Home & Garden | The Womens Room

Home & GardenMay 2, 2013

Susannah Hunter’s Chelsea Flower Show garden, with weather-proof leather flowers

By Amanda

Chelsea Flower Show Gardeners are normally in a bit of a spin around now, complaining that temperatures are either too hot/cold/wet/dry to ensure the perfect show garden. Handbag designer Susannah Hunter’s garden will bloom beautifully whatever the weather, because most… Read More

Home & GardenApril 26, 2013

National Stationery Week: what’s in your pencil case?

By Amanda

You know how we (Ok, I) am about stationery and all things related, we couldn’t let National Stationery Week go by without celebrating. So we’re taking the opportunity to look into the pencil cases of some of our favourite stationery… Read More

Home & GardenApril 19, 2013

Fragranced clothes: perfume is finding new places to go…

By Amanda

Fragrance houses are starting to make eyes at your clothes…you thought they were perfectly OK with regular washing and a dash of Comfort in the rinse to make ’em smell a bit less ‘laundry’, but they have other ideas. Home… Read More

Home & GardenApril 18, 2013

Hanging vases

By Jane

I love these hanging vases as a way of decorating outside for a special occasion. If the weather every gets sunny, I will be trying this look out in my tiny back garden. It’ll drive the cats and MAD insane,… Read More

Home & GardenApril 16, 2013

Trend alert: house plants

By Jane

The English love for indoor plants caught on in Victorian times, when the fashion for indoor plants meant conservatories became popular as places to take tea and grow the delicate and rare plants, popular at the time. Growing up in… Read More

Home & GardenApril 9, 2013

Angela Flanders Moth Herbs Workshop…hope for woolly sweaters everywhere

By Amanda

The weather may be warming slightly and there might be a spring in your step as the sun peeks out to cheer us all up, but be on your guard people, BE ON YOUR GUARD…Warm weather means only one thing… Read More

Home & GardenMarch 26, 2013

Try this at home: lavender infused gin

By Amanda

I’ve gone right off wine, something to do with the menopause, but the good news is I’ve discovered gin, which coincides with something of a revival in artisan gin appreciation. We wrote about the delightful Sipsmith London Gin distillery here… Read More

Home & GardenMarch 21, 2013

Lubna Chowdary update

By Jane

Remember we told you about Lubna Chowdary back in 2010 (no – I didn’t think you would!). She makes beautiful hand crafted tiles for interior and exterior spaces. As well as working in collaboration with architects and interior designers on… Read More

Home & GardenMarch 10, 2013

The Women’s Room Meets: Alys Fowler

By Amanda

We were thrilled to be asked to the Gudrun Sjoden’s International Women’s Day celebration at the Covent Garden store on Friday, and to meet my favourite gardening columnist Alys Fowler, who writes for the Guardian’s weekend magazine, along with other… Read More

Home & GardenFebruary 16, 2013

Chiswick House Camellia Festival with Peter Blake

By Amanda

If you are a gardening type, you might like to know that Chiswick House refurbished it’s historic, 300 ft long, Grade 1 listed camellia glass houses after years rotting in the doldrums in 2010 and is celebrating their 200th birthday… Read More

Home & GardenFebruary 13, 2013

We love: The Beat That My Heart Skipped

By Jane

For me the best blogs have an authentic, personal approach. a strong aesthetic, friendly tone of voice and lots of personality. Being aspirational, but attainable is also important. I want the the recipes, interior ideas or fashion advice, to be… Read More

Home & GardenFebruary 2, 2013

The Ecobubble washing machine from Samsung… and a bear

By Amanda

There’s this new washing machine from Samsung, the Ecobubble, which washes at a very low temperature -15 degrees -using some new fangled way with bubbles and 70% less energy. Sounds impressive although ee haven’t tried it, but the company has… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 27, 2013

Blackboard inspiration for the TWR office space…

By Amanda

For the last few months I’ve had the top left picture on my mood board for inspiration. I really love blackboards and things painted in blackboard paint, it seems such a useful idea on some bits of furniture. This bashed… Read More

Home & GardenJanuary 17, 2013

Keeping cosy with tea, knitting and Woman’s Hour

By Amanda

I know everyone’s talking about spring clothes, but as I write this I am swathed in woolly jumpers and I have my Uniqlo heattech leggings on and the very last thing I’m thinking about is anything not made from a… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 23, 2012

We love: Sweet Paul

By Jane

How did I not know about Sweet Paul until now? An online and printed lifestyle magazine created as a spin off of Paul Lowe’s hugely successful blog, Sweet Paul is a must for anyone looking to “make simple, elegant meals… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 19, 2012

How to impress this Christmas – or not!

