ForLook Interior Design

Well, I watched all three episodes of The Perfect Home last week. It was really interesting. Alain De Botton investigated why British people like to live in old-looking houses, what he called “pastiche” homes.

He argued that one of reasons is that we no longer know what is supposed to be beautiful or tasteful. In the past there was a generally accepted idea of beauty and taste. Anything goes these days. But if this is the case, surely new buildings would be a mish-mash of styles? Whilst in fact most newly built homes are faux-Georgian or mock-Tudor..

This is a preview, read Perfect Home in full.

Did you watch The Perfect Home last night on More4?
At last someone publicly questions the British housing phenomenon of living in reproduction buildings. We designers don’t quite understand why anyone would want to live in a new building that looks two hundred years old??? OK, wanting to live in a period house or wanting to have original antique furnishing around us is one thing, but wanting to simulate the past? What’s the point of that?

This is a preview, read The Perfect Home in full.

My friends have been going on about an Indian take-away service nearby – apparently it’s the best in SE London. However, I’ve never tried it as I don’t do take-aways. I either cook or go out.

Over the last year I have observed the remodelling of a small house on my way to & from work – it took so long that I started wondering about what on earth they’re doing there. One day it just turned into a rather inviting looking restaurant. It was called Cinnamon. Obviously I became nosy and I checked out the interior immediately. It looked quite nice – east-meets-west sort of decoration. Then I read the menu – it offered modern Indian cuisine. I put 2 & 2 together – could this be the place everyone has been banging on about???..

This is a preview, read Cinnamon in full.

If you’re thinking about going to the Home Show at Excel, but haven’t bought your ticket yet, don’t bother. I went yesterday and wasn’t very impressed. It’s not about  ideas for homes – it’s more like a furnishing bazaar and upmarket food hall.  It’s really not worth it. Most of the “exhibitors” don’t even offer good discounts on their products – only maybe 5 or 10% off retail price..

This is a preview, read Home Show in full.

In the previous article I wrote about what to do (and what not to do) in order to attract tenants. Here you can read about good decorating solutions for properties to let.

Floors

Wooden or laminated floors  are the best- carpets are not good for rental properties. You can add a rug, but make sure it’s washable and/or not very valuable..

This is a preview, read Decorating Solutions for rental properties in full.

More and more people are investing their money in buy-to-let properties. When they buy a property they remodel it and hope for the ideal tenant. Unfortunately most people forget the basic rule of rental property  -that remodelling / decorating a property for the rental market requires different criteria to those used when we do up a place for ourselves..

This is a preview, read Rental decoration in full.

The latest trend in design is “personality” – we want objects, furniture and accessories to be unique. No wonder crafts and hand-made things are becoming more and more popular.

The reason behind this is that our lives have been McDonaldised – mass-produced clothes, furnishing and items make us & our homes look the same. Even designer labels have lost their exclusive allure – they are more affordable, more international than they used to be.  Not to mention what the chav culture has done to some of them..

This is a preview, read Personal Logos in full.

As I suggested in the previous article, good restaurants are hard to find these days – despite an endless choice of trendy places, cafes, gastro-pubs and so on providing modern, fusion or ethnic cuisines..

This is a preview, read unique restaurants in full.

We’ve decided to add a new category to our blog called good restaurants. I know some people will ask what that’s got to do with interior design? Quite a lot, actually.

Most of us go to a restaurant because it was recommended to us or it had a good advert or review in the paper – or simply because we just like the look of it. Well, I tend to do the latter. I first judge a restaurant by its appearance – from an aesthetic point of view (I know, it’s rather sad  - but I’m a designer after all)..

This is a preview, read Good restaurants in full.

We have decided to remove our telephone number from our web site because we have received far too many nuisance & irrelevant phone calls. We are a small design firm and prefer to spend our time on our clients or our design work rather than wasting time listening to sales people, job seekers and pointless enquiries.

If you have any enquiries about our services please email us – let us know your phone number and we’ll call you back asap. Alternatively fill out this form with your details and we’ll get back to you.

This is a preview, read Forlook Contact in full.