Posts tagged ‘Home’

Aug 3

Mallorca’s ultimate eden: The Son Viscos Bed & Breakfast

Many may smirk when the inhabitants of paradise complain, but even we locals of Mallorca know when enough is enough. And having lived now for almost two months of temperatures in excess of 35 degrees, every so often, one just has to get away from it all. Nothing extreme mind you – I’m not talking the 20 degrees drop which a visit to London may entail, but rather a drive up into the stunning Tramuntana mountains where, at night at least, the air is notably fresher than city life in Palma and sumptuously comfortable. And as this very hot weather happened to coincide with my 32nd birthday (yesterday!) it seemed like the perfect excuse to treat ourselves a little, and book a little night away in a cooler, lusher paradise.

The location we chose could not have been more perfect. Located in the footfalls of the Tramuntana in the valley which gives the magical town of Valldemossa its name, the Son Viscos Bed and Breakfast was like a home from home, but we’re talking the kind of home which only the most avid readers of interior design magazines could wish for.

Interiors of the Son Viscos

Owned by the proprietors of the popular interior design store, Mosaic, located in cool Santa Catalina in Palma, the Son Viscos hotel is a euphoria of design harmony, with understated muted tones and natural woods offsetting perfectly amongst carefully chosen rustic antiques and ceramic items. The west-facing kitchen, which was flooded with light in the afternoon, and filled with a bounteous feast of the freshest breakfast produce in the morning, was the beating heart of a guesthouse which maintained all of the characteristics of the most welcoming of family homes.

The Son Viscos garden

Our room, the Menta suite, offered the very best of comfort with a lavish but pared down minimalist wooden four poster bed, together with haphazardly placed original art, design arm chairs and super soft towels. Flooded with light from an ample terrace, the room boasted enviable views of the Valldemossa monastery, and benefited from all of the freshness of the lush mountains opposite.

And it was precisely that fresh air which so loving nurtured us as we settled down for our night at the Son Viscos, finally able to escape the suffocating heat which had tampered with our dreams for months. Waking enlivened and refreshed, we had yet more pleasures to discover, for opposite the Son Viscos, the hotel’s extensive grounds extended to sun dappled woods hugging the side of the valley, and included fresh water streams, ancient moorish mills and even a dainty stone bridge which had more than survived the tests of time.

The Son Viscos’ sumptuous grounds

The Son Viscos hotel was frankly an experience in a million, for its meticulously conceived design, its perfectly bucolic location, and for the sheer welcoming comfort it offered. As I sit here now, back in hot Palma, recounting my time there I long to return. Something tells me it won’t be long.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Dec 10

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Christmas comes to Palma: Part 2 – Home decor

With the streets of Palma de Mallorca awash with the sparkle of Christmas, my decorations were never going to be far behind. It’s been a bizarre state of affairs – we only moved to Mallorca 3 weeks ago (although it feels like longer) and have been unpacked for barely 2 weeks, and yet now it is time to change the decor again in order to welcome Christmas through the door. And much are the decorations needed, for with the sun still beating down upon us, it certainly doesn’t feel all that Christmassy otherwise.

Regulars of The Daily Norm will know that I love my Christmas decorations, and that each year they become perhaps more extravagant in their scale and abundance. And being unwilling to lose any of my precious Christmas cargo, I faced the somewhat Herculean task of getting all of my decorations from London to Mallorca in one piece. But transport the load I did, and with some 1,000 glass baubles amongst our collection of decor, I think the angels must have graced our move for there was not a single bauble broken when we unpacked the other end – that is at least until I started decorating and the inevitable breakage or two commenced!

But with the decorations unloaded into the now bigger space of what is our Palma apartment, we have been able to go to town with our decor, even adding a tree ontop of last year’s scheme. I give you the new golden glamour tree! Abundant in its effusion of elegant embellishments, this tree is a homage to all things golden and gorgeous, and the gold offsets to spectacular effect atop a black tinsel tree, and with flashing warm white lights making each golden decoration sparkle.

