All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
New launches and diary dates: what House & Garden’s editors are excited about this month
Tom Mannion1/18The Tutu Tree by Hugo Dalton at the Royal Opera & Ballet
This exceptional ‘tree’ is the result of a collaboration between the Royal Opera House and the artist Hugo Dalton. The ‘Tutu Tree’ is made from 46 hand-made tutus, on loan from the Costume Archive at the Royal Ballet & Opera (formerly the Royal Opera House). The tree is a fever dream of toile and silk, and to assemble it Hugo turned to his friends at Howe, whose recently-opened 6,000 square foot showroom space on Bloomfield Terrace, Pimlico, provided the perfect workshop. The tree stood in pride of place here before being moved earlier this month to its more permanent home in the Linbury Foyer at the Royal Opera & Ballet, where visitors can pop in to marvel at its wonderful design until 22 January 2025. If you are near Covent Garden, its certainly worth a visit.
2/18Beautiful beds made simple
Having graduated from a course in interior design at KLC in 2019, Alice Palmer went on to launch her own homeware brand selling pleated lampshades in vibrant stripes. The collection has since expanded to include fabrics by the metre, plus accessories such as cushions and tissue-box covers. The latest addition to the Alice Palmer & Co range is ready-made bed canopies. Available in four colourways and lined with fabric from her own collection, they come in two parts: the printed cotton and linen fabrics; and an MDF frame with two metal brackets. All you need to do is slide the fabric onto the frame before attaching it to the wall with the screws provided. ‘Canopies make beds look grand and plush. Normally, they have to be made specially, which can cost a lot of money. I wanted to make it simpler,’ says Alice. While she has started with designs for single beds, she has plans to add larger sizes and more fabric options. She is pictured here with ‘Alice’ canopies in the blue and red, and yellow colourways, which cost £625 each.
3/18Feldspar’s London pop-up, Corinthia London, SW1
The Devon-based, husband-and-wife-owned company is holding a pop-up at the Corinthia London hotel. It is a chance to check out Feldspar’s collection of elegant bone china ceramics, such as this small cake stand with contrast banding in geranium (£138), plus new additions like a hand-turned wooden nut cracker and a pétanque set. Entry is free.
Until January 5; feldspar.studio | corinthia.com
4/18Palefire Studio launches its second collection of bold and beautiful lamps
Since launching its first series of vibrant, tactile lamps made using hand-painted paper pulp, fans of the lighting design studio Palefire have eagerly awaited its second collection. It has now arrived, in the form of a limited edition family of three new colours, which is applied to a numer of its existing shapes. The pattern takes the form of a network of mosaic-like grids inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the 20th-century Glaswegian architect and designer. While the colours – earthy browns and reds interspersed with pale blues and yellows – are a nod to the palette used by Austrian artists belonging to the Viennese Secession movement. The decorative pieces are at once striking and extremely versatile – just what we have come to expect from the young, dynamic studio.
5/18Introducing : Gather Glass
Phoebe Stubbs developed an interest in glass as a child, after she visited the Caithness Glass factory in Scotland. She went on to study for a BTEC in Design Crafts at Bournemouth & Poole College and a Masters in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design in the US, before returning to the UK. In 2023, she moved to her current studio in south London. Describing her work as ‘a layering of joyful colour memories with traditional shapes’, she marries centuries-old techniques with a contemporary sensibility to make vibrantly coloured jugs, dishes and glasses, including these trifle dishes, which cost £855 each (below left). She recently launched a limited-edition collection of Christmas baubles. There are eight designs in a mixture of opaque and transparent glass in eight colours. Phoebe makes each one individually in a process that involves melting coloured and clear glass to 1,180°C before she shapes it using hand-turned cherry wood tools. ‘Miami’ baubles cost £50 each, or £250 for a box of six assorted designs.
6/18Thyme Christmas workshops, Thyme, Lechlade, Gloucestershire, Various dates in December
This country-house hotel in the Cotswolds is hosting a number of seasonal workshops. You can join its chefs on December 8, to learn how to make both mincemeat and shortcrust pastry for the perfect mince pies (£75). On December 19, house florist Sophie Witham will teach you how to create a beautiful wreath using winter flowers, foliage and herbs picked from the Thyme cutting garden (£150). Book all workshops online. thyme.co.uk
7/18Toast Festive Market Coal Drops Yard, N1
Back for its second edition, this makers’ market hosted by the sustainable fashion and homeware brand Toast will showcase over 20 artisans working across ceramics, weaving and woodwork. Among those taking part are studio potter Lucy Rutter and Charly Jacobs of the textile design-based Uri Studio. Shown above are pieces by Annie Sharp from last year’s market.
Fridays-Sundays December 6-22; toa.st
8/18A crafty Christmas
Thanks to some of our favourite makers and textile designers having launched craft kits, you can give a kit as a present this Christmas or make a frameable artwork yourself. Earlier this year, interior designer and amateur needlepointer Naomi Astley Clarke launched The Tapestry Guild, an online shop that sells cotton and wool needlepoint kits. For Christmas, she is offering three 15cm-square mini kits that come with step-by-step instructions for making a coloured bauble on a twinkly background (£30 each). Embroidery artist Maria Gispert Bahí, the founder of Rosita Studio, sells a downloadable PDF pack (£10.50), which you can use to make a Christmas stocking from a square of fabric. The Fabled Thread’s Eppie Thompson, who was a House & Garden Rising Star in 2022, has set up a Year of Flowers subscription service costing £450 for 12 months. Each month, you will receive a kit that contains the materials and instructions needed to make an embroidered flower on linen. The first one, arriving just before Christmas, will be the ‘Dandelion’ kit (shown left). Flower embroidery kits, including ‘Mimosa’ (far left), are also available to buy individually for £45 each.
