Arabella Youens

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Arabella Youens

Anyone looking for a bit of design direction this summer should take note of the increasing number of big-name interior designers offering to share what they've learnt through workshops, masterclasses and creative boot camps, which take place in person or online. Here's a round-up of our favourites. Courses in person When the LA-based British interior designer Kathryn M Ireland was pregnant with her first son, she bought a run-down farmhouse in the Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France.

3 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Arabella Youens

Britain’s holiday let capital faces a ‘rude awakening’ amid council tax raid

1 month ago | countrylife.co.uk | Arabella Youens

Presentation is key. When it comes to marketing a prime property, especially among top estate agents, it is vital. With ever-decreasing attention spans online, it only takes a couple of seconds for a potential buyer to discount a house. This means using professional photographers — never amateurs or phone snapshots — to ensure the highest quality images that truly reflect the home.

1 month ago | countrylife.co.uk | Arabella Youens

Wendy Nicholls joined the interior-decorating firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in 1976, having previously worked for Mann & Fleming and Charles Hammond. Throughout her career, her mantra has always been to create spaces that reflect the owner’s identities. In the case of this set in Albany, the Grade I-listed apartment complex on Piccadilly, London W1, that was converted from a mansion in 1802, the client was ‘very much a client who knew exactly what she liked’.

1 month ago | countrylife.co.uk | Arabella Youens

Stephen Sprake says he’s easily bored. During Covid, the antique dealer specialising in European antique and decorative items, decided to shut his shop, Sans Pretension, on Church Street in Marylebone and sell the loft he owned off Old Street. Looking for his next project, he spotted a Grade II*-listed former captain’s house within the historic dockyards at Chatham in Kent.