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The cushion is an ancient article of both decoration and functional furniture. From the early Middle Ages through to 19th century palaces, they would adorn and be used for seating or kneeling, when seats were often hard and uncomfortable.

Nowadays, decorative cushions are used widely with infinite options of pattern, colour, texture and scale to create a variety of looks, atmosphere or mood for your interior. You can easily relive your favourite eras such as the 60’s and 60’s with vintage prints or add nomadic texture and pattern for tribal organic vibe.

See Robin’s stunning range of Weave® cushions instore today and add some new elements of colour to your space.

Robin drake

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1. An interior designer is trained to think 3 dimensionally, i.e. consider all the spaces as connecting elements in the overall scheme of things.
2. Your choice of interior designer should be one whom you relate to and can communicate with effectively, I.e. they listen to your brief, listen to your ideas, concerns about specific areas of your interior design and know how to put you at ease in the planning & selection process
3. It is important your choice of interior designer doesn’t end up wanting to impose their respective tastes and styles on you … you make the final decision!
4. An interior designer can save you money and time! One almost needs a cut lunch, compass and standby search party as it’s so easy to get lost in the mine field of textiles, timbers, design terminology and a host of confusing but well-intended advice from family and friends.
5. Your family are great at telling what you should have, and your friends
   are great at agreeing to whatever your whims are just to keep you happy.Either way, you are going to end up with a mish-mash of something that’s simply not your taste, style or thing.
6. The time factor really is a biggie. In today’s world of frenetic work, juggling family, fitting in committee meetings, grocery shopping and trying to find a scrap of time to even begin considering “what should go where,” an interior designer can sift through the thousands of fabric samples, carpet samples, paint swatches, furniture designs, kitchen & bathroom
   fittings etc and present you with a story board of a suggested finished colour and textile scheme. Whether it’s from scratch say for a new home, or considering a favourite painting, furniture item or object d’art, it matters not. The point is that you simply let your choice of interior designer do all the running around and gather up samples, test pots and so on and present the story package to you! A mistake in interior design through not understanding the principals of design alone can be very costly and not necessarily easily corrected.
7. A well-trained interior designer should have a good understanding of the psychology of colour and also be conscious of how different colours affect people’s responses.
8. Finally your interior designer should be sympathetic to your budget…don’t be afraid to set one and stick to it! it’s no use having the most stunning interior in the street and you can’t afford to live! These days there are well-priced products available in almost every category of interior design fit-out and with clever imagination, flair, experience, knowledge and design skills, your interior designer should be able to meet your requirements.

I would be delighted to accept any interior design challenges you may have. Combining my husband Graham’s installation skills with my design flair anything is possible!

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It’s the one space where conviviality, great company, great food, laughter, family debating, putting the world to rights, bon appetite, can all be enjoyed together.

Depending on the proportions of your dining space, a ROUND TABLE will always encourage multi-way conversation. Our family has at least 4 conversations going at once when we all get together!

I also tend to favour the fabulous 150CM SQUARE TABLES which seat 8 people, 2 on each of the 4 sides. There is plenty of room for lots of food, settings and glassware, and one doesn’t have to be left out of conversation going on at the opposite end of a traditional rectangular table, but rather be a part of it.

Try to calculate the SPACE YOU NEED ! Allow a 60cm width for each setting and at least half that in depth.

All too often I see tables and chairs cramped into too tight a space so my advice is also to ALLOW 60CM TO PULL BACK A CHAIR.

When buying chairs, you may only have room for six but GET TWO MORE anyway. Keep those in a study or bedroom and bring them out to supplement the seating as needed.

Bench seats are good space-savers in small apartments – just push them under the table when not in use. Better than the way I always seem to find myself dragging out the old double piano stool for seating the extras (full of music & weighs a ton!)

Think about SCALE, too. Don’t put a delicate dining table in a huge room. Don’t pair heavy antique chairs with it either!

What I do enjoy, however, is mixing chair styles. If I have a client who wants something very eclectic, then I say, “It’s the mix not the match” and you don’t have to have all matching chairs. Be prepared for a bit of fun, loosen up on the rigidity of the formal matching 6 chair look and let your individuality speak up!

We talk of “Musical Chairs” but how about considering rearranging an open-plan living space for summer and winter use?
In fine weather when you often use the barbecue, position the table near the outside access. At the moment we can only hope for fine, warm weather to indulge such delights.

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