Best desk lamps

A couple of things promoted this look at the best desk lamps. Firstly, I’ve interviewed crack Amsterdam-based interior designer Kate Hume a couple of times for UK ELLE Decoration, and one of her ‘hero’ items that she employs in nearly every scheme is not some super-expensive thing, but the Metropol lamp from Habitat, which seems like a pretty good tip to pass on. Metropol is stylish but unobtrusive, and Kate typically uses it to highlight an eclectic display of objects on a table. Second, a friend has just completed the first draft of his debut novel, and he wrote it in his spare bedroom under the depressing watch of a single, bare energy-saving bulb in the ceiling. Now, writing a novel is, I am sure, a painful business, and if only he’d had a nice little desk lamp for company it might have been fractionally more pleasurable. So here are some ideas to make your workspace more conducive to creative, happy thoughts.

Clockwise from top left: Secto 4220 by Seppo Koho, from Skandium; Quentin, from BHS; Lean Table Red by Tom Dixon, from Icône; Atlantis, by Graham and Green; Jieldé, from Caravan; Metropol, by Habitat; Hector with pleated shade, by Holloways of Ludlow; white Anglepoise, from Heal’s; Bestlite, from Elk Home; 1940s-style bronze lamp, by Plümo

New home: Khan House, by drdh architects

It’s an old cliché to say that architects would rather have their houses empty of furniture (and possibly even people) so that their perfectly proportioned masterpieces can speak for themselves, unsullied by the grubby belongings of their client. But with this new London house by drdh (via Arch Daily), I can kinda see their point. The detailing is just poetry, really: beautiful Douglas fir joinery, an unbroken shell of snow-white Corian in the kitchen, raw concrete and exposed brickwork everywhere else. The knowledge that this is a listed building that had been extended in a very ad-hoc way in its past just makes the achievement of such a coherent space all the more remarkable. The client is an artist, apparently: all I can say is, they’d better not have too much stuff.

Design hub: Columbia Road

Long famous for its exuberant Sunday flower market, London’s Columbia Road is now also a hub for independent design shops. It’s not really a shopping experience for those who enjoy quiet, reflective browsing; Columbia Road on the Sabbath is more of an elbows-in experience as you fight the tide of people who stop by for a bunch of tulips and then accidently come away with a vintage armchair or a brilliant contemporary print. Many shops only open on Sundays to coincide with the market, but a lot of them have an online presence too: not quite as exciting as being there, but the next best thing. Try Elphick’s and Nelly Duff for prints and other affordable art, Treacle for kitchen stuff old and new (and frivolous cakes) Supernice for cool wall stickers, and round the corner in Ezra Street, Ben Southgate for time-mellowed early-20th-century furniture and lighting.

Urban alphabet tiles by Big Tomato (A is, of course, for Anglepoise), as spotted in Supernice

3-D stag screenprint by Miss Aida Wild, on sale at Nelly Duff

Online store: Berry Red

Discovered this nice-looking online shop (which is also a nice-looking real shop, in Hereford) while having a browse. Berry Red’s owner Karon Hamilton has a really good eye for accessories that are quaint and sometimes kitsch without being super sickly sweet, as well as smart grown-up things such as enamel pendant lights. I particularly like the ceramics and tableware, which look much more classy (ie, expensive) than they are. One thing, though: it’s all pretty feminine. So this post is strictly for the ladies.

A Scandinavian summerhouse

Swedish mag Hus&Hem this month features what I would think of as the classic Scandinavian summerhouse – the kind that thousands of families flee to from the city every weekend at this time of year. To say that I am jealous of this cultural tradition would be a massive understatement; imagine how much more bearable the working week would be if you could hit the road at the end of it and stay here. This place has got the studied informality of Scandinavian design down to a tee – a white shell with lots of colourful accessories; a few old pieces plus a handful of contemporary classics. I will be thinking of its lucky owners as I spend another weekend in the grimy city. (But at least, come December, I will get, ooh, six hours of daylight. Yeah! Take that, Scandis!)

New lighting: Llum, by Peca

Designboom featured this elegant and lovely plywood pendant light by Mexican designers Peca. I have an irresistible attraction to anything with a bird motif and this fits the bill nicely. Plus it has prompted me to do a bit of research into what’s going on in Mexican design, a subject with which I’m not familiar; this piece really played with my expectations because it looks so Scandinavian…

Show: New Designers, Business Design Centre

A few favourites from New Designers, an amalgamation of the end-of-year degree shows from around the UK. Although it covered a lot of ground – product design, visual communications, spacial design – it’s the furniture that most readily communicates to the ordinary punter, I think. Because everyone loves a good chair…

Above: The Not-so-ubiquitous Knitted Chairs, by Yuvinia Yuhadi (there’s an ordinary plastic garden chair under there…)

Tree reception chair, by Fergal Costello (Bucks New University)

Pidge coffeee table, by Olivia Marsh (LMU)

Felt Up chair (made from a single piece of felt) by Charlotte Kingsnorth

Coffee table by Cara Stockell (Northumbria University)

On the wall: Hatch Show Print

If you like your Americana, a piece of artwork from Hatch Show Print is a must-have. The Nashville-based letterpress printmakers have been churning out show posters for the greatest names in country music since 1879, and you can still buy the best of their ‘restrikes’ (ie, a new print made from the original plates) for surprisingly little. Among the Pasty Cline and Johnny Cash posters there is some ace advertising artwork, pushing everything from trailers to ice-cream, that brilliantly evokes the brave new world of post-war consumerism. I dunno what ‘whole hog sausage’ is, but this poster makes me want to eat some.

Top 10 kitchen tea towels

Ah, tea towels. A pristine little bit of art for your home, which subsequently gets covered in food stains that just won’t come out, even on a boil wash. So you have to buy some more. It’s unhygienic not to. I think. Anyway here are 10 good ones (tip: colour + pattern = stains less noticeable).

Clockwise from top left: Full English, from Mr PS; Paris, by Atelier LZC, from Mirror Mirror on the Web; Luchador by LoudMouse, from Etsy; Vintage French cutlery, from Re; New York, by Lovely Lovely; Orange Flowers, by Petra Boase, from Not on the High Street; Rex + Regina, by Lush Designs; Sprig, by Clare Nicolson; Coffee and Cake, by New House Textiles; Birdcage in organic cotton, by Ferm Living from 95% Danish

New home: a villa in Beekbergen, by Factor Architecten

I am quite a fan of the use of traditional materials in modern buildings, like this rural house in Beekbergen, the Netherlands, by Factor Architecten. It’s cone-shaped, with some big expanses of concrete and glass contrasting with a huge curving thatched roof – a modern-day fairy-tale house in the forest. As in the UK, thatch has a tradition in the Netherlands going back centuries (it’s certainly the oldest type of roof covering still in use in Britain), but Dutch architects seem to be embracing it as a contemporary building material far more than in Britain. Maybe it’s something to do with cautious local planners, or fear of fire….?