All The Home Services You Could Ever Need

Country & Town House | 18 Oct 2022

From the tip-top family business whose people digitise your photo albums professionally chez vous, through to the whizz who turns your home office paperless, and the must-have illustration of your house. From the leading Look Doctor to edit your wardrobe and style you in the privacy of your own bedroom (clue, she’s a fashion icon), to someone (used by folk in Kensington Palace) to collect your leatherwork and refurbish it. While you’re trying all the recommendations, grab the app offering a recently-launched service delivering Fortnum & Mason’s artisan foods and drinks to your home within minutes. And let the latest and best robots (reviewed below) clean your home while you’re enjoying all of these home services. You need never leave your house again. But this time you won’t feel as if you’re in lockdown.

• Homes, Interiors & Property

A dog’s life

Country & Town House | 23 Sep 2018

It’s a haunting place, if not haunted. You can almost hear the Tudor hounds and patter of paws past. This is Hales Hall near Norwich, Norfolk, a drop-dead gorgeous medieval estate in formal gardens of topiary, box hedging and lavender avenues. It boasts nine acres of moated meadowland and buttercups with fairytale cottages and a Great Barn (perfect for parties) – offering overall accommodation for 25.

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• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Suddenly life is brighter

Evening Standard | 13 Sep 2017

This three-bedroom Chelsea flat, like the happiest hippy trip with only the cheeriest colours, belongs to interior decorator Emma Deterding of Kelling Designs. She and her husband bought the place nine years ago.

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Daisy Yellow or Dead Canary?

Evening Standard | 17 Aug 2016

When I set out to redecorate and furnish our house I started by thumbing through interiors magazines and buying paint. Once the painting was under way I hit the shops, selecting fabrics and furniture as I went along. I was making a big mistake.

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Neutral Zone

Livingetc | 6 Jun 2016

‘It’s all about the light,’ insists Rebecca Wakefield. ‘I need it! Don’t we all? A simple thing, but it makes me happy.’ This explains why, as the owner of this sun-saturated ground-floor apartment in southwest London, Rebecca’s smile is rather bright and shiny too.

As flats go, this one is huge. A converted space in a Victorian bakery factory, which after spells as a children’s nursery and an architect’s studio was discovered ‘unloved, but full of so much potential’

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6 of the best flower arranging classes in London

Country & Town House | 24 Dec 2015

Looking for the best flower arranging classes in London? Caroline Phillips selects the pick of the bunch from London’s top floristry schools.

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Our crystal palace

Evening Standard | 11 Nov 2015

There’s something of the fairytale palace about this north London family home – something to do with the way it twinkles. There are crystals set in door handles, sparkling pieces in the legs of the bespoke dining table and glinting speckles inlaid in the rims of oversize doors. Even the decorative fruit is made of crystals.

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Gold star service

Country & Town House | 24 Oct 2014

Are those chores that need doing nagging away at you? Caroline Phillips picks out eight super services that should be on your speed dial

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Every picture tells a colourful story

Evening Standard | 11 Jun 2014

You get a good idea about freelance stylist Mary Fellowes just by looking at her walls. There’s a frmed obituary of her uncle – Hugh van Cutsem, erstwhile confidant of the Prince of Wales – and, nearby, there is another about her grandmother, Lady Margaret Fortescue, who inherited one of Britain’s largest land-holdings. There is also a Polaroid selfie of Fellowes with Paris Hilton – signed by the hotels heiress.

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Kensal Rise has risen

Evening Standard | 4 Jun 2014

Welcome to Brent — once called the drive-by-shooting capital of the UK. Before that it was the People’s Republic of Brent, ravaged by poverty and famed from the late Eighties for outspoken local MP “Red” Ken Livingstone, London’s first elected mayor.

When I moved to Kensal Rise in Brent, the place was derided. But “The Rise” has now risen, earning a reputation as a celebrity haunt-meets-Nappy Valley. Last year Brent experienced Britain’s fastest-rising house prices, outpacing even the oligarch hotspots of Kensington and Knightsbridge.

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House & Garden Hotels By Design 2013 – Spa Design Trends

House & Garden | 21 May 2013

Long gone are the days of the one-Eastern-style-fits-all approach to spa design. The current zeitgeist is for authenticity of location. ‘Spas have to be relevant to their collection and have a physical connection,’ notes Ingo Schweder, CEO of spa consultants Goco. Noweher is this more apparent than Evason Ma’In Hot Springs in Jordan, where the Six Senses spa incorporates a natural hot-spring waterfall which cascades down a sheer rock face into the main pool.

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Cupboard Love

Country & Town House | 18 Oct 2012

‘Think organised. Think organised squared… and that’s Susanna Hammond. In the space of a day she can change your life for the better. Susanna should be available on the National Health.’ These are the words of Emma Burns, the talented director of interior design company Colefax and Fowler.

• Homes, Interiors & Property