All posts filed under: Out and About

Knox Brackets Dowsing Reynolds

The Knox Bracket – A piece of Making Spaces at Dowsing & Reynolds

You can now buy me!! I’m for sale! I’m a bracket! Do you remember this project from 2017? The Industrial Shaker Kitchen – Before Well, part of this kitchen update, I designed some rather special shelving that sat on some rather special shelving brackets. After – Remember? Well these shelves caused quite a stir, so much so, I told Mr Dowsing Reynolds they should manufacture and sell them as part of their hardware range. I’m bossy like that. And guess what? The eponymous Knox Brackets are now for sale on the Dowsing & Reynolds website. You can now add me to your basket, have me delivered and fix me to your wall. It’s very exciting! Knox Shelf Brackets Here’s what it says on the D&R website about my design baby: “Rewind to 2016 when our very own James and Ally Dowsing-Reynolds moved into their new family home. They don’t like to do things by halves, and so it came as no surprise to us to find out that they’d bought a doer-upper… To say the least. …

The Grafton Arms – My room for the night

If you guys follow me on Instagram, then you might be aware of my trip to London  last week for the Amara Blog Awards. Don’t worry!! Today’s post isn’t about the awards, **everyone breathes sigh of relief**  it’s about the hotel I stayed in whilst down in the capital. It was so very lovely it deserved its own blog post. (And no, I didn’t get a free stay or paid to write this post. I was a bog standard, paying customer.) The Grafton Arms is just over a mile’s walk from Kings Cross Station, which was a big selling point for me as I didn’t want to deal with busses or tubes. A 20 minute walk west into Fitzrovia, me pulling my purple trolley dolly with Google maps as my guide, and I was stood right here. Nice and easy. The interiors have all recently been refurbed to an extremely high standard. I was genuinely impressed. They even had some familiar faces on the walls… Recognise the Marquis by Thierry Poncelet from the Red Room Project?? The Grafton …

Nicola Broughton Home

Popping my public speaking cherry #designupnorth

Just a quick one today peeps, i’m still recovering from that last blog post… I hope you read it as it took me an age to write. Anyhoo – just wanted to let you all know that i’m making my very first panel appearance. I know! And you’re invited. Do read on… (I’m one of the friends) If you don’t know my northern insta buddy, Nicola Broughton (aka, The Girl with the Green Sofa) then here’s the low down. It’s going to be fun. For you that is. I will no doubt be shitting myself and hiding behind a large Kentia Palm. I’m more than happy mouthing off on here where I can go back, delete, edit, re-write, but in front of actual, real life people, i’m a bit shy I am. And if I have to speak into a microphone, well then i’ll be mortified as you’ll definitely hear the remains of my childhood lisp and my hybrid north west, Yorkshire accent. Hopefully the next two weeks of elecution lessons will have paid off in time. …

No House Rules with Kate Watson Smyth

Mad About the House comes to Leeds – #designupnorth with No House Rules

I went out one night last week. Didn’t get to sleep until well after midnight… and i’m still paying for it now (god, i’m so old). I don’t get out much, mainly because i’m a natural introvert, i’m normally in bed for 8.30pm and I find pyjamas just oh so comfortable. But for this recent No House Rules event, I made an exception. The No House Rules ladies, Katie and Amy (aka. @comedowntothewoods and @thisstyle_rocks) in partnership with Rose & Grey had arranged for Kate Watson-Smyth of Mad About the House fame to come to that there Leeds. I’ve been a huge fan of Kate and her work for several years now. It was one of the first blogs I latched on to. Her words, insight and general take on design certainly resonated with me. And a lot of other people too…. I remember when she followed me back on Twitter a few years ago, I was mega excited. Proper fan-girl style. Spring forward a few and our paths have crossed virtually a fair few …