By Jane

If you are feeling the pressure of Christmas entertaining this week, you can rest assured you are not the only one and for once, it seems this isn’t just about being a woman! Recent research shows that Brits rank… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 12, 2012

All I want for Christmas: Amanda’s list

By Amanda

What I’d really like for Christmas is a Porsche like Saga’s. You remember Saga from the TV series The Bridge? Slightly odd Swedish police detective who wears leather trousers and drives around very fast in an olive green vintage Porsche.… Read More

Food, Home & Garden, We Are ReadingDecember 8, 2012

Recipe Journal by Orlando Gough

By Amanda

It’s a while since we popped over to the Toast Travels section of the Toast website, run by Rachel Seaton and we’ve missed a lot, its got all sorts of interesting things going on. The first thing to notice… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 8, 2012

Christmas Marmite, the Gold Limited (bling) Edition

By Amanda

Can I just check all the Marmite lovers out there have got their jar of Marmite Gold? It is the most fabulous thing to happen to Marmite since the champagne edition, only this is better as addIng gold coloured flecks… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 3, 2012

All I want for Christmas: Books

By Jane

A new cookery book is a little like getting a brand new notebook (remember the thrill of the first page of a new school book), with its crisp, clean pages full of hope and potential to start afresh. Leafing through… Read More

Home & GardenDecember 2, 2012

A stylish Christmas Star from John Kostick

By Amanda

If-like me-you buy one or two investment Christmas baubles for your tree every year, a small consolation of ageing is that by the time your kids become teenagers you find you’ve accumulated an impressive (if slightly eclectic) collection, to the… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 29, 2012

Best Christmas Crackers

By Jane

It seems even crackers have trends these days and gone are the days when you can simply pop into M & S and pick up a box without thinking – well you still can obvs, but that wouldn’t be much… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 23, 2012

Christmas candle inspiration

By Jane

It’s never too early to start thinking about table decorations (remember this does not make us shallow or ridiculous) and as Amanda pointed out earlier in the week, making things is actually good for our health. This simple idea from… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 19, 2012

All I want for Christmas: dog lovers

By Jane

The first in our series of posts bringing you interesting and alternative ideas for Christmas presents, today we look at a subject after my own heart – dogs. If like me, you are ridiculously soppy and treat your dog like… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 5, 2012

We love: Goodordering bags

By Jane

If you ride a bike, push a buggy or simply negotiate your way around town with shopping and a laptop, you will understand the need for a practical and stylish bag. Not always that easy to come by, bike panniers… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 27, 2012

When in New York…..Badass pumpkin carving for Halloween

By Amanda

Sooo, you thought you were good at pumpkin carving eh? Well frankly, we have nothing on the Americans. who elevate pumpkin carving around Halloween time to a new vegetable-based art form. New York had some awesome ones this week, above… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 26, 2012

Halloween decorating inspiration

By Jane

We are huge fans of any occasion that allows you to go mad with a glue gun and food colouring and Halloween offers all sorts of showing off/house/food decorating opportunities. Even though my teens are way past trick or treat… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 9, 2012

Readers Kitchens: Jeanne from Lillehammer, Norway

By Amanda

We have fabulous readers who are, it turns out, all over the globe! Jeanne made contact with us when we started to go on about loving Skandi style and TV (The Killing, The Bridge, COS…) leaving comments under our posts… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 8, 2012

Best of Britannia: G Plan Vintage by Wayne Hemmingway

By Jane

Last week we checked out Best of Britannia, a brand new showcase for the growing number of people sourcing and making products in the UK. From the Shetlands to Dalston and remote villages in Wales, Britain is enjoying a resurgence… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 7, 2012

Note book review: The Guardian and Midori

By Amanda

It’s been a busy month for notebooks (I know how terribly sad that sounds as I write this, but I know there are other stationery lovers out there, I just know there are….) Perhaps most surprising is the rather lovely… Read More