Plant Inspiration at Wild Leaf

I'm absolutely useless with plants. Not being blessed with the most patient of dispositions, I don't put much store in following instructions or reading manuals, and when it comes to gardening or placing greenery around the home, I tend to just focus on my immediate aesthetic requirements rather than considering things like soil suitability or positioning. 

While I might like to think of myself as the 'nurturing' type, healthy, lustrous plants and flowers wither under my supervision and pots that started life as a colourful riot of blooms become lifeless seemingly overnight. In short, green fingered I am definitely not. 

As it happens, I don't have much of a garden to experiment with anyway. But things don't tend to work out any better indoors, either. I've killed pretty much every form of plant life that has ever crossed the threshold of our home, from beautiful orchids to death-defying spider plants. Thing is, though, I adore plants and flowers. And when I'm feeling a little blue, there a few things I find more comforting than wandering around a garden centre or plant shop. 

Filled with life-giving greenery, they provide the perfect counterpoint to all that noise and stuff that fills up daily life. And while I might not be good at looking after plants myself, I find a great sense of inner calm when I'm surrounded by greenery. 

So I was delighted to discover a tiny haven of green stuff just off the Gloucester Road called Wild Leaf. Open since August, this bijou plant shop is filled with gorgeous plants and has a remit to help even the least gifted of plant owners create interesting green spaces in their homes - I think they call it 'plantscaping'. And if there's one thing I've wanted to do recently, fuelled by countless beautiful pictures on Instagram, it's 'plantscape' my home.

Stocked with truly unusual plants and succulents, Wild Leaf is a true treat for the senses. There's so much to feast your eyes on - over 80 plant species to be exact. From covetable succulent pots to decades-old, towering cacti, the shop's counters and shelves are filled with unusual greenery.

A beautifully merchandised space, Wild Leaf is the sort of place that makes you want to go straight home, strip your space of all clutter and fill it instead with cascading baskets of String of Coins, light-loving Tradescantia and pots of lustrous Zebra Basket Vine. If you're a plant killer like me, the owner, Tya, can offer all the advice you need on correct care and placement for your plants. 

Turns out the wonderfully named Mother-in-Law's Tongue (or 'Sanseveria') might be a good one for my light-filled kitchen. And given its hardy nature and need for only weekly watering (yes, I do tend to forget about watering my plants too) it might even defy my poor plant care track record. 

As well as plants, Wild Leaf stocks gorgeous ceramics, pots and baskets, as well as a wonderful array of potted succulents for less than the price of a coffee. For more serious plant collectors blessed with nurturing hands, there are some really special 'heritage' plants amongst the collection - I definitely couldn't be trusted with a 135-year-old Mammillaria Geminispina (£295) though...

Located at 63 Overton Road, Wild Leaf is a lovely place for some plant inspiration, whatever your plant aspirations and abilities. Visit their Instagram page here to take a look.

Three Great Interiors Outlet Stores

There's a certain irony to writing a blog post about outlet stores when the summer sales are about to kick off, but bear with me - these three places are good to keep on your radar whenever, and can be combined with other activities if your children simply won't countenance a whole day looking at discount furniture. 

It's important to note that each of these places should be visited with an open mind - you can't go expecting to find any one specific item, but if you have more general requirements and like the idea of finding an unexpected bargain these places are worth the trip out of town (they are all within an hour of Bristol.)

 John Lewis Outlet, Swindon

If I was being mean, I might say that this place is perhaps the only reason to visit Swindon. But actually, the John Lewis outlet is right next to a rather good train museum, STEAM, which is most useful if you have children who are into that kind of thing - ie: you can shop, they can play trains for the afternoon. 

There are some serious bargains to be had at this outlet, from discounted white goods to end of line home accessories. Again, you can't come expecting to find a Miele dishwasher on display, but if you're thinking of updating your washing machine, TV or bed there's usually plenty on offer to tempt you.

Items are returned goods, end of lines or ex shop display and as such they may have the odd scratch or mark. When our washing machine conked out we rang the shop ahead and found that there was and identical one on sale - it just had a slight dent on one side. We took a chance on it and got it delivered by John Lewis without having to visit in person. 

The highlight of our shopping adventures at the outlet has to be our Halo Groucho leather sofa which to buy new comes in at a hefty £1299. The slightly scratched (but all the better for it) sofa we picked up cost just £600 and is a perfect addition to our compact living room.

The store is part of the larger Swindon Designer Outlet where you'll also find bargains from the likes of M&S, Next and Reiss.

