Latest Homes Sussex magazine

How ‘green’ is your scene? Latest Interiors takes a look at how we can all make our homes energy effecient

2007 saw a veritable green revolution in homes and interiors style, and the trend is set to continue – and strengthen – in 2008. Ignore green issues at your peril; modern eco-friendly interiors are practical, stylish and fast becoming the norm. So, if your domestic ethics are as important as aesthetics, what changes can you make to your home? Latest Interiors finds out how easy it is to go green…

Sustainable homes

Having a greener home is actually quite easy. Following a few basic principles will put you on the right track:

• Think small – bigger homes use more energy
• Heat with the sun, solar heating is
  inexpensive, clean and efficient
• Use energy wisely and switch off appliances
  when not in use; opt for low-energy versions
• Conserve water
• When possible, use local, natural materials
  in building and furniture, from sustainable
  sources
• Always recycle

(more…)

You snooze, you lose? Wrong! Good sleep is the key to a great lifestyle and a top quality bed will help you along

Bed linen and accessories from the ‘Star’ range by Julien MacDonald for Debenhams, from £25
www.debenhams.com

Small, uncomfortable beds can cause back problems and insomnia, making our waking lives a misery. We spend over a third of our lives asleep, so a good bed is a long-term investment. This month, Latest Interiors takes 40 winks in the season’s softest beds…

Supersize me

Outsize furniture is a strong theme for winter 07. Think Alice In Wonderland meets seasonal yearning for cosiness and cocooning. To make this trend work, maximise use of sleek storage and pare bedrooms down, keeping all of the detail and clutter on the bed itself. Super-king and Emperor-size beds are fast gaining in popularity, and at 7’ x 7’, an Emperor bed really does give you room to stretch out and relax.

Design Studio at 58 Western Road, Hove, 01273 206123 and 125 South Road, Haywards Heath
01444 443777

Beds are perfect candidates for super-sizing. Low-level Oriental and other simple, masculine styles remain popular, but for a statement piece choose a modern four poster. This season, big is beautiful.

Linea’s ‘Donatella’ bed linen and accessories from £12,
House Of Fraser, www.houseoffraser.co.uk

Sleep smart…

On the other hand, if room is tight then clever beds can save space and double the storage capacity of your bedroom.

There are several different options for bed storage: cabin beds – where one single bed folds underneath the other when not in use – are perfect for smaller rooms where you don’t need a double all of the time. Bunk beds are great if you have kids to sleep over. Alternatively, you can invest in a bunk-bed-cumoffice- unit, where the lower bunk is replaced by a desk. If you’re on a budget, then simple underbed storage boxes can be very effective.

The style headline, though, is folding beds. Incorporated into fitted bedroom units, these clever beds combine sleek storage with clean, minimal design. No longer stuck in the 70s, a fold-out bed will help your bedroom to multitask as office, playroom or entertainment space.

Design Studio at 58 Western Road, Hove, 01273 206123 and 125 South Road, Haywards Heath, 01444 443777

And so to bed

Of course, no bed is complete (or inviting) without beautiful, fresh bed linen and sumptuous accessories. Good quality Egyptian cotton and pure Irish linen in white or cream are always in style. For the more adventurous,natural and organic fabrics still predominate, but the palette for winter is dark and altogether richer. Throws and cushions in silk or cotton velvets, animal prints (use sparingly: more Kate Moss than Pat Butcher, please), nubby linen and wool in shades of midnight blue, chocolate, black and scarlet. Made your bed? It must be time to lie in it…

Two years ago, Justin Ingram was looking to escape the London rat race. After several weekends away in Sussex, it was not a difficult choice to relocate to the south coast. With a background in interiors, Justin’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up a new business, The Blind Shop. We met up with him to find out more.

“With the rise of the internet, people have become a lot more savvy and know a good deal when they see one. I felt that there was a gap in the market for an online business offering modern, made-to measure-blinds at really low prices.”

“There are endless choices in blinds and this can be really confusing for customers, so we’ve carefully developed a range to suit any interior. This not only makes it easy for customers but it also means we can keep our prices low as we don’t need to keep loads of different blinds in stock.”

The Blind Shop specialises in wood venetians but also offers a range of metal venetians, roller blinds and black-out blinds to complement. Their wood venetians come with fabric tapes rather than strings. “We think this gives a contemporary and luxurious look” Justin says. “We can offer them at an amazing price because we don’t have the overheads of high street shops”.

The Blind Shop is essentially an online business with a showroom in Shoreham. They’ve recently introduced a free measuring service and a low cost fitting service for their local Sussex customers. “As we’re located in Sussex, it made perfect sense to offer these added services and they’ve been an instant success.”

“We want to get to a point where if someone thinks of blinds, they think of The Blind Shop”. It seems that with the success so far, it won’t be long before this becomes true.

The Blind Shop, Unit C8 Dolphin Enterprise Centre, Dolphin Road, Shoreham BN43 6QB
Tel: 0845 6800645

Award-winning store Velvet launches new furniture website

Velvet is launching its new website on the back of the huge success of its furniture store on Bond Street. Velvet was set up in Brighton nearly seven years ago by Emma and Nick Harrop and Iris Draper. They started with gifts and accessories and over the years have expanded to three shops in Brighton and Hove with a very hard-working team of 20. On George Street in Hove and Bond Street, Brighton there are Velvet gift and clothes stores. Bond Street is also home to the furniture store.

The Velvet furniture store sells a huge range of furniture, lighting, mirrors, home accessories and gifts from French chateaustyle, art deco, contemporary, shabby chic, painted, boudoir, funky and modern to mirrored and Venetian, all at accessible prices.

Customers travel from all over the country to visit because of the store’s very competitive pricing and they have lots of celebrity customers, from actors and politicians to former Big Brother housemates and pop stars.

Velvet has just won the prestigious ‘Best Independent Retailer’ award at the Brighton and Hove Business Awards for its three stores. This is a huge accolade as Brighton is now one of the busiest shopping areas in the UK. Velvet won because it has really pushed the boundaries of retail excellence, with new stock arriving daily, beautiful displays, ‘wow factor’ windows and shop layouts, a huge mix of gorgeous products appealing to all ages and tastes, excellent customer service and a loyal following of customers.

There is also a huge range of mirrors, from French to ornate to modern and from small to very large as well as hundreds of different lights, ranging from modern to classic chandeliers, funky lights and lamps. They also sell beautiful gifts and home accessories – everything from frames to doormats to signs to over 150 different styles of glass, ceramic and metal door knobs and hooks.

Velvet are a family business who really care about their staff and customers. Staff are very friendly, always offering plenty of advice and suggestions to customers if they want it (but NO pushy sales). The staff enjoy working there and that gives the shops a lovely atmosphere. They voted Velvet ‘The Best Place To Work In Brighton’ no less!

The buying team spend a great deal of time sourcing new original products from all over the world and from hundreds of different suppliers. They will be updating their website on a regular basis with new stock. If you can’t find what you are looking for in the shops or on the website call or email, as they may well be able to find it from their hundreds of suppliers.

Velvet, 27 and 29 Bond Street, Brighton and 10 George Street, Hove. For more information call 01273 326322, email info@velvetstore.co.uk

Visit www.velvetstore.co.uk