House of Hawkes

Helmii X House of Hawkes collaboration

30/03/2019

When I started my blog and subsequent interior design career path almost six years ago, never could I have imagined some of the personal milestones it would lead to. If you’d told me that I would been asked by a bed retailer to design a bed for them, I’d no doubt have laughed at the suggestion, but fast forward to 2019 and it is with great excitement that I announce another design collaboration – this time with Helmii, a Dubai-based bed store, specialising in affordable, customised beds. (If you missed the first big collab announcement, see that here) Fairly new to…

IKEA’S BILLY bookcase turns 40… and I hacked it to celebrate!

04/03/2019

The team and I were pretty excited when IKEA UAE asked us to participate in a campaign to celebrate 40 years of the iconic BILLY bookcase. It’s pretty amazing to think of how this bookcase (in its various forms) has stood the test of time, and of all the homes it must’ve graced and the countless ways it’s been styled during those four decades. Growing up in South Africa, we had no IKEA, so it wasn’t something I was familiar with – or that I knew I was missing out on. You can imagine the level of my excitement when…

Valentine’s inspired Rosemary & Blackberry Pink Drink

10/02/2019

Just like that, January is behind us and we are hurtling towards Valentine’s day – a bitter sweet one for me this year as my ‘baby boy’ turns ten! With the romantic holiday literally a few days away, our clever Marli, who does a lot of the behind the scenes work here on the blog, came up with the brilliant idea to share a cocktail recipe that may just be the ideal bevvy to celebrate this fun ‘holiday’. Whether your love is well-worn or just blossoming, we’ve got you covered for a pretty pink drink that’s bound to impress your…

H&M Home launches new concept stores

28/01/2019

I’ve been watching (on Instagram) with great envy as H&M Home have been opening their new standalone concept stores across Europe since September of last year, with the latest one set to open its doors in Regent Street, London in the Spring. These new concept stores, already operational in Denmark, Sweden, Norway Germany and the UK, are so exciting because they expand the existing homewares range to include furniture and lighting, essentially making them a fully-fledged home store. From what I have seen online with the European openings, these stores are inspiring destination that offer not only the latest products from the…

Scene and heard | Jan 2019

18/01/2019

The team and I started the year by taking some time to evaluate what we want to share on the blog. We discussed posts that are consistently well read on the blog (interestingly, some of the oldest are still the most popular) and looked into the kind of content that we enjoy reading as interior fanatics. It was an exercise that was long overdue and the discussion took us into deep into assessment mode. A valuable exercise all-in-all and one of the resolutions was to revive our Scene and Heard series – a platform for all those little snippets of…

Favourite Finds: Dubai Shopping Festival

14/01/2019

For those of you who are based in Dubai, you no doubt know that the Dubai Shopping Festival is in full swing. The incredible six week annual sale event features some 700+ brands participating across 3,200 outlets and lasts until 2 February. One of the highlights of DSF is the the Market Outside The Box (OTB), a cool outdoor pop-up that plays host to some of Dubai’s smaller, home-grown concept stores. I think it’s in its sixth year already as it returns to Burj Park in Downtown Dubai for nine days from 24 January. The team and I have been sourcing…

Home Tour: Karen Pissarra from DESIGNK

11/01/2019

We haven’t done a home tour on the blog in quite some time, but this feature is coming back with a bang as our first peek inside a beautiful home is one that I am personally crazy about and have been dying to show you for ages. It belongs to fellow South African and Interiors colleague, Karen Pissarro of Design K. And it’s not the first time we’ve featured the living quarters of this talented creative on the blog – her downtown apartment was a very popular post around here almost three years ago to the day. Karen and her…

our living room – a work in progress

29/12/2018

Hello lovelies! I hope you have all had a fabulously festive Christmas. I’ve have been taking some time off from work and the blog and have really been enjoying the down time with no deadlines. I’ve been spring-cleaning the house and getting myself ready to face the new year with a clean(ish) slate. That said, there is one post that is long overdue and that I wanted to publish on here before the year is through. We shot the images when the Christmas tree had just arrived so it’s not going to look relevant beyond the next week or two…