Furniture & Interior Design Ideas - New England Lifestyle Blog » Lifestyle

The Calming and Casual White Living Room

Tasha — Thu, 05 May 2011 08:16:53 +0000

A calm white living room

Imagine you have just purchased a gorgeous White 3-piece suite and want to create a calming yet casual living space. You just need a few finishing touches to complete the room to make it the relaxing main space in your home. The New England Coffee Table with a solid Oak top and white painted legs with fluted detailing and a handy magazine shelf underneath enhances any living room with it’s elegant design. As shown in the photograph featured here, the coffee table looks fabulous with your white suite or sofas.

The New England Coffee Table is a perfect partner to the New England Side Table, and a great surface space for those drinks and canapes when entertaining guests.

I love the look and brightness that an all white living area gives, it has such a freshness and creates the illusion of a larger airier room. Using just a few accessories and key pieces of furniture a lounge or living room can be transformed to suit your needs and make a comfortable room for the whole family to enjoy.

New England Lifestyle’s White Mirrors reflect a spectacular amount of light and are available in some fabulous designs. Just by using a mirror the size of a living room can be transformed and if you were to use a mirror such as the Baltimore with its archway and hand-carved floral detailing, you can open up a doorway of possibility. The Burlington Small Dresser Base can be used as a Sideboard (maybe somewhere for your hi-fi or music centre to sit) for your Living Room and with its practical drawers and cupboards for extra storage space (to tidy away games consoles and controllers etc..) The Burlington Dresser combines timeless white with classic oak and is a fitting piece to go with the New England look.

Brinsbury Show & Country Fayre 2011

Charlie — Tue, 03 May 2011 07:14:45 +0000

Brinsbury College, West Sussex

Sunday 8th May 2011 is the day of this year’s Brinsbury Show and Country Fayre. If you have never been to this event then treat yourself this year, it really is a fantastic day out for all of the family.

Entry costs just £5 per person, and children under 14 go free. The event runs from 11am until 4pm.

The majority of the attractions and activities on offer are included in the ticket price, so it really is a great value day out!!!

Brinsbury is part of Chichester College, and can be found in the heart of the beautiful Sussex Downs, between Pulborough and Billingshurst. It is set in 570 acres and includes woodland, a working farm with dairy, beef, sheep, pigs, two lakes and stables a modern equestrian unit and facilities for engineering and construction. The college runs a wide range of courses at its Brinsbury Campus including floristry, horticulture, agriculture and countryside management.

The Brisnbury Show features such a wide range of events and attractions that there really is something for everyone. Watch Equine Demonstrations, Floristry Demonstrations and Hair & Beauty Demonstrations. Enjoy a Tractor and Trailer Ride or a ride on a Heavy Horse & Carriage. Try your hand at Archery, and enjoy Tree Climbing or the Driving Experience. Grab yourself a bargain in the plant sale and farmer’s market, and enjoy refreshments from the BBQ and Hog Roast as you watch the Morris Dancers perform!!

For more information visit the college website at www.chichester.ac.uk

The amazing image is by Kevin Watkins Photography.

Dressers to complement your White Interior

Tasha — Sun, 01 May 2011 08:05:36 +0000

If you are looking for the perfect storage solution to complement your White Interior, then your search is over because New England Lifestyle’s selection of Dressers have something for everyone!

The New Hampshire Dresser complements a White Interior and provides plenty of storage

Ideal for Dining Rooms, Living Rooms, Hallways or Kitchens, white dressers will complement your white interior whilst creating a light and versatile space for storage.

The bestselling New Hampshire Dresser comprises eight drawers and four cupboards with internal shelves, plus it has a built in wine rack for your wine selection. The Dresser Base is also available separately and can be easily utilised as a large white sideboard.

The New Hampshire Small Dresser has a width of just 109cm which is great if you have alcoves or if you wanted to fit it either side of a chimney breast, the perfect solution if you wanted a smaller alternative for the space you have.

The Shaker Style Rhode Island Dresser is also available in a smaller size, and with the dressers two display cabinets and shelving at the top providing its classic design it easily manages to look stylish in your home.

