NEW Isak wallpaper

Are you embracing the current fad for all things geometric? Do you find yourself ogling the Louvre Pyramid? Got a bit of a ‘thing’ for triangles? Clutching a protractor? If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above, have we found some wallpaper for YOU. Designer Sandra Isaksson has just released two stunning new designs: Nova Mist and Nova Dawn.

I’ve been a fan of Isak‘s Penguin papers and fun trays for a while – have a peep at the Isak website if you haven’t already! According to the ‘ABOUT’ page, “all Isak products are part hand made by trolls”. Another good reason to shop there, surely. – Ellie

The patchwork bedspread of my DREAMS

When the new John Lewis autumn/winter look book came out, I fell in love at first sight with the stunning ‘Alegra’ patchwork bedspread. Then I saw this liddle beauty in the flesh at the John Lewis press show and, in the words of Wayne Campbell of Wayne’s World fame (apologies if you’re too old/young/cool to pick up on these crass early 90s references), I whispered: “It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.”

It’s so beautiful – and it’s a very reasonable £60, which seems extremely good value for a double (200cm x 220cm) size bedspread. I’d mix it with souk-style accessories for a full-on colour fest. Keep your eyes peeled – it’s due in-store and online this autumn. – Ellie

Sulpher, so good

Sulpher is a chemical element with the atomic number 16. It’s an abundant multivalent non-metal, and it smells like rotten eggs. It also happens to be the key colour in the HOTTEST combo for autumn/winter 2010: sulpher yellow, charcoal grey and dirty teal…as illustrated PERFECTLY by the new Ferm Living collection:

I love all the geometric prints around this season – and did you spot those ceramic chemistry flask bottles? SIGH. Science-chic. It was my least favourite subject (on a par with Maths, natch) at school, yet now I am obsessed with the equipment. Oh, the irony. If only the acne-troubled me of the past had had the sense to put some beakers aside for future styling purposes, instead of spending the entire time trying to sneak in to Marylin’s night club.

Sulpher, charcoal and teal is all very lovely, but you don’t have to stick to the three big cheeses – mix things up with a bit of brown here and there, a splash of pale baby pink and some pale aqua blue…this is SUCH a flexible and, quite frankly, lickable palette!

These colours look so good with retro furniture. Loving the chunky knitted log baskets / bowls below, too. – Ellie

Plumo worship

It’s raining. It’s chilly. The leaves are falling. I’ve been in denial, but let’s face it: summer is well and truly over in the UK. It’s not all bad news, though. The new autumn/winter collections are popping up online left, right and centre. Today, the new Plumo range went live…and it’s an absolute stonker:

I love the cheeky little owl pot holders and I’m lusting after that Danish bedside table, too!

Whoever had the GENIUS idea of putting a giant reel of butcher’s twine inside a glass cloche bell jar deserves a Trend Merging Medal. They’ve basically combined two of my favourite things to create something so completely unnecessary but absolutely gorgeous at the same time – and for reasons I can’t quite fathom, I LOVE it! – Ellie

HOT DESIGNER: CHARLOTTE FARMER

Ooh, we do like a nice tea towel here at HomeShoppingSpy, as no doubt you’ve noticed by now. When I saw these lovely new designs from Charlotte Farmer on the New House Textiles site, I practically fell off my chair. Just when I think I’ve got all the tea towels I’ll need for my important-ongoing-and-possibly-never-to-be-completed-turning-tea-towels-into-cushion-covers-project (so far, I have a Lisa Stickley one, a Warbeck and Cox one and a Thornback and Peel one…) along comes another little gem for me to obsess over, Gollum-style. These are all lovely, but the spoons design is my preciousssssss:

I also really like the biscuit bags Charlotte makes (also stocked at  New House Textiles) – have a peep:

If you like these tea towels, check out some of our previous tea towel posts. This one‘s a cracker. Oh, how we chuckled when we wrote this one. But, if you don’t look at this one, you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll regret it forever. – Ellie

Pretty wall art

I just stumbled across some pretty hand-cut initial greeting cards from Hertfordshire-based ‘gemma with a g‘ –  they’d look so pretty framed and hung as wall art.

