I’VE GONE back and forth between English countryside style and minimalist neutrals lately, and after a quick fling with the former again, I’m firmly back to the latter, having discovered this ultra-chic home, known as Herenhuis in ‘t Gooi (Mansion in the Gooi) on Instagram. If you’re not familiar with neighbourhoods in the Netherlands, the Gooi is an area around Hilversum, in the centre of the country. It is a slightly hilly area characterised by green landscapes, historical charm, villas, and is also known as home to the rich and famous.
PositionFounding Editor-in-Chief
Joined14 February 2014
Articles3,869
Comments220
WHEN I first published The Inspiration Photos I Took to My Last Salon Appointment (& why I never got what I wanted) last summer, I had no idea how much it would resonate with you. Since then, I’ve actually managed, for the most part, to speak up and get what I want.
YES, I KNOW, I introduced my new design aesthetic recently, only to change back less than a week later, but this time, I think it will take. It's not exactly White Chocolate Minimalism, but it's definitely as serene and calming, yet with enough charming details and flourishes (ceiling beams, crown moulding) to keep things from becoming too austere. There seems to be quite a bit of blacks, browns, and dark, rich woods in this iteration, but it feels earthy and not oppressive...
A NEW CAFE opened in town last week, and one of the owners is an old Tuesday night football acquaintance of P's, who has opened the place with his partner, who moved up from London. It's in the centre of the village, in the place another café used to be, and they're planning on serving "typical café fare", including speciality coffee and tea, and using locally sourced produce.
P AND I WERE caught up in a long conversation about AI this weekend, and it's something that has also been mentioned here at TIG quite a bit lately. He is an early adopter for most things, while I can be a nostalgist⏤not because I don't love technology (I do), but because I can be a bit sentimental sometimes.
WE HAVE been eating mango and coconut mochi ice cream lately (the coconut is my favourite), something to celebrate these spring days, especially since we've given up our favourite sourdough bread which we used to pick up from the local larder every Friday or Saturday morning. P has been on a health kick since last August, with no alcohol, and well, no bread.
EARLY SUNDAY morning, we quietly lost an hour to British Summer Time. We would not know about it until much later in the day, when we suddenly remembered about the clocks changing, and it all made sense why we felt so tired. Last Friday we drove up to Scotland, armed with a Victoria Sponge cake to celebrate a 95th birthday. The drive was sunny and scenic and as always, we had a lot to talk about. We stopped by the new café in the market square for two flat whites (mine, oat; his, regular) before setting off.
IT’S BEEN HAILED as a cultural phenomenon and at the moment, it’s all anyone can talk about. It’s ChatGPT, the language model created by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial-intelligence company. We touched on the subject briefly before, but will take a more in-depth look today at the fastest-growing internet service ever (it reached 100 million users in January, just two months after its launch at the end of November 2022).
Architectural Digest has pronounced “White Chocolate Minimalism” the new interior trend to watch. Consisting of primarily neutral colours and predominantly organic materials, its aim is serenity, by way of rooms constructed of “sophisticated yet unfussy comfort”.
A COUPLE OF weeks ago, told you about a natural wine bar that opened in the old hi-fi shop on Haddington (near Leith Walk) a little over three years ago. We stopped in late one rainy Tuesday night a few weeks ago, after P told me at the hotel that he’d made reservations.
FOR SOME strange reason, springtime always makes me feel like completely renovating the powder rooms. What seems to be fine in the winter, suddenly feels oppressive and in dire need of a makeover when the days get longer and the sun fills everything with its warm golden light. Can't wait until it's warm enough to throw open all the windows again and let the fresh air in, fluttering the gauzy curtains in the bathrooms here at the cottage.
ON SATURDAY, near the end of a three-and-a-half hour salon appointment, my stylist’s next client arrived, an half an hour early. An elderly blond English woman, after sharing hellos and niceties with us, she was content to busy herself with her phone, that is, until through the mirror, I caught her curiously appraising me. “Where are you going tonight?” she asked.
LAST WEEK I spoke about a need for change, to declutter and move away from maximalist tendencies and bright colours to a more subdued, neutral palette. Well, I may be changing my mind again, after seeing this bedside table (above) with its pile of books, bright pink table lamp and goldenrod-hued headboard in English Interior Designer Luke Edward Hall's Gloucestshire country home.
THERE IS A LINE from a Bruce Springsteen song that goes: “I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face“⏤and while I don’t want to change my face, I do like to change my clothes (often), and my hair (sometimes⏤in fact, just last week). A friend once asked me if I changed my décor tastes to match where I happen to be living at the time (she was visiting us in Spain), and I realise that yes, yes I guess I do.
JUST FOUND OUT about Joanna Goddard (A Cup of Jo)'s divorce today and was completely shocked. She has been running her site for nearly as long as TIG and Alex has been a part of the narrative for as long as can remember. Thirteen and a half years and two children later, and it's all over. Began making a tally of all the bloggers I knew of who were now divorced and it's a lot. Occupational hazard? Perhaps.