Find out more here

Kilver Court Designer Village

I hadn't expected to find so many nice things for the home at Kilver Court, an upmarket retail village in Shepton Mallet. Synonymous with discounted Mulberry goods, we visited on a recommendation from a friend who'd had a lovely afternoon at the adjoining secret gardens. While not free to enjoy, the gardens here are absolutely stunning and a good place for shopping weary kids to let off some steam. They're tranquil and beautifully framed by an aqueduct, with a central lake and pretty rockery to complete the picture. 

Quite a different experience to other designer outlets, Kilver is a much more relaxed shopping experience, with a selection of old mill buildings housing a variety of different departments. One side is dedicated to clothing with high-end brands such as Toast, Joseph and Whistles on offer.

But the highlight for me was the charming three storey section filled with homeware, next to the Harlequin Cafe. This isn't the place to come looking for big-ticket items, but if you're after accessories, towels or kitchen ware, it's a real treasure trove of lovely stuff. 

On my visit I picked up an amazing bargain - a glass cabinet identical to one I'd seen in Graham & Green - that weekend it was reduced from £100 to £50 (the Graham & Green version costs £300.) It's a little bit scratched and a tad flimsy but it makes an ideal TV stand and receptacle for the kids' playstation and Wii games. 

Kilver is also brilliant for bargain buys for your garden. As well as stunning flowers and plants to buy, the brilliantly-named Wiggly Shed shop is a cornucopia of pretty things for your garden - pots, vases, bee houses and much more. 

Find out more here

Graham & Green Outlet Store

Located in a non-descript trading estate on the outskirts of Chippenham, this place is worth a detour if you happen to be spending a day in Wiltshire. You could combine a visit with a morning at the lovely Castle Combe or Lacock - both are within easy distances of the store. 

Very much a factory space filled with discounted and damaged stock, this is a place for people who like to rummage and can see the potential in pieces that might need a bit of TLC. We spotted a lovely large size copper floor lamp, normally £175. But it had been used for a photo shoot and was, rather inconveniently, missing its springs. 

After negotiating the price down from £100 to £80, we decided to take a punt on it (the sales assistant assured us we could find the right springs online; in actual fact, we contacted a Graham & Green store in London who very kindly sent us replacement springs free of charge - major customer service brownie points!)

I also spotted some gorgeous chandeliers, cushions and bedding - items I've often lusted over when their catalogue pops through my door, but which I didn't - on this occasion - have a requirement for. I did buy some cute pineapple candle holders (a couple of quid each instead of £8, slightly damaged), though. Bigger furniture items are available too - I spotted some lovely sofas and those stunning mother of pearl pieces that make my heart beat a bit faster every time I see them. 

Find out more here

Top photo courtesy of Kilver Court. 

Win a Print With Peskimo!

Wall art is my thing. I can spend hours online looking at prints, pictures, maps, photos - basically, any form of decorative adornment for walls. Testament to my obsession is an incriminating trail of holes that pepper most of the walls in our house - my love of moving pictures around but lack of skill with a hammer doesn't make me very popular with the other half.  But there's nothing I find more relaxing than pottering about with a cup of tea in hand, rearranging my gallery of photos and pictures.

Luckily for me (though my husband might disagree) there is a wealth of shops in Bristol to feed my obsession for screen prints and lino cuts - you'd don't have to travel far to stumble upon a window filled with gorgeous pieces for your home, whether you're looking for something Banksy-inspired and urban or a prints with a more illustrative aesthetic. 

There are some great shops on Gloucester Road (Room 212 is one of my favourites) and Stokes Croft, while Clifton is home to another of my must-go places, the Soma Gallery on Boyces Avenue.

The latter stocks one of my favourite local print-makers, Peskimo, a husband and wife team I've got to know through working at Aardman (Jodie and David regularly lend their creative talents to a variety of Aardman projects). Their gorgeous pieces combine all the things I love - bright colours, retro styling and cats (amongst other animals.) I have several of their pieces in my home and now you can be the proud owner of a Peskimo print by taking part in my competition over on Instagram!

I have two lovely Panda Riso prints (pictured above) to give away - here's how to take part:

1. Visit my Instagram page at @luisa_m_sanders*
2. Like my competition post and follow both myself and Peskimo (they are tagged in the post)
3. Tag a friend in the comments box too!
4. Competition closes at 7pm BST on Saturday 10th June 2017

Winners will be announced in the comments box on the Instagram post. Good luck! 

