APRIL | a great Airbnb filled with second-hand finds, my Cornish recs and two vintage shops to bookmark

Interiors related inspiration, recommendations and a second-hand purchase or two from the past month

I’m writing my end of the month round-up off the back of a wholesome week away in Cornwall, which fortunately means I have lots to write about.

I love going down there at this time of year. For starters it’s so much quieter, but there’s also less expectation on the weather than in the summer months and therefore a lot less room for disappointment. Spring has hit it’s stride and the woodlands, roadsides and hedgerows feel full with the abundance of the season; lush and green. There were wildflowers everywhere, and although it’s just before all the cow parsley froths up and things get really mad, we saw bluebells and white bells (?) galore on our twisty turny drives, and the last of the wild garlic too.

We spent a few days up on the north Cornwall coast with family before heading down to the east coast just outside Falmouth where we holed up in a beautiful Airbnb I’ve had bookmarked for a while. Unsurprisingly it got a lot of love when I shared it on my Instagram stories - but I’ll come to that later. We had three full days and weren’t short of places to visit - highlights included a 10 mile circular walk near The Helford Passage, dinner at the recently renovated Harbour House in Flushing (the smoked Negroni was 10/10), Potager Gardens and cafe on a rainy Saturday morning, as well as exploring part of the Roseland Peninsula followed by a delicious lunch at Hidden Hut.

I wasn’t very successful with locating good second-hand interior spots so I’m afraid I don’t have many to recommend. There are a handful in Falmouth that we stopped at although I wasn’t wowed. The two best were @anticsfalmouth which was the more affordable of the two and @ludgatehouseantiques.

So back to the Airbnb, it’s called The Bull House and is a beautiful one-bed converted barn. I would highly recommend - we loved our stay and would definitely look to book again. It’s in a very peaceful spot that looks out over green fields, located down a single-road track. And (most importantly?) the interiors were just charming. They were exactly what I aspire to; super simple yet characterful decor with the odd hint of colour and a seriously stellar collection of second-hand pieces that bought interest and texture.

Whilst Instagram is a brilliant source of inspiration and although every once in a while I do manage to fall down a rabbit hole of content that feels fresh and interesting, on the whole it gets very repetitive thanks to the echo chambers of the algorithm, meaning I find myself looking at the same images again and again usually without taking very much away from them. Although on that subject, I really enjoyed reading this brief but useful FAQ from Ali Labelle on how to translate inspiration.

These days my Instagram feed is mostly made up of interiors content and I think it’s very easy to forget that even when it’s not necessarily obvious, more often than not you’re looking at spaces that have had a lot of money spent on them. Whether it’s built in joinery, floor to ceiling curtains, marble worktops, upholstery, wallpaper, using lots of different paint colours, or even artwork that has been custom framed, it all adds up. So there was something really refreshing about The Bull House interiors that felt very attainable to me, and really reminded me that interiors don’t have to be over complicated to feel eye-catching.

Some things I’ll be taking away:

• It’s a converted barn so you can get away with a bit more of a rustic look than a lot of houses, but I love the rough plastered walls and the way they meet the polished concrete floor (which had underfloor heating) directly thanks to the lack of skirting boards

• Natural wood and pine furniture mixed with the odd pop of colour

• Stainless steel shelves in the kitchen, which I think might actually be from IKEA

• Reusing the old floor flagstones as a kitchen worktop. I imagine a total headache for whoever built and fitted the kitchen but what a great way to get a reclaimed, hardwearing and waterproof kitchen top that’s very in keeping with the space.

• I also just purchased the forged iron lamp off eBay below inspired by the one on the desk set-up above, which I couldn’t get out of my head. I think Jim Lawrence do very similar styles but this one was £35 which I didn’t think was a bad price. Let’s hope it works!

On our last night in Cornwall, we rustled up a delicious plate of wild garlic pasta. In the past I’ve followed recipes to make pesto by blitzing lots of leaves in a blender but I often find it ends up being so incredibly pungent it’s almost inedible. For this, we just used 3 leaves, chopped finely and infused for half an hour in really good olive oil and it was just the right amount of garlicky. That could well be because wild garlic season is pretty much over and the leaves are less fragrant, but I thought I’d share the recipe anyway it was that darn good.

You’ll need wild garlic leaves, a pasta of your choice, cavelo nero or other spring greens, good olive oil, lemon, parmesan and salt and pepper to season.

• Finely chop 2-3 leaves of wild garlic and leave to infuse in a bowl with a couple of inches of good olive oil

• Cook your pasta (we used orecchiette) in water ‘as salty as the sea’

• Once the pasta’s cooked, remove from pan but save the water to blanch the Cavelo Nero for 2-3 minutes until tender

• Drain the Cavelo Nero and return pasta to the pan

• Pour the wild garlic leaves and olive oil infusion over the pasta and cavelo nero

• Mix together and add a generous amount of parmesan, zest and juice of half a lemon and wild garlic flowers to garnish if you’re feeling fancy

Back to London, I recently discovered two second-hand clothing shops I didn’t know about in East Dulwich, both of which I thought were worth recommending:

• Chi Chi Ra Ra on Upland Road which is a real treasure trove of pieces. The shop is tiny and the rails are packed full of things so be prepared to rummage. I thought it was quite expensive with most items £60 + although I found a fun red tote bag for £25.

• Blue Feather on Melbourne Grove, which is a bit more laid back and easier to browse. There’s also changing rooms which ChiChiRaRa was missing. I thought the pricing was really fair - lots of great bargains to be had.

Finally, looking ahead to May I wanted to recommend The Antik Store’s pop-up down in Folkestone, which is taking place from 9th - 20th May. Georgia has just been on a big sourcing trip to France and has bought back so many beautiful treasures. Have a look at her recent posts on Instagram for a look at what she’ll have in the shop. I especially love this coastal landscape painting and this wicker lamp.

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Until next time!