Mr Porter: Behind the site

You log on to the site, add your item to the basket, you pay, and if you're lucky it turns up a day or so later. That's about as much as we have to do with online retailers such as Mr Porter.

What we don't usually see is the machine that's making all of that happen, from presentation of your item right through to the dispatch. In Mr Porter's case, it's a pretty big machine. A small army of customer service operatives, a separate floor of IT staff, magazine editors, stylists, photographic studios, and more all housed in a state of the art office above the Westfield shopping centre in West London.

Mr Porter's service is second to none and it's evident from these images from A Continuous Lean that they've gone to a lot of effort to make sure things stay that way.

Raf Simons at home: safe lounging

I'll tell you now that I don't care a lot for Raf Simons clothing designs. I often confuse him with Kim Jones on account of his entirely unremarkable offerings. I actually find it no surprise that he comes from Belgium.

But just take a look at his gaff. Urban art prints on the walls, modernist furniture, a 1968 open plan apartment set in acres of greenery ... this could be somewhere in the Hollywood hills.

If that's what playing sartorially safe and living in Belgium gets you, I'm moving now. And changing my career.

Via WSJ

Walls come down

Sorry it's been a bit barren on the blog front over the past few days, I've been knocking the hell out of this wall.

I thought it would be a straight forward job to get the plaster off, especially as it is only a little wall, but it has been a nightmare, frankly, accompanied by a lot of pain. My hands have so many blisters on them that I'm typing this with my elbows.

On top of the feature bare brick wall, we're also giving the room a bit of a freshen up, so posts might be sporadic for a day or so. But rest assured you will be witness to the result.

Chinese blue: seeing is believing

I must say Lizzie's idea of Chinese blue for the hallway didn't exactly have me brimming over with enthusiasm until I saw this pic. It actually looks quite cool with those pictures.

Another decorating job for the week ahead.

Soho House New York: leaving the options open

Having just moved house my thoughts have been turning more towards interior decor, and are likely to stay that way until we've got the place done. This took four years in the last house, so it never really tends to be an overnight occurence.

At the moment I'm at the research stage, hoarding interiors mags and the like. I have pretty much all the furniture I require, which brings us to the walls.

Members' club founder Nick Jones has got the right idea. Leave the walls bare, or sling up some random tat, even leave the tester squares up, and call ship in the chairs. Industrial, chic, that's the way forward. Then if I change my mind I'm halfway towards redecorating anyway.

This is Soho House in New York. The other addresses will follow.

Two nights in Shoreditch: The Huguenots

Given that we're shortly to be moving house, I have started to notice where other people live and the colours they have used in the decoration of their homes.

Now the Huguenot houses of Spitalfields are far removed from the little three bed detached cottage that we've bought, but the colour schemes are right up my street.

These are the homes built by the Huguenot silk weavers who arrived in London as refugees from France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

The houses were built for the master weavers in the 17th and 18th centuries a but by the Victorian era the silk industry had declined to such an extent that the merchants' houses had become slums and Spitalfields the criminal centre of town.

These days the Huguenot houses have been restored to more than their former glory. They are studiously maintained by their owners who paint them all manner of Farrow and Ball shades, and have added things like roof terraces.

Th artist Tracey Emin lives in one, and they have become as much a part of East London tradition as bangers and mash.

A couple of the Huguenot houses of Fournier Street have been restored to their original period splendour, and one contains a museum, although don't ask me which.

Two nights in Shoreditch

Before they get too out of date, here's a few shots of the hotel we stayed in last weekend on our trip up to the Smoke. My jacket even matched the decor. I can see us visiting again.