The Rhode Island Dresser is available in two sizes, in white or with an oak top

The Rhode Island Dresser is also available with a solid oak top, as is the New England Dresser and the Burlington Dresser. All of these Dresser bases are also all available to order separately, which gives you the flexibility to have a matching sideboard in the room.

Dressers here at New England Lifestyle are all finished in a Pure Brilliant White water-based paint which enhances the light and brightens any room. By designing a white interior you are creating a freshness and giving the room an impression of being a bigger space.

Our furniture showroom in West Sussex designed to show you how a white interior can enhance your home and if your come and visit us you will see it really is all about white! You can see for yourselves the high quality finish of our stunning Dressers and decide which Dresser is the right one for your home.

Here comes the Summer Sun!

Tasha — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:25:29 +0000

Beach Huts At West Wittering Beach

One of the most popular beaches to visit is local to our Showroom in Ford, West Sussex. West Wittering Beach near Chichester, West Sussex has a gorgeous sandy beach with what has been described as excellent water quality. So if you are in the area visiting or planning on heading to the beach why not visit our New England Lifestyle Furniture Showroom. The Coastal views may have inspired you to redecorate using coastal style and with our Stylish White Painted New England Furniture at such fantastic value.

You can really bring your ideas to life because there is something to suit all fashions of the moment, the nautical style of the beach has influenced many home’s decor, and has become popular from magazine articles and glossy spreads such as those that can be found in Ideal Home Magazine or Homes and Gardens.

The coastal or nautical style creates a fresh look that by using breezy blue and white stripes, neutral flooring and seaside inspired accessories can be easily achieved, any room can be transformed into a summer bolt hole! By using an abundance of accessories, from display jars filled with shells and pebbles to lanterns, model boats and boat prints you add the finishing touches to your home interior.

Bailiffscourt Luxury Spa Hotel, Climping

Charlie — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:21:11 +0000

Bailiffscourt Luxury Spa Hotel, Climping

Just a stones throw from our West Sussex Showroom is one of the most luxurious spas in the south of England.

Purpose built in the style of a Sussex Barn with a dramatic exposed timber frame, Bailiffscourt Spa was designed to house the most deluxe health and relaxation facilities in striking surroundings. Designed by John Cooper Associates Chartered Architects, the spa has received a prestigious Design Award for its architecture.

Standing on the site of an old swimming pool surrounded by a natural enclosure of mature oak and ash trees, the interior style and décor take their inspiration from nature with contrasting textures of polished limestone and natural green oak and expansive windows. The themes of space, movement and light recur throughout the double height buildings, creating a warm and intimate atmosphere.

The magnificent facilities are available to both day guests and Bailiffscourt Hotel residents, and include:

Indoor pool
Outdoor pool
Steam room
Sauna
Fully equipped Gymnasium
Outdoor Californian Style Hot Tub
Integrated Indoor Jacuzzi
Relaxation Room
Two outdoor clay Tennis courts
Croquet lawn
Snooker room
Games fields

The range of facilities are complemented by a superb range of body therapies and beauty treatments, designed to ‘relax, de-stress, revitalize and restore essential balance to body and mind.’ Temple Spa products are used for all treatments; a Mediterranean inspired total lifestyle brand whose products combine pure botanicals with serious scientific know-how to create a selection of unique and innovative treatments.

Bailiffscourt Spa and Hotel are situated just a short walk from the unspoilt Climping Beach, within 30 acres of private parkland where peacocks roam freely, grouse and pheasants can be spotted darting in and out of bulrushes and ducks paddle on the ponds.

Whether you are looking for a special treat for the day, or just a one off treatment, Baliffscourt Spa is a wonderful place to choose. Keep an eye on lastminute.com for special deals!

A Comfortable Country Bedroom

Tasha — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:10:07 +0000

The Bedroom should be a haven or the oasis of your home, a place in which you can rest, replenish and restore yourselves after a hard or tiring day. Everything in it should invite relaxation beginning with the bed. The white New England Bed from our range of high quality Bedroom Furniture has a tongue and grooved headboard and foot board, with fluted detailing and is a perfect combination with the Carlton Quilt for a comfortable country bedroom.

