#cheaphometricks: Oxfam's amazing woollen blanket range

Last weekend I was in my local Oxfam shop and came across some new woollen blankets. They were really nice.

I found them in the new section, and spent a while trying to decide between colours before picking this one: pure wool and just £12.99.

When I got home I checked on Oxfam's online shop to see if they were on sale there, too (you didn't know Oxfam had an online shop? Junk hunters, you will be in heaven...). Alas, there were none of the same blankets online – but do look out for them in-store... instead I discovered a whole lot of other beautiful blankets: homemade, crocheted, colourful and just as affordable, and with cash going to a good cause, to boot.

Prices start at £9.99 and go up to £60, with most being around the £15-£25 mark. What do you think?

Find the full crochet blanket range here at Oxfam.org.uk

Post by Kate

Real homes: what a difference new cushions can make

I've been charting the finishing touches to my kitchen for what seems like ages. But these things take time, decisions aren't always fast – things have to be lived with, tried out, and experimented with... 

But I'll admit that the kitchen cushions – seen in their before-ish state, below – have been an issue for several years.

And it's not like I haven't had some excellent, expert guidance along the way. The hold-up was my optimistic determination to sew my own. Not doing so, I decided, would be some kind of failure. So I got as far as dusting off the beautiful (but now, deeply archaic) Frister Rossman sewing machine I was given on my 18th birthday.

That was a few months back. It looks lovely on my never-used sewing desk though, above, doesn't it? (You'll notice it's not plugged in...).

Finally, I accepted the truth: I'm not going to be doing any sewing any time soon. So I took my own advice and went to H&M last week for a few of their cheery, spring cushions – and the transformation is quite striking, I think.

The whole area looks warmer, brighter and cosier at once. I think the addition of the jade green, particularly, has done wonders.

And what do you think of the squirrel by Reggie the dog's food and water point? I'm not huge on wall stickers (this one is by Binary Fox), but I kind of couldn't resist it: whenever you say the word "squirrel", Reggie runs around in circles excitedly looking for one.

The cushion in front is made (not by me, of course) from Florence Broadhurst fabric, a gift from my sister-in-law.

The beautiful three-colour teapot was a present to us from my sister-in-law-ish, Laura. It is by Anouk Jansen, you can find it at Howkapow.

It's funny how the new cushions have made me look afresh at all the things around them, and remember how much I like them. The display cupboard above is not finished – I like the things in it, but think they could live elsewhere more harmoniously. I was inspired by the Balcony Gardener via Twitter to fill the cupboard with plants – ferns and ivy would work well, she suggested. Another project for another day. Meanwhile, here's what's living there and nearby right now.

A brilliant papier mache pig found by our neighbours Emma & Sarah in the local charity shop. Good gift!

This sweet Jack Russell card was left for us after Jill and Terence came to stay.

On the left, a pretty bad work of art made by an 11-year-old me. It was a model of one of our neighbours – she was always standing at her gate next door, wearing a housecoat, hoisting her bosom and smoking hard. She was ace. The tin is an old present from my brother, who lives in Australia and sent this over one birthday. The other work of art, and far superior to my own efforts, is by my boyfriend's super-cute, three-year-old niece, Isabella.

The fairy lights are part of the ongoing cupboard experiment. The bar sign – which lights up very brightly – was a bargain find at a local junk shop many years ago when such things were affordable inside London, and the black and white photo is one of my favourite shots of my mum in the early 1980s (nice dungarees!) with our cantankerous old cat, Sam.

This child's wooden clock was abandoned to the garage for a while. But when Scotch the black cat moved in last year, it sort of gained new presence.

Love this 1960s US Esquire magazine cover that my boyfriend procured when he worked at the British version of the mag. Can you imagine a consumer magazine these days with just one coverline? Love here that the image and single message are allowed to shine.

And we finally covered up the bare bulbs over the kitchen table with these funny, borderline naff glass lampshades found on eBay for under a tenner.

Post by Kate

Object of the day: CUSTHOM's latest embroidered fabric

I've written about Custhom before: the young design company's particular speciality is their unusual and striking digital embroidery technique, which gives their textiles a tactile, 3-D quality.

Now they've just launched a new range of cotton wallpaper and fabric using the same methods.

The south London-based pair behind Custhom Nathan Philpott and Jemma Ooi only met – at the Royal College of Art – in 2009 but have already created designs for Anthropologie, Liberty and John Lewis among others.

