Our Real Interior Design page is just being constructed, this old picture frame gets a mention early on.
Category: Interior design inspiration
Roman Candles
Gorgeous candles from Rome, look amazing against centuries old Cornish slate flooring.
Andrea Moraes, http://www.candlestore.it
A coffee/style addict in Cheltenhan
Baker and Graze
Whilst working away from home, I’m always desperate to find the best coffee. At the moment, I’m based at Cheltenham General Hospital and having tried all the coffee shops within the hospital, I can confirm its all terrible. The stuff ‘palpitations’ are made with.
So whilst only given 30 minutes for lunch, I decided to check out Baker and Graze. It had the look outside of somewhere that cared about coffee and good food. They serve food, many types of chocolate brownies, also freshly baked bread. The brunch type servings looked delicious.
The ‘flat white’ was superb and gave me the hit required with no ill effects. Needless to say whilst working away, this will be my cafe of choice.
The Hutong Cafe, Plymouth.
My dogs are urban dogs, they like a circular walk on tarmac with plenty of green space to run around on and a dog friendly cafe for a bit of a nap. I’ve been trying to recreate that for them in Plymouth. Today I struck gold for all of us.
We parked at Devils Point and had half an hour of fabulous sniffs and running about before descending the steps into the Royal William Yard to call in at Ocean Studios before taking the road back to Devils Point.
The Hutong Cafe just outside the grand gates of the Royal William Yard used to be a pub. Now it’s a stylish cafe serving great coffee.
I’m not the main coffee addict at theoldmortuary.design but I do know a good cup of coffee when the bubbles on the crema reflect beautiful oily-looking copper colours on the top of a simple black coffee. So there we go, top marks for the look of a black coffee, top marks for flavour. My piece of cake was great too , but as usual I’m really more about the style of the place.
Hutong has great style. Easy on the eye, industrial retro , done impeccably, which is not always as simple as it looks.
Style is also about the ambience of the place and Hutong gets it right. Dogs are welcome either outside or inside, nearer to the front of the cafe.
George, one of the owners, was welcoming when we arrived and he and Owen the barista were involved in conversations with everyone in the cafe at some point during my visit. Later I met Jack , George’s brother and co-owner, who is equally engaging. George and Jack have great plans for the future of this cafe and they were a pleasure to natter to. Chris the chef made a brief appearance to smile , completing what seems to be a winning team. A cafe this good is a great addition to the area and a fabulous place to take the most dedicated of coffee lovers.
Too late for breakfast
Today was supposed to be breakfast at The Canteen, Maker Heights, but somehow the morning slipped into afternoon . 
Breakfast is the reason we go to Maker Heights , not the only reason , but the main one. To arrive too late was a shock, one which required coffee and quick thinking .
As it turns out missing the breakfast slot was a good thing, we just ordered random things and were blown away , metaphorically and actually, by the amazing tastes of the food and the wind . Potato wedges with cheese, Asparagus Salad, Smoked Mackeral Pate and a tasting board, all delicious. This is not however a food blog, there are a million bloggers out there who can write good stuff about the food here better than me.
If I were a food blogger, I would go on and on about just how tasty the food at The Canteen is, but this is an Art, Design and Style blog. So I’d say get over there ,check out the funky art, Hope that it’s not too full for you to see the eclectic style and enjoy some fabulous food whilst you discuss the design and landscape.
The Canteen at Maker Heights@makercanteen
So beyond breakfast why do we go to The Canteen at Maker.
1, The views, they are spectacular .
2. The Coffee, seriously good coffee.
3. Most importantly for a design blog . The Style
4 The Welcome, all the staff here are lovely every time we come.
5 The countryside around South East Cornwall is known as the forgotten corner of Cornwall. Getting to Maker Canteen takes you through spectacular countryside.
6 After today, we will be going for all the other lovely food, we may well miss breakfast more often.
7 The Vibe. This place makes you smile, a lot. Sometimes too much.
And then you fall off the bench 
Mortuary gets a makeover
The Old Mortuary was converted from a single story Chapel of Repose, where people viewed their loved, or not, one, and a back work room, to a two-story extension attached to our existing cottage. The dimensions and style of the mortuary are slightly different to those of the cottage. We decided to maintain the utilitarian/industrial, albeit on a small scale, nature of the conversion. We wanted to replicate a concrete finish on the walls. This can be hideously expensive but our builders, Superfit, worked creatively to give us the finish we wanted in a more economic way. The result is beautiful and very hard wearing.
The full story of the conversion will be a whole other story, one day.
Home #developingyoureye
theoldmortuary.design takes its name from our home. We recently redeveloped an old, unused undertakers building. We bought the building unseen as the keys to the back portion had been lost long ago. Before we actually got in the building I had a romantic notion that we would find artefacts not dissimilar to the beautiful bottle here, which I actually photographed at Petersham Nurseries, Surrey. The truth was somewhat different.
Reaching Out Tea House, Hoi An
We love serendipity. This cushion resting against a worn wall in the Reaching Out Teahouse in Hoi An, Vietnam, makes perfect harmony with its environment.
#reachingoutvietnam.com #interior design #Hoi An #Vietnam
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