First of I want to say a big thank you to everyone who supported our charity day – we made £840 for  Hospice at Home and met many lovely ladies who want us to put on more demonstrations.  I would love to do that – but I am afraid it won’t be until the Spring.

In the meantime I have been working on a wonderful project, initially working with the clients here in England to make selections of colours, fabrics etc then by remote whilst they returned to the USA to pack up their home.  I have such a wonderful team of very talented people now which means we can offer a really unique service.  Everything from new fireplaces and chimneys, paint, curtains and poles beds and sofas, floor stripping, electrical work and plumbing, TV’s and TV systems to new doors and windows.

The focal point of this room was a cupboard, but it needed to be a fireplace of course.  Burning Desires of Preston helped to create something really special with the aid of our joiner John.

Today was one of the final moments before their furniture arrives – the new front door was hung. It was made locally by G and S Timber of Stainton Penrith, it is hardwood and very heavy but stunning.  The Croft door furniture was supplied by More handles of Carlisle

The before

and after pictures.

Home ideas in aid of Hospice at Home October 10th – please come and join us and tell your friends !

Myself and my workroom team are planning a day of demonstations on Friday 10 October in aid of Hospice at Home.

We hosted a demonstration evening for Penrith Rural Women’s Network earlier this year and everyone seemed to enjoy the combination of ideas and inspiration with practical hints and techniques. We’ll be organising three different demonstrations through the day on 10 October, refreshments will be provided and all the proceeds will go to Hospice at Home. In addition, there’ll be a selection of gorgeous cushions and luxury furnishing fabric remnants on sale and 50% of the sales from those will also go to the charity.

The three demonstrations will cover cushions, with hints on piping and putting in a zip, at 9.30-11.30am, Roman blinds and achieving a professional look at 1.00-3.00pm and, in the evening, transforming a bedroom with a fabric-covered headboard at 7.00-9.00pm. Each demonstration costs just £15 including refreshments.

We’re having to limit places so that there’s plenty of room for people to browse the showroom and also to see the details of the techniques on a sewing machine or as they’re demonstrated, It should be an excellent day that raises plenty of money as well as being fun and useful.”

To book a place for any of the demonstrations, please contact us on 01768 863895 or email enquiries@whitemoreandthwaytes.co.uk as soon as possible.

I am not sure if many of you subscribe to Cumbria Life, but it is a really wonderful magazine and I am totally thrilled that I get to write their interiors page.  Apart from anything else, in my researching as well as just reading the magazine, I am getting to meet so many small businesses and artisans, making incredibly beautiful products. I like to use a mix of locally sourced ideas together with more widely known companies.  My lovely editor has allowed me to use PDF’s of my page onto my weblog so I hope you enjoy it.  Here are the first three months which were simple columns, then we progressed to a whole page !  My thanks to Sally Seed of Stoneleigh Communications who helps with the words and also for the companies who allow me to use their photography.

Please click on the links below to see the copy.

Foxton House feature

Apr 2014

Mar 2014

Feb 2014

Last year we were asked to be involved in a wonderful kitchen extension here in Penrith, and this is the end result. A stunning light and airy kitchen wrapped around the original house making a real family area of kitchen/dining and living spaces.  Almost the whole of one side opens out into the garden.

For those wanting more detail, the builders were Inca Construction, the kitchen was designed and fitted by Town and Country interiors of Carlisle and they also provided and fitted the natural stone floor.

Our part was to help pull the whole scheme together, help with all the decision making, and provide the furniture and the bar stools .  The stools are a really comfortable style and we can make them with a natural oiled finish which looks stunning as the frames are solid oak – or they can be stained/painted or lacquered to any colour.

We also provided the dining table which was made in France in a mixture of of painted and varnished oak, the dining chairs upholstered in a coordinating fabric and the sideboard to be used as storage beneath the television.  We even had the dining chair legs lacquered to the colour of the table.

Sometimes being an interior designer is about knowing when to leave windows alone, letting the room and the view speak for themselves.  Modern, light airy rooms such as this kitchen can have problems with too much light and may need blinds for heat and light control and in some cases to help prevent fading. Silent Gliss have the perfect solution with their range of roller blinds.  Each of the fabrics they use have accurate figures for visible light and solar transmission as well as solar reflectance and solar absorption coefficients.  In other words they are tried and tested and if you need to cut out the glare, provide privacy or reduce the temperature they have the right fabric for you.

