Little shell, little shell……..like the droplet from Tiepolo’s paintbrush….

I just can’t help but think there should be shells on everything….

And often really, there is.

We’re a bit mad for this Pierre Frey fabric even!!

The office has been space planning up a storm. Nicky and I, well the entire NH team, pride ourselves on delivering the unexpected and it got me thinking recently that based on what I see in many of the popular shelter magazines…the ol’ love of symmetry has gotten a little out of control.

Take for example pairs…pairs of chairs beget pairs of end tables beget pairs of lamps ….oh my goodness I’m almost asleep.

What about the magic of the solitary?? The magic of the single taper candle for example…..ONE of which burns in my breakfast room constantly.

A pair is an entirely different effect, a pair is about commodity. A single taper…that’s for dreaming…

Our office is a true blue testament to creativity…in the studio sense of the word. My desks tend to look the same and every now and then one of us will have a little tantrum and say ‘we must sort this out!…we must present a more professional face’!!!

And maybe its true….but I have always believed in creative chaos. (except of course, within project files where all is and must be a sanctuary of orderliness)

A reverse ethos seems to take hold in my home though, and I find myself enslaved to my little visual creations, my tablescapes, my placement, my visual stories. And I know that’s not a good thing.

I’m reading Jessica Mitfords brilliant ‘Poison Penmanship’ within which she quotes Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (how is it that an author can possibly have the words quill, and couch within his name I wonder?)

‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it – whole-heartedly —- and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings’

Maybe it’s the spring air arrived too early, but I think to myself ‘this is it! – exactly’ one must murder your darlings. !! Rip apart all those carefully orchestrated styling’s and breath new life into my space……

I’m starting in the living room…..(certainly NOT the desk.)