Fashion for everyone

Brooke at Velvet and Linen and Mary Jo at Trust Your Style, two girls with impeccable taste and gorgeous flair, have asked me to choose one image that best shows my design style. Here is the thing...I can't. I have thought about this challenge all week and I couldn't come up with one image that defined my loves when it comes to interior design. I am fickle and I am changeable because I love to mix it up. One day I am loving shabby chic, antique or ancient and the next I am dreaming of a contemporary, minimalist home where concrete and glass are the super heroes. So guess what - I am cheating a little. Seven books in one image - each one an example and an inspiration for my mixed up and contrary style. 

A House Is Not A Home by photographer Bruce Weber is a visual essay in how to put things together - his choice of eclectic vignettes are brilliant studies. Provencal Escapes - easy one there - a feast of homes in my part of the world; every home featured sends my interior radar into overdrive. Vogue Living, Houses Gardens People - I will get to this gorgeous tome in a minute. Missing Masterpieces, which is the wild card amongst my picks but non the less interesting because I believe no room can be complete without well loved art. Art, whether modern, classical or created by children personalizes an interior; art is the individual signature in a room and tells most about the owner. Putman Style - one of my favourite French interior designers - Andree Putnam is a master when it comes to rooms that are elegant but edgy, simple but never bland. And what would interior design, personal style and house love be without fashion. Interiors should have a splash of irreverence and a dash of elegance - a little whimsy never hurt a room and nor did a little grace. Tim Walker Pictures showcases some very sublime interiors through his wacky take on fashion and Lanvin is a book of pure beauty and elegance. The use of fabrics - the detailing, the embroidery and the layering - is pure poetry and an indirect lesson in the study of soft furnishings.

Back to House, Garden, People - and now I am really breaking the 'one shot' rule. I adore this book and most of the homes featured in it, for all the reasons mentioned above - the whimsy and the elegance, the art and the furnishings, the landscapes and the settings, the people and the vignettes. Today when I opened the pages these are the images that drew my eye - tomorrow it may well be a different set. Why these particular pics?

Because I love the four poster bed and the vase with a simple camelia. I can imagine waking up in that bedroom from the perfect slumber.

Because porcelain and rich buttery croissants do the best breakfast make. I would happily wander through that secret door and cut flowers from my garden admiring my yew and box topiaries on the way.

Because to walk through a trellis of white roses is my recurring dream and to sit and read in a library of a million books comes a close second.

Because I love the arrangement of small tables in front of this canape and no room is complete without a touch of red.

and because I just love these washed pink walls.

My style is fickle, I am female after all, and it changes on any given day but there are constants. I would like to think that my rooms are inviting, not too precious, interesting but not off putting. I would hope they tell a tale or two about my family and our travels and anyone who knows me will vouch that at night they are flickering with candlelight and filled with flowers from the garden. 

Personal design style - I think it is whatever makes you happy,xv.