House and Garden

House & Garden unlocks the door to an array of unique homes and outdoor features, ranging from town houses and converted barns to fabulous modern apartments and island retreats. Outdoor features are equally varied, including cottage gardens, water gardens and chic, city courtyards. House & Garden provides an invaluable sourcebook of ideas, from design and decoration to the best of travel, delicious recipes and fine wine. Britain’s most glamorous, inspiring and influential design and decoration magazine.

Open House • This month, we’re giving you a peek into what goes on behind the scenes at House & Garden

House and Garden

Making merry

Decorate • Beautiful objects and brilliant ideas

Take a bow • RUTH SLEIGHTHOLME has sought out original gifts sure to appeal to decoration devotees

Feast for the eyes • Entertaining over the holiday is no small trifle, so RUTH SLEIGHTHOLME and RÉMY MISHON dial up the fantasy to create Christmas schemes harking back to high times past

Stackable seating • Easily stashed away and pulled out for a party, RIA SEALY-HUGHES’ selection of storable seating is just the thing for the festive season

Tray chic! • RIA SEALY-HUGHES’ stylish seasonal selection carries all before it

Wiggle room • GUSTAF WESTMAN brings a sense of fun to everyday objects. Marco Mansi reveals how the designer’s collaboration with Ikea reflects his philosophy

Lustre for life • GRACE McCLOUD charts the 18th-century origins of lustreware and explains why this style of metallic-glazed pottery lends itself to contemporary interpretation and continues to fire up collectors

SWEET DREAMS • A good night’s slumber is a precious commodity. LAURA NORMANTON pulls back the sheets on her preferred sleeping beauties – from classic and colourful bed linen, quilts and bedcovers to duvets and pillows

Outlook

The language of flowers • CLARE FOSTER recommends beautiful gardens to visit round the UK, which have been created by writers or have provided them with inspiration

Leaf through the pages • Throughout history, gardens have provided a rich source of literary ideas

THE other BETHLEHEM • In South Africa’s Cape Winelands, there is a garden guided by a deep sense of place and ecology, set gently in the landscape with the boundaries blurred between wild and structured planting

Bringing soul to the soil • Wildegoose Nursery owners Jack and Laura Willgoss maintain that anyone who owns a garden – large or small – can make a tangible impact on the negative effects of climate change. By taking a gentle, thoughtful approach and gardening without chemicals, we can all boost our decimated soil flora, reverse the decline in wildlife populations and reduce our carbon footprint. Fourteen years ago, they set up their nursery and started to restore an old two-acre walled garden in the Shropshire Hills, transforming the overgrown land into a beautiful garden and haven for wildlife. Incorporating traditional borders, an ornamental vegetable garden and a perennial meadow on poor soil, they show people how to grow a diverse range of plants in different growing conditions within a single area and illustrate how their ideas can easily be scaled up or down. Here, they set out five steps for creating an eco-friendly garden.

Arena • A cultural compendium of what you need to know

Reviving reputations

Shine on • As the centennial of the event that introduced Art Deco to the world is celebrated, Sam Cochran reports on a show tracing the style’s path from Paris to Tokyo through Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewellery

New horizons • Inspiring tomes to gift or keep, featuring creatives from across the globe

Show and tell • AIDA AMOAKO recommends the fairs giving a helping hand to craftspeople and...