The winning student designed chair using Heico fasteners and studs

I vividly remember the 1977 Silver Jubilee as a small child: the excitement, the street parties, making hats and decorating my favourite skirt with red, white and blue crepe paper. There’s currently a hankering for past comforts and British nostalgia…. tea parties, baking and bunting are most certainly the vintage flavour of the moment. Today a new tenant asked me if it was ok for her to use a couple of tacks to hang up her bunting in the flat – fab!

Interiors UK 2012 was full of vintage style and Union Jacks (more of that on a later blog) but also had a very regal feel with all hues of purple filling the halls. It was either a conscious decision by designers, furniture makers and manufacturers to opt for a majestic look or a subconscious zeitgeist nod.

Why purple? Phonecian or Tyrian purple was a highly prized and very expensive dye taken from from sea snails – 9000 molluscs per gram! It was highly valued as unusually it didn’t fade in sunlight or weathering but increased in intensity. Gradually it became associated with status, with the ruling classes in Roman, Greek and Persian society choosing the colour. If you’re wondering whether Queen Elizabeth II would approve of all the purple at Interiors, wonder no more……..

So just how majestic was Interiors UK 2012?

Even the flowers were purple!

When the fabulous House of Hackney have a purple mandolin playing squirrel on their fabrics, you know it’s THE colour to be seen with

Click on the images to make them larger and get a slideshow.

Any excuse for a trip to Scotland! I was given an option for a meeting in London or one up in Glasgow this week and felt we’d ticked off the M6 south by travelling down to Interiors UK in Birmingham, so Team Moregeous headed north for a couple of days. It’s been a hectic start to the year so we decided to stay over and asked Twitter for a recommendation. Thanks to Glasgow based reclamation experts @PaisleySalvage for the suggestion that we try Blythswood Square, a 5 star spa hotel housed in a classic terrace on a wide green square in the city centre. The building was originally separate terraced properties which the Royal Scotttish Automobile Association bought in 1910, remodelling them into elegant club headquarters which were the glamorous Scottish start for the 1955 Monte Carlo rally.

Booking so late and on Burn’s Night meant there wasn’t much left so we were expecting a tiddler, but our Classic room was really spacious with a huge bed, an fab original fireplace, sofa, two large windows overlooking the square and plenty of storage. Very pleasantly surprised. There were lots of good interior touches. I liked the use of tweed throughout, with luxury fabrics in shades of lavender and purple and the furniture was stylish and plentiful without crowding the room. Huge tv which still didn’t dominate and sofa far enough away to watch with ease. Great sized desk (but no sockets near it), fabulously comfortable bed, luxury cotton and lots of pillows. Cool sunken ceiling roses. Big thumbs up.

One minor thing – I felt there were one or two too many low-swinging, oversized pendant shades in the room. It was impossible to reach onto the side tables without banging your head and there’d be no bed bouncing without crashing into the one just a metre or so from the covers! I’d have probably opted for bigger artwork over the fireplace too, with such huge lighting and a massive fireplace, the small framed piece looked a bit lost.

Classic bedroom - images by Moregeous

Bedroom tweed fabric details - images by Moregeous

Best part of the room – the bath! I LOVED the sliding doors which meant you could open up the bathroom to the bedroom, a real cheeky peek-a-boo bit of naughtiness! The bath was huge (or I am tiny) with lots of marbled surface surrounding it for your chocolates, cocktail & Grazia. Stylish tap and shower head attachment. BIG fan of the Blythswood Bathroom, all felt very decadent and 1920′s and I so wanted a flapper dress to slip into after my ablutions rather than my Hollister sweat pants, maybe next time

Practically, there was also a separate shower area and WC which had it’s own door for those of you who like your privacy.

Marble bathroom - images by Moregeous

Early evening saw a chill set in and we opted for some hotel cocooning – cocktails in the Salon and then a Burn’s Night dinner downstairs. There were ladies having afternoon tea and cakes, a wedding planner going through options with an excited couple and then us; Mr M trying the local St Mungo tipple and me working my way through the cocktail list. I can highly recommend the Daisy, the Faithless, the Clover Club and the Salon *hiccup*

Interior-wise it’s a stunning space, flooded with light from the large windows and chandeliers overhead. The cornicing and decorative plasterwork in this room is just stunning, with small details like the tweed skirted overhangs on the bar chairs adding a contemporary twist. Shame on me I didn’t get a great shot of the bar area so I’ve pinched one from the hotel web-site.

