House and Garden June 2016

SALLY CLARKE Restaurateur and food writer If you’re not familiar with her name, then perhaps her London restaurant, shop and bakery, Clarke’s, a fixture in Kensington since 1984, hits a taste note. ‘I was cooking at home with my mother from the age of 10 and, by 12, I had a summer job as a caterer,’ Sally says. After training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, she spent four years in California, working her way up to the point where she realised, ‘I wanted to set up my own restaurant’. In 1983, she returned to London to do just that. From page 168, she creates delicious dishes for summer that make the most of ‘ingredients at their peak of ripeness’. How are menus created at your restaurant? ‘The ingredients are the inspiration;…

If you are planning an outdoor pool, Elizabeth Metcalfe has pulled together some pretty impressive examples in this month’s ‘Design ideas’ (from page 89). While my husband has a horror of ‘dark’ swimming pools (‘there might be crocodiles’), most people are looking for something a bit more sympathetic to the surroundings than the bright turquoise pools we grew up swimming in. Many of the examples here actually enhance the landscape in which they sit, and certainly none of them mar it. As it is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show at the end of May, gardening and life outdoors is a theme that runs through this issue. We have glamour in the stonking pool house that graces the front cover and the Miami-like set-up for Florence Rolfe’s round-up of outdoor furniture (from…

1 Steel and Madras-polyester parasol, ‘Bistrò’ (foresta), 240 x 300cm diameter, £6,237; detachable aluminium table, 85 x 50cm, £1,416; Briocovered seat, ‘Clique’ (green grass), 36 x 137cm square, £3,276; all by Paola Lenti, from The Modern Garden Company. 2 Aluminium-framed sunloungers, ‘Cuba’ (white), 67 x 201 x 44cm, £1,095 each; matching side table, £375; lounger cushions in ‘Basquette’ (clementine), by Dedar, £870 each; scatter cushions in ‘Summertime’, by Dedar, £105 each; all from Indian Ocean. 3 Polywood lumber ‘South Beach Adirondack Chairs’ (pacific blue), by Polywood, 98 x 86 x 79cm, £338.95 each, from DMMP. 4 Steel table, ‘Re-trouvé’, by Patricia Urquiola, 74 x 105cm diameter, €890, from Emu. 5 Powder-coated steel and polyester-weave armchair, ‘Ami’ (LG426), by Francesco Rota for Paola Lenti, 79 x 90 x 73cm, £4,260; Luz-covered…

1 Australian company Mud is known for its beautiful coloured porcelain tableware, and these lights are also made of porcelain. Pendant lights, ‘Dome’ (pink, mist), 23 x 22cm diameter, from £342 each; ‘Hat’ (orange, pistachio, yellow), 16 x 40cm diameter, from £347 each, from Mud. 2 Brass basin taps, ‘BRO04’ (charcoal), 19.3 x 13.3cm reach, £1,036.80, from The Watermark Collection. 3 Metal bed frame, ‘Irvine’ (black), 117 x 143 x 210cm, £175, from Next. 4 Rattan and steel chair, ‘C317’, by Yuzuru Yamakawa, 40 x 83 x 76cm, £560, from SCP 1 Maple and steel shelves, ‘Cloud’ (bleached), by Tyler Hayes, in custom sizes, from $3,600 for a 66cm-wide shelf including brackets, from BDDW. 2 These classic Portuguese tableware designs are enjoying a resurgence in popularity. From left: hand-painted earthenware ‘Cabbage…

Marthe Armitage is 86. She has 10 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and also a booming wallpaper business that counts Ilse Crawford, Tilda Swinton and Stella Tennant among its devotees. Her handdrawn and printed designs are bedecked in lively florals, delicate cobwebs and birds of paradise. They are densely patterned, tend to come in soft muted shades and evoke a gentle, very British sort of whimsy. It was exactly this sentiment and a mutual interest in plants and botanicals that brought the Jo Malone London team to Marthe’s west London studio. And what a fruitful meeting of minds it has proved to be. Marthe has created an enchanting design entitled ‘Summer Afternoon’, which festoons a limitededition collection of Jo Malone London home and beauty products. ‘Henry James is a writer I’m very fond of…

Pictured above from left Ann-Marie Powell is designing the official RHS garden at Chelsea this year. It is a space that you could easily recreate yourself – a colourful front garden with vibrant raised borders, a bee-friendly patch of meadow and a stylish kitchen garden. ‘Britain is paving over its front gardens at an alarming rate, resulting in grey streets and woeful damage to the environment,’ says Ann-Marie. As a counter act, ‘this garden will be a joyous riot of colour with a kaleidoscope of bloom’. ann-mariepowell.com Jo Thompson won acclaim for her 2015 garden at the show, and this year she is back with the Chelsea Barracks Garden, where roses mix artfully with perennials. ‘I am presenting a contemporary interpretation of the traditional British rose garden,’ explains Jo. ‘Roses are set…