The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

I think everyone is probably aware that I have been incessantly on the hunt for lovely things for my new home – but I’ve also been trying to stick to a budget.

This can be hard with limited high street choices – the likes of stylish but pricey stores like John Lewis’s, Heal’s, Habitat’s and occasionally M&S. Let’s face it though you’re never going to feel like you’ve got a bargain!

Time and time again i’ve been returning to this new breed of furniture stores that have been cropping up online like Fashion for Home and Made.com. These stores have amazingly priced (half of the high street price) uniquely designed collections. I mean they are really directional gems.

The way the companies are able to keep their prices low are through a manufacture to order method, with the product only going into production once you have bought it – saving themselves storage, letting and wholesale costs. The catch is that the product can take up to 7 weeks to arrive.

While sites like these are a dream stomping ground for my imaginary wishlist and give me endless inspiration with their unique styles – I have never clicked to buy for three reasons:
1. I have never read a review online by someone I trust.
2. I have never seen any real pictures of the product apart from cut out catalogue images which doesn’t give me a sense of what I am getting.
3. Most importantly can you trust their delivery, customer services/ returns. Essentially you are still buying something substantial – isn’t it better to just buy from somewhere John Lewis so you know where you stand, even if it does cost that extra bit more?

So I was really excited and intrigued when I was offered an opportunity to review a product from German homeware brand Fashion For Home - we struck a deal and what did I have to lose?

I picked my piece which was a chic mid-century inspired occasional two-seater sofa which was a part of the brand’s Scandinavian collection called Studio Copenhagen. Description ” The Brent Sofa features simple, Scandinavian-influenced design and a solid Ash frame.

It’s the perfect, easy little couch for clean, fresh interiors. Blended fabric made from 47% viscose, 23% cotton, 30% polyester, ash legs”. Sounded lovely but I couldn’t tell too much from the detailed but floating image of the piece.

From the word go  – the brand’s service was amazing. I was stunned at this new fangled approach to selling online – at every stage I got an email telling me at what stage of production my product was at and when you can expect it.

When you log onto the site a chat screen pops up (not irritating just friendly) where you can discuss any queries with the customer service team – just normal real people at the other end. Being the first time I had used a non-immediate service like this I was anxious as to whether my order had gone through as given the long delivery time every minute counted!

- At one stage my product had just finished being made and I changed my mind about the colour and enquired within – not a problem I was told – “just pop an email to customer service and tell them you have changed your mind.”  A reply within a few hours hooray!

- A nice lady phoned me to arrange delivery and even worked around my schedule to ensure it fitted.

- And an hour before delivery someone called to let me know they were coming ( just like John Lewis)

And the product itself – well I cannot describe how stunning it is – handcrafted and detailed you could not imagine what it looks like and unfortunately no image can do it justice. The simple fabric looks luxurious and expensive and the graceful ash legs are solid good quality wood.  The petite but perfect sofa with its delicate upholstery details and joins looks like something I would never be able to afford in real life! It is comfy too – I had initially imagined it to be occasional seating for our bedroom – but it has pride of place in my reading nook!

Now because this is a partly sponsored post you might not wholly believe my glowing review, but if I didn’t believe in this product I might have just said something vague along the lines of ‘Look at this chic sofa I just bought from Fashion For Home!” and that would be that. But this is not fun throwaway furniture at a throwaway price – it is a serious forever piece that will be an integral part of my home. In fact I have ordered a armchair to match! Thanks for this amazing opportunity Fashion For Home!

Hello Toast Spring/Summer collection! With glorious weather like this it’s easy to believe it could last forever. While it does – i think it’s appropriate to dip into Toast’s Home catalogue which as usual has the ability to transport the reader away into exotic climes with white-washed walls, floaty linens and airy rooms.

I need all the pastel coloured earthenware mugs and  artfully striped South African pottery.

I need one of these in my life right now! This beautiful and unusual bed brand Letti and Co. was launched earlier this year by Italian company Gervasoni and creative genius Paola Navone.

I love how the collection mixes traditional Italian styling with modern comfort. Lots of layered upholstery detail and mix and match patterns in luscious vivid colour palettes give the whole collection a modern fairytale feel – especially the simple uncovered striped mattress version which reminds me of the princess and the pea!

Over the years I’ve gained a pretty good handle on the content of online homeware stores in the UK and while they are filled with beautiful product by great British designers – I’ve pretty much seen it all before. But lately there has been a flood of exciting new online home shopping sites with a flash sale format – where products are sold for a limited time period at discounted rates [pretty thrilling really!]. All of these sites seem to have dynamic buying teams who have been introducing me to great independent brands wanting to get involved in the who I never knew existed!

One of these sites that I’m pretty sure I am about to be seriously addicted to is Bamarang. A dedicated team of design scouts, Bamarang is based in London’s creative core of Shoreditch and scour the UK to curate super inspiring items from fashion accessories to homeware – and my favourite because it’s such a different offering to other sites of the kind – vouchers for food experiences. The scouts work closely with the brands to get a discount of up to 70%. Each item is only online for a week at a time and exclusive to members of the site [no fee just a sign up].

My current favourites are super cool textiles from British brand Custhom , simple and rustic jewellery from RipeGoods, and gold stained ceramics from the Usuals all at reduced retail prices. Addictive much?

Since there’s nothing better than a Friday afternoon shop – Bamarang have kindly given all my readers £10 off their first purchases so click here to get shopping!

Hand stamped Inky Blue and Coral cushions from Row of Letters