Golden Glamour

But what of the others? Well as with last year, our favourite Venetian-inspired Eiffel-themed sparkling red and silver scheme makes its return, looking wonderful in this new Mallorcan setting, where the higher ceilings of the 19th century apartment block add extra glamour to this sparkling spectacle.

Venetian-Eiffel Splendour

I’ve also reintroduced the citrus theme of a previous tree, but hung yellow and orange baubles amongst cerulean blue on a tree of white. This modern and fresh Christmas look works wonderfully amongst the paintings and easels of what is my new Mallorcan art studio, reflecting the vibrancy of colours which bounce off my artwork.

Mediterranean Christmas

My grand red and green hallway tree has also made its way over to Mallorca, although the tree which previously needed to be bent at the top in order to squeeze it into my London apartment looks practically dwarfish in this new space.

Traditional Abundance

And finally the bedroom scheme, which this year takes on a much fresher blue and white theme to match the blues of our new moroccan inspired space. Stripped of all tinsel and garlands, this is a much simpler look which nevertheless remains full and abundant because of the sheer number of baubles, and a balanced hang throughout. It was something of a struggle to buy a real tree out here in the Med, but we found this 7ft beauty in a side street florist, and since it comes complete with roots and a pot, we’re hoping that it won’t become crunchy and dry within days of being installed.

Scandinavian Arabia

And of course throughout the flat there are the accessories, the smaller trees, the little scandinavian santas and the sultry comforting sound of Doris Day singing Christmas standards better than anyone before or since. All that remains is the Christmas food and the mulled wine. But it surely won’t be long in coming.

Nov 17

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Move to Mallorca: First days

If I could describe the sensations, thrills and excitement of moving to a new life in the heart of the old town of Palma de Mallorca with an analogy, it would be to compare it with the overwhelming exhilaration of entering a department store at Christmas, full of sparkling temptations, gleaming pleasures, grand architecture and flashing lights across every square centimeter: a treasure trove of excitement so intense that your body quivers with anticipation and shakes with the indecision of not knowing where to explore first. Such has been the irrepressible thrill of moving to Mallorca, to an apartment set within a maze of streets so intensively packed with the charms of Spain and the prettiness characteristic of any historic quarter that we can barely breathe for happiness.

Palma viewed from our apartment

Not only are we like children around a Christmas tree when it comes to exploring our airy new modernista-style apartment, but look outside the window and the bleak busy grey road view of our previous London home is replaced with a burrow of streets lined with apartment blocks painted in every colour of an artist’s palette, enhanced with ironwork balconies, lamps and other decorative embellishment, and brought to life by the residents who lean from their balconies watching the world go by, hanging their washing out to flap away in the warm autumn breeze, or putting out their little caged birds and fluffy puppies to breathe the optimistic fresh air of the new day. With so much to look at out of our 8 balcony windows, and such a plethora of vantage points to watch the constant day to day buzz of this bustling little quarter of Palma, I am reminded of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, where James Stewart’s character would sit day by day living vicariously through the many lives he could see unfolding amongst the apartments opposite his own.

All the charms of Palma

But of course far from living vicariously off others, our greatest pleasure has been to leave our new apartment and explore the charmingly charismatic streets of this region and beyond. A mere 48 hours into our new life, we have sampled the local fluffy pastry, ensaimada, over a creamy coffee, riffled through a shop’s worth of traditionally made baskets and weaved furniture, strolled along the golden sandy beach and alongside the popular boat-filled marina of Portixol, scraped clean a huge pan filled with a moist and richly caramalised seafood paella, gulped down a good glass or three of chilled white wine in the surprisingly hot Autumn sunshine, strolled around huge deserted churches lit by flickering candles as though awaiting our visit, and shopped more than we ought in order to add some local touches to the London interior schemes we are importing to Spain.

