I’ve got the holiday blues. Just returned from an all-over-the-shop road trip that started with a wedding in the Ribble Valley via a few days in the Peak District, then moved onto an Alpine-fresh mini break in Austria and finally Munich to stay with my brother and his girlfriend. They just moved there, it’s lovely. They swim in lakes, drink beer at lunch and consume too much pork – well, they did when we were there, apparently it’s all salads and wholesome bike rides normally.

The pictures below show the basement spare room in their rented house, where we slept and where my brother’s girlfriend has assembled this work corner. She’s an interior designer. She can draw and has nice stuff. I’m more than a little excited to have someone to gab to about paint charts and the joys of a good tin at family events.

Here’s the living room, which includes a lovely Richard Scarry illustration, a drawing of some trees found in a Munich thrift store, and some vintage Letraset. The cushions are home made. It’s not easy making a rented home feel like home, so I’m always impressed when people do.

I’ll be posting on various other bits of our holiday in due course. You can look forward to How to decorate the Chatsworth House way, Seamstress pins: the new masking tape? and Beaver Porn*: What the Austrians don’t know about stacking logs is not worth knowing. Just as soon as I’ve waded through my snaps.

*© S Kilgour Taylor