Once I checked out her full range, I couldn’t choose a favourite! – Ellie

NEW Bold & Noble map prints

When Bold & Noble released the British Isles Type Map print last year (in delicate duck egg blue and sexy slate grey), there were whoops of joy in the Ideal Home office. Three of us placed an order the very same day – and my slate grey map (propped up on the mantelpiece in a Habitat Bacall frame) makes me so happy! If you liked the UK map, you’ll love this: Bold & Noble has introduced a few new designs; typographical maps of Australia and New Zealand went online today and maps of London and America are due to appear shortly…

Beware, friends. A few ‘strangely-similar’ prints (of France and Italy) have appeared on another website recently, but I’ve checked and they’re not produced by Bold & Noble – (and the fonts on them aren’t nearly so nice either, in my opinion!) Here’s a sneaky peek at the America and London maps which are about to be released. I bet the London one is massively popular here! Can’t wait to get my hands on one. Find out more on the Bold & Noble blog. – Ellie

HOT SHOP: HANNAH ZAKARI

I’ve been at the Edinburgh Festival for the past week, in sunny (no, really) Scotland. As well as seeing about a million amazing plays and comedy acts, I managed to find time to pop into a few shops, too. Thanks to my local guide, Zoe (from Conversation Pieces), I found Hannah Zakari – a lovely shop owned by jewellery-maker and all-round crafty-type, Rachael Lamb.

As well as selling her own lovely designs, Rachael stocks a mind-boggling array of home accessories and treats from other designers, including the likes of Lou Rota, Clare Nicolson and Eclectic Eccentricity. I had a lovely time browsing the shelves, but if you’re not in bonny Scotland, don’t despair – the Hannah Zakari website has even more to choose from. – Ellie

HOT TREND: KEYS

They unlock doors. They come in all shapes and sizes. And despite your desperate attempts to organise the little blighters – (hooks, bowls, fobs – you’ve tried them all) – men lose them on a daily basis.

They spend hours searching wildly for them at the last minute, when you’re just about to leave the house, and you’re already twenty minutes late, and they always ALWAYS turn up in his jacket pocket, and what’s even more infuriating is that that’s where you said they would be in the first place, and that was before the damn hunt even began, and where the hell is his wallet now…ANYWAY, dear readers, KEYS are big news. Not the boring little Yale jobbies. More the pretty, swirly twirly vintage type. Regardez…wonderful wall stickers above from Ferm Living…and some lovely key designs below from our friends at Warbeck & Cox (tea towel, top mug, cushion and mirror) and Tesco (bottom mug):

If you’re lucky enough to have picked up a copy of our September issue, you’ll have seen our stylists used some vintage keys from RE in one of the shoots…they look so lovely lined up on a mantelpiece:

Luckily for you, I decided against attaching a sound file of Urban Cookie Collective’s 1990s hit ‘The Key, The Secret’ to this post…

Mmmm – loving this key-shaped key hook from Cavania, and this gorgeous little needlework kit from Magasin:

Etsy is awash with keys – on necklaces, key rings (!) and the like…

…but my favourite key buy there has to be the lovely key photograph prints from Yvette Inufio. Check out the rest of her photos too – so gorgeous. Of course, the trend-setters over at Anthropologie have been going key-crazy for months:

Oh, keys. Lovely keys. But sadly the only kind of keys I’ll be encountering today will be the keyboard kind as I tackle the 2000 emails that are waiting in my inbox. Yipeeee. – Ellie

HOT SHOP: Natural History

I think we’d all agree that a crucial part of being ‘a blogger’ is to, erm, ‘blog’. So, apologies for my absence lately. I’ve been very naughty. In my defence, I’ve been really busy working on the Ideal Home Christmas issue (it’s going to be a corker!), compiling our lovely Christmas gift guide, and having a holiday – but enough excuses. Let’s crack on and never speak of this again. Today’s HOT SHOP is a new venture from Passementerie blogger Sarah Lidwell-Durnin. The shop’s called Natural History, and I think you’re going to like it. A lot.

Ooh, I do love a chemistry flask as a vase. The ones above start at £10 from Natural History. The people at Rockett St George like them, too. (This next off-piste-but-lovely pic is from them)…

…but my ‘OH’ (groan) – not so much. He’s a teacher so I tried to persuade him to sneak into the school lab, and swipe a few of the older flasks that I imagine are just knocking around, not being appreciated in a design sense. But no such luck. Apparently, it’s stealing. And resources are limited etc in Lambeth. Sigh. Those pupils are so selfish. Any road, back to Natural History, which is so lovely, a little beetle appears in the URL bar when you visit the site. Sigh again.

Ever since my Etsy guest post, I’ve had a bit of a thang for coral. So, these lovely linen cushions with coral designs are definitely my cup of tea. And you know how I feel about insects and beetles in particular, so I’m VERY excited about these new Entomology notebooks, too:

And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a lovely collection of antique German grain sack cushions. Say. No. More.

Before you beetle off to place an order, you might want to check out the lovely silk coral design dressing gown in the ‘robes’ section, too. It’s FAB. – Ellie