…and here’s a few more

There has been so much to see and do that I could split these mere 48 hours into a panoply of Daily Norm posts. But to do so would be to deny you, the reader, the full impact of a city ripe with a resplendent array of visual treasures, and consequently in posting photos of the first two days, I am bringing you a sampling of many treats we have discovered as we began our new life in Palma de Mallorca last weekend. And what a life it is set to be…

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Aug 13

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The Marbella Terrace Project – Part 2: the Transformation

On yesterday’s Daily Norm I showed you the first stage of my little piece of Marbella DIY – the transformation to my family’s roof terrace in Spain. With my Matisse-inspired mural finished in limited shades of blue and terracotta, I was free to complete the scheme with accessories and plants.

Our main concern was that the plants should be succulent and require little care – it gets HOT up on that terrace and so weak florals would never suffice. I therefore decided to go for a collection of hardy cacti, the more spikes the better. Recalling the garden design of another favourite artist Frida Kahlo, I was going for more of a Mexican theme of dark and light blues, while retaining the Andalucian look of whitewashed walls. Meanwhile the filthy terracotta lamps adorning the many pillars and walls of the terrace got a lick of their own blue paint, resulting in an altogether more Moroccan vibe.

Before the transformation…

Painting pots and lamps

Huge terracotta pots in varying sizes lugged from one of Marbella’s biggest garden centres were painted in the same shades of blues with a few dark red pots to break up the scheme. It was thirsty work, but they never said that a man made desert of Spanish Cacti was going to come easy.

Finally, stretched across the big empty air space we attached two large shade sales to give the space much needed shade and cosyness.

The result is a terrace oozing Mediterranean chic with all the spice and vitality of Mexico. Like a boutique hotel, we complemented the scheme with plump cushioned loungers and a shiny glass and black weave table. The result is a spectacle so departed from the previous ramshackle of a deserted terrace.

After the transformation

All of this work was finally toasted with a romantic candlelit opening gala party. The terrace looks good by day, but with lamps glowing from within and candles flickering across the terrace floor, it never looked better. A job well done, a transformation achieved.

and at night

A gallery of details

Apr 3

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Vintage-dusk | A floral installation

Following on from the Spring theme of yesterday’s photo-post, and in equal celebration of the onset of Spring, I decided to both fill my home with flowers, and share the results with you on The Daily Norm. I find that flowers are such an important part of a home. A different bunch of flowers can transform a room from one season to the next; their scent can bring nature alive within the confines of four walls; and their colour can be used to either enhance or improve an interior scheme. So although having regular flowers is something of an indulgence at £10-£20 per time, I’d rather spend on that and it last a week or more, than an equal spend on wine which disappears in one night (although lets face it, I do plenty of that as well…).

Rationalisation aside, time for me to introduce my latest floral scheme. It’s something of a contemporary design – more of an installation in effect, but I think it looks pretty good in the centre of my dining table. Playing on the vintage theme, I have combined both heavily gilded vintage gold frames with beautiful faded dusky pink roses. Being unable to afford over a dozen of the kind, I opted for 6 showpiece roses, and supplemented with contrasting green thistle and some purple foliage (whose name escapes me). All of these I placed in a variety of sized and shaped glass bottles, one stem in each, and positioned these in various locations within my vintage frame “installation”. I took the idea of single stem bottles from the Hotel Estherea in Amsterdam, where I stayed at the beginning of 2012, and whose daily sprays of fresh flowers made a huge impression on my design sensibilities. It’s a clear departure from the traditional vase, and with all of those different panes of glass standing side by side and reflecting through each other, the grouped bottles have an almost chandelier effect – the perfect degree of decadence for my vintage theme.

A vintage themed contemporary installation, perfect for the modern design-conscious home.

Dec 4

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The Daily Norm’s Christmas Tree of the Week | No.1: Scandinavian candy

Christmas time is finally upon us, and with it my home has, as annual tradition dictates, metamorphosed into a festive wonderland befitting the season. For there is nothing quite like the sparkle of fairy lights, the twinkle of glittered baubles, and the Nordic smell of an authentic fir tree to import the feeling of Christmas wonder into the home. In recognition of its power to transform a humble dwelling, I always indulge in abundant homage to the season, installing not one, nor two, but FOUR christmas trees into my home, one for each room of the house. That way, wherever you walk inside in my little London flat, the spirit of Christmas will never be more than a few metres away. In fact upon entering my home and standing in the hallway, you are greeted with the sight of some three of those four trees stood majestically installed in each of their respective rooms.

