The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

Since yesterday was such a glorious day in London – I thought I’d kick off with the promise of summers ahead with a much needed post on flowers!

From what I’ve gathered, flowers are a part of everyday life in France. You will find a florist on most street corners and next to essential stalls on busy thoroughfares ie. bread, newspapers, flowers. In Britain, however they are still considered a luxury.

Au Nom de la Rose is a chain of florists founded in Paris in 1991, and house roses of all varieties in their visually stunning stores. They have 53 stores in France alone and beginning with Belgium, Spain, Italy, Russia and Kuwait they are beginning to build a network of stores abroad.

Although I’m not a lover of chains and much prefer an independent bookstore, coffee-shop or bakery, sometimes it’s good to know what you’re getting and how much you can expect to pay. Au Nom de la Rose are the only florists to practice the same prices all year round, you can see their flat prices on elegant signs dotted around their windows.

I love my local florists, but sometimes I get the feeling, because there aren’t always prices attached to containers, that I am often buying blind and you can end up paying more than intended. Unless you buy a ready made bouquet which you don’t always want to, buying flowers on a budget can often be a daunting process.

I think the Au Nom de la Rose stores are simply charming and really seem to give the impression of an independent florist on your street corner as most stores are franchises.

Along with the French’s passion for beauty in the everyday, the brand also seems to have played a big part in making flowers a part of daily life. Now why don’t we have any in the UK!

With Easter fast approaching, it seems like I’ve got chocolate on the brain more so than usual. I couldn’t resist drooling over the website of London chocolatiers Melt. Their shop has a kitchen on site so you can see and smell the chocolates being made!

Specialities include sea salted caramel bon-bons, slabs of chocolate popcorn and raspberry and chocolate lollipops adorned in rose petals. Watch a blissful video of the store creating their chocolates here.

Have you discovered it yet? Luscious interior shop Atelier Abigail Ahern is now selling their treasures online!

Products from this surreal London homewares brand fronted by Stylist Abigail Ahern are wonderfully original and often witty. You will find ostrich shaped side tables and space defying convex mirrors, barbie pink coffee tables and chandelier made from hundreds of porcelain leaves all played out against the darkest of backgrounds.

However style like this doesn’t come cheap – which is why it’s rather nice to finally have an online shop that lets you peruse and contemplate for hours, days or even years before you take the inevitable plunge!

What would you choose?

Finally I can share one of my favourite shops in London - Mint! I say finally because Mint has moved location from it’s original Marylebone spot to a new one in South Kensington  – right around the corner from my other favorite Few and Far. Although equally beautiful, the old space was quite dark and atmospheric, not great for taking pictures, but yesterday while propping I stepped into the new store for the first time and was ecstatic at the lovely new light filled space!

Mint stocks and sources the most unusual and innovative contemporary homewares, I literally don’t tire of looking around when I visit – they always have beautiful ceramics by contemporary artists such as Hella Jongerius and Kathy Dalwood, the most unusual furniture – side tables that look like icebergs with tiny polar bears crawling over them, and tablelamps made fused toy soldiers. from Their stock is ever changing – yesterday I discovered giant yo-yo lights, oversized necklaces, music playing bears and real dandelions embedded with LEDs!

Their website is just as insane and curious – check it out here.

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I am currently obsessed with relatively new online design shop Bouf’s original range of quirky products made accessible through their site.

In my opinion any retailer that has an entire section dedicated to Ostrich print, bedlinen, throws and wallpapers is a winner! Do check out all of their other products however, you will find some gems!