Interiors

Hi-tech hammering: Writer and DIY enthusiast Anna Leach sets to work around her south London home using her laptop and smartphone for renovating instructions

DIY: Unblock the sink - with your laptop

Online how-to guides, blogs and instructional videos are transforming the way we renovate our properties, says home-improvement addict Anna Leach

Inside Interiors

The Secret History Of: The 700 series Bakelite telephone

Friday, 18 June 2010

In 1951, the question "Are you on the phone?" meant did you own a telephone, not were you busy nattering, texting or tweeting on it. In those days a mere 1.5 million households could answer in the affirmative. By the end of the decade, half of the UK was connected – in contrast with the 75 per cent who owned televisions by then.

Dolls' houses: Mansions in miniature

Friday, 18 June 2010

For those who adore mid-century design but can't afford the real thing, the answer could be in the trend for Modernist dolls' houses, says Kate Burt

Emily Jenkinson: Beige or bold - what’s the best way to decorate your home?

Friday, 18 June 2010

I’ve just bought a flat and am keen to jazz up the currently all white space with painted floorboards, bright accent walls and colourful tiles. I’m no longer in the minority in my desire to add colour to my interior with more homeowners than ever choosing to abandon the muted creams, pale greys and beiges of recent years in favour of decoration that reflects their personality.

What is the future for Britain’s antiques trade?

Thursday, 10 June 2010

Last year, just weeks after celebrating the 75th annual Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair in June 2009, the organisers announced it was to close for good, citing declining profit, increased costs and demands on the space for closure.

Retro graphics: Why can't today's designers get enough of the past?

Saturday, 5 June 2010

Over the years, any number of artists, writers and film-makers have laid out their visions for the future of the world in which they were living. In the late 1940s, in an almost uncanny anticipation of what was to come, George Orwell penned his account of a land blighted by pervasive government surveillance, with the classic novel 1984. In 1981, the director John Carpenter gave us the sci-fi action movie Escape From New York, in which the city had been transformed into one big maximum security prison. And who could forget Prince's worldwide hit "1999", in which "the sky was all purple" and there were "people running everywhere".

The Secret History Of: Cornishware

Friday, 4 June 2010

You might not know its name but you would certainly recognise its distinctive blue and white stripes. Perhaps from your grandparent's kitchen, or some distant childhood memory.

Five-star style: Get some inspiration from a hotbed of new trends - hotels

Friday, 4 June 2010

Artful clutter, a super-size bed and a deep free-standing bath – elements which, one might think, could give a good hotel a "homely" air. Not according to Patrick Goff, who ran an award-winning hotel design practice for 25 years before setting up Hoteldesigns.net, an online industry resource: "When a designer talks about a hotel being 'homely'," he says, "he's lying. He's talking about a kind of theatrical, Disneyland 'homely' – not what you actually get at home."

Designs on Bethnal Green: the hip hotel making E2 hot property

Thursday, 3 June 2010

Once poverty stricken and a true East End haunt for gangsters, Bethnal Green has undergone significant regeneration in recent years with new apartment blocks, work places and restaurants cropping up alongside the ugly council blocks, dirty pubs and kebab shops that still pepper the area.

Plastic fantastic: Clearly inspired design

Friday, 28 May 2010

Plastic is a symbol of our throwaway culture. But it has also transformed the world of design, a new book argues.

The Secret History Of: The Anglepoise lamp

Friday, 28 May 2010

A staple of the student bedroom and a design that has been relentlessly copied over the years, the real Anglepoise was, like many of the greatest inventions, designed by accident.

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