Telegraph
1) Houzz.com
Billed as the largest online collection of home improvement ideas, this “Wikipedia of interiors” has designs for every room in the house. Its formidable database contains more than a million pictures. Users can create an “ideabook”, where they save their favourite images for reference. If you can’t find a sexy new kitchen here, you won’t find it anywhere.
2) nttreasurehunt.wordpress.com
A fascinating conservation and restoration blog showing what goes on behind the dust sheets at Britain’s beautiful National Trust properties. Grand projects are profiled, alongside charming photographs of volunteers retouching textiles and salvaging ancient picture frames.
3) icreatived.com
An enigmatic and endlessly browsable blog dedicated to high-concept interiors, where “15 interesting floating staircases” and unusual steel chairs are held in quiet reverence. The fixation with multipurpose furniture, such as the teardrop-shaped bookcase that doubles as a reading seat, adds to the general kookiness on display.
4) airbnb.co.uk
The wonderful Zoopla lets you check the market value of your neighbour’s house, and if a property is for sale, you can snoop around it for fantastic interiors inspiration. This database of rooms to let for the night is another solution. It is used by holidaymakers to find a place to stay for a fraction of hotel prices. But design magpies can use it to find ideas, or simply to keep up with the Joneses.
5) wowhaus.co.uk
Don’t redecorate in a retro style before a cautionary scoot through these offbeat 20th-century properties for sale. Among those listed is a cool Hampshire harbourside deckhouse on pillared stilts, with its delicious Sixties fittings intact. Prices range from “affordable” to “purest fantasy”.
6) design-milk.com
Annoying little compromises – ugly curtain end stops, Acme door knockers – can drive homeowners to distraction. This sourcebook for considered living, curated by New Jersey artist Jaime Derringer, will help you nail those finishing touches. Recent posts include a selection of the most eye-catching wine racks and umbrella stands that pass for objets d’art.
7) brightbazaarblog.com
Add an on-trend splash of colour with a guiding hand from this cheerful blog. It is the brainchild of British design junkie Will Taylor, “a young chap who is unashamedly hooked on hue”. This site is a hotline to the season’s perfect palette, with plenty of useful decorating tips.
8) roomenvy.co.uk
This easy-grazing blog showcases the height of home deco taste, room by gorgeous room. It features “cool kitchens”, “desirable dining” and “beautiful boudoirs”. You get the idea. But it also sharpens its knife when design goes hideously awry, as per its hilarious entry on “cringey” conservatories.
9) homeshoppingspy.com
A round-up of the best sales, shops and websites for home furnishings, courtesy of Ideal Home style editor, Alice Humphrys. She keeps tabs on stylish buys. Recent posts include a rundown of statement paints from Fired Earth, and new bathroom furniture from the stylish company Loaf.
10) thepeakofchic.blogspot.co.uk
A joyful trawl through back issues of glossy magazines, this archive documents shifting tastes in decor. Whether you want a Swinging Sixties boudoir or a living room decorated in 19th-century antiques, there’s inspiration here. It also serves as a warning from history. It turns out that, in the late Seventies, all the best New York apartments had brown and grey plaid-printed sheets.
11) bibleofbritishtaste.com/category/houses
This blog offers unadorned glimpses into the cluttered properties of the nation’s artistic gentry. Particular treats are topographical painter David Gentleman’s north London home and Sir Jonathan Miller’s four-storey Camden town house.
12) ikeahackers.net
Fun blog that shows how to remodel pieces of Ikea furniture into something more individual. This week, turn a Bestå bookshelf into a cat house, or a Hjälte kitchen skimmer into a soap dish. Each suggestion comes with instructions as well as inspirational before-and-after shots.
13) emmas.blogg.se
Dive into photograph after photograph of understated, functional interiors with odd rustic touches. This trove of contemporary Scandinavian delights comes courtesy of interior and lifestyle blogger Emma Fexeus, an online legend in her native Stockholm. She offers a peek inside the homes of interior stylists.
14) designshuffle.com/blog
Picture-filled blog spotlighting homes that have been transformed by the world’s leading architects and designers. Recently featured stars include Philippe Ho, founder of Studio 8 Design, and Canadian designer Mar Silver. The prose is nicely unpurple, and the interiors are impeccable.
