The last day of November and as the gales rage around the house, I want to say thank you to everyone. Some of you may be aware already that The Mad House won an (other) award at the end of last week. It has been an incredible year for the blog and, as we wander through today's 10 Beautiful Rooms, I would like to thank you all for your support. If you don't want to wade through my spraff you can just look at the pictures…
Found on hello.sukio.com
The award was from Vuelio (recently rebranded from Cision) where the blog was officially ranked No 1 earlier in the year. The party, which I was unable to attend, was on Thursday night when the trophies were handed out. I shall be off to collect it later in the week. This followed on from the Amara blog awards a couple of months ago when The Mad House won best design inspiration blog.
Now this isn't to show off but heck, I'm pleased! See I've even used an exclamation mark. For the first three years, I published a post every day (sometimes twice), in September I made the decision to go to five days a week, which feels about right and it's great that you seem to agree with me. The blog has come a long way since it started and it has been both hard work and great fun.
As regular readers will have noticed, I had the decorators in recently. Partly because it was a couple of years since the last one and partly because it felt like it was time for a more grown-up look. The blog has settled into itself now and knows what it wants to look like.
In addition to the blog, my interiors consulting business has really taken off this year with lots of clients asking for advice and help on styling their homes and asking where to source new pieces. I really enjoy that side of things and it has been great meeting those of you who are regular readers, many of whom email me months later to show me what they have bought and how it looks in the space.
A few months ago I teamed up with a friend who does the same thing for offices and we are currently working at three of the biggest creative agencies in London. I have just come up with a really radical plan for one office which we are presenting next week. Fingers crossed she will go for it…
So what's next? Well the big one is that the book comes out next year. It's called Shades of Grey and is all about how to choose the right shade of grey paint. It might seem niche, but it's the question I am asked most often and I hope this will help. Many of you may feel that grey has been around for ever and are looking for the next thing, but I truly believe that it's a colour that is here to stay. It goes with every other colour and it makes everything look better.
In a small dark room, white can often end up looking drab as it needs natural light to bounce off in order to create that bright space you were looking for. Grey is often a better choice for those rooms. If you get the wrong colour, it's very easily influenced and you can warm it up with the items you put with it – wood, warm metals, soft pinks and oranges. Anyway, it's all in the book, which you can, if you were feeling super organised, pre-order via the above link.
I have tried to include lots of interesting and fun stuff in addition to the interiors business so I hope you will all find something to enjoy. There are lots of gorgeous pictures too.
In addition to the book, I have been working on a capsule collection of furniture which I hope will be coming out early next year (can't talk too much about that one yet) and I'm planning a little kitchen tweak. No surprises there. We did ours five years ago and while it still works really well and I wouldn't change the layout, we need a new hob, which means a new worktop on the island and well, you know how it is, one thing led to another and now I have a plan. It's not a radical change but a bit of a refresh.
After that? Who knows? I'm looking forward to 2016 and I hope you will all come with me on whatever it brings. I'm looking forward to meeting more of you at events and perhaps even to helping some of you with your own interior design plans.
In the meantime, enjoy these rooms; I like them all, I hope you do too and I'll see you tomorrow. We'll talk about proper stuff then, I promise. In the meantime, here is the 10th room and it features the new tile collection by Tom Dixon. I'd love to find a room to put these in wouldn't you?
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