The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

It’s been a pretty full on month in our home on all accounts, winter illnesses all round, lack of sleep, both of us feeling like we haven’t been able to come up for air with work or domestic life to enjoy much of either.

You know when you can’t tell anyone what you have been up to when they ask… or what you have achieved because you are just too burnt out to remember? Well that.

Now I’m not saying watching a video undid all that apathy but when they say its the small things that count. It really is. This evocative video from one of my favourite Indian home-ware brands Good Earth, just transported me away for a wonderful four minutes.

The video highlights their philosophy of ‘Sustainable Luxury’ and shows the making of a block-printed, hand-stitched quilt or ‘razai’ and the delicate nuances that go into the creation of a hand-made item such as this. The measured techniques of the block printers, the steady hands of the sewers, the cathartic washing of the fabric in the shade of the afternoon sun and the visual poetry of an Indian textile studio left me calm and reflective.

Perhaps watching a video of someone making with their hands every day is the modern form of meditation? A virtual way of counting to ten and breathing… I know my creative friends would agree.

You can see other just as inspiring videos from Good Earth here.

Last week I worked on styling a house shoot for the first time since I had Aarya. It was a beautiful family home in Shepherds Bush – a townhouse with stunning original Victorian features and striking modern updates by architects McClaren Excell. The style was bright, cosy and artistic and enhanced by the colourful toys, artwork and furnishings of the owner’s young children.

It was the first time I had really paid attention to how children’s spaces and belongings worked within an interior and made me look at a family home from a completely new perspective to before. The children’s areas coupled elegant wall colours with vintage furniture and eclectic vignettes of the toys, books and trinkets which tied all the many many things that kids accumulate together.

Because the homeowners gravitated towards vintage objects and wooden toys for the children, it created a cohesive aesthetic that worked beautifully even when kids items trickled over into adult spaces. It gave me a lot to think about and showed me that you could be playful but also grown up.

Tying in with this new found longing for creating warm family spaces with longevity [shockingly I never really thought further than the nursery when I was pregnant] was the super exciting Smallable Spring Summer 2015 press release pinging dangerously into my inbox.

Smallable is a French founded online kids ‘department store’ offering a selection of over 350 covetable designer fashion and homeware brands sourced from across the world like kitschy-cool Japanese American clothing label Atsuyo Akiko, lovely Nepalese home decor brand Mushkane and super pretty Danish tableware company Rice… and with an achingly styled online monthly magazine to accompany them all… I think I may have just crossed over to the dark side.

Consider this my very first foray into kids design blogging… watch this space, whilst I watch my bank balance!

Kicking off the first in a series of posts from my trip to India, is a shop profile of a unique store nestled in a rambling mansion in the leafy alleyways of Kolkata [or Calcutta].

By Loom – run out of their family home by husband-and-wife team Rumi and Bappaditya Biswas is a treasure trove of intricately hand-woven textiles, handcrafted homeware and original fashion accessories. The couple work with weavers and crafters to marry Bengal’s rich craft heritage with contemporary design.

With original patterned tiles and spacious marble staircases tying the space together, the ground floor is filled with hand-loomed scarves, embroidered soft furnishings, beautifully crafted children’s accessories and home-ware.

The upper floors are laid out like vast walk-in wardrobes, displaying rows and rows of lavish handmade saris, featuring intricate workmanship in a staggering array of colours and patterns.

Since I visited the store four years ago, the store has become a hot spot for India’s design conscious and it has expanded with a bohemian cafe and courtyard serving delicate homemade Indian food.

The spirit of By Loom is undeniably rooted in the building it inhabits and the locality – which retains the essence of an old Bengali neighbourhood. In the West, concept stores taking up premises of town houses and residential spaces to create intimate environments is a big retail trend – but rarely is it a natural evolution of the business.

Walking through the house is like visiting the artistic home of a Bengali relative. Old armoires are filled with handcrafted pottery and ceramics from makers all over the state and coffee tables groan with colourful heirloom-like textiles that look like they have just been taken out of closets for sorting.

The new courtyard, an overspill of the cafe is prepped for whiling away cool afternoons and balmy nights.

By Loom
58-B, Hindustan Park
Kalighat, Kolkata

Spending this past month in India kicked off my new year with a wealth of design inspiration.

We spent three weeks hunkering down with family in Calcutta – a bustling Indian city nestled in West Bengal – known for its rich history of craft and talented artisans – from embroidery to sculpture and sketching to metal crafts.

Then a week in Mumbai one of India’s most exciting cities. Known as the gateway to India its aesthetic straddles the best of the east and west, resulting in an exquisite design landscape.

Here is a snapshot of inspiration from my travels from shops to eateries to family homes – all of which I will elaborate on in the weeks to come. Happy New Year!

Above: Block print fabric from Anokhi. Mirror at my grandmothers sisters home. A clay plate being decorated at Aarya’s First Rice ceremony by her grandmother using ground rice paste.

Above: The ‘British’ marble lions that guard Victoria Memorial. R&D Laboratory at The Horticultural Gardens in Calcutta. Iconic buildings on Marine Drive, Mumbai. Pavements in Calcutta. Door handle display and knocker at The Corner Courtyard. Antique Mirror at The Taj Bengal.

Above: Mumbai’s first luxury boutique hotel Abode. Mirror at Bungalow 8.  Pali Village Cafe, in Bandra. Last two images both Tote on The Turf restaurant, Mumbai.

Above: Wall treatment and cool plant detail at a family home. Embroidered bangles at By Loom Calcutta. Ceramics and textiles at Sasha in Calcutta. Colonial interiors at the Bombay Gymkhana.

Above: Etched brass floor treatment on the stairwell at Good Earth. Luxurious textiles at 85 Lansdowne. The balcony at our family home. A ghostly Victoria Memorial at night. My favourite detail at our family home – the marble floor with brass inlay.

We are spending Christmas and the New Year in India this year, catching up on much needed sleep, good home cooked food and introducing Aarya to the sights and sounds of her other homeland. We will be back, refreshed  in the New Year with lots of inspiration from our trip. Till then!