Last month I was very excited to be invited to a secret preview of the nine new Farrow & Ball colours with Joa Studholme, their International Colour Consultant. I arrived to the beautiful Albany apartments in Piccadilly having always admired F&B colours from afar, told others to use them but only gone as far as using their All White floor paint in my own home – because why would anyone ever need anything more than white walls? However, I left that evening determined to paint both my sitting room and kitchen in pretty bold colours and hatching plans for how I was going to persuade Jules that that was an excellent idea. What on earth happened?! It definitely wasn’t the bubbles being served because I stuck to dry January that evening *smug face*.

Well, I think it was a combination of two things. Firstly, Joa is simply brilliant and I could have listened to her all night; who was I to argue when she suggested I use Peignoir in my sitting room and told me that her own sitting room is painted in that colour? Secondly, I genuinely fell in love with the colours and the stories behind their names alone were enough to seduce me away from my beloved white walls.

And so the day after the preview I put my order in and as you can see in my Styling the Seasons post my sitting room is now Peignoir and proud.

New colours

All nine of the new colours were launched this week and just in case you missed it here is a brief run down of my favourite in the the collection and how Joa introduced them to us.

First up was Shadow White, predicted by Joa to be incredibly popular as it is a very “safe pair of hands”. A muted shade, a true neutral without the yellow of Slipper Satin, perfect for any style of home.

Shadow White

Next came Drop Cloth, a name that I love taken from the decorator’s dust sheet and Joa told me that her decorator had suggested it. This colour is not too yellow, nor too grey and works beautifully with Shadow White and Shaded White for those looking for a neutral colour scheme with understated sophistication.

Drop Cloth

And here’s my favourite. As soon as Joa pulled up the board painted in this colour I whispered to Kate, who I was sitting next to and who has tipped it as being one of the most popular of the new colours: “I think that’s my colour”. Inspired by the chiffon gowns in which ladies traditionally brushed their hair in boudoirs (that description clinched it for me!) it is a very soft pink with a huge amount of grey. As I said in my post this week, Jules thinks this colour is grey, which goes to show how different in looks in different lights. As I sit here typing with the sun streaming in it is the blushest of pinks. I love it. “Pink for boys,” as Joa put it.

Peignoir

I also fell quite hard for Cromarty, which piqued my interest when we were told it was named after the shipping forecast – there’s something quite romantic about that, I think, conjuring up notions of swirling seas and winds. A soft muted green, lighter than Mizzle and would work beautifully with Blue Gray or Pigeon and perfect for a kitchen.

Cromarty

Worsted slips seamlessly between Purbeck Stone and Mole’s Breath on the colour chart. Named after the Norfolk village where the flat woven fabric used for city suits was originally woven, Joa forecast that it will be a hit as the obsession with grey looks set to run for a while longer.

Worsted

To see the other new colours have a look here and I’d love to know which one is your favourite.

Katy x

I’ve gone a bit gaga for Christmas this year and it all started with a project that Teri from The Lovely Drawer conjured up back in September. Along with eleven other bloggers we have all come together to style twelve different Christmas tables with lots of lovely West Elm goodies. You can follow all twelve days on Teri’s blog and and West Elm’s Front + Main blog.

As a child the thing I looked forward to most about the festive season were the mornings; I would jump out of bed every morning, so excited to see what picture was behind the door of my advent calendar and don’t even get me started on the excitement levels of finding and opening our stockings on Christmas morning itself.

Therefore, I had to choose an advent breakfast table with hot cinnamon rolls and a special homemade advent calendar present. Being a cold, dark December morning there are plenty of homemade candles and twinkly lights and a cosy blanket so everyone can stay in their PJ’s all morning.

Cosy texture throw from West Elm

I have never been a big fan of the traditional red, green and gold so I always opt for soft pinks, white and lots of natural green. To make it feel more festive you just need a good dose of Christmas lights and candles, which also really help to make the dark mornings at this time of year feel more cosy.

My homemade advent calendar is simply two pieces of wallpaper (or you could use brown wrapping paper stamped with Christmas images) sewn together with a chocolate coin or two popped inside. You could even put a little note inside with a different Christmas related activity to be revealed each day.  Such a lovely thing to find every morning.

Organic shaped dinnerware from West Elm

I made delicious Christmas scented cinnamon candles in small vintage cake tins (or patty pans), which work perfectly with the fresh cinnamon rolls. You can find the recipe for the rolls in this post and the tutorial to make the candles here.

I really can not explain to you how excited I used to get about my advent calendar, although we had a very strict ‘no chocolate’ rule in our family; it was all about finding the most beautiful calendar with the most beautiful illustrations. I think if there had been an advent present for me every morning on our breakfast table I would have internally combusted with excitement!

This Christmas we are spending the day in London with my family. We take the dogs for a walk in the morning and then have drinks with friends. We then walk through the quiet streets of London to a special restaurant for lunch – no cooking or washing up for us! Then home for lots of Christmas telly and more drinking and eating. I can not wait.

Pop over to Teri’s blog to see day 1, Heather’s blog to see day 2, Ruth’s blog to see day 3 and Fran’s blog to see day 4 – all completely different Christmas tables and different traditions, which makes it such a lovely project. Thank you so much to Teri for bringing us all together and the folks at West Elm for the perfect Christmas tableware (although I snuck a blanket in there as we all know you can never have enough blankets, especially when they are so soft and pink). Don’t forget to follow the remaining seven days on the Front + Main blog – there are some amazing tables coming up so you’d be a fool to miss it!

Katy x