Miller Harris, Le Pamplemousse

So I went and met my friend, Lyn Harris, for coffee yesterday at my new fave: The Mount St Deli.  Happily for me she arrived with a bag full of treats including her new fragrance Le Pamplemousse – which I have always thought was the best word in the French dictionary.

She handed over this beautiful box saying that she didn’t think it would be for me but that it was her latest scent (launching in April 16th) and wanted me to smell it.  But it is completely for me!  I had a squirt and I love it.  I have always loved grapefruit, the scent and also the colour – the colour for me is always pink.  

I think this is a great summer scent, the perfect thing to have in one’s bag for spritzing on the way through customs at Nice airport.  That sort of thing! 

Shopping Trip

Chairs at James Jackson on the Lillie Road, London

It was a beautiful day in London yesterday (as it is again today) and I was out shopping with my friend and anitque-ing cohort Isabella.  First we dredged the Lillie Road which is just the best for finding good things.  

I was out looking for clients, but couldn’t help thinking mostly about my own place.  At Nimmo and Spooner they had these zinc console tables which I really want to put in my garden with pots on: 

I really think these are such a smart idea and i would love to add a scalloped edge to the front.  It is very much in keeping with the idea of treating the garden as you would a room.  With pots of herbs by the front door and under the kitchen window I think one of these is going to look fantastic. 

More on Kitchens

I have got my head around my kitchen now.  All the elements that i want have fallen into place.  I know that I want to have painted reclaimed pine boards on the floor and want boards on the walls too.  But how to make that a little modern and not to log cabin pastiche (in suburbia).  So i want to have the island made up like this counter in polished cement with the stove in the top and the oven below and then on the other side this shelves for china and glass.  So it should look something like this…

The back wall of the kitchen has a window in it and I will put a counter on a wall like this one above.  This is what it currently looks like:

So we have a little way to go!  I am toying with the idea of tiles.  I love to Tom Sheerer did in that Harbor Island Kitchen, it is a signature of his and I love it.  Popham Design do encaustic tiles both for walls and floors, they have masses of patterns and also a ton of colours, so you can also order them plain.

And finally, this morning I was having coffee at the Mount Street Deli and i love the way they have mixed marble and tongue and groove.  So i am thinking that maybe this is the way to go…

The Building Site…..

So this is where we are!  Behind the panel of doors is the loo, as you can see below from the other side…..

And as it was…..

For me this is the exciting part.  When a project is in its rawest state and you are really able to see what’s what.  Already we have made some minor alterations.  We are bringing the wall out to meet that existing wall where the light switch is in the final picture in order to make the bathroom larger, so that we can put a bath along the end wall rather than down the side as it was.  

However, looking at it now we have decided to steel back 10” so that we can put a bookcase there.  The sitting room is now going to be a 13’ square room with bookcases on that wall and the wall to the left.

Readying The Garden To Be a Living Room

Out today, this month’s column in Off Duty.  Click here to read.