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Will Santa Be Hurrying Down Your Chimney This Christmas?

We’ve done property blogs and property forums, so we thought it was about time we pointed you in the direction of some interiors eye-candy.

Warning:  if, like me, your idea of domestic decoration involves a withered spider plant, books covering every available surface and empty whiskey bottles on the mantelpiece, all of this might leave you feeling like a knuckle-trailing Neanderthal …

1. Excellent design site dedicated to “saving the world, one room at a time.” The UN? Pah! Who needs it when we have lovely cushions?

2. Interested in works that “defy particular typologies, diverge from conventions and are more than merely consumable objects.” Weird stuff basically. Like bomb proof wallpaper. And they love a good list.

3. A blog dedicated to art, architecture, & design. The editor “longs for the day when she can have an alpaca named Blanche.” Enough said.

4. Very cool user generated site, though they win our arsiness award for describing themselves as “a user-submitted visual curation site featuring residential architecture and design, craftsmanship, materials and products.”

5. Engaging, if slightly self-obsessed, blog by Dublin-based interior design journalist Zita Spring. When, I wonder, did Irish people start calling themselves Zee and saying things like “my style ethos is pretty much the opposite of Coco Chanel”?!

6. Another good-looking and smartly written design blog from a Dublin-based journo … wtf is going on over there in the ould country? I blame the EU.

7. Lots of lovely pics  and great pets on furniture feature atthis blog by “a Canadian and an Australian trying to inspire the World one room at a time.” Hang on, hasn’t Apartment Therapy bagged the role of global saviour? Fight!

8. Good-looking blog by editor and designer Holly Becker, who at the moment is musing on the pleasure of colour co-ordinating her Xmas decorations with the presents under the tree. As you do.

9. Funky Dutch-based design blog showcasing lots of unusual products and spaces from around the world – leans towards the retro, salvaged, organic and distressed-looking. I always knew my fading whiskey bottles were really a design statement.

10. Smart professional offering from the terrifyingly overachieving Grace Bonney and a team of bloggers who look like they’ve escaped from an indie movie. Aptly described by the NY Times as “Martha Stewart Living for the Millennials”, its style guide seems to be inspired by e.e cummings.

Have I missed any (aside from the excellent myDeco blog, which we already link to?).  Send us your suggestions.

This week’s graph comes from the latest RICS Lettings Survey, published today (2 December 2009).

The report (Q3 2009) reveals that as the sales market recovers, excess stock in the rental market is on the wane and rental prices are edging back up.

RICS spokesperson Jeremy Leaf commented: “It seems the current upward trend in the housing market is having a more significant effect on the lettings market, with many of the accidental landlords returning to the sales market to take advantage of the recent price increases.

“As a result, the recent oversupply is reversing, with new instructions at the lowest levels we have seen. This, of course, is impacting on prices, and tenants no longer have as strong a bargaining power as they did.”

Our own FindaProperty.com: Rental Index shows a similar trend. This month’s report (November) revealed a rent rise of 0.1 per cent to £831pcm, the seventh consecutive month of stable or rising rents.

The supply of rental properties fell by a 3.5 per cent in November, following a ten per cent fall in October.  And properties let within 55 days, 16 days less than at the beginning of the year.

For tenants, the message is clear: the days of discounted rents, juicy incentives and plenty of high quality stock