This latest collection from them has been inspired by ancient Mexican Otomi embroidery: graphic and organic shapes combined to depict man living in harmony with the natural environment. The style is said to date back to prehistoric cave paintings in Tenango.

But Custhom have given it a contemporary twist, not least with their innovative use of digital embroidery which gives the patterns a sharp precision. Each piece design has been created with skilled British craftsmen who embroider onto non-woven paper or cotton fabric.

The textiles come in navy on an off-white background, or in off-black. The fabric is £126 a metre and the wallpaper comes in 55cm wide rolls and costs £84 per metre. Not cheap, but the work involved makes these pieces works of art. And a little, I think, could go a long way with a bit of creative use.

Do check out some of the other striking designs from Custhom: I would particularly recommend their distinctive Offset cushions, and the elegant Palladian collection, which features ceramics and textiles. I have particularly fallen for the Palladian Loop wallpaper. For a budget buy, they also sell some of the designs in tea-towel form, for £12.

Check it all out at Custhom.co.uk

Post by Kate. Images from Custhom

Object of the day: H & M new season cushions

One day, I'm going to get around to making my own cushion covers. I've even got my 1980s sewing machine out. It looks nice on the new under-stairs alcove shelf arrangement. So far that's as far as it's got. 

So hurrah for H&M's new season cushion range. You may remember their excellent horse cushion from last year... this year they've gone graphic and colourful. And prices start at just £3.99...

Below: cotton cover in green, £3.99.

This one also comes in yellow, black and turquoise and has a different pattern on the reverse. (All the cushions are 50cm x 50cm unless specified.)

 

Jaquard weave cushion cover, £12.99. This one comes in six other colours too including orange, yellow and black.

Cotton cushion cover with black and white geometric stripes, £3.99.

Jacquard weave cushions (black and white patterns, above), two different sizes: £6.99 or £7.99.

Love that they also do really plain covers but in good, sturdy, non-flammable fabrics. I spotted this one in a lovely jade green too. Linen cushion cover, £6.99.

And these chirpy chevron covers are currently on sale at just £1.99 a-piece. Nice.

Post by Kate

Object of the day: Urban Outfitters' zig zag rugs

Remember that monochrome rug I wrote about last year? It was one of Ikea's very popular items and, as such, was quite a palaver to track down.

Now Urban Outfitters has got in on the act (but with more colours, see below). And they're way cheaper than the Ikea version...

...However, that is because these ones are lightweight cotton and as such are – yippee – easily washable. But will – boo – fade, which I discovered after washing mine. Still looks good though. And they come in green or pink (pictured below) and lilac, navy and grey too, as well as various sizes.

The prices are: £69 for the large rug, £35 for the medium, £30 for the runner and £15 for the little one. From Urban Outfitters.

Post by Kate

Graduate art talent to fill your walls

Fenton Art & Design has a business model I admire. The young company (it launched at Tent in 2012) was started by Cherry Anderson and Steve Chapman, who are passionate about finding and supporting new artistic talent.

Each year the pair, who have a combined background in graphics and film/ TV, scour the art college graduate shows, looking for artists to help create their designs, which include these striking wall murals, below.

Once they've found artists whose work throws up the "interesting themes, shapes or forms" that will work in a collection (which, along with the murals, includes prints and fabrics) the pair get busy adapting it. The aim is always, they explain, to "retain the spirit of the original artwork, but to be distinct, separate creations with an identity of their own". The selected artists, meanwhile, get a cut from each sale to plough back into their own careers – as well, of course, as plenty of exposure outside the world of fine art.

Above, you can see the design produced from work by 30-year-old Goldsmiths MFA graduate, Haroun Haward. In this case, the original work (which you can see in its original form on the left) is called Exotic Construction With Mangoes. It's an interesting idea, adapting an artist's work in this way – but if it brings new talent to a wider audience, and pays the original creator, why not? Besides, adaptation for product design is hardly new.

In mural form, the works cost £45 per square metre (each installation is bespoke). And you can also buy a A2 giclee prints of the original work for £65.

This mural comes via 2009 Central St Martin's graduate, Charles Robinson, aged 26. The original artwork is called Problem Child and is a five foot square oil painting on canvas.

This mural has adapted the work of Korean American artist, Eun Young Choi.

Below you can see some of the other artwork-based products Fenton is selling. What do you think?

 Lampshades start at £59.

Cushions start at £39.

Fentonartdesign.co.uk

Post by Kate