April 2026
I have done something very unlike me. In a moment of either inspiration or madness - I am not entirely sure which - I have signed up for a four-day hiking holiday in Slovenia in September. Fifteen kilometres a day. Elevation gains of up to 800 metres. Given that my usual daily exertion amounts to running up and down the stairs at Inchyra, I have a considerable amount of work to do between now and then!
April has been the month of beginnings on this one: long walks in the hills above the Escape Pod (above), lungs working harder than they have in years, views that make the effort feel entirely worth it. Watch this space.
BLUEBELLS & BRAIDS
Back at Inchyra, the bluebells are out - that amazing sea of blue that you wait for all year and that never disappoints. In the studio, we have ticked off the final piece of the new Labeaume collection: two new additions to our growing collection of Jacquard woven braids. There are far more colourways than intended but they are so beautiful that I couldn't edit them down! I think you are going to love them - an amazing array of colours that will work in so many schemes. The new collection is now fully signed off, and so the anticipation of the September launch is building. Now just to decide which room at Inchyra to decorate with this new collection.
IN PRINT
Down to London, and a launch party for The Nature of Decorating - the new book by the brilliant Australian author Jenny Rose Innes, published by Quadrille and out now in the UK and the US.
The book is a follow-up to Jenny's hugely successful British Designers at Home, and features twelve creatives chosen by Jenny for how they inspire her with their connection to nature and seen alongside Jenny's own inspirational house and garden in Australia. I am enormously proud to say that I am among them - a chapter on how nature shapes my work, and our life in Scotland. I was so thrilled when an email arrived from Jenny in autumn 2024 asking if I would like to be involved - the answer to that question wasn't difficult.
My chapter was shot at Inchyra last April when Jenny, her husband Michael, and the book's super-talented photographer Abbie Melle, came to stay. I have made some wonderful connections through the book - it's a joy how creative endeavours often bring so much more than you first imagine they might and I am over the moon that Abbie is coming to Inchyra again this July to shoot the new Labeaume collection.
The launch party was kindly hosted by Caryn Hibbert of Thyme England and gorgeous homewares brand Bertioli, in their showroom on the Pimlico Road. It was so good to see friends old and new for the launch, amongst them Lisa Burdus, Butter Wakefield, Emma Sherlock and Robin Lucas, who are also featured in the book. Great to see Carlos Garcia who joined us as another member of what I have nicknamed 'The Jenny Club' having had a chapter in British Designers At Home.
It's so good to see the final results. It was a wonderful evening, and it is a truly beautiful book - in fact I have seen several accounts on Instagram say that it is the best interiors book they have ever seen. I could not recommend it more.
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The following morning, on what turned out to be one of those perfect London spring days, I walked across the city to see the Tracey Emin retrospective at Tate Modern with a friend. Powerful, visceral, uncompromising work - not, I should say, for the faint-hearted, but remarkable, and worth every step of the walk there.
Walking back, unable to find a taxi and late for somewhere I needed to be, I did something else I have never done before. At the age of 63, I got myself on to a Lime bike. It was brilliant! What a great way to get around London - can't believe I've never done it before. The Slovenia training is clearly taking effect.
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I headed home to Scotland for the last weekend of the month with my mind very much on May, which is going to be a frantic but thrilling month. The fit-out of the new LineUp ground-floor showroom at World's End Studios starts on 1st May and we open on the 1st of June.
For those who don't know, LineUp is a multi-line fabric and wallpaper showroom that I opened with designer Kate Teyssier in September 2024. We are now home to the collections of many other British designers alongside Inchyra and Teyssier.
The new space is twice the size of the current showroom, with a street entrance that makes us properly part of the neighbourhood - and we will be welcoming some genuinely exciting new collections into the fold.
I write this following an early morning walk. After four days in London, I came home to find Inchyra completely transformed - the whole place has turned green in a matter of days. Summer is coming!
Much love