The Comfort of a Country Style Bedroom

The Quilt’s blue and white patchwork has a contrast of floral patterns, gingham and stripes and the quintessential New England Country style that really is best shown off against White furniture for that fresh, clean and comfortable country Bedroom look.

Because all of the White New England Furniture we supply is so robust and solid it is the most suitable choice for your country styled Bedroom floor, which strictly speaking should be bare, covered only in rugs. More and more homes have favoured the popular painted floorboards as this makes the room look bigger and lighter. The Maine Range of white painted bedroom furniture is inspired by the classic simplicity of the shaker style New England furniture. Exclusive to New England Lifestyle, this range of white wooden furniture includes a choice of white wardrobes, chests of drawers, bedside tables.

Also available for a children’s bedroom are a white toy box, single sleigh bed, bookcase, console table and desk.

The Comfortable Country Bedroom has such a cosy feel, and it is because of the warmth that is generated by the light and the softness of the layers and shades of fabrics used, such as gingham or floral materials that can only be enhanced with the use of a much lighter wood or item of furniture. Nothing else but the pure- brilliance of white can compare.

Wildlife In West Sussex

Tasha — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 06:52:48 +0000

An Egret Wading

Here at New England Lifestyle we are not only fortunate enough to be close to some of the most attractive places to visit, but we are also privileged to have some of the best Nature Reserves in the country. Why not turn a visit to our showroom into a combined trip to come and see some of the wildlife that live here?

Visit our showroom to take advantage of our current offer of 15% off all our New England Style Furniture, and then head down to Pagham Harbour local Nature Reserve for a relaxing afternoon. Located near Chichester the Reserve is one of the Country’s major bird-spotting areas.

Pagham Harbour is well known for it’s waders and wildfowl, and large tidal mudflats which attract thousands of birds throughout the year, including Egrets. The shingle ridges lining the coast are a site for rare plants such as the Childling Pink. Pagham Harbour is part owned by the Sussex Wildlife Trust; the leading conservation organisation looking after over 3000 acres of downland, woodland, wetland and heath covering Brighton, Hove, East and West Sussex and they look after 30 Nature Reserves across Sussex.

Eagle Owl

In such a busy world and with our hectic lives we often forget the wonderful nature and all of the little creatures that live in the country with us, we must support our local wildlife or some sad day we may lose them forever.

Brent Lodge Bird and Wildlife Trust is also located also near to Chichester. The Trust is a voluntary organisation funded entirely by their supporters, dedicated to the treatment, rehabilitation and release of injured wild birds and mammals and are currently looking forward to celebrating their 40th anniversary. The Trust are always desperate for volunteers to help at their hospital with the care of the animals so if you are interested in getting involved visit www.Brentlodge.org for more details.

Making A Lighter, Brighter Hallway

Tasha — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:00:16 +0000

To bring some light into your home is so easy when you are decorating using white, especially if you have windows to help brighten the room and bring in the natural light. Your hallway is probably the one place in which you will find the biggest lack of natural light because few homes have hallways with windows in them, and the more rooms that you have on the same floor level determines how much light or lack of it you will have. Often the hallway will get left behind and neglected because you have been focusing on the main living space.

New England Furniture is painted with a pure brilliant white and because the stylish White Console Tables are perfect for radiating light, a dark and drab hallway is instantly brightened when teamed with your fresh white paintwork or wallpaper.

The Manhattan Mirror

The Manhattan Mirror with its built-in shelf is a stylish design and will gladden your hallway by capturing any type of lighting and perking up an otherwise featureless space. With it’s slimline and contemporary style the Westport Console Table is a practical item of furniture for your hallway, the two drawers and open storage space below means that you could easily utilise the Console Table as a telephone table or creates a space and a place for you to keep a vase or plant for an entrance hallway table.

The Westport Console Table is Slimline and ideal for a hallway

Your hallway doesn’t have to be a clinical space, with a little help from New England Style White Furniture you really can enhance a more lived in homely atmosphere just by adding a few simple touches. Few of us live in showroom style homes and in real life a house may be perfect and beautiful but without the look and feel of being lived in, a house really isn’t a proper home.

