If you enjoy browsing through interior decorating and home magazines (and blogs!) and like discovering new ideas for things you could do in your own home, then you’ll love 1000 Home Ideas, by Stafford Cliff, with photographs by Christian Sarramon.

Stafford Cliff, a design consultant and art director, who produced the very first Habitat catalogues with Sir Terence Conran, has teamed up with French photographer Christian Sarramon to produce this fantastic book. It’s very much a coffee table book and is designed to be dipped into and browsed through when you’re in need of inspiration.

The book is divided into various sections, covering different design areas, but it’s by no means your usual, bog-standard categories. Instead, you’ll find descriptions such as openings and closings, interest under foot, shelf life, quiet corners, walls of wonder, reaching outwards and steps and banisters.

The large majority of the book is devoted to fantastic photography, of the type that will make you ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ with excitement. There’s one page of text introducing each category, but it’s followed by numerous photos of stunning homes. Some are in the form of huge, double page spreads, others fill a page, plus there are lots of smaller images too.

Although you do get to see some images of entire rooms, it’s the smaller, more intimate details that this book does so well. In the Walls of Wonder section, for example, there are images illustrating a myriad of ways in which people adorn the walls of their homes, from intricate wall tiles and old fashioned kitchens, to contemporary art, photo montages and walls of wellies (yes, really!).

I also love the section on staircases and banisters – who knew there could be so many variations on the humble stairs – and the way the photos have been put together are works of art in themselves.

There’s so much to look at and enjoy in this book and you’re bound to be inspired by something. In fact, there’s far too much to absorb in just one reading and each time you pick it up again, there’s more new, exciting details to notice.

If you’re looking for a book to browse away the hours, or are seeking ideas for your own home, then 1000 Home Ideas by Stafford Cliff is the perfect book purchase. It’s published by Quadrille, is available in a choice of hardback or softback and can be found on Amazon (the best price on Amazon is for the hardback, currently £12.46 instead of £20 – bizarrely, the soft back version is marginally more, at £12.74).

Other Book Reviews

A Girl’s Guide to Decorating, by Abigail Ahern

Life is Sweet, by Hope and Greenwood

Make an offer for charity

In the first of a series of ‘Make Us an Offer For Charity Days’, Charlie and Caroline, who own and run Pedlars, are offering up this fab red and white armlite floor lamp. If you fancy becoming the proud owner of it - this particular lamp usually retails at £325 - all you have to do is place your bid (£50 or above) in the comments section of their blog.

You pick the charity that you’d like the money to go to, and they’ll pay the postage to send it to you in the UK. A few bids are in already and, if enough people are interested, there’s the chance that two lamps may be available. So go and make a bid, it’s for a good cause and you could end up with a stylish lamp!

Embrace the Matryoshka trend

If you’re a fan of matryoshka russian doll trend in home products, then this could be a bargain waiting to be snapped up.

Pedlars are currently having a warehouse sale and included in the many bargains on offer is this colourful matryoshka tray and set of plates.

Made of hard-wearing melamine, the tray measures 36cm in diameter and features five colourful russian doll images. The plates measures 23cm in diameter and each have single matryoshka designs in purple, red, green and blue.

Choose from the tray or the plates, or splash out on both. Check out more warehouse sale bargains at Pedlars.

Mirrored drawers

Mirrors are great for helping give a room a sense of space and helping smaller areas look bigger than they really are. As well as hanging a mirror on the wall, another way of making use of the power of mirrors is to invest in mirrored furniture.

One carefully chosen piece, or a couple of items, should do the trick - too much mirrored furniture, and it could look over-done.

We really like the mirrored furniture available from Graham Green, like the Josephine mirrored drawers. Stylishly designed and well made, the drawers have a great mirrored finish which enhances the room they’re used in. The three large drawers provide some excellent storage space too, open smoothly and are finished off with simple chrome handles.

The drawers would be perfect for use in a bedroom, lounge or even a hallway.

Hotpoint tall larder fridge

Essential kitchen electrical appliances have a tendency to conk out and fail when you least expect it. If you’ve ever found yourself having to buy a new cooker, fridge, freezer or washing machine at short notice, you’ll know only too well what a pain it can be to get a new appliance delivered quickly.

Having been through this very scenario, we were pleased to discover that the Co-op’s electrical store runs a very good, free rapid delivery service on many of its kitchen appliances. They guarantee that 98% of all orders are delivered in only two days - quicker than some of the other major electrical retailers. You can pick your own delivery date and they send you a text or email the day before to let you know which three hour delivery slot your item will arrive in, which means you don’t have to have a whole day off work to hang around and wait for it to arrive. They can take away old appliances too and dispose of them in an eco-friendly manner.

The Co-op online electrical store provides full details about which appliances are included in the rapid delivery scheme, so you know from the outset whether it’s likely to be available at short notice. Many items, such as this tall white larder Hotpoint fridge, have good discount savings on the usual prices (the fridge has £145.95 off at the moment) and their online comparison tool allows you to easily weigh up the pros and cons of each option.

It’s a useful online service to keep in mind for those times when you suddenly need a new electrical appliance and can’t wait for ages for other companies to get the product out to you.

Applique cushion

This striking cushion is handmade in France and available exclusively at Florestine.

The white cotton cushion is brought to life by the addition of bold and bright circles and splashes of colour - aquamarine, deep marine blue and Greek blue - which are appliqued onto the cushion.

The design is inspried by the Mediterranean blue sea around the Italian island of Ischia, from which the cushion gets its name.

The Ischia cushion cover is £17 and you can also buy a cushion pad separately, from Florestine.

Storage baskets are one of those ever useful home accessories that you can never have enough of. They’re even better when they’ve got lids, like these two seagrass storage boxes from Zara Home, as you can fill them with clutter, then pop the lid on and hide it all from view.

These two storage boxes are given a bright, fresh look with the use of coloured stripes. Choose from the vibrant turquoise green, or the pastel pink.

The Raya baskets measures 23cm by 23cm and are only £9.90 each from Zara Home.

Retro grey chair

If you like all things retro, then you’ll like this grey circles chair from Dwell.

It’s classed as a dining chair, but to us it looks a bit big and bulky for sitting down in for a formal meal. It would be much better to relax in, or perch in at a breakfast bar.

The height of the chair is adjustable and it’s finished in chrome and a faux leather material.

Find out more, or buy the retro grey circles chair, at Dwell.

Nifty magazine stool

This doesn’t look much, but it’s a really clever idea! If you’ve got loads of magazines hogging the magazine rack, rather than recycling them or giving them away (or, shock, horror, throwing them out), now you can make them into your own usable piece of furniture.

ENO have made a strong black nylon strap which you can wrap around a pile of magazines, tighten and make into a stool to sit on. If you were to simply pile up a stack of magazines, sitting on them would inevitably involve one or more sliding and coming adrift, so the nylon strap solves those issues.

The book stool strap is also available in red and you can buy them from Made in Design.

Glass table lamp

We love this elegant ombre table lamp, from Next.

The glass base is the eye-catching part of this lamp - it’s nicely shaped, but goes from a deep teal colour to a light blue. It’s accompanied by a faux silk teal shade, although you could replace this for a lighter colour if you wish.

The lagoon ombre table lamp is available from Next, where it’s priced at £35.