Living Etc November 2021

I’m writing this at the end of the first post-pandemic Livingetc House Tours Live, a moment I’ll admit I never thought would happen, and for which I’m delighted to have been proven wrong. Over two days, 1,200 readers trickled through six incredibly designed homes in London’s Primrose Hill, cooing over clever storage solutions, marvelling at how different some paint colours look in real life and leaving with full photo reels of inspiration. I was taken with the slight green tint seen in Farrow & Ball’s Drop Cloth at one house and the way interior designer Carly Madhvani had smartly hidden a TV behind a sliding door in what looked like a copper chimney breast. Judging from what readers were snapping most, it seemed like people were interested in solutions – how…

A trippy, colour-popping nod to retro rave culture is infusing design right now. It’s vibing away on floor coverings and making shapes in newly opened hotel interiors. And it’s proof that we’re ready to let the good times roll. Of course, as the person who kicked off Nu Rave in 2007 with his fluoro T-shirts, designer Henry Holland is at the helm. Yet this time around, he’s taking a much more grown-up approach. ‘I’m seeing graphic elements like stripes and monochromatic tones that create a sort of melting feeling,’ he says. ‘The one most of us have probably had in a nightclub at some time in our lives.’ He has just released an eight-piece rug collaboration with Floor_Story, launched at London Design Festival, inspired by the smiley faces seen on rave…

The AW21 runways embraced cocooning materials and supple shapes and now they are heading home FEATURE JO BAILEY PHOTOGRAPH (BEVZA) ANTON KULAKOWSKIY (COURTESY OF BEVZA)…

GALLERY SPACE The artistic Mood Board wallpaper from Mind The Gap celebrates the joy in recording, collecting and displaying things that inspire us. It echoes the tactility of pieces of paper affixed to a wall, and the hand-drawn studies of figures, flora and fauna are beautifully expressive. It is made up of three panelled designs full of life and narrative in gentle monochromes and the sepia tones of time-aged paper and tape. Mood Board wallpaper, £175 for 3 rolls, 52x300cm (mindtheg.com) STORY BOARD Paris born, London-based graphic designer Julia Bancilhon’s studio – Made of Matter – has moved away from traditional wallpaper patterns, creating abstract designs taken from Julia’s collage artworks. The panels unravel their stories as you look closer into them, discovering the individual, unusual elements that make up the construction. Rodchenko…