also love Next's Marble Bookshelf Lamp, which is another unique way to light up your bookcases and shelves in a designer-look style.

And for more shopping advice and design ideas, subscribe to the Livingetc newsletter.

Nearly two years in the making, author, creative director, and interior expert Reena Simon and Beauty Pie have finally launched their home fragrance. And let me tell you, it's elevated minimalism at its finest.

These three luxury scented candles from Reena Simon x Beauty Pie look like another curated ceramic vessel on the surface, only to unveil thoughtfully layered notes for morning, afternoon, and evening scents for your space.

I spoke to Reena about the thought behind each fragrance, and it's clear the level of intention that went into finalizing each blend and the designer silhouette itself. So, let's get into what each of these scented candles sparks in a home.

When I asked Reena about her love for interior perfuming, she explained that scent, to her, isn't simply the finishing touch to a room. "I always talk about how it should be viewed more as emotional architecture. You take in the atmosphere of a space and often have a physical reaction before you’ve properly noticed the furniture or the colors, and scent plays such a big part in that," she says.

"I had already used and loved Beauty Pie for years, so when the opportunity came to create something together, I wanted it to feel very connected to how I actually live. Our homes are never just one mood all day, so rather than designing one signature fragrance, I wanted to create three candles for three distinct moments: the freshness of morning, the softness of golden hour, and the stillness that comes once the house is at its calmest, usually in the evening."

Speaking to the minimalist vessel, she points out that the physical design was just as important as the fragrance. "I wanted a substantial three-wick candle that could really scent a room, but I also wanted the vessel to feel like an object you would choose for your home," she adds.

"I originally hoped the candles could be refillable and, when that wasn’t technically possible, it led us towards something I think is even more beautiful — Beauty Pie’s first ceramic candle vessel. The matte finish is tactile, the colors sit naturally within an interior, and, once the candle is finished, it becomes a keepsake rather than something you immediately throw away. That was really important to me as I value permanence."

To me, the best home fragrance should exist in your home long after the wick burns out and the reeds dry out. And as Reena points out, this candle effortlessly switches into a covert catch-all that can live on your coffee table. But until then, enjoy its stacked form by tucking the lid under the candle while it brightens your home — lining up the indent in the base with the top for a cool, statuesque moment.

More Scented Candles to Shop

If you're wondering which of these new candles are ideal for autumn, Reena recommends Time Well Spent. "Golden hour is my favorite time of day in any season, but there is something really beautiful about it as autumn arrives," she tells me. "By September, the light through our kitchen windows turns amber in the late afternoon, and that is when I want this candle lit. It's the first point in the day where I feel like I can exhale."

And for more delicious-smelling candle inspiration, these are the candles interior designers are burning in their homes right now — you're welcome.

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Not all vintage is the right kind of vintage. This late-Georgian townhouse, bought in a probate sale, was acquired ready-filled with "mismatched" antiques and oil paintings and "plastered with dated wallpaper — very dark and very busy," says Rodney Alday, architect and design director of London-based practice Maison RA-D, which had been commissioned to renovate the Dublin home. "We did keep some pieces — certain paintings, an antique bed — but most didn't work with the period of the property."

There were, however, plenty of original features to work with: plasterwork, timber flooring, sash windows, fireplaces. And so began a project to restore this house to a thoroughly modern home.

The owner wanted to use the house both as a quiet retreat and a "very welcoming" place for friends and family (Rodney learnt that a Dublin home always has to be ready for spontaneous visits from neighbors). "We wanted to maintain its heritage, but also make it feel lived in, so it felt inviting, intimate and at the same time elegant," he says.

Maison RA-D then introduced a contemporary aesthetic, with restrained Scandi pieces and more sumptuous Italian design. One of Rodney's design signatures is, he says, "marrying the classical to the contemporary" — the contrast "helps celebrate the original features". To avoid making things too consistent, Rodney went for an "eclectic curation" — that is, "putting something flamboyant with something more minimal, which provides the contrast we wanted."

And then, to bring those opposites into balance — "to make it all go together with a narrative" — Rodney introduced a muse of sorts. "Our inspiration was [the Spanish couturier] Cristobal Balenciaga." (Not, however, what the fashion brand represents now, but the 1950s and 1960s Balenciaga, when he was a pioneer of shape in fashion, creating the babydoll dress, the balloon hem, the envelope dress.) "Balenciaga's designs were all about shape, volume, curves and contrast, and that's what we wanted for this space," he says.

Balenciaga may not jump out at viewers of these images, but there is a sense here that the house has been built around shape and geometry as opposed to statement pieces. For Rodney, introducing a Balenciaga sensibility brought "a choreography — a rhythm — between the pieces; the curves break up the formality." Every detail, he adds, "is part of that narrative". Take the Arc floor lamp in the living room, for example — the curve in its arm is a nod to Balenciaga.

The Balenciaga reference did not extend to the designer's preference for decorating with black. The palette here is quiet and sophisticated: for walls, Rodney used Farrow & Ball's Ammonite, "a neutral, simple backdrop", he says. "It's soft and warm, and more personal than white."

Rust is accented throughout, on chairs, artwork and rugs. "Rust gives warmth and pulls it all together, without being too modern," he says. Where there are other colors — for example, moss-green kitchen units, olive-green bedding — "that celebrates the rust as well". You can't help thinking Balenciaga would approve.

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