These large kitchen windows are beautiful in their own right and did not need to be covered for much of the time. We used Silent Gliss roller blinds, which are super slim, together with Colourama 2 alu fabric to give shade and heat/fading  protection. It has an aluminium backing which helps to reflect the heat but doesn’t cut out all of the light. We fitted them just below the wooden beams and colour matched them to the woodwork so when they are not required they are barely visible. The fabric range is huge and suitable for all applications so if you want to know more call in and see us or visit their website http://www.silentgliss.co.uk/go/Fabrics.

Every client visiting us recently has been greeted by the wonderful sight of our wisteria in full bloom.  Planted about 10 years ago I did wonder if my ambition for the one plant to grow in both directions along the front of our office and workrooms was just a little unrealistic.  Now I am wondering where I can train it to grow next!

In the meantime we have fitted the headboard and curtains in the fabrics by Manuel Canovas  we showed you in the last posting. As the window is quite large and low, in proportion to the size of the room, we added a roller blind in a semi sheer fabric for privacy – fitted  beneath the Roman blind.  We used a New house Textile fabric by Te-bo.

The roller blind was fitted directly onto the window frame and we top fixed the Roman blind, setting it further forward in the recess to give space for the roller blind to operate.  A perfect combination of function, colour, design and the wow factor. The paint colour on the walls is by the Little Greene paint company and is a perfect match.   Many of my customer’s are very cautious about using a deep colour in small rooms but it can add character and warmth especially in rooms like this which face North and never benefit from the sun pouring through the window.

We are working with the customer at the moment to design some really stunning cushions, then we can add accessories, pictures etc. We had the mirror made to size in a slightly limed oak with a painted edge to match our scheme.

Did you know we also offer bespoke lampshade making. The cerise pink shades in this room  show just what we can do in almost any suitable fabric and in a whole host of sizes and shapes. I love lampshades that are part of the scheme and have a sense of fun about them. Call into the showroom if you would like to see some of the shades we have in stock – in lots of different colours.

Anyone working in a small business – with or without employees – can always find wise words and encouragement from meeting up with other like minded people.  Chambers of commerce and trade organisations are always good for networking but for me our local Rural Womens Network  is “the best”.  Last week we met at my premises. Over thirty ladies came to have a look around and to learn what my business involves. As we have quite a number of ladies in the guest house, B and B business I decided to show them how to make a quick and inexpensive headboard with virtually no sewing.

Thank you to everyone who attended – it was great fun and thank you to Tracey Errington and Sally Seed for organising it. If anyone would like details of the group and would like to come along please let me know – it would be great to see you !

Well it is the first month of a full page for my column, I can’t tell you how exciting it is to open the page and see it so beautifully presented. If you haven’t got your copy yet, hot foot it to the newsagents for your copy.  This month is about windows and how we treat them as well as my “out and about” section where I hope to let people know about the many exciting things happening in our county – design wise.

We have almost completed the work for the next two issues – mainly thanks to the wonderful Sally Seed for her encouragement and help ( not to mention slight bullying – I don’t mean it Sally !). The next subjects are the Spring trends from London Design week which is attended by buyers from all over the World and followed by Wallpapers.

A few folks have mentioned to me that they didn’t see the feature about my home and work (Cumbria Life January issue) but had beard about it and would love to see it. So I am attaching a copy of that feature – with thanks to Phil Rigby, the man behind the lens !

Just click on the Foxton Feature link below.

Foxton feature

I had great fun this week making some simple but special cushions. They were to match a stunning Nina Campbell wool fabric we had made into a throw. The plain wool fabric was from a Kirkby house range and I used 80s thickness threads in colours taken from the throw fabric to embellish the plain wool. I simply drew some lines on the cushion using a fading marker then used a zig zag stitch with a length of 0.3mm on my trusty old Janome sewing machine, adjusting the width as I went along. If the fabric is floppy it is best to use an iron on backing to stabilise it before you start the embroidery.
With cushions like this it works best I feel, to just seam the edges rather than adding piping.