The working from home project: discrete and beautiful

Last weekend we headed over to Grand Designs Live, which was the first time it had taken place since before the pandemic. I’ll share more about the show another time as there was lots to see, but I was pleased to see that the room sets were back - and with a theme that many of us I’m sure have grappled with these past few years. If you’re anything like us, back at the start of the pandemic the working from home thing felt a temporary thing, but yet here we are a couple of years on and it’s still very much part of working life for many.

This design by Monica Gounaropoulos from Spiti and Soul Interior Design sets out to create a multifunctional home office within an existing room. Monica says that she ‘wanted a usable space which can also be enjoyed to the max once work has finished’ - and there are many people that have needed just that. Not everyone has an additional space to use, and so the challenge has been keeping that balance.

Monica’s design incorporates discrete solutions concealing work items and leaving a beautiful focal point for the room, which helps separate work from home life. She uses a colour palette of blue for productivity and orange as a mood lifter.

Now I liked this room set, the rug, the feature wall and the pop of orange - but it’s only when writing this post that I’ve realised that it’s showing the ‘at home’ set-up rather than the ‘working’ element, and that feels like a miss. There’s no doubt it’s been put together well, and the rug and backdrop wall are stunning, but it doesn’t scream working at home to me, or maybe that’s the point?

Tropical loos in the City

I’ve realised that the past couple of posts have a bit of a tropical feel to them, and yes, here’s another. I’m not sure what this means - is it that tropical things are having a moment, or am I just being drawn to them? Does that mean I need to head to a jungle, or decorate in the same style? I’m not sure, but I know that the lushness of each of the posts is definitely appealing - and if you scroll back, you’ll see that while there’s the tropical theme, each of the posts are pretty different.

And this one’s different too, after a fair break thanks to the pandemic, I’m back visiting loos. Or rather I’m sharing the well decorated loos with you - these tropical loos were in Browns in Old Jewry, right in the City of London. I was there meeting friends, one of whom I was due to meet a week or so after lockdown and we’ve only just managed it.

As everyone is discovering for themselves, it’s great to start catching up with each other again even though everyone appears more cautious and perhaps a little out of practice.

These loos are a little unexpected, but were a very pleasant surprise. You’ll know a standard loo won’t feature here, and this is far from a standard loo. It’s a great mix of styles - classic and more modern, geometric and tropical, brass and chrome - and yet it just works.

I loved the wallpaper so a close up was in order - though arguably it’s less effective close up, but the birds nestling in the corner worked!

Not convinced it works?

Step back and take the whole view in, I love it - but clearly none of us need that many sinks in our smallest rooms!

Interiors inspiration at Margo & Plum

We were lucky with the weather for our short trip away last week and it was great to spend time outside feeling the sun on our skin. It also helped to get us out and about and one of those stop offs was at The Engine Yard which is right next to Belvoir Castle. We’d stopped there before and remembered a vibrant, thriving space and it still has that potential. We last visited in August, and on this sunny March weekday morning it was much quieter, understandably so. But it was nice to enjoy the space, pretty much unhindered.

Also not surprisingly some of the shops had changed, and some chalet-style huts had popped up for weekend pop-up market stalls, which seems a great idea. We had a nose around all of the shops, but by far my favourite was the interiors shop of Margo & Plum who, as their website says, offer the most glamorous decorative pieces for your home.

And here, I have some snaps to prove it.

The relatively small space is full of the most sumptuous things for your home. While they look great together and the displays are full of inspiration, most of us won’t need quite so much, but together it’s quite a statement!

MOH was very taken with the neon signs, and I’m not sure he could quite decide which. Maybe at some point we’ll get to the stage where a decision is needed, who knows?

I had a couple of favourites, and definitely more than a couple of things I could have quite happily brought home. The first is this aqua jungle decorated vase, it’s quite unlike any vase I already own which have much wider openings, though I suspect this one probably doesn’t need anything more to improve it.

The other thing that I was really quite taken with was the sunburst mirror above - the ‘squareness’ of the sun’s rays really appealed and this feels a much more modern take on the more usual sunburst mirror design. We don’t have much, for want of a better word ‘bling’ in our house, but this shop tested my mettle (pun intended).

The final thing on my list was this flamingo plate - the vibrant colours and the design were the attraction for me.

One thing I’m sure of, we’ll be back here again at some point for more mooching around, and maybe even a purchase or two.