It's All-White

I sometimes daydream about living in a simple, all-white space, maybe near the sea: wafting around the sun-filled rooms, fresh white flowers everywhere, I'm folding fluffy white towels and stacking them in my white armoire. Of course the reverie soon turns into a living nightmare. I spent last night guarding a couple of dreamily sumptuous, exquisitely dressed beds that The White Company had been prepping and preening all afternoon, ready to come in and shoot this morning. The snowy-white linen impeccably pressed, the bedspread draped just so, the Egyptian pillows plumped to perfection. I can read Enzo's mind and it said
'I'd like to make myself a nest in the middle of that lot.'
'Enzo! That's not the look they're going for - and remember what happened this morning in Dirty Blonde Boutique... I know you were bored with me searching for a vintage swimsuit but vomiting on the floor, twice, was uncalled for. They won't let you in there again.'
'Good' he replied telepathically. 'Anyway, Brian told me to vomit. It was his idea.'


As well as the impracticalities of an all-white home, (the only white furniture we have is wipe clean :)) I don't have the discipline to live in a pale, monochrome environment. Bits of colour would creep in and ruin it. And it would mean you couldn't have a go at this look - if the mood took you and you had a bit of time on your hands one weekend.

A house like our mates Jo and Graham's gaff requires just as much discipline to achieve as any blindingly white, minimal interior. It's my dream pad and is a haven of sophisticated, elegant style but still a fun family home. Have a look.

The White Company manage to make their lovely interior shots look effortlessly easy. They picked these few flowers from the rain soaked garden this morning - just the kind of bedside table arrangement we all have, non? 

Here are some pictures, shot here, from their last winter collection. I took the catalogue into my all-white with quite a lot of green, a bit of lilacy-blue and some yellow, (yes, yellow - Ed insisted on buying a tray of zingy-yellow antirrhinums) dripping wet garden to photograph this afternoon. I would have scanned the pages but John has erased the software for the scanner off the hard drive and Brian binned the disc so we can't reinstall it. Groan.

PS. Thank you to everyone that emailed me about the Cornflower Blue Vans. Your sympathy is appreciated. Thanks to all your hot leads I placed an order this afternoon. x