Billed as the largest online collection of home improvement ideas, this
“Wikipedia of interiors” has designs for every room in the house. Its
formidable database contains more than a million pictures. Users can create
an “ideabook”, where they save their favourite images for reference. If you
can’t find a sexy new kitchen here, you won’t find it anywhere.
A fascinating conservation and restoration blog showing what goes on behind
the dust sheets at Britain’s beautiful National Trust properties. Grand
projects are profiled, alongside charming photographs of volunteers
retouching textiles and salvaging ancient picture frames.
An enigmatic and endlessly browsable blog dedicated to high-concept interiors,
where “15 interesting floating staircases” and unusual steel chairs are held
in quiet reverence. The fixation with multipurpose furniture, such as the
teardrop-shaped bookcase that doubles as a reading seat, adds to the general
kookiness on display.
The wonderful Zoopla
lets you check the market value of your neighbour’s house, and if a property
is for sale, you can snoop around it for fantastic interiors inspiration.
This database of rooms to let for the night is another solution. It is used
by holidaymakers to find a place to stay for a fraction of hotel prices. But
design magpies can use it to find ideas, or simply to keep up with the
Joneses.
Don’t redecorate in a retro style before a cautionary scoot through these
offbeat 20th-century properties for sale. Among those listed is a cool
Hampshire harbourside deckhouse on pillared stilts, with its delicious
Sixties fittings intact. Prices range from “affordable” to “purest fantasy”.
Annoying little compromises – ugly curtain end stops, Acme door knockers – can
drive homeowners to distraction. This sourcebook for considered living,
curated by New Jersey artist Jaime Derringer, will help you nail those
finishing touches. Recent posts include a selection of the most eye-catching
wine racks and umbrella stands that pass for objets d’art.
Add an on-trend splash of colour with a guiding hand from this cheerful blog.
It is the brainchild of British design junkie Will Taylor, “a young chap who
is unashamedly hooked on hue”. This site is a hotline to the season’s
perfect palette, with plenty of useful decorating tips.
This easy-grazing blog showcases the height of home deco taste, room by
gorgeous room. It features “cool kitchens”, “desirable dining” and
“beautiful boudoirs”. You get the idea. But it also sharpens its knife when
design goes hideously awry, as per its hilarious entry on
“cringey” conservatories.
A round-up of the best sales, shops and websites for home furnishings,
courtesy of Ideal Home style editor, Alice Humphrys. She keeps tabs on
stylish buys. Recent posts include a rundown of statement paints from Fired
Earth, and new bathroom furniture from the stylish company Loaf.
A joyful trawl through back issues of glossy magazines, this archive documents
shifting tastes in decor. Whether you want a Swinging Sixties boudoir or a
living room decorated in 19th-century antiques, there’s inspiration here. It
also serves as a warning from history. It turns out that, in the late
Seventies, all the best New York apartments had brown and grey plaid-printed
sheets.
This blog offers unadorned glimpses into the cluttered properties of the
nation’s artistic gentry. Particular treats are topographical painter David
Gentleman’s north London home and Sir Jonathan Miller’s four-storey Camden
town house.
Fun blog that shows how to remodel pieces of Ikea furniture into something
more individual. This week, turn a Bestå bookshelf into a cat house, or a
Hjälte kitchen skimmer into a soap dish. Each suggestion comes with
instructions as well as inspirational before-and-after shots.
Dive into photograph after photograph of understated, functional interiors
with odd rustic touches. This trove of contemporary Scandinavian delights
comes courtesy of interior and lifestyle blogger Emma Fexeus, an online
legend in her native Stockholm. She offers a peek inside the homes of
interior stylists.
Picture-filled blog spotlighting homes that have been transformed by the
world’s leading architects and designers. Recently featured stars include
Philippe Ho, founder of Studio 8 Design, and Canadian designer Mar Silver.
The prose is nicely unpurple, and the interiors are impeccable.
HOMESPUN AND HEARTFELT
Motivational home deco blog from the quirky pen of Amanda Wright, a stationery
illustrator and confessed throw-cushion addict. Tutorials range from jazzing
up terracotta pots to creating a herringbone coffee table from weathered
planks.
Daily updated blog dedicated to all things domestic, interiors included.
Fortysomething Jersey resident Samantha Stansbridge revels in the joy of a
wonkily hung picture frame and knows how to make good use of a dusty
tape-embossing device.
Online diary of a thirtysomething American mother, baker and crafter, where
she shares her daily haul of handmade and vintage finds. Her weekly
“interior inspiration” post brings together the best of other blogs that
have caught her keen eye.
A blog dedicated to the daily inspirations of an interiors journo. In between
profiling the latest scented candles and fog-coloured waffle blankets,
Rohini Wahi rounds up the smartest interiors from the big screen. Her set
tour of the elegant cookie-cutter Fifties American home used in
Revolutionary Road is manna for midcentury modernists.
Lively renovation and design blog in which smart professionals Klaus and Heidi
chronicle their efforts to renovate their four-storey Georgian house,
including all materials and stockists used.
Follow the textiles adventures of Bath design student Polly Rowan. When she’s
not developing potato prints inspired by African beads or opening up her
sketchbook of watercolours and inks, she tries her hand at felting, weaving
and embroidery.
In this thrift-chic blog, Gillian details her journeys en famille into
creative homemaking. She knits, sews, bakes and potters. In one post, she
zhooshes up a white cotton cushion. In the next, she crotchets a rainbow
baby blanket.
Intermittent but sweet family-and-home-interiors blog by Patricia McGinnis,
a young Belfast mum (“to a lovable rascal”). She details her prized vintage
finds, such as an Ercol sofa, a rare Tretchikoff print and her beloved
wood-burning stove.
