Blog - Jane Cumberbatch`s Pure Style

Subscribe Basket(0) Terms

Home
About
Books
Shop
Interiors
Location House
Blog
Instagram
Mailing List
Contact

"Pure style is my way of life... a blueprint for living in the 21st Century"

Pure Colour: autumn

16 September 2015

As I write the rain spatters on the glassy pavements and the main view from my desk is monotone grey. The horse chestnut across the road is drooping with ever yellowing leaves and the grass on the front lawn is lush iridescent green from late summer downpours. Autumn is here and it is time to unfold the blankets from the cupboard on the landing.

Golden yellow and orange pumpkins are seasonal colours cues for room details.

A cornfield harvesthome look in linen by Angie Lewin

PS Lots more colour inspiration in my book Pure Colour !

Tags: autumn, pumpkins, orange, yellow, blankets

Pure colour 2015

06 January 2015

Pure Style colours 2015 via a day glow yellow t shirt and pink string from my present pile. You`ll see more inspiration when my new Colour book comes out in April!

Frosted rose bud is almost the very very last one before I take the secateurs and prune the rose bushes in time for spring.

All the way from the balmy fields of the Scilly Isles : scented narcissi arrive packed in folds of tissue paper .

Lime green paperwhite bulb shoots and moss bedding make me feel that there`s life and vibrancy even in early January grey gloom

There`s the promise of more pink scented blousy rose blooms with 2 St Swithins climbers that I will train up the metal arches in the garden..

Tags: winter, colour, pink, yellow, garden, roses,

Autumn and corduroy colours

24 November 2014

Like unclogging bristle brushes under the tap, a 12 hour deluge flushes the last leaves from the trees. They join a golden tide coursing through the roads and gardens of Tulse Hill. Bulb planting is an unpopular option for the moment and I escape to Emily Carr`s rhythmical brush strokes of the Canadian forest at The Dulwich Picture Gallery. I also visit RIBA and Edwin Smith`s black and white photographs of the beauty in ordinary subjects: a bench overtaken by a nettles or the graphic ridges and furrows of a Norfolk field .

Autumn fashion: the corduroy trousers of childhood with elastic waistbands, and, later on earnest student males in sagging corduroy jackets turned me off the material for years. I now appreciate its comfortable sensible qualities and find it amusing that my new cords for autumn are `sexy boyfriend` ones. If only.

Like dividing a bag of of pic n mix sweets I sort the tulip and allium bulbs, from Unwins , Rose Cottage Plants and de Jager into 16 piles for the 16 beds in the garden.

More autumn garden things: stray rose blooms; dried spikes of nut brown cardoons; busy robins and blackbirds stabbing at worms, and the country in the city earth rot smells of sopping grass and moulding leaves. .

Tags: autumn, bulbs, garden, golden, yellow,

A rose, cake and colour

05 February 2014

Daughter can`t get to job and assistant stuck on bus for two hours. Poor show, striking Tube people and your big brother boss B.Crow last seen sunning hairy belly on Rio Beach. But this, and ongoing flood/mud/rain/wind/gloom story brightened by lone survivor of my roses, a brilliant John Clare bloom. Also, cheering thoughts of the toasted pistachio gorgonzola tagliatelle taste sensation at Zucca a few weeks ago and, look here, chocolate brownies baked by middle daughter for her younger sister`s` birthday tomorrow. (From Felicity Cloak`s Perfect, and they do taste, just that).

Inspired by a yellow Habitat chair on a shoot a couple of months ago , I thought you`d like to see my paint update on a chipped and worn chair in my office. Off I go to the paint shop to see if I can recreate the same lime green/acid yellow colour that reminds me of all things springlike e.g see the angelica flower head I shot in an Algarve meadow last year. I pick `Tarragon Glory` from Dulux and it works well. I cheated and bought quick drying emulsion which, of course won`t wear as well as an oil based eggshell, but I do rather prefer matt painted finishes all round.