Our Kings Road showroom plays host to a regularly changing display of modern art, beautifully curated by our friends over at Tag Fine Arts. One particular piece, ‘Balloon’ by Dede Johnston, is over a meter wide and one of five signed editions. It’s from a series entitled ‘The New Wilderness’ and is a C-type print of a scene from Courcheval, France. It’s wonderfully ethereal piece and captures the perfect stillness that a fall of snow always brings. Look carefully and you’ll see a tiny hot air balloon floating above the clouds, creating a complete sense of awe at the scale and beauty of our natural world.
We always associate white with winter, whether it snows or not (increasingly not in London). It’s a colour that provides a sense of calm and order, and it’s beautifully versatile. It’s obviously used a lot in Scandi interior design, paired with natural woods and neutral shades to create a stylish, laid back look. We love it and it’s perfect for that minimalist, contemporary look.
Bonaldo’s award-winning Octa extending dining table (below) is a magnificent piece of design by Bartoli Design for the stylish Italian brand. The table base is made from eight, white metal legs, like the old-fashioned game of pick-up-sticks. They look incredibly light in appearance but, and as you would expect, are actually very strong and stable.
The Octa also comes in four sizes and the table top can be finished in white acid treated glass, as seen here, or ceramic. The steel legs as mentioned have been lacquered in white here but you can choose from lots of other colours including anthracite grey, bordeaux, chromed or black nickel. The stylist has used Bonaldo’s My Time dining chairs, upholstered in a white Skay ecoleather, which is a high quality faux leather. The overall look, set on a deep pile grey carpet and using over-sized white lampshades, ticks all our winter wonderland boxes.
The colder winter days also mean turning the heating up/on, and a real fire, we have to confess, cannot be beaten. But we think our bioethanol fires come pretty close to the real thing – without all the hard work of buying/collecting firewood and cleaning up the ashes the next day. They also spring to life at the touch of a button and are pleasingly eco-friendly.
Bioethanol fires use high grade liquid bioethanol, a green fuel, which doesn’t generate any harmful gases, sparks or soot. They are very simple to install (hurray!) and you don’t need to have a chimney, flue or gas supply to use them. They have a superb heat output too, as well as long burning times – up to eight hours – which should keep you toasty all evening. We have a wide range of designs, including those from Danish Decoflame and Spanish brand Cocoon. As the temperature tumbles we use a couple in our own showroom; one suspended from a pole in the window, which can be angled to heat the front part of the showroom and which invariably gets lots of attention, and one down in our office area to keep us nice and cosy.
The Ascot Lux bioethanol fire (above) from Decoflame is a fully portable, freestanding fire, designed to sit in an existing fireplace or it can even be used as a freestanding piece. It’s available in three sizes, with three different burners depending on the amount of heat you like and your available space. The burn time for this one is around six hours. The Ascot design also includes toughened glass screens to shield the front or back of the fire.
There’s nothing like white for adding a touch of glamour. Minforms Soko sideboard (above) is a great addition to their new collection and we’ve picked out the white lacquered finish here to fit our theme, but it comes in bolder versions such as Veronese green, Intense blue, or Masala red. To add to the glamour, the Soko doors feature laser cut decoration and, for additional luxury, bright copper handles. There are two different sizes to choose from and the internal shelves are lacquered wood or glass. Optional extras include an internal air filter and an integrated vase.
Over-size mirrors are used by stylists and interior designers the world over as a great way of introducing extra light into a dark winter room. Italian glass wizards Tonellli Design have produced a truly impressive new mirror this year called City Life. Designed by Francesca Arrighi, the City Life mirror is an impressive 120cm or 180cm in diameter. A fantastic statement piece, its scale is hard to admire from the image alone (check out the corner left of the image above, where you can just about see an armchair and then really appreciate how large this mirror is). The edge and the centre of the mirror feature intricate geometrical patterns – small rhombus crowns – and the various layers of the design are created using a water-cutting process. We’ve used a picture of the smoked version here but it’s also available in very striking bronze and gold finishes.
Creating a sense of space is always something that we are all constantly trying to improve on and storage is a large part of this quest. The Sotto design (above) is our idea of how to get it right and how to keep it stylish. Finished in off-white and styled with a pale grey floor and rug, plus natural wood accessories, the design has used that awkward under stairs space very efficiently, with doors tailored to fit with the slope of the stairs. We have fitted something very similar in the Go Modern office and it looks soooooo smart!
Running off the wardrobe space are a series of built in shelves of different shapes, heights and sizes. It’s incredibly practical, with lots of internal accessories, and very pleasing on the eye. The Sotto collection can be installed as a built-in design or made totally free standing. You tell us what you want and our team of designers will measure up and work it out for you. We’ve also got a first-rate team of installers to complete whatever project you have in mind. The design uses a high quality melamine and there are two categories available for the finish. Colour samples can be seen in our showroom or on the website.
If you’re sad that the garden is becoming increasingly out of bounds as the nights get longer and the winter chill gets sharper, don’t forget our amazing range of high tech outdoor furniture. Many pieces can be left out all year round and are specially made to withstand the harsh weather of our northern climate. We have some great outdoor lighting too.
Contardi is a brand we have long admired and their lighting ranges are very impressive. They can supply schemes for whole room lighting through to small accessories that will certainly lift the winter gloom.
Created especially for the garden, the pretty Muse outdoor lamp will look fabulous anywhere – on a garden table, on the terrace, or placed simply on the ground. It was designed by Tristan Auer and comes in two sizes. The design also has a plaited leather, waterproof handle, making it easy to move around. You can choose from versions in white pearl or matt black, which both have a satin acrylic shade, or bronze which has a smoked plexi-glass shade with a brown leather handle.
So create your own winter wonderland this year with stylish designs that will add a little glamour and carry you through the dark days of winter and beyond.
We’ve also currently got our winter sale… 15% off all purchases over £1,000 – just use the coupon code WINTER.
