ADVICE
Our expert, Celia Rufey, answers your interior design questions and decorating dilemmas
Celia Rufey answers your queries.
WHAT’S WORTH FITTING INSIDE
CABINETS? Before deciding on cabinets for our new kitchen, I’d like to find out which fittings experts rate for storing food and equipment? dh, Wilmslow, Cheshire
Organisation, easy access and instant visibility are the keys, says kitchen storage specialist Nick Clayton of Clayton Cabinets, 01837 83486, claytoncabinets.co.uk. Larder cupboards with pull-out drawers and shelves, plus narrow shelves on the backs of the doors are the most efficient and popular way to store non-perishable food, he says. A slimline pull-out larder unit that slides out into the room is a good alternative. Wall cupboards can be fitted with drop-down shelving to bring the highest contents within reach, and Le Mans corner systems, where the shelf pivots outside the cupboard, give access to the back of corner cupboards, Nick adds. Drawers benefit from dividers, and lining compartments with Blum matting stops contents sliding. A large pan drawer is essential, as is a rack for lids. Nick suggests housing small appliances inside a countertop cabinet with bifold or tambour doors that can be left open while in use. Fit sockets inside the cabinet to use items in situ, then it’s hidden neatly away when you’re done.
HOW IS THIS BEDLINEN DIFFERENT?
Can you tell me how bedlinen described as hotel quality is different from other qualities? CMCP, Aberdeen
More bedlinen is described as hotel quality than is actually sold to hotels, observes Robert Lancaster Gaye at Tielle, 01442 843769,
tielleloveluxury.co.uk. Hotels choose bedlinen to survive frequent washing and ironing at high temperatures in commercial laundries, he explains, and it must be strong enough to endure tumble drying in huge drums followed by ironing and folding through immensely heavy rollers. Top hotels often choose Tielle’s cotton with a sateen weave (Classic Hotel 300TC sateen flat sheet, double, £40) because the ‘give’ in the floating threads helps the fabric survive severe laundering, he adds. Musbury Fabrics, 01706 244200,
musburyfabrics.co.uk, chooses a plain-weave for its hotel bedlinen with the quality of the combed cotton more important than a specific thread count. A traditional feature that distinguishes some hotel flat sheets is colour-coding sizes with a thread or border along the selvedge to speed sorting. At Musbury Fabrics this is blue for single, red for double, green for king and orange for super-king flat sheets. Its 100 per cent Pure Cotton Hotel double sheet is £10.08. This company’s hotel-quality sheets are also finished at each end with the same width of border as this also speeds hotel bed-making.
WHO SUPPLIES UNPAINTED CUPBOARDS AND CHESTS?
I’d like to find unpainted chests of drawers and cupboards that I can paint to match the colours of our children’s room schemes. Where should I look for pieces made from solid wood? AP, Settle, North Yorkshire
Scumble Goosie, 01453 731305,
scumblegoosie.co.uk, is known for its solid mango wood furniture in English, French and Gustavian styles, raw wood or painted, in stock and bespoke sizes. The two-overtwo Empire Chest CD8 (right), H80xw105x D41cm, raw £469, and Emma Cupboard BK5/B, H70XW84XD34, raw £359, are both popular for children’s rooms. The Yorkshire Pine Factory, 07821 172061,
yorkshirepinefactory.co.uk, makes solid pine furniture, raw or painted. The raw two-over-three PD03 chest of drawers, H90xw85xd45cm, £145, and Royal Spindle Double Wardrobe PW02RO, H178xw100x D50cm, £245, could be of interest. At Ikea, 020 3645 0000, ikea.co.uk/gb, the solid pine Hurdal Linen Cabinet comes in a mid-green stain but could be painted. With shelves behind the doors and a drawer
WHICH FAUX FLOWERS ARE GOOD MIXERS?
I’d like to combine faux flowers with garden foliage in a vase. Which flowers work best in this kind of arrangement? SW, Kingsclere, Hampshire
Keep it seasonal, so embrace autumn with hellebores, Skimmia and berry sprays to complement your greenery. Fox Flowers, 01892 322075, foxflowers.co.uk, has Skimmia stems, £7 each, and Oka, oka.com offers Pink hellebores, £7 a stem, and a Black or Red Berry stem, £20. More hellebores are at Neptune (below left), 01793 427300, neptune.com, in Green, £8 a stem, and a Burgundy spray, £13, with Skimmia stems, £9 each.
Faux flowers that pass close inspection tend to be smaller and more delicate so to add bright colour, choose a lesser-known flower such as Yellow Oncidium (above), £12 a stem, at Bloom, 0844 482 2332, bloom.uk.com, where you’ll also find late-flowering aubergine Dahlia Ava and deep red Dahlia Darcey, each stem £8. Faux flower stems aren’t waterproof, so in mixed arrangements wrap them or cut short to clear the water.
CAN PATTERN WORK ON BUTTONED CHAIRS?
I have a pair of button-back chairs to upholster. Can you tell me which patterns work best on this type of chair? GV, Halstead, Essex
Upholsterers express a wide variety of opinions. Steve Holmes at Lawson Wood, 020 7228 9812, lawson-wood.
com, suggests small designs are best, quoting miniature prints from Fermoie, 01672 513723, fermoie.com, as examples. But he would never button stripes. David Herbert at David Seyfried, 020 7823 3848, davidseyfried.com, agrees some distortion is inevitable but finds it acceptable with softly coloured stripes as on his Selwood chair (below). Victoria James and James Cook at the Odd Chair Company, 01772 691777, theoddchaircompany.com, button patterns small and large; a chair in Granada, a big allover design of leaves and pomegranates by Zoffany, 020 3457 5862, stylelibrary.com, is currently being buttoned in their workshop. Victoria lists herringbone wool, flamestitch and some ikats as button-able. Large horizontal patterns don’t tend to work, James adds, but vertical ones do. He also mentions a contemporary interpretation of buttoning where a stitched soft pull without buttons gives a less formal look.