It’s the time of the month to buy magazines. ‘Living Etc‘, ‘Elle Decoration‘ and my guilty secret magazine ‘Real Simple‘ are all on the shelves.

Living Etc. is good this month as it is ‘The White Issue’ - do I ever love white. Apparently different shades and textures of white are OK in your home, wall to wall brilliant white is not. I’ve always loved white homes, however impractical they might seem. In fact they are highly practical, you can see all the dirt and one can easily keep a can of white paint handy for occasional touch ups. We are doing our entire place in Dulux Trade matt white eggshell at the moment to get rid of our crazy inherited colour scheme. We look at this purely as ‘undercoat’. When we can finally decorate - in October now, gah - our walls will be perfectly prepared. I’m looking at ‘Swedish White‘ (Dulux Heritage range) and ‘Cornforth White‘ (Farrow and Ball) for our lounge, both soft grey whites. In the hall - as it is tiny - we plan on ‘Ultimate White’ from the Dulux Light and Space range, a super reflective white designed to increase the feeling of space. The lounge will also have two feature walls in vintage 60s/70s wallpaper.

Would you believe it, Elle Decoration has a lounge special this month; wall to wall sofas! Great timing ED. Well, as I have neither £2000 or a 3 metre long space I am safe from their temptations but some of the smaller ones from Dwell and Habitat are good. Talking of sofas I am still drawn to vintage ones from eBay etc (look under Antiques>Sofas>20th Century). Some sellers even do delivery, *sigh* However, I am sure M is not as keen as I am on a Danish / Eames /Hansen delight. I am sure it would look awesome in the lounge but I guess M is thinking “Would it sag / smell / have fleas?” Vintage furniture lovers had a treat this week on ‘Grand Designs‘ with all the 1930s stuff the featured couple bought. Buying old and reupholstering / refinishing is the smart way to go kids*.

Real Simple has great tips as usual. I now know I can use baby oil to clean my stainless steel taps and cook the perfect dish containing leeks.

*That said I’m now looking at importing my perfect sofa from America, whoops. Watch this space for the continuing sofa saga.