Not a massive fan of coloured LED lights, so I wasn’t keen on the inset floor lighting and also felt the lacy voiles were too flouncy for such an impressively grand space, but these are only very minor personal interior preferences.

The Salon - images by Moregeous

Salon Bar - hotel image

Salon cornice and plasterwork - image by Moregeous

Blythswood Square Hotel - Lighting - images by Moregeous

Entrance lobby

Our food was delicious. Starter of smoked haddock Cullen Skink with quails egg to start, smooth, rich and filling and then a chicken supreme with haggis, neeps and tatties – how could we not plump for that option on such a traditional evening? The restaurant gets very good reviews, from what I’ve read, and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening.

Cocktails and Burns Night dining - images by Moregeous

The Faithless: Hendrick's Gin, red grapes, sage leaves, lemon & syrup - YUM!! - image by Moregeous

After a superb night’s sleep, breakfast the next morning was a full Scottish plate full of restorative power after all those cocktails, with more haggis! I especially liked the idea of having a hair of the dog Bloody Mary tray available for those who need a bit of a pick-me-up. Like me.

Restaurant and breakfast room - images by Moregeous

Complimentary Bloody Marys - image by Moregeous

Next time we DEFINITELY must make use of the spa facilities, there just wasn’t enough time on this visit as we wanted to have a mini-detour road trip back to Manchester and see some of Ayrshire. I thoroughly enjoyed the Blythswood, a lovely place to stay and cocoon yourself for a luxury weekend but equally  great base from which to check out the vibrant city of Glasgow.

FYI : We’d paid for a January package deal, £180 for room, dinner for two, full breakfast for two and use of the spa, thermal baths, sauna etc.

Jimmie Martin Imperfection cushion

After writing about Pantone’s Tangerine Tango colour for a decorating blog last week I figured my orange days were over (not being a fake bake kind of girl) but nope, Interiors UK 2012 showed the colour to be firmly on the trend map for this year in fabrics, furnishing and homeware too.

Good job it’s so cheerful and smile-inspiring!

Pitfield London Chesterfield

'Alter' fabrics cushion

MUMO UK ethical fabrics and design

Thomas Kent clock

MUMO UK cushion

Even the VIP lounge was orange!!

Interiors UK wouldn’t be complete without a few stars of the interiors world and the dashing King of Flamboyancy himself was at the show, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, appearing far too healthy and tanned for a cold January day. He looked as dapper as always but I was kinda disappointed he wasn’t in this year’s shades of purple or orange (see later blogs….).

I think at this point he was saying either boring interiors were firmly out of fashion or was telling the interviewer he didn’t like their line of questioning

Also speaking at the show was Gorgeous George Clarke, of The Home Show and Restoration Man. After his seminar he had a little sit down in the designersblock pop-up pub The Local. Clearly he was a little overcome at seeing Team Moregeous and had to wipe his brow. Entirely understandable

He felt much happier once he realised we only wanted a snap of his good side and got on with his interview…..

Funny one of Bud from designersblock looking entirely unimpressed with his pub’s star guest:

I thoroughly enjoyed Barbara Chandler (or Twitter’s @sunnyholt)’s talk on journalism and PR, with some fabulous insider tips on how designers / creatives can get their work looked at and, more crucially, published.

As design reporter for the Evening Standard, Barbara has clearly seen all manner of PR faux pas and was happy to dish the dirt to help listeners avoid the same mistakes. Some examples:

• Always include an interesting and exciting subject line.
• Don’t attach hard or slow to open attachments but get your info in the body of the email
• Don’t rely on huge high res images which block up journalists’ inboxes but send small easy to download ones
• That said, make sure you have high res images which can be speedily sent or accessed for when journalists want to cover your work
• Write a clear, concise story, your story – what, where, who, when and why
• Always include your contact details on every email and even every reply
• Have a short bio on your web-site which can easy be copied and pasted by journalists
• Having a launch? Include postcode, Google map or tube stop if applicable
• Never send a CD which isn’t labelled on the actual disc, amazing how many people do this
• Make contacts, one at a time, then ask that contact for their help & contacts. Nurture them, then one plus one plus one.
• Read the papers / mags you want to be in and note the journalist or writer’s name, then contact them.