Barbara Wiggins Satchels and Leatherware for amazing Christmas Presents

Our Barbara Wiggins Satchels and Leatherware make fabulous Christmas Gifts and as a Christmas treat we are currently offering free delivery while stocks last so if there is anything you like please order now for delivery in time for Xmas

See the Website for the full range - TalkingPointsInteriors.co.uk

Here is a little taster:

Barbara Wiggins Satchels:Vintage leather notebooks, Crackled leather purses and Vintage leather Satchels:



A5 leather notebooks



Crackled leather purses

Barbara Wiggins leather satchels

A recent trip to Geneva

My blogger has moved to Geneva so a visit was in order to see how she had settled in. Also a fantastic excuse to have a look at Geneva, the Old Town and little side streets – and best of all to hop on the Tram for a day trip to Carouge.

Carouge

Carouge

Carouge is a small artisan suburb of Geneva -To this day, the city of Carouge has retained its Mediterranean-like atmosphere. Its bustling streets and many shaded squares invite one to stroll.

Trendy boutiques, antiques and curios dealers, restaurants and bistros ensure a warm and congenial ambience.

The pretty streets, with the houses painted in a hue of beautiful shades have given me fantastic inspiration for some forthcoming interior design and furniture painting projects.

A local upholsterer, busy in his shop window working on some beautiful pieces of antique French furniture.

As I wondered along some of the quaint streets, I had a chance to look inside a couple of antique/vintage furniture shops - one full of French mirrors and another crammed with vintage pieces – more inspiration and I also purchased a French Stockman Mannequin – becoming increasingly difficult to source, as well as a French Leather Vintage Club Chair and a lovely Vintage Trunk/Pirates Chest and more

Stockman mannequin

Vintage trunk/pirates chest

Vintage Pirates Chest/Vintage Toy Box/Vintage Trunk

New stock will be on the website very shortly!

After a busy day – off to the French Village of Chatel to relax for a couple of days before returning home to the UK to start on my new assignments/projects.

I will be returning to Geneva  after Xmas to undertake an Interior Design Project
For more information on Interior Design and Home Staging Services - please contact Talking Points Interiors 01444 441475 or 07929 4208415

Back to school

Thinking back to my school days, I remember how exciting it was to go back to school after the summer holidays. Everything was fresh and new from my form teacher to my shiny new shoes. Most exciting of all was the opportunity to get some new, chic stationary.

It is with this in mind that we have been working on our latest exciting talking point: "old fashioned school desks". Here at Talking Points Interiors our designer, Lissette has been working on her latest piece - a very cute double pine children's school desk by E.Savian originally hand made in Britain and now restored using Designers Guild "peony". Perfect for two Little ones to do their homework on or even artwork - also ideal for one child who requires lots of "creative space"!!

Our website shows the full range of desks that we currently have in stock. Also with back to school in mind, we have just had the pleasure of opening our latest batch of Barbara Wiggins stock, back after popular demand. the range is complete with satchels, pencil cases and notebooks and we are offering a back to school special of 15% off the usual prices. Check out our website for the full range and remember that prices are 15% less than those quoted. Enjoy!

Restored antique pine childrens school desk

Barbara Wiggins stationary

Barbara Wiggins vintage crackle satchel and notebook

Now that autumn is fast approaching.....

Now that Autumn is fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about bringing those non-hardy plants in from the garden to overwinter - and what better way to store them than in one of our beautiful wirework planters.


Choose from the tiered round planter - fantastic for geraniums, pelargoniums, orchids, ferns, etc or do as a friend of mine does every year and pop some plants into the chandelier that hangs in your orangery/conservatory - the wall bracket can also be similarly used and looks great with jasmine tumbling down from beneath the candles!
They all look fabulous and solve those storage problems too. As an end of season offer we are currently offering 15% off the price seen on our website for our wirework pieces if you order and quote "wireworksummer2010" when you place your order for any of these pieces.

Wirework garden planter

Wirework chandelier

Wirework tiered planter

Wirework candle holder

Take your pick - vintage trunks

As we've mentioned before we have an addiction to vintage trunks at Talking Points Interiors so need I say we were pretty excited this week to have sourced a varied collection of vintage trunks and cases to restore.

With the new school term looming we think renovated and painted trunks will be popular for any little ones that are heading away for school. Some of the trunks will also make great storage for children's bedrooms, coffee tables and even bedside tables (see the small leather cube cases). So take a look below at some of our selection (ranging from the new in, un-restored to the restored but awaiting a home to choose how they will be best used). Take your pick and contact us to order or enquire about your chosen case(es) and restoration requirements.

Our latest delivery of vintage trunks and cases

Leather vintage trunks and cases make fabulous bedside tables!

Weekly update

We have had a busy week here at Talking Points Interiors. With visits to Brighton, Columbia Road in London, the historic university town of Cambridge and the latest stock arrival from Barbara Wiggins(including her fabulous crackled leather pencil cases). I have just about enough time today to update the blog before I help with the preparation for Farnham Maltings fair tomorrow.

More to come later about our Barbara Wiggins latest stock arrival which will feature in our back to school feature in the next couple of weeks....

Whilst my trip to Columbia road was on Wednesday and everything was shut (shops only open on Sundays), I did find a couple of treasures. Since I'm currently in love with quirky signs I picked out a fab sign saying "swimsuits optional beyond this point" from L'Orangerie which was very appropriate seeing as next stop was punting in Cambridge!

