Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom – August 2013

Someone recently asked me what I look for when sourcing new furniture for my home. Apart from the obvious – that it conforms to my rather defined taste after spending 21 years working in style magazines – is enduring quality. In fact, it reaches beyond furniture. I would far rather invest
in something that someone has spent hours carefully designing and which has then been lovingly crafted – even if it means I can’t have as much. I will then get joy every time I look at it or use it. Some designs may be the height of fashion and ‘on trend’, but if they are created with integrity then they will live on for decades. Look at the Hans J.Wegner Shell Chair by Carl Hansen & Son (in our Bedroom News, p135). The company are celebrating 50 successful years of the classic design that has become a furniture icon. This issue we have devoted a number of pages to classic country style – an area where designs have perdured for decades, each introducing a small twist to claim it stylistically, but the basic look remaining the same – ever popular, easy to live with and highly functional. In Cool Country (p88) we showcase a few different takes on this style from rustic to smart – but all are calm, uplifting spaces that form a practical backdrop for a modern kitchen, whether translated into the new open-plan schemes or for small intimate spaces in
country cottages. Beautiful craftsmanship and true design combine to give a traditional edge, but they are still to my mind, the height of cool. Another design classic being celebrated this issue is the AGA. Two-Michelin star chef Hélène Darroze has chosen it as her favourite appliance, see p100. As someone who runs top restaurants in Paris, Moscow and The Connaught in London, I had expected something rather more hi-tech, but the romance of growing up with one at the heart of her home has stayed with her. It reminds me that we’re creating real homes with character
and that should be the basis of any decorating choice we make. Enjoy!