*Please note this competition is not affiliated with Instagram. Terms & Conditions: Two individual winners will be picked from all entrants who meet competition criteria; no cash equivalent; competition winners will be announced by Saturday 17th June 2017

House Buys For Autumn

Having been a proper homeowner for almost 11 years I've come to the realisation that a home is never really 'finished'. Aside from all the boring maintenance stuff - attending to ceiling cracks, treating mildew and the almost daily task of removing grimy fingerprints from walls - I'm a habitual 'tweaker' when it comes to interiors; if I'm not reconfiguring picture arrangements (and upsetting my other half by knocking more holes into the walls) I might be colour coding the book shelf or reorganising cupboard space in a usually futile attempt to free up room for the piles of clutter that seem to multiply daily in all corners of the house. 

And if I'm not doing that I'm usually faffing about on Pinterest or googling the instructions for chalk painting furniture (more of that in a later blog...Annie Sloan's legendary paint has been purchased and a bedroom overhaul will be commencing soon)

The thing is, my home is a bit like fashion for me - it's a way to inject just a bit of creativity in my very ordinary daily life. And it's quite fun learning skills along the way (a bit of upholstery here, a bit of upcycling there) to help you achieve a new look on a shoestring. It's my belief that the most interesting, stylish homes are born out of slim budgets, and that often the most expensively furnished ones can be the most soulless.

At the moment, my home feels a bit tired and a little unloved so I'm looking forward to getting that chalk paint out and sprucing it up with some new additions here to help me enjoy it again. Here are some of the things I've got my eye on...

White Thea Chandelier, £280 - BHS

Good old BHS always has some gems in its lighting department. This beautiful light reminds me of one I saw in Anthropolgie a while back for nearer the £1000 mark. It's still not cheap but BHS have almost constant sales and at the time of writing, this light was available at almost 25% off. The light also comes in a deep teal colour and reminds me a bit of Abigail Ahern-style interiors. If I had higher ceilings I'd buy this.

Buy here

Gleam Mirror, £140 - Next

Another high street store that has some really unusual things amongst the more pedestrian stuff. I recently bought some very chic white bedding for a fraction of the price of The White Company and the quality is excellent. I'm considering buying this to offset the pine furniture I'm renovating with antique white chalk paint for our bedroom, but it would look equally at home above a living room mantlepiece. 

Buy here

Oaxaca Cushion, £32 - Bombay Duck

I have an irrational addiction to cushions. They just make me happy, and none more so than the beautiful, reasonably priced cushions from Bombay Duck. I've bought several lovely pieces from their collection already and am tempted in particular by this colourful beauty - the nearest I'll get to Mexico for the time being...LOVE.

Buy here

Alphabet Scented Candle, £6 - Marks & Spencer

I once bought a Diptyque Candle and I got told off about it...cause spending £40 on a bit of wax in a jar (even if it's a very lovely jar) is a bit daft when you think about it. There's nothing to feel guilty about here - £6 for a very stylish candle that will look most sophisticated on your mantelpiece and add a nice warm, scented glow to your room on a cold winter night. 

Buy here

Matthew Williamson Pink Flamingo Lamp, £67.50 - Debenhams

It's pink, very kitsch and not for everyone...but I kinda like this lamp. Some of the pieces in the Matthew Williamson Butterfly range feel a little contrived but in amongst the rather obvious stuff there are some nice things to inject a bit of colour into jaded homes. There are some more subdued pieces in the current range too - these peacock bowls are rather nice and - given my addition to cushions - I was drawn to this number too.

Buy here

Grayson Entryway Table, £180 - Urban Outfitters

A great place to shop for unusual homewares online. I bought a zinc-topped industrial-style cabinet for £170 in the sale here a couple of years back which sits in our playroom and has lots of drawers for various kids stuff, iPads, and random bits and bobs. This console table is a really reasonably priced addition to a hallway and gives homes a rough-hewn vintage look without the effort of trawling a million reclamation yards or antique fairs. I also love the simple functionality of these storage cupboards, a steal at £65.

Buy here

Chalk Paint, Annie Sloan - £18.95 per pot

You've probably heard about this miraculous stuff - pretty, chalky paints that you can apply direct to your furniture without loads of laborious prep. I'm going to be giving my old pine bedroom furniture a makeover with the stuff soon and shall report on whether it lives up to the hype. Priced at just under £20 a pot, giving furniture a paint job saves the huge expense of replacing everything. I am planning to invest in a new bed and mattress, though, and saving on furniture costs will make that much more feasible. 

Buy here

Affordable Art

A couple of weeks back the Affordable Art Fair made its annual visit to Bristol and I was invited to take a look around courtesy of Smithson Art Gallery. Bristol's a creative city and galleries and print shops abound, but what's great about the Art Fair is being able to see a variety of stuff in one huge place. This time around some 55 galleries were in attendance, taking over the vast space that is the Engine Room at Temple Meads station. The fair rolls into town each year, as well as taking up residence in two locations in London, Hampstead and Battersea. If you missed the Bristol event and don't want to wait until next year to see what the fair's all about, the next event takes place at Battersea Evolution on 23rd-26th October. 