HOMESPUN AND HEARTFELT
15) witandwhistle.com/blog
Motivational home deco blog from the quirky pen of Amanda Wright, a stationery illustrator and confessed throw-cushion addict. Tutorials range from jazzing up terracotta pots to creating a herringbone coffee table from weathered planks.
16) thishomesweethome.blogspot.co.uk
Daily updated blog dedicated to all things domestic, interiors included. Fortysomething Jersey resident Samantha Stansbridge revels in the joy of a wonkily hung picture frame and knows how to make good use of a dusty tape-embossing device.
17) designismine.blogspot.com
Online diary of a thirtysomething American mother, baker and crafter, where she shares her daily haul of handmade and vintage finds. Her weekly “interior inspiration” post brings together the best of other blogs that have caught her keen eye.
18) thebeatthatmyheartskipped.co.uk
A blog dedicated to the daily inspirations of an interiors journo. In between profiling the latest scented candles and fog-coloured waffle blankets, Rohini Wahi rounds up the smartest interiors from the big screen. Her set tour of the elegant cookie-cutter Fifties American home used in Revolutionary Road is manna for midcentury modernists.
19) klausandheidi.wordpress.com
Lively renovation and design blog in which smart professionals Klaus and Heidi chronicle their efforts to renovate their four-storey Georgian house, including all materials and stockists used.
20) arowantree.blogspot.co.uk
Follow the textiles adventures of Bath design student Polly Rowan. When she’s not developing potato prints inspired by African beads or opening up her sketchbook of watercolours and inks, she tries her hand at felting, weaving and embroidery.
21) talesfromahappyhouse.blogspot.co.uk
In this thrift-chic blog, Gillian details her journeys en famille into creative homemaking. She knits, sews, bakes and potters. In one post, she zhooshes up a white cotton cushion. In the next, she crotchets a rainbow baby blanket.
22) mylittleorangery.com
Intermittent but sweet family-and-home-interiors blog by Patricia McGinnis, a young Belfast mum (“to a lovable rascal”). She details her prized vintage finds, such as an Ercol sofa, a rare Tretchikoff print and her beloved wood-burning stove.
23) saniapell.com/athomeblog
From her west London perch, stylist and interior writer Sania Pell champions all things handmade and home-made. She lends her insider tips on how to add personality to a room using ordinary items, such as glass jars and ribbon ends.
PICTURE GALLERIES
24) printpattern.blogspot.co.uk
Wonder what patternistas such as Orla Kiely and Emma Bridgewater have been up to? Or what colour schemes are hot in Habitat? The season’s greatest “surface pattern designs” are chronicled in this romp through high street and online collections.
25) hotfurniturelooks.blogspot.co.uk
Contenders for the title “world’s classiest contemporary design projects”, each profiled in clickable picture form. The stylish parade of enormous apartments, immaculate beach villas and uptown hotel lobbies will help a lunch hour disappear.
26) pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=pallet+furniture
Hilary Devey, look away now. This upcycling Pinterest site shows how to turn wooden pallets into furniture and fittings. The former dame of Dragons’ Den might be shocked if she saw her removal crates remodelled as a swing or balcony planter.
27) designspiration.net
A design-savvy community, where users share interiors inspiration, from room looks and architecture to typography and retro advertising. Just click to be sent updates on Facebook and Twitter.
28) tumblr.com/tagged/toile-de-jouy
For non-dedicatees, this eminently surfable gallery dedicated to toile de jouy, the 18th-century motif-rich rococo French fabric, will be a visual feast too far. There are impossibly pretty hand-painted teacups, a grenade-shaped vase decorated Banksy-style in blue toile, and – for good measure – actor Ryan Gosling wrapped in a printed sheet.
29) ardesiadesign.co.uk/blog
This imaginative daily updated picture blog, by a pair of interior designers, explores the limits of creative home deco. Is good design the making of studio living? Can a child’s bedroom ever be aesthetically pleasing to adults, too? See their results here.
30) stephmodo.com
Smart interiors journal by Seattle “design mom” Stephanie Brubaker. Sticking resolutely to her mantra “Where practical meets pretty”, it’s full of tips on how to keep the home spick and span. The “Real life home series” profiles inspiring spaces and asks owners how they achieved them.
31) dishfunctionaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk
A daily dish of upcycling projects, occasionally with idiot-proof tutorials. These range from the ridiculously simple (turn an empty jam jar into a votive), all the way to the simply ridiculous (turn bicycle parts into a coat stand).