From her west London perch, stylist and interior writer Sania Pell champions
all things handmade and home-made. She lends her insider tips on how to add
personality to a room using ordinary items, such as glass jars and
ribbon ends.
PICTURE GALLERIES
Wonder what patternistas such as Orla Kiely and Emma Bridgewater have been up
to? Or what colour schemes are hot in Habitat? The season’s greatest
“surface pattern designs” are chronicled in this romp through high street
and online collections.
Contenders for the title “world’s classiest contemporary design projects”,
each profiled in clickable picture form. The stylish parade of enormous
apartments, immaculate beach villas and uptown hotel lobbies will help a
lunch hour disappear.
Hilary Devey, look away now. This upcycling Pinterest site shows how to turn
wooden pallets into furniture and fittings. The former dame of Dragons’ Den
might be shocked if she saw her removal crates remodelled as a swing or
balcony planter.
A design-savvy community, where users share interiors inspiration, from room
looks and architecture to typography and retro advertising. Just click to be
sent updates on Facebook and Twitter.
For non-dedicatees, this eminently surfable gallery dedicated to toile de
jouy, the 18th-century motif-rich rococo French fabric, will be a visual
feast too far. There are impossibly pretty hand-painted teacups, a
grenade-shaped vase decorated Banksy-style in blue toile, and – for good
measure – actor Ryan Gosling wrapped in a printed sheet.
This imaginative daily updated picture blog, by a pair of interior designers,
explores the limits of creative home deco. Is good design the making of
studio living? Can a child’s bedroom ever be aesthetically pleasing to
adults, too? See their results here.
Smart interiors journal by Seattle “design mom” Stephanie Brubaker. Sticking
resolutely to her mantra “Where practical meets pretty”, it’s full of tips
on how to keep the home spick and span. The “Real life home series” profiles
inspiring spaces and asks owners how they achieved them.
A daily dish of upcycling projects, occasionally with idiot-proof tutorials.
These range from the ridiculously simple (turn an empty jam jar into a
votive), all the way to the simply ridiculous (turn bicycle parts into a
coat stand).
Holly Becker, an American interiors blogger living in Germany, has more than
1,000 pages showcasing the interiors of “super duper stylists”. These
include pages from the newest decorating books and great finds from other
websites.
Fascinating profiles of creative people and the rented rooms they have made
their home. Likely to make you glad you are not a twentysomething east
Londoner struggling for a foothold on the property ladder.
TWITTER FEEDS
Coming soon to a living room near you, the magic of Hollywood. Film-set
designer Jurgen Beneke shows how he rustles up his own A-list furniture from
simple plywood and a dash of silver paint.
On the hunt for a Poul Jensen Selig Z bench, an Allan Gould string chair or a
Hans Olsen dining set? So is this Californian midcentury modern furniture
dealer, who details the fruits of his eBay trawls. Happy counter-bidding.
Property website Rightmove’s blog follows mostly minor celebrities and their
property sales (“Jamie Theakston set to make a cool profit on his west
London home”). Also points out hot interiors as seen on the web, such as the
“Swiss Army” bathroom, whose fixtures and compartments swivel out for use.
Twitter feed by a Surrey-based print and wallpaper designer who “loves Marmite
and the great British countryside”. Perfect for keeping up to date with the
latest in fabric swatches, litho printing and progress on Rachel’s new
bathroom.
A trove of handy links on how to spruce up a tired conservatory, give bedrooms
a boudoir-chic look, and add value to your home. There are also links to
relevant news stories, such as the recent revelation that new-builds in
Denmark are 80 per cent bigger than in Britain.
Unsentimental blog full of advice on how to raise a family and run a home, not
necessarily in that order. Fun and practical tips that time-pressed parents
will understand easily.
A Cotswolds-based glass and china hire company (for weddings, mainly) whose
tweets show how a touch of vintage can give a home a “Cinderella chic” look.
It also features photography from linen shopping missions – from Soho
to Scotland.
Offers tips on inventive eco-design and decorating small spaces.
Characteristic are links to the New Yorker who grows vegetables on his fire
escape, and how a former missile silo was transformed into a luxurious
underground pad.
The Twitter arm of the influential global architecture and design magazine.
Follow to keep in touch with the ever-expanding frontiers of architectural
and interior design. It’s good to know what is around – even if you can’t
afford it.
Got a home-improvement problem? Tweet these experts for free DIY and building
advice. No job too large or small, from Rawlplug conundrums to plumbing
disasters.
Tips and design chit-chat from property renovator and television presenter
Sian Astley. Expect no-nonsense gusto from Astley, who offers a breezy
Northern counterpoint to the refined Southern sensibilities of Kevin McCloud.
This Twitter feed offers money-saving household tips (how to spring- clean
with cider vinegar) and interior suggestions, as well as more general
family/parenting advice.
AND FINALLY… HUMOUR
This is where DIY meets SOS. Home improvers share shameful disaster stories
and revel in others’ misfortunes. Look out for the new sofa that was too big
for the front door, or the nail gun that misfired.
Ah, misadventures in interiors shopping. The baked-potato bean-bag, unusual
wallpapers, the Barry Manilow-shaped day pillow (or, “Manllow”). A dustbin
of home decor disasters.
A breathless and, one imagines, unintentionally hilarious Twitter feed about
the joy of paint. Our American “color expert” reflects on this year’s
on-trend shade (“I love yellow!”), but warns that “now is not the time to be
matchy-matchy”. Imagine if Alan Partridge worked on an interiors magazine.
For an antidote to smug home-made interiors, there’s the Pintester, who
road-tests the supposedly easy-to-accomplish handicraft features posted on
Pinterest. All with varying degrees of failure. Warning: it resorts
occasionally to some fruity language.
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