What with there being four trees, and four weeks left until Christmas, it seemed only proper that I should focus on one of each of my trees each week as I share my Christmas decorations with the world. And for the first week, I would like to share with you what is my newest tree in a scheme of annually recurring decor, and with which I have incorporated all of the fragrant fancy that comes with a real tree, ditching the fake white tree which used to decorate my bedroom.

Tree No.1: Scandinavian Candy

It was after installing my little Scandinavian Forest on my chest of drawers last year, a composition which nodded to the traditional Christmases which the Nordic countries do so well, that I realised that the fake tree which previously stood alongside it no longer fitted the bill. Yearning always for a real tree, and with the plastic white tree turning a progressively unattractive shade of yellow, I decided to go the full hog this year and opt for the real mccoy – a 7 ft Norwegian fir tree, now decadently decorated with decorations of white, green, turquoise, and by way of incorporation with the hints of pink in the paintings which hang in my bedroom, a touch of candy pink too – hence the name I have given to this scheme: Scandinavian Candy.

The biggest change from my normal decorative schemes came with my decision to ditch tinsel in favour of a more traditional paper chain. I always apply tinsel almost as a matter of course, but when I did so on my real tree, it lacked delicacy, and made the tree look altogether more clumsy. So out came the paper, the glue and the scissors, and the result is a tree which is garlanded and shaped by paper chains, but not swamped by them.

Well that’s more than enough talking from me. Time for the tree to shine through photos. Gosh I can smell its fragrant pine needles as I type…divine!

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

My Scandinavian Forest – featured on the House of Fraser Blog (daily-norm.com)

Dec 27

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The culinary bounties of a Christmas Day feast

As the saying goes, the show must go on, and despite news which rocked my family to its core, the most important thing, for me, was to keep the flame of Christmas burning, despite the grief all around. In that vain, I decorated, I cooked and I ate to my heart’s content, and here within are the fruits of my labour (and product of my hefty post-Christmas weight gain)…

A starter of Scallops with clementine, ham, almond and an oloroso dressing

This starter was taken from a recipe by Richard Corrigan in the style section of The Sunday Times a few weeks back. It made for a refreshing, bright and beautifully balanced start to what can often be a heavy Christmas feast, and brought a burst of Spain into an otherwise traditionally dressed English dining room. (Serves 8)

I started by making a dressing for the salad. For this, to the juice of 2 clementines I added 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, 4 tablespoons of oloroso (or other dry) sherry, 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, 12 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Setting aside the dressing for now, I peeled the outer leaves from a 750g bag of brussel sprouts (leave the centres for a further sprout dish later) and blanched them in boiling salted water for around 30 seconds before plunging them into iced water to bring out the green and stop any cooking. I then assembled my salad – I broke up 8 clementines and placed these into bowls alongside the drained brussel sprout leaves, 16 slices of torn up parma ham and a scattering of salted almonds.

I then set about frying my scallops (3-4 per person) for around 2 minutes on each side (less if they’re smaller) and placed these atop my salad as the crowning glory. All was finished with my Spanish dressing and some seasoning.

The main event – Guinea fowl with sweet potato and marshmallow gratin, sauteed brussel sprouts (with chestnuts and bacon), red cabbage and apple, and spinach and parmesan stuffing balls.

The Guinea Fowl

I hadn’t eaten guinea fowl for years until I sampled it again at the wedding of my friend Celia and realised how delicious it is (I believe my propensity not to eat the bird was probably down to my fondness for guinea pigs when I was younger and the inevitable confusion which may have ensued). So, with my two guinea fowl in tow (these should feed 4 easily, 6 at a squeeze), I wrapped the birds in 16 slices of pancetta, enclosing a few sage leaves underneath. Placing the birds in a pan, I then doused the lot in a little olive oil, two ample blobs of butter, 200ml of white wine, seasoning and a few more sage leaves. The birds were then ready to go into the oven at 170 degrees centigrade (if it’s a fan oven, up to 190 if not).