32) decor8blog.com
Holly Becker, an American interiors blogger living in Germany, has more than 1,000 pages showcasing the interiors of “super duper stylists”. These include pages from the newest decorating books and great finds from other websites.
33) whatsinyourbedroom.blogspot.co.uk
Fascinating profiles of creative people and the rented rooms they have made their home. Likely to make you glad you are not a twentysomething east Londoner struggling for a foothold on the property ladder.
TWITTER FEEDS
34) @Benekejurgen
Coming soon to a living room near you, the magic of Hollywood. Film-set designer Jurgen Beneke shows how he rustles up his own A-list furniture from simple plywood and a dash of silver paint.
35) @mid_century_mod
On the hunt for a Poul Jensen Selig Z bench, an Allan Gould string chair or a Hans Olsen dining set? So is this Californian midcentury modern furniture dealer, who details the fruits of his eBay trawls. Happy counter-bidding.
36) @rightmove
Property website Rightmove’s blog follows mostly minor celebrities and their property sales (“Jamie Theakston set to make a cool profit on his west London home”). Also points out hot interiors as seen on the web, such as the “Swiss Army” bathroom, whose fixtures and compartments swivel out for use.
37) @racheljpowell
Twitter feed by a Surrey-based print and wallpaper designer who “loves Marmite and the great British countryside”. Perfect for keeping up to date with the latest in fabric swatches, litho printing and progress on Rachel’s new bathroom.
38) @housetohome
A trove of handy links on how to spruce up a tired conservatory, give bedrooms a boudoir-chic look, and add value to your home. There are also links to relevant news stories, such as the recent revelation that new-builds in Denmark are 80 per cent bigger than in Britain.
39) @moderndaymoms
Unsentimental blog full of advice on how to raise a family and run a home, not necessarily in that order. Fun and practical tips that time-pressed parents will understand easily.
40) @LavenderLinen
A Cotswolds-based glass and china hire company (for weddings, mainly) whose tweets show how a touch of vintage can give a home a “Cinderella chic” look. It also features photography from linen shopping missions – from Soho to Scotland.
41) @inhabitat
Offers tips on inventive eco-design and decorating small spaces. Characteristic are links to the New Yorker who grows vegetables on his fire escape, and how a former missile silo was transformed into a luxurious underground pad.
42) @dezeen
The Twitter arm of the influential global architecture and design magazine. Follow to keep in touch with the ever-expanding frontiers of architectural and interior design. It’s good to know what is around – even if you can’t afford it.
43) @diydoctor
Got a home-improvement problem? Tweet these experts for free DIY and building advice. No job too large or small, from Rawlplug conundrums to plumbing disasters.
44) @Moregeous
Tips and design chit-chat from property renovator and television presenter Sian Astley. Expect no-nonsense gusto from Astley, who offers a breezy Northern counterpoint to the refined Southern sensibilities of Kevin McCloud.
45) @busyhousehold
This Twitter feed offers money-saving household tips (how to spring- clean with cider vinegar) and interior suggestions, as well as more general family/parenting advice.
AND FINALLY… HUMOUR
46) diydisasters.co.uk
This is where DIY meets SOS. Home improvers share shameful disaster stories and revel in others’ misfortunes. Look out for the new sofa that was too big for the front door, or the nail gun that misfired.
47) regretsy.com/category/decor
Ah, misadventures in interiors shopping. The baked-potato bean-bag, unusual wallpapers, the Barry Manilow-shaped day pillow (or, “Manllow”). A dustbin of home decor disasters.
48) @PaintQualityIns
A breathless and, one imagines, unintentionally hilarious Twitter feed about the joy of paint. Our American “color expert” reflects on this year’s on-trend shade (“I love yellow!”), but warns that “now is not the time to be matchy-matchy”. Imagine if Alan Partridge worked on an interiors magazine.
49) pintester.com
For an antidote to smug home-made interiors, there’s the Pintester, who road-tests the supposedly easy-to-accomplish handicraft features posted on Pinterest. All with varying degrees of failure. Warning: it resorts occasionally to some fruity language.
50) pinterestyouaredrunk.com
More creative crafting failures and further proof that not everything should be upcycled. A pastiche site that takes aim at DIY. The loo-roll tree and knitted jackets for decorative rocks are fine examples of the horrors to expect. From these 50 websites, you should have a good idea of what to do with your interiors – as well as what not to do. Time to hit the DIY store and slap on those dungarees.
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