So, what exactly is meant by 'affordable'? Unfortunately most of the pieces that caught my eye were very much out of my budget (a particular favourite came in at £1700) but in proper art terms this does constitute a reasonable price point and if you're a serious art collector you'd find plenty to tempt you. For amateur art fans like myself, it's perhaps less about investing in a piece and more about dipping a toe into the contemporary art scene, seeing which artists catch your eye and perhaps leaving with a print to brighten up a bare wall.

What I enjoyed about it was being able to browse at ease - it's a different experience to stepping into an empty gallery and feeling a bit self conscious about looking around with no real intention to buy. There was also a huge range of styles on offer, from edgy photography to quirky screen prints, unusual sculptures to nostalgic watercolours. After a bit of deliberation I came away empty handed but there were plenty of pieces I hesitated over, none of them coming in over my pre-set budget of £100. But with no obvious space to fill on my walls and other more pressing financial obligations needing attention, I decided to hold off making a purchase. 

If you can't get to London and don't want to wait a whole year for the next Art Fair, this month signals the beginning of the autumn arts trail season in Bristol, with the West Bristol artistic community hosting their trail on the 11th and 12th October. Taking in private homes and studios around Clifton, Redland and Hotwells, it's a good way to view local talent across everything from jewellery making to ceramics. Find out full details here.

Then in November, North Bristol takes up the baton, with one of the biggest trails in the city covering areas such as Bishopston, Horfield and St Andrews. I've been visiting the trail for the last couple of years and love the idea of popping into different homes and studios, meeting with the artists and browsing original pieces of art that usually have a very affordable price tag. Find out more about North Bristol Arts trail here. 

Finally, you can also browse affordable art without even leaving the house thanks to www.original-art-under100.com/. I came across this site thanks to brilliant blog The Frugality. There's a lot on this site so you may need to do some sifting to unearth something that rocks your boat, but there are handy filters to help make the job easier, and the prices are very wallet-friendly if you want to buy something a bit more unique than a ubiquitous Ikea print but don't know where to start.

A Lunchtime Mooch Around HomeSense

I used to love TK Maxx. I use the past tense because in recent years I think it's gone down hill. What used to be quite a revolutionary, exciting shopping experience has become a bit limp and a bit tired, with any real opportunities to find prestigious brands at bargain prices few and far between. In the past I'd frequently unearth all sorts of gems amid its cluttered rails. Patience and diligence have always been a necessary requirement when shopping at TK Maxx, but the rewards used to be worth it - you'd regularly find some amazing brands in among the chaff if you looked hard enough. Nowadays, though, it seems to rely more on mass market, mid-range clothing and the beauty aisles are much less exciting than they used to be.

One area that TK Maxx still does well, though, is homeware, so on a recent trip to Hengrove I made a stop at the store's dedicated homeware outlet, HomeSense. Located in the Imperial Park development, HomeSense is a great place for a rummage if you're after inexpensive pieces for your home. On a previous visit I picked up some Cath Kidston spotty melamine plates and cowboy themed cups at a fraction of the RRP. This time around my eye was drawn to some of the more 'big ticket' items as I'm on the hunt for a comfy, retro-style armchair for my living room. There's a eclectic mix of styles on offer, from design-led contemporary pieces to the more traditional. I spotted a gorgeous, British-made armchair covered in tartan wool which was £400 - the equivalent in somewhere like John Lewis or Laura Ashley would be more around the £800-mark. 

I can see these in my son's bedroom...

The china and kitchenware selection is also good and I was tempted by some stylish white dinner plates by Denby at £3.99 a pop instead of £11. I've you've a hankering for otherwise prohibitively expensive pieces, say a Le Creuset casserole dish, for example, this is the place to treat yourself and enjoy change from a £50 note. If you want to go cheaper still there are books, candles and other unusual bits and pieces that can help spruce up your home on the cheap. 

Would look very nice in my home office...

The stock varies from week to week, and some weeks will be better than others. It's a good place to visit in the run-up to Christmas, though, as I've found some gorgeous decorations, wreaths and Christmas cards in the store's Christmas department, from hand-blown glass baubles from India to folksy twine wreathes not dissimilar to those by Cox & Cox. 

Iconic Eames design for £50

You'll find an edited homeware selection at both TK Maxx in Broadmead and Cribbs Causeway, but if you'd like to check out the bigger range at HomeSense you'll find it at Imperial Park, Wills Way, BS13 7TJ.

Take a look online here.