My guinea fowl pre-cooking

After an hour, I turned both birds onto their breasts, turned the heat down to 150 (170 if not a fan oven) and cooked for a further hour. I should note that I did use foil for around an hour of the cooking to lock in the moisture and prevent the pancetta from burning. However the same effect can probably be gained from regular basting. Once the birds are done, make sure you rest them. I rested them in their pan (covered in foil) for a good 30 minutes which ensured the meat was moist, unctuous and literally fell apart in the mouth.

Dec 18

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It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas – Part II

Christmas isn’t just about the festive spirit outside of doors, although as I demonstrated yesterday, in London, the tangible celebration of Christmas evident all around certainly helps to get one in the mood. But it’s indoors, in the home, that the real heart of Christmas beats a unified rhythm with the yuletide spirit, and personally, I cannot get enough of the constant reinvention of my home in its Christmas guise, from the comforting glow of my Christmas trees at the break of a still dark winter’s morning, and the spirited twinkling dance of fairy lights to the jig of Christmas pop playing on the radio, to the reflective flicker of candlelight as the day draws to a close, and my home is lit exclusively by the staccato movement of my tree lights and the red warming glow of my candles lit in almost every room.

In fact so fervent is our love for the ambience given off within our Christmas-decked home that my partner and I have a moment, just before going to bed, when we play some choral carols or, even better, monastery chants, emulating a Christmas straight from medieval times, and with that soothing soundtrack, set about sitting, calmly in the subdued light of our Christmas trees, watching the lights and sparkle dance and flicker around the room. It’s almost epiphanaic to meditate amongst such warm Christmas tranquillity, and is almost certainly my favourite time of the day.

Now I’ve already shown you my Christmas decorations in two posts a few weeks back (links below), but this post is, I suppose, further reflections on a theme – my almost poetic interaction with the yuletide spirit manifesting all around me both in words and pictures. Moving to the latter, posted here are some further glimpses of my Christmas expression around my home. I start with my Scandinavian forest, an oasis of calm, an installation of little small Christmas trees intermingled with cute forest animals – I’ve noticed that this simple, white Scandinavian style has really hit it off in London this year with all its woods, and whites and an emphasis on nature. I love nothing more than lighting these beautiful sparkling silver tealights amidst my forest, creating in so doing something akin to a magical Narnia-like wonderland which comes alive under the candles’ gentle flickering.

Talking of candles, one of my favourite parts of Christmas has to be decorating the table, whether it be for the big event on Christmas day, or for a small meal in the run up to the 25th. I usually incorporate as much foliage as I can, including oranges and pine trees, red berries and fir cones, and then set amongst the foliage many candles of different shapes and sizes. Then I like to leave the candles to burn gradually down, lighting up the foliage around them with a warming winter glow.

Moving on to more of my decorations, here is another homage to the Scandinavian Christmas, where the fusion of a glitter covered tree hung with delicate glass baubles appears to emulate droplets of ice hanging in a snow-covered forest.

I also love these photos of my Christmas lights out of focus. One of the great advantages, to my mind, of being dreadfully short sighted (and there aren’t many) is that if you look at a tree having taken off your glasses, the lights blur and intermingle with the sparkle from the nearby tinsel and glittery baubles – it creates a blur of light which is sensational to the eyes, and these photos almost replicate the effect.

Finally, I close my post with a selection of miscellaneous shots, from the lights upon the fireplace of my family home where I will be spending Christmas this year, to the oversized paperchains which my partner, mother and I were making over the weekend (they’re uber fashionable this year, we hear). Check out too the understated extravagance of my little diamond-covered Eiffel towers (fake diamonds, sadly). London may arguably be the capital of Christmas, but there’s always room for a little Parisian glamour to compliment the excesses of the festive season.

Righto, I’m off to share a moment with my Christmas trees now… until the next time, hope you’re enjoying the run up to Christmas!