Month: May 2016

Elodie's gorgeous & cosy Parisian flat

Elodie’s gorgeous Parisian flat

A couple of weeks ago, fresh from returning from San-Francisco, I then headed to Paris to take back my niece Lily after she had spent the holidays with us in the Bay of Arcachon. While I’m still finding my marks, this unplanned ‘gap year’ in France has been fantastic to see more of my family and old friends. I love staying in my sister’s flat. It is such a cosy, beautiful space with a real feel-good, happy vibe to it yet, the happy vibe was not a given… Elodie got the key for her new home the day our dad left us. She had spent the morning unpacking and decided to have a nap and I think, she had just woken up when I called her to announce her the bad news. After several challenging months where Life was just throwing lemons at her, it was one bad news too many but I kept telling her it didn’t matter. This was the place for her, the place she would call home and feel happy no matter what so credit to her for turning …

This season's must-have white dresses

THIS SEASON’S MUST-HAVE WHITE DRESSES

I love wearing white dresses in Summer don’t you!? In fact, this look is pretty much my uniform when I’m in France so today, I just wanted to show you six of my favourite white cotton dresses for all budgets. Some are from the high-street, others are from my favourite designers.

5 Things I want Right Now for Summer

5 Things I Want Right Now!

Yesterday temperatures (36 degrees in the sun) reminded me that the bikini season is upon us so here are 5 Summer essentials for you (you will thank me later!)…

bedroom concrete floor

New polished floor in our home in France

Following my last post on the renovations of our holiday home in France, here is a sneak-peek of the new floor in one of the bedrooms. I’m totally in love with it. Our builders took away the sisal floor we had laid down ten years ago, applied a new layer of concrete, polished it and paint it with hard-wearing floor paint. The walls are getting a new coat of pure white paint too. This option was a third of the cost of a polished concrete floor and still looks fantastic. We will see over time if it is hard wearing… You can select the colour of the floor you want so we opted for a soft grey (similar to our resin floor in London) to contrast gently with the walls painted in pure white and keep a feel-good holiday vibe. Mila’s room is being done too and I will share more photos once we’ve made progress in both rooms… For those renovating houses in France, here is what we used: To prepare the floor, we used Ragréage fibre forte épaisseur, …

A beautiful family home in Biarritz, France

A feel-good, family home in Biarritz, France

I’m slowly getting over the jet lag from my recent trip to San-Francisco and start feeling like a functioning human being again so today, let me show you this beautiful French family home in Biarritz which is a dream! Renovated by Constance and Dorian, this home of 150m2 is a dream space, filled with natural light and vintage treasures happily blending with designer pieces like the comfy Togo sofa by Ligne Roset which, by the way, celebrated its 40th year anniversary two years ago. There are so many lovely details I love in this home…the pastel colours, the door painted in black paint (an old decorating trick I know but it still looks good!), the strip of tiles on the kitchen floor and the fab wall-mounted dishwasher rack by Tsé-Tsé (now discontinued).I’ve always had a soft spot for interiors with a holiday vibe and this lovely home definitively ticks a few boxes. In my own home, I aim to create this effortless atmosphere vibes by using natural fabrics, textures, shades of white or injecting summery colours like the front door …