Furniture Hunting

I'm looking for a desk chair, a desk lamp, and some 'storage solutions' (bookshelves and/or filing cabinet/storage boxes). I want something a bit different - by which I really just mean not plain and boring - but am not fussy about style... vintage/retro, but not grotty; or maybe European/antique; or Danish/Swedish; or even new, but just not too utilitarian. I like mixing styles.

So I've been doing a bit of searching around, and came across these sites, which I'm recording here so I can find them later.

Elemental (I've been to their store in Spitalfields; they're also in Selfridges)

Graeme and Green (nice things, quite romantic. I love their mirrored tables, and I got my pineapple lamp from them)

Raft (lots of natural wood)

The Conran Shop (well out of my price range... those Eames chairs - sigh)

This is also a handy site: House to Home

I quite like these desk lamps (from G & G), but they seem only to have them left in red...

This is quite nice too - leather chair from John Lewis - but I'll have to check whether it's comfortable enough.

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Here are a couple of London directories/columns I've recently discovered. Good for finding new places, hidden treasures:

London Underground (New York Times, The Moment)

Secret London (FB group)

Loving the look of the vintage furniture stores listed here.

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I've been collecting good vintage/retro/antique furniture sites:

* The Old Cinema - I love this place, in Chiswick.

* Baileys Home & Garden - need to take a road trip to visit this one. I want to get some old apple crates to use as bookshelves.

* Retrouvius

* Castle Gibson - furniture and props

* Petersham Nurseries - garden furniture. Impossibly pretty. I can spend hours and hours here.

* Factory 20

Design Guide

This is a fantastic guide to London, which I just found on Design*Sponge. It lists a few of my favourites, but also lots of places I haven't been to and am now keen to check out.

London Design Guide

(image via design*sponge)

Listings

This is a handy guide to what's on in contemporary art at all the London galleries:

London Gallery Guide

(image - Roger Hiorns: Seizure 2008, from Turner Prize 2008, via London Gallery Guide)

Getaways

I feel I need to share this website, for anyone looking to plan a little getaway in Europe.

It's called Special Places to Stay, by Alastair Sawday. It was recommended by a friend, and I've found it very useful for finding a little villa in the south of France for a long weekend.

Special Places to Stay

Another travel website I like to browse (though the places are a little more expensive, it gives lots of inspiration) is i-escape. It's very stylish, and quite discerning about the places and hotels it lists.

i-escape.com