1. Albany London Life wallpaper

London Life wallpaper

Albany’s London Life wallpaper features some of the iconic images of London and sporting activities in a fun and quirky manner.

The hand drawn wallpaper has a lot of detail in it and the images are red, blue and yellow on a white background. It’s a lovely way of decorating your home and celebrating all the best bits of London, such as Big Ben, the Tower of London, red telephone boxes, black cabs and rowing down the Thames.

The London Life wallpaper is available for £28 per roll from Wallpaper Direct.

1. Graham and Brown Londinium wallpaper

Londinium wallpaper

There’s an extraordinary amount of detail included in this cityscape style Londinium wallpaper.

London’s best known landmarks, buildings and attractions lie cheek by jowl across the paper, producing a stunning decorative effect on the wall.

A 10m roll of the Londinium...

If you are thinking about leather sofas for your home you will find virtually unlimited choice at Darlings of Chelsea.

Leather sofas are a great addition to any home, traditional or contemporary, providing you buy a quality product. You will find leather corner sofas, leather suites and sofa beds all with hand crafted solid wood frames and quality grain leather coverings. Whether the room you want to furnish is small or large you are bound to find something that suits your needs. Two seater, club sofas are an ideal choice, and provide comfortable seating when space is limited.

No longer do you have to think in terms of black or brown leather sofas because Darlings of Chelsea have sofas, chairs and suites in almost every colour you can think of. Nowadays you can buy leather sofas that fit in with your general colour scheme and if you prefer traditional brown or black leather sofas you...

C. P. Hart, a retailer of contemporary bathrooms, has asked Fresh Design Blog to take part in their home spa blogger challenge.

The challenge revolves around creating a Pinterest board featuring all the ingredients of a perfect home spa.

For the purposes of the challenge, I’m focusing on my dream home spa. Naturally, it will be contemporary in style, but I’m imagining the ultimate in luxury, a large space in which to create it, with a balcony leading off from the bathroom with space to relax quietly in the warm air between pampering spa treatments.

One of my favourite things about going to a spa is all the different experiences – multiple steam rooms and saunas with different temperatures and scents, luxury showers to cool off under and spa baths to relax in. So my dream home spa would incorporate as many of these elements as possible. As a spa experience is also much better shared...

If you’ve not yet seen it, it’s well worth taking a look at the House by John Lewis collection of furniture and home accessories.

Based on a contemporary style, all the pieces are well produced, stylish and uncluttered, making them perfect for a modern home.

In particular, we love the look of the Oxford range, which consists of many modular storage units which can be used individually or in conjunction with other pieces. They’d be great for use in a living room, bedroom or study.

The Oxford storage units are made from oak veneer with a natural lacquer and you can choose between lacquered or coloured doors and various shelves and drawers.

As far as modular furniture go, it’s a well designed concept and it’s perfect that you can buy the bits you want and select your own colour preferences for cupboard doors. Prices start from £29.

Bold, graphic and contemporary – we think these three words sum up the wallpaper range by Evil Robot Designs very well.

If you like decorating with wallpaper that is certainly not run-of-the-mill, then these designs could fit the bill, as they are graphic designs at their best.

We’ve been meaning to write about them for months, since they were launched in May at Clerkenwell Design Week.

It Came From Beneath The Sea is a bold red wallpaper featuring a swirl of black and white octopus tentacles.

It Came From Outer Space is inspired by B-movies and features a graphic print of a flying saucer invasion.

From a distance, the white and grey pinstripe design of The Three Laws of Robotics wallpaper looks quite tame. But once you see it close up you realise that each stripe consists of robots and cyborgs fighting!

What do you think of the designs and would you decorate your home with them?

Practicality is the word here. It’s all well and good having that carefully crafted contemporary bathroom, but it’s not as if the kids will notice! There are various ways in which you can design a practical and safe bathroom to suit your needs, without neglecting style.

A bath is a must as shower enclosures will never suffice for the little ones, anti-slip surfaces are also advisable (avoiding those nasty slips that can happen in a bathroom). Materials that can be wiped clean, such as simple porcelain, are great as your units can be kept sparkling with minimal effort.

Fit for all the Family

The design and decoration of your bathroom are, to an extent, as important as the units themselves. Having a bath at the end of the week with relaxing music playing in the background is the ultimate form of relaxation for the modern working mum or dad.

This means that it’s important to keep your...

Clean lines, hard surfaces and low furniture – these are the three core elements of the minimalism look.

However, to achieve a minimal haven in your home, it is also expected that you have no mess, no clutter, and total tidiness. It is for this reason that most families find it difficult to achieve the minimal look, and avoid it as much as they would a 24 hour flight with the kids.

Yet, the minimal look can be family-friendly. Typically, most minimal rooms are painted all white, and occasionally use an accent colour such as red on cushions or additional touches, to brighten up the room. However, another way of going for a minimal colour scheme is to paint the room in neutral tones, such as greys, muted greens and blues. This keeps in line with the understated feel you may want from your room, but also ensures that children’s grubby fingers won’t leave too much of a stain on your clean...

The nation’s best loved consumer home show is back for its 104 year. The Ideal Home Show, sponsored by Everest, is returning to London’s Earls Court for 17 days from the 16 March to 1 April 2012, and we have 10 pairs of tickets for our lucky readers to win to this year’s show!

The show famous for making home-making a national passion, boasts a new celebrity Ambassador line-up for 2012, over 600 exhibitors and EIGHT inspirational show sections all under one roof.

Flamboyant interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen will be the new celebrity ambassador for the ideal Interiors section, whilst TV gardening royalty Alan Titchmarsh joins the Ideal Home Show family as ideal Gardens ambassador along with Lorraine Kelly, the new face of ideal Woman.

These new celebrity faces will join existing show ambassadors and favourites, Gregg Wallace of ideal Food, Suzi Perry of ideal Gadgets and George...

Love the look of classic American diners? Here’s a guest post from Becky Yardley, with some ideas and products to help you create a red retro diner look at home in your kitchen.

The American Diner look is an iconic fun flashback to the fifties, think stars and stripes and big impact pieces.

Go large with your appliances – this Siemens American style fridge freezer is a whopping 562 litres in size, perfect for storing all those yummy treats.

Recreate your own Pulp Fiction diner scene with this retro red and white bar chair, sip milkshakes from these stripy straws and tuck into some homemade popcorn.

Jam Roly Poly or Knicker Bocker Glory? Treat your eyes on this fab puddings print then cook up your favourite. Be bold and bright with colourful appliances like this red Bosch dishwasher to add to the overall look.

Where to shop to get the look:

Pudding Framed Print – £19.95 from Olde...

After the usual summer slowdown, the antiques trade is gearing up for a crammed autumn calendar. There’s the Winter Fine Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia and Antiques for Everyone at the NEC. And Judith Miller’s chunky bi-annual Antiques Handbook and Price Guide has hit the bookshops. Whether your taste is the cool midcentury look or classic country-house style, whether you’re seeking an investment piece or setting up home on a shoestring, there’s something for everyone.

The lean, low lines of mid-20th-century furniture, especially timber sideboards, dining tables and sofas from the Fifties, lend themselves to contemporary open-plan living. Gareth Williams, modern design specialist at Bonhams auctioneers, says bidders are presently vying for early production furnishings by celebrated Scandinavian designers. “They’re iconic pieces, instantly recognisable, because many are still in...