‘If I can fit it in, I’ll add it’: mixing handmade with high-street

The Wimbledon home that’s a treasure trove of Moroccan pottery, vintage glassware and colourful curiosities

The framed watercolour swatches made by a paint salesman that cover the wall of Lisa Mehydene’s dining room are just the kind of canny £30 flea market buy that is her signature. As soon as she saw them, she knew they’d look great on the wall and from there so much of her interiors aesthetic extends.

A technicolour canvas unfolds on her dining table when she entertains: “I’m quite maximalist,” she says. “If I can fit it in, I’ll add it.” Hand-moulded plates, porcelain spoons, and a salvaged vintage linen runner and napkins are the backdrop to earthenware jugs of flowers. “Texture is so important to me,” she adds. Dark green Moroccan Tamegroute pottery from her online interiors business, edit58, sits next to brightly coloured plates made by vintage dressmaker Double J. Lighting is also key: “Candlelight always, never bright lighting as it is such a mood killer, but no scented candles near the food or the table.”

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zrXb3h
via IFTTT

Blanche Marvin, 93: ‘I’m never lonely in this house, because I have my life with me’

She was a Broadway actor, a wife and mother – and now, at 93, a theatre blogger. The one thing that hasn’t changed is Blanche Marvin’s memory-filled house

When Blanche Marvin moved to her flat in London, it was on a temporary basis, until she could find somewhere more suitable. That was 50 years ago. Rent was £8 a week: “It was déclassé to live above a shop, so it was cheap,” she says in her throaty, well-bred New York accent. She has rented it for so long that she now has residents’ rights. And besides, no one would dare turf this small but formidable nonagenarian on to the street: she has gale-force opinions on everything from plastic bags to actors.

Marvin, a former actor and producer, is probably one of the most active theatre critics you’ve never heard of. At 93, she still goes to the theatre “most nights”, and writes thorough reviews which she publishes at blanchemarvin.com. She regards her pieces as providing a service; they are written, she says, for the industry – directors, producers, other critics. “My reviews don’t put bums on seats. I’m older than anyone else – I’ve seen the originals, I can provide the context. Critics used to be authorities. Now they’re just journalists. I’m the only one left.”

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Bv3lkA
via IFTTT

How to prune an apple tree | Alys Fowler

Winter pruning helps keep your fruit trees in order

It doesn’t take long for an apple tree to go feral. Left to its own devices, an apple has no desire to be a neat thing with well-placed branches. Unpruned apples produce smaller fruit, are often more susceptible to disease and start fruiting biennially (a natural way of dealing with pest and disease: less fruit, less infection). Winter pruning allows you to claw back a tree into a more ordered manner.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PQnBG5
via IFTTT

Gardening tips: grow oyster mushrooms at home

Get a fungi-growing kit, read this beautiful book about houseplants, visit Cambridge Univeristy botanic garden

You’ve filled your home with houseplants, but now what? New book Root, Nurture, Grow shows how to grow your collection through propagation, from leaf cuttings to air layering. Authors Rose Ray and Caro Langton of interior planting designers RoCo Studio break down the key techniques.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2R8zh3B
via IFTTT

How to prune an apple tree | Alys Fowler https://t.co/HZBNGqj9a7 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

How to prune an apple tree | Alys Fowler https://t.co/HZBNGqj9a7 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1066289501746720768)

Gardening tips: grow oyster mushrooms at home https://t.co/WwA2PTA92t Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

Gardening tips: grow oyster mushrooms at home https://t.co/WwA2PTA92t Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1066289499649581056)

Blanche Marvin, 93: ‘I’m never lonely in this house, because I have my life with me’ https://t.co/5aNmONQJuA Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

Blanche Marvin, 93: ‘I’m never lonely in this house, because I have my life with me’ https://t.co/5aNmONQJuA Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1066289497707565056)