Since you can stay in a plain old b&b or hotel in any town, we choose to stay in one of the fabulous colleges which are rented out to the public during the summer holidays. Whilst the rooms are nowhere near to being glamerous they are full of rustic university charm and I would reccomend it to anyone that would like the authentic Cambridge experience. Steeped in history, what better place to relax on the river and plan for a busy weekend at Farnham Maltings and chat through ideas for home staging a studio flat in Richmond next week ready for its sale....

A rather appropriate sign since punting was planned for later in the day...

Talking points interiors blogger Kerrie contemplating punting!

Another sign that Iinspired me to start collecting..

I loved this old street light outside Clare College at sundown...

Installment 2 of our 'Interior design inspirations travel blog'

Tarifa - From our stay in Gaucin we made our way down the mountains, through the other white washed villages that form like a string of pearls in the Andalusian countryside. Our next stop was Huerta Las Terrazas, located just outside the now melting pot of cultures and former remote fishing town, Tarifa.

Set on the most southern tip of Europe, this boutique self catered casita overlooks the mountains of Morocco. Surrounded by three acres of national park the main house is full of artifacts from the owners travels round the world. This provided the perfect place from which to take day trips to Tarifa and its neighbouring towns and villages. We stocked up with some delicious local food and wine for the week and spent our evenings taking stock of what we had seen.

The white washed town of Tarifa still boasts many traces of ancient Rome. Whilst the town has seen modernisation, it has been incorporated within the ancient city walls. The surrounding villages are made up of traditional rustic Spanish country houses, farmhouses and villas with high beam ceilings, terracotta roofs and wood burning stoves.

Local culinary delights

Tarifa church

Traditional Andalucian terracotta roof

Tarifa streets

The entrance to a traditional townhouse

Our latest find...

Household Wants Indicator

We're always excited when we source a new piece at talking points, particularly so when we we find something that we haven't seen before. Yesterday, whilst on a sourcing trip to Kemptown we came across this fabulous find, a 1930's 'household wants indicator'. The owner of the indicator would have flipped the tag next to the particular grocery that had run out to remind them to buy it the next time they went to the shops. Several of the grocery items on the board no longer exist...what an unusual piece!

Taking inspiration from our travels...

Here at talking points interiors we love to travel. There is nothing like some time away in new surroundings to provide inspiration.

Now that our blog is up and running, we plan to update you on our travels as and when they happen, bringing you our inspiring thoughts and fabulous finds from along the way. Over the next couple of weeks I will start our 'interior design inspirations travel blog' by featuring some of our recent destinations...

Installment 1 of our 'Interior design inspirations travel blog'

Gaucin - a beautiful white washed mountain village commanding sweeping views to Gibralter and the Rif mountains of North Africa. Situated against the looming dark backdrop of the Serrania de Ronda the village is rich with colour: white washed walls, terracotta roofs, cool green olive groves, bright red poppies, yellow mimosa and pale pink almond blossom. The village is home to a number of artists and you can see why, with it's stunning views, tranquil surroundings and array of colours. From an interior designers point of view the mixture of Roman, Moroccan, Spanish and Arab influences provided by the areas history provide a great deal of inspiration. Many of the villas still contain their old beams and Rhonda tiled floors. Our beautiful little boutique hotel Rural la Fructuosa contained an ancient wine press which has been preserved and presents a great setting for the hotels famous restaurant. 

Hotel Rural la Fructuosa in Gaucin

Moroccan lanterns

Moroccan rug used as a wall hanging

Addiction to vintage trunks!

Here at talking points interiors we admit to having an addiction to vintage trunks; so much so that we have been painting them in an array of colours. Our latest inspiration is the use of vintage trunks as tables...from coffee tables to bedside tables.

After a client in London had purchased a canvas trunk with Bentwood trim painted in Farrow and Ball "off black" in "dead flat" seen on our website they requested to use our bespoke services to transform it in to a piece that would create a great 'talking point' for their flat. We set to work creating a coffee table using a rounded sheet of perspex. We are so pleased with it that we are currently developing a line of similar pieces including a trunk painted in Designers Guild "Peony" which will look fabulous in a little girls bedroom!! Enquiries to info@talkingpointsinteriors.co.uk

A weekend sourcing trip to Brighton produced these brilliant finds..

A sourcing trip to Brighton is always exciting since both my mother and I grew up there. It's one of our favourite places in the UK for inspiration with it's eclectic mix of people and its distinctive creative vibe. As well as visiting some of the local delights such as Bills produce store for lunch and taking a quick dip in the sea we were hard at work sourcing pieces for our collection. Here are some of our brilliant finds. I hope you'll be excited about them as we are....

A decorative delight..

This large and bulbous blown green glass carboy was originally used for fermenting wine. The neck is signed "VIRESA". It is beautifully shaped and the colour is bottle green. This is a brilliant object to be used in a number of decorative ways.

Antique woods mix and match...

This French antique pine desk and English antique oak chair make a great piece together. The vintage bird cage was found on a sourcing trip in Sussex a few weeks ago..

This unusual mirror mounted on to oak and ceramics caught our eye. The mirror is largely distressed which really adds to its charm.