thetapestryguild.com | rositastudio.co.uk | thefabledthread.com
9/18Madcap pops up at Nina Campbell, Pimlico Road, SW1W
Madcap Cottage, the American brand known for its riotously colourful and playful designs, is holding a Christmas pop-up at Nina Campbell’s showroom on Pimlico Road, SW1, until December 24. Based in North Carolina, the design studio founded by Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke has as its mantra ‘Banish the Beige’. The duo takes an eclectic approach to design, reflecting influences as diverse as Palm Beach hotels, English country houses and East Asian architecture. For Madcap Cottage’s first showcase this side of the Atlantic, the main spaces in Nina’s shop will be filled with hundreds of unusual pieces – such as this ‘Strawberry Hill Hand-Painted Oval Tole’ tray, £205 (below), and the wicker ‘Cottage Grove Hand-Painted Pagoda’ lantern, £1,093 (bottom) – alongside fabric, wallpaper and wrapping paper. ‘We want to take you on a journey round the world,’ explains Jason. ‘Everything we do is happy – there’s nothing at all fussy or stuffy about us.’
10/18Winter rose wax flower workshop, Wax Atelier Labs, N16
Learn how to create a scented wax flower in an afternoon at Wax Atelier in north London. One of several events organised by the natural wax specialist, this workshop offers the chance to learn about the process of dipping individual linen petals into coloured wax. You will then be shown how to fix the petals to a stalk to form your own floral artwork. The half-day course takes place at 1-4pm and tickets cost £150.
December 14; waxatelier.com
11/18Frances Palmer: Pedestal Explorations, Garden Museum, SE1, October 8-December 20
The Connecticut-based ceramicist Frances Palmer often finds inspiration in her own garden. So it is very fitting that this display will feature not just thrown pieces but also photographs of flowers in her garden and arrangements in vases. Entry is free.
Paul James12/18Branching out into ceramics
This tableware is the result of a collaboration between antique dealer and interior designer Robert Young and Brickett Davda ceramicist Jo Davda. Together, they have created a hand-painted collection featuring four different tree motifs, which Robert painted more than 35 years ago. They come from a watercolour of Robert’s that he used to decorate the walls of his stand at the British Interior Design Exhibition in 1990. Since then, the trees have been something of a signature motif, featuring on walls and chimneypieces. ‘It’s exciting to see a new life emerging for designs that have been around for so long,’ he says. The ‘Evergreen and Shadow’ collection comprises 21 pieces, including plates, cups and a porcelain tray sold exclusively through his website and shop in Battersea Bridge Road, SW11. From £45 for an ‘Evergreen’ tea plate.
13/18Stitched: Scotland’s Embroidered Art, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh
This exhibition chronicles Scotland’s rich history of interior textiles from 1720 to 1920. Selected from various National Trust for Scotland properties, the pieces shown will include upholstery fabrics, tablecloths and fire screens, accompanied by contextual portraits and drawings. Tickets cost £12.
October 25-January 18, 2025; dovecotstudios.com
14/18TP Caring Spaces Carol Concert, St Luke’s Church, SW3, December 16
Founded by interior design studio Turner Pocock in 2020, charity TP Caring Spaces is hosting a second annual carol concert. All the proceeds will contribute to its mission of revamping charity spaces into comfortable, stylish sanctuaries. The carol concert promises a merry mix of singing and readings. Adult tickets cost £30.
15/18Copper Roots at Gallery FUMI
‘Copper Roots’ is a new collection of chandeliers, candelabra and wall sconces from James Russell and Hannah Plumb (above), the husband-and-wife duo behind JamesPlumb, who are known for their inventive repurposing of found objects. For ‘Copper Roots’, they have given a new lease of life to copper pipes originally used for transporting water, which they discovered while renovating their farmhouse in Shropshire. ‘Copper is an excellent conductor and being a tube, it allowed us to pass cables through the middle,’ explains Hannah of the tentacle-like lengths of winding copper lit up by specially developed LED bulbs in counterweighted lampholders. The collection contains 17 pieces, which includes these floorstanding candelabra (right): they are being shown in the solo selling exhibition Rooted at Gallery Fumi, Hay Hill, W1, until January 25; entry is free.
16/18Handcrafted by the World at SoShiro Gallery, W1G
The season for festive maker's markets has well and truly begun, and one we are particularly excited about is taking place in late-November at SoShiro, the contemporary art and design gallery in Mayfair. The 20 makers taking part hail from across the globe; including Jordan, Kuwait, Colombia, the USA and Germany, and each of the pieces for sale, which range from art and textiles to accessories and furniture, will cost under £500. Thanks to a pop-up refreshment station from Fair Shot café, there will also be an array of festive drinks and nibbles to keep you going while you shop. Entry is free though time slots must be booked online.
November 21 - December 20; soshiro.co
17/18Christmas at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire,
November 15-January 1Once again, the staterooms of Blenheim Palace will be dressed up for Christmas and its grounds will be the site of a festive light trail. The Christmas Market is being held in the Great Court, with wooden chalets selling gifts and edible delights. Adult tickets for the house and light trail cost from £67.
.jpg)
18/18The season for Christmas markets has officially arrived. Among our favourites is the Old Spitalfields Market, which opens on November 13th with a ceremonial switching on of the Christmas lights. Thereafter, the former farmer's market will be crammed full of shops and stallholders offering gifts, clothing, books and edible delights. Head to the Diptyque shop to take in the heady spiced aromas of its Christmas fragrances, before stopping off at Funky Cellar for a glass of wine and a cheese board.