Family is what makes a house a proper home, real character can only be achieved with all of the activites that we participate in throughout the various stages of our lives, when your family enter the hallway, no matter what sort of day they have had, how many of you really feel -goodness I am glad to be home!

East Beach Cafe, Littlehampton

Charlie — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:11:42 +0000

If you are heading down to our West Sussex Showroom and are looking for somewhere to go for lunch, look no further than the multi award winning East Beach Cafe at Littlehampton.

East Beach Cafe, a photo by thevitruvianman on Flickr.

East Beach Cafe can be found right on the beach at Littlehampton. Boasting spectacular views, they serve “uncomplicated and fresh seafood made from the very best ingredients in an iconic award winning building.”

The unique building was built by Heatherwick Studio, having been commissioned by local mother and daughter team Jane Wood and Sophie Murray in order to prevent Littlehampton’s seafront from over-development. Taking inspiration from a piece of driftwood, the building alludes to the many natural shapes of the coastline – sand dunes, rocks, waves. The stunning exterior is a triumph of engineering, being a self supporting structure constructed as a jigsaw of hundreds of flat ribbons of mild steel, each rusted and then coated in a special oil to prevent deterioration by the elements.

Since completion in June 2007, East Beach Cafe has won more than 20 national and international awards for design, architecture, steelwork, craftsmanship and engineering.

Their latest award credits the Cafe as the Best Coastal Cafe in the Coast Awards 2011 – praising not only the location and architecture, but also the wonderful food, service and atmosphere the Cafe provides.

The food served is “simple seaside food, some English classics with a few of the best things from beach holidays abroad.” Sample dishes on the menu include “potted shrimp, fresh locally caught fish, smoked trout salad with pickles and horseradish, the East Beach Burger, salt and pepper squid with chilli, crab linguine, fish pie, fig and chestnut trifle and English apple crumble with custard.”

Don’t just take our word for it… reviews and comments from the national press include glowing reviews from The Guardian and Delicious Magazine.

Go on… give it a try!!!

Tried and Tested – A Recipe For Success!…. and a Bookcase?

Tasha — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:27:12 +0000

Just recently on television there has been more and more programmes about cooking and food, Britian seems to have become a nation that loves cooking and finding brand new recipes to try at home. The more celebrity chefs appear on TV showing us their culinary skills and making it look so easy to whip something up, the more it inspires you to get into the kitchen and try something new yourself. It seems to have become increasingly popular to buy the latest recipe book and even giving them as gifts, I know my fullest bookshelf is the one with all of the recipe books in it!

Manhattan Shrlving Unit

The Wesport Single Bookcase would make a fantastic recipe bookcase and there is a handy drawer at the top which would be great for storing cookie cutters, Icing bags, nozzles and your rolling pin! Another great idea especially if you are like me and want to keep your recipe books out of the reach (and the sticky hands) of your toddler, would be to use the Manhattan Shelving Unit which has room for your spices and herb jars as well! New England Lifestyle has a great range of storage solutions and there is so much choice no matter what the size of your room.

Leafing through recipe books and planning a new meal to try is always one of my favourite things to do and everybody in our family loves to join in with what is going on in the kitchen. We have found the most successful recipes to be the ones that have been tried and tested, here are some books that I can thoroughly recommend as my family have all tried the recipes and have found some really simple ( and quick) suppers that everyone can enjoy.

The Good Food Collection by BBC Books has 480+ triple tested recipes from dishes inspired from around the world to low fat meals-my family and I can highly recommend this book, the recipes are some of the quickest and tastied we have tried, our favourite dish has to be the cajun chicken salad which was enjoyed by everyone.

The next book that gets top points from everyone is the wonderfully illustrated Chocolate and Baking by Gina Steer with quick and easy proven recipes for cakes,biscuits and fab desserts!!

Lastly, and the most useful book we have found is the brilliant Yummy Baby by Jane Clarke which has some recipes that my toddler loves, and is full of helpful nutritional information and feeding time tips this book is a must have for new mums and dads.