Please welcome again Malmo-based journalist, blogger and honorary Friend, Ashlee.

“It’s been a pretty awful summer here in southern Sweden. Today, the sun made an appearance – a swan song in anticipation of the onset of autumn. August is known as “the rotting month” a time when fruits start to overripe and rot, herbs start to turn a citric yellow and flower and the window boxes that were once filled with colourful blooms begin to go brown. It will soon be time to start bringing the outdoors in, to move treasured flora and newly planted herb seeds to warmer climes – namely the windowsills. I was happy to discover the beautiful new glazed and terracotta flower pots from Swedish design institution, Svenskt Tenn.

Designed by Erika Pekkari, the pots were inspired by Svenskt Tenn’s founder, Estrid Ericson, who used to display beautiful plant and flower in pots, glasses and jars of every size and colour throughout the rooms of her Stockholm home. As a fan of duck egg blue, I hope to cheer up my winter windowsills with a few turquoise pots, although a lovely white glaze may work well with the inevitable snowfall and cold winter light that approaches.”

Coral and blue

Further to yesterday’s crockery colour combinations, I’m reposting this from Decorator’s Notebook. I love these colours together. The picture is from the adorable photoset of vintage this and that at Picnic By Ellie’s Flickr account. Get over there.

Designer dust

So while I was doing the massive clean the other week, I got to thinking again about one day, in my fantasy future, when I can get a new kitchen. I’ve always loved the look of open shelves. Most people who like interiors have lots of impulsively bought crockery that sadly doesn’t come out for […]

Design classic – dismissed

A hater writes: I’ve been meaning to start an occasional series for ages, on supposed design classics that I just totally don’t approve of. Like our idea for ‘men’s week’, it had sort of gone by the by. Until, that is, seeing this on Lampshade reminded me of my number one iconic design bugbear. I’m […]

I predicted a riot

In my head, at least, when I heard about the peaceful demonstration happening yesterday afternoon. Later, listening to the news unfolding on LBC, I felt sad for Tottenham. It reminded me of living in Peckham during a period of time when teen stabbings and shootings seemed to happen every week, and the picture painted in […]