A new light

Last month at Grand Designs Live we found another light to admire and lust after. And this wasn’t any old light, though it probably is a pretty old one. It’s a style of light that we’ve looked at for a long time, and always put on the ‘one day’ list. Turns out the one day turned out to be last month, and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve said before, and I stand by it - the Design Arcade is one of my favourite areas of the show. It’s a single walkway, a corridor through the show which is jam-packed of great stuff. There’s inspiration each side of you, and we often walk up and down here at least a couple of times, each time seeing something new.

Therefore at the show in May, it wasn’t unexpected for us to stop and admire the lights on the Albert & Edward stand, in fact I’d have been more surprised if we didn’t stop and linger for a while. Many of the customised lights caught our eye, and I’ve a feeling at some point we’ll be looking to buy a memory wall light, and actually it was that which got us talking to Duncan.

One of the memory wall lights included an old metal boxed puncture repair kit, similar to one that we’d come across whilst sorting through my FILs garage recently. I’ve a bit of a thing about tins, and knowing that MOH doesn’t share this, I’d slipped the old-fashioned tin into one of the boxes we brought home. He remembered the tin from his childhood and wished he’d kept it - ta dah - good news, I had. These memory boards won’t be for everyone, but when they can include your own memories, then that would make them even better.

Lights on the Albert & Edward stand at Grand Designs Live

But anyway, our new light. It’s the one on the right above. We admired it and carried on wandering around the show, but this time knowing that if we get the place we’re after it will fit perfectly. It’s dangerous to make purchases for properties you don’t yet own, so we needed a plan b - and with viewings on our own home continuing we needed somewhere for it to go that made sense.

We pondered it some more and realised with a bit of light rearrangement we could make this work, so headed back to the stand again and made the purchase. Duncan kindly agreed to drop the light off either on his way back or soon after, which MOH was very happy with as carrying it back on the Jubilee line didn’t really appeal.

It’s been in place in our conservatory for a few weeks now, and it looks great.

GEC industrial style light on a tripod stand in our conservatory
A view of the top part of the light standing from behind
Looking down at the chain and the central ring of the tripod legs
A close up of the detail where the 'strap' of the light meets the triangular top of the stand
The yellow lit filament of the bulb

Thanks Duncan, it was great to meet and chat with you. I’m pretty sure we’ll be down to the shop at Whitstable at some point, especially now we have a potential customised memory wall light vacancy on our ‘one day’ list!

I was featured on Blogger Showcase

Fluted lights and bevelled mirrors

We haven’t had a real Loo Series in a while and this one’s from Fredericks in Islington. After a long day at the Garden Media show in the Business Design Centre, a wander around some of my favourite shops and enjoying a spot in the sun I joined some old friends from Stihl in Fredericks to see their latest products. It was good to catch up with many from the press trip which is now , shockingly, over two years ago.

These loos aren’t the most flamboyant, or even the largest, but they are classic and they do it well.

looking into the mirrors in the ladies at Fredericks in Islington

I’m a fan of these lights, and they’re quite simple and similar to the shades we have in our conservatory, with more than a hint of the Original BTC about them. Having the shades at different heights also appealed to me, and I think you’d be surprised to know that the picture below was taking in the cubicle. It’s not often I’ll share photos from there, but I’ve made an exception for this one.

simple and classic glass light shades

Back by the mirror and the sinks, the lampshades have a familiar feel don’t they?

bevelled edges and a chunky sink

Everyone knows the trick of a large mirror in a small, dark space don’t they? And there’s a reason for that and that’s because it really works. This space while not the lightest definitely had an elegance about it. The accessories and fittings were also plain and simple, and as you can see from below, everything had its place.

everything in its place

And it was labelled.

The wall tiles are fairly classic too, and it’s a good reminder for me that lots of classic items equals a very classic and understated look, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It doesn’t always need to be big and brash, or glitz and glamour, sometimes plain is best.

Me in the mirror in a favourite loo visiting top

What do you think? Sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of calm isn’t it?

Admiring the curve

As soon as I saw this wooden curved structure, potentially a bench, at the Chelsea Flower Show this year I suspected the work of Tom Raffield, and I wasn't disappointed.  The wood is steamed and bent into the most fantastic shapes, this one the most ambitious I've seen to date.  I knew that I'd included Tom's work on the blog before, but hadn't realised (until I looked) that it was twice before.  The first was when Tom was one of Kevin's green heroes at the 2015 Grand Designs Live show and then again later that year after he featured in one of John Lewis' creative spaces.

But this was something else.

Tom Raffield at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2018

It'd be great as a garden bench, wouldn't it?  I didn't try it out!

A closer look at the curved corner

The curves are the same as the lights though, if not a little bit more uniform than I've seen previously.  And just as I was admiring the boundary curves, I spied a circular seat.

Angles and a glimpse of the round seat swing

Drawn to the simple shape and lines I was soon in front of the circular seat - isn't it fantastic?  I think, even more spectacular than his lights, and that's saying something.

A round swing seat I'd happily find a place for

But the lights are still great and i was pleased to see them inside the stand, looking as curved an fantastic as usual.

Tom Raffield lights as you expect to see them

One day, I'm hoping I'll be the proud owner of (at least) one of these.  I'll need a new house with a proper all or lobby first though...

Until them I'm happy to admire whenever I can...