The last word
At ELLE Decoration we’re all self-confessed interiors fiends. Here, we reveal our current home obsessions, plus the products and projects we’ve been testing and tackling this month
What #Teamed has been tackling this month
TESTING PET- HAIR BUSTING VACUUM CLEANERS
Editor-in-chief Michelle Ogundehin stopped her testing at hello with the Dyson ‘Cinetic Big Ball Animal’ (see her Editor’s Letter on p29). But in the interests of further research, she also called up some sister magazine expertise courtesy of the Good Housekeeping Institute, to see what else she might reasonably recommend
As such, the Vorwerk ‘Kobold VK200’ (from £749; vorwerk.com) was voted ‘outstanding’ for pet hair pick
up; and the Miele ‘C3 Total Solution Powerline’ model (£249, AO; ao.com) also scored very highly. As did the
Shark ‘Powered Lift-away
True Pet NV680’ (£380, Littlewoods; littlewoods.com). All machines come with specific attachments designed to banish pet hair from furniture and floors. I also tried the rather more modestly priced Sticky Buddy brush (£14.99, Lakeland; lakeland.com), which is a super handy, no-plug required, back-up option for speedy fur-be-gone fixes.
LISTEN IN
A recent convert to podcasts, Deputy Chief Sub Editor Sarah Morgan tells us about ‘99% Invisible’
Free design podcast 99% Invisible is my new favourite. This week I’ve learnt about the concept of ‘unpleasant design’ ( how items can be designed with deterrence in mind); heard Eero Saarinen discuss whether an architect should always yield to his clients; and discovered the story of Edith Macefield, an elderly New Yorker who refused to sell her bungalow to property developers and became a national name as a skyscraper was built around her. It can be tricky to find a full hour to listen to something during the week, but these 20–30 minute episodes are easy to fit in (99percent invisible.org).
‘I want to get this linen-coated lighting flex for my new house, because its natural finish is so much nicer than a plastic wire’ Features Director Amy Bradford favours this neutral colourway. £5 per metre, Olive & The Fox (oliveandthefox.co.uk)
‘Sketched out on the back of a beermat and built using old joists and boards, our new treehouse may be small but its reward is enormous. My four-year-old imagines fantasy worlds with sharks circling and storms raging as he looks out from the tower, and there are shelves on the ground floor for the baby to play with. It’s very sturdy, and everything was sanded down to avoid splinters’ Flora Bathurst, Photography Director
‘Where can I buy the “Bake Off” oven?’ – The ELLE Decoration Subs Desk are coveting that slick ‘hideaway’ door and, of course, a proving drawer. The model used on the hit TV show, we are reliably informed, is from the ‘Slide and Hide’ range by Neff. The brand also sells a warming drawer. ‘Single Slide and Hide B57VS24N0B’ oven, £919; ‘N17HH20N0B’ warming drawer (not pictured), £413, John Lewis ( johnlewis.com)