Interiors Inspiration: Tin House

This former hen house in the south of France has been converted into a nest for guests by Spanish interior designer Isabel Lopez-Quesada. Most of the materials used in the project are recycled - from doors, windows and radiators to the corrugated tin used in the original construction.

Corrugated tin/iron is such an underrated material and it is great to see it being used in a modern and celebratory way. I would happily live under a roof of tin - it would be extremely noisy when it rained but I imagine that would be half the fun! I also like the irregular panelling in the corridor - such a good way to improve the space.

As the designer says, “a house, like a person, should blend traditions and modernity. Why do a house in just one style? Being narrow-minded is not the message you want to pass on to your children.”

www.isabellopezquesada.com

Wooden Wall Hangings

Wallhangings seem like a good idea at the moment. They are less stuffy than a painting and more textural than a print. Bobo Choses make cute pictorial wallhangings for kids, and of course, I love the patchwork quilts hung by Jessica Ogden for APC at The Apartment in Copenhagen. For an excellent range of vintage 1970's weavings and tapestries, check out Nightwood in Brooklyn. In fact, Nightwood's entire collection of reincarnated furniture and textiles is pretty special. However, my favourite wallhanging (pictured above) has to be the talismanic Giant Spirit wall piece by artist Julie Thevonet. Not least because it combines another current craze - painted sticks.

www.juliethevenot.com

Lucie Rie

Lucie Rie is hands-down my favourite potter. Her restrained elegance is something I aspire to (and fail miserably to achieve) in every pot I make. I love her bold use of scraffito - simple marks scratched through the surface of the clay - which highlight the form of each pot. However, my favourite pieces are her whiteware. Thrown, then altered, with the lips subtly dipped in manganese, these pieces are so simple and so beautiful that I could gaze at them all day.

I am currently reading Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter by Emmanuel Cooper. It is a brilliant biography and places her life and pots in context. From her training in Vienna to her exile in London through to the creation of her then 'challenging' modern style, she comes across as a wonderfully direct, hardworking and astute lady.

yalebooks.co.uk

Moving Mountains

Moving Mountains is a brand new design studio that produces bags and jewellery with a refined sense of simplicity and artful functionality. Designer Syrette Lew originally hails from Hawaii but is now based in Brooklyn, where she uses her skills as an industrial designer to create beautiful clean-lined handbags and accessories.

I love quality basics which are designed to last a lifetime and Moving Mountains fits that bill perfectly. The Compact bag is a careful study of shape, volume and proportion which is just big enough to hold all your daily essentials. The Suspension necklace is equally considered, with a single cord of waxed cotton interwoven through a solid brass bar hanging gracefully in the balance.

With plans to expand into men's accessories and home goods, I look forward to seeing what the brand does next.

www.mvngmtns.com

Mother

Fans of vintage workwear should head to Mother, who sell a fine selection of smocks, aprons, dresses and dungarees. The pieces are all beautifully styled and either secondhand or handmade with vintage fabrics.

I like to wear an apron most days when I am working around the house as whether I am cooking, cleaning, potting or on Mum duties, I find that dressing for the job helps me get that little bit extra done.

The range at Mother is stylish and practical so I am definitely tempted by a few of their designs. The Clover dress or Travail apron could well be winging their way to me soon...

www.etsy.com/shop/xMOTHERx

My Book: Recycled Home

Exciting news! My new book Recycled Home comes out next Monday! The book, published by Laurence King, features instructions for 50 craft projects that anyone can create from recycled materials.  Above is a sneak preview of some of the projects and as you can see, some of them are easy - like the Recycled Storage Tins, which could be completed in half an hour and some are a little more complicated - like the Tribal Teepee. Either way, I hope there is lots of inspiration and practical advice in there for readers!

I am really pleased with how the book has come out, particularly as I wrote most of it when my daughter was a tiny newborn. She was a good little assistant and I have fond memories of carrying her around in a sling, writing, making and photographing the book. Fun times indeed!

If you would like to pre-order a copy you can do so from Amazon. Otherwise, it should be available in all good bookshops from Monday August 13th!

www.laurenceking.com

House Inspiration: Modern Thatch

Everyone is familiar with traditional thatched roofs and although they are pretty, I do find them a little twee. However, these contemporary versions designed by Dutch architects Arjen Reas and Bureau B+B are undeniably striking and they illustrate how traditional vernacular materials can (and should) be updated in modern ways.

The first two images are of a domestic housing project called Living on the Edge, designed by Arjen Reas. Located on the outskirts of the city of Zoetermeer, the location, between city and countryside, inspired this house that blends urban and rural architecture. The dense fuzzy thatch, applied to every surface of the exterior is sculpted into a graphic interpretation of an archetypal house and punctuated in places by glass and white plaster.

The second two images show Het Entreehuis, designed by Bureau B+B. Also in the Netherlands, this house was inspired by agricultural barns of the local area and features a thatched roof that stops at a neat border of wood. With the thatch set flush inside a wooden frame, this modern interpretation creates a refined aesthetic and forces us to reconsider traditional materials and their usage.

www.arjenreas.nl

www.bplusb.nl

Kids: Waddler

Born out of adventure, Waddler create beautiful Fair Trade children's knitwear produced in Bolivia.

When designer Marina Scrymgeour and Philip Thompson's little boy was just a year old, they left their London life behind and moved to South America. Travelling far and wide across the continent, they found themselves drawn toward the Andean region that lies between Argentina, Peru and Bolivia.

"Our son spent his first years picking avocadoes in a tropical garden, riding bareback with gauchos and dining on the Andean speciality: roast guinea pig. He saw the forests come alive with Ceibo blossom in the winter, watched fireflies light up his bedroom in spring and clapped his hands at alligators lazing in the hot summer sun." Waddler's clothes are inspired by the magic of this life.

Now based in Fife, Scotland, the couple maintain their links to Bolivia by visiting regularly and working closely with the local farmers and knitters. Their clothes are made of baby soft alpaca and come in adorable styles including cute romper suits, pierrot jumpers and knitted bombacho pants. They are the perfect clothes for having an adventure in.

www.waddler.co.uk

Elephant Ceramics

The intense teal, sloppy glaze and irregular outline of these plates and platters by Elephant Ceramics is intoxicating. Each piece is hand pressed by Michel Michael, a former prop stylist and features the texture of traditional homespun linen pressed into the clay.

Made from either porcelain or stoneware, each piece is unique as Michelle experiments with brushing, pouring and dipping to create her trademark painterly glaze finishes. I love the looseness of the pieces and the way they coordinate together to make the perfect mismatched tableware collection.

www.elephantceramics.com

Interiors Inspiration: A Perfectly Ordinary Bungalow

The stripped back simplicity of stylist Sue Skeen's Suffolk bungalow is both beautiful and awe-inspiring. It was first featured in the March 2012 issue of World of Interiors and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

A perfectly ordinary 1970's bungalow, described in the accompanying article as "architecturally, as unlovely as a tub of margarine." It has been transformed into one of the most inspiring interiors I have seen.

What I particularly love is that Sue's imprint on the house has been minimal. There is no fake cladding or panelling, no tasteful windows and no fancy lighting. Instead she just painted the space white and allowed it to act as a simple backdrop for her collection of reclaimed and antique furniture.

Her lifestyle is equally as intriguing. With no central heating, no television and very few trappings of a modern lifestyle, she is clearly a women after my own heart. "What I really, really like about living in the country," she says, "is the inconvenience. You have to work for things in the country - work to get warm, work to find food. You turn in on yourself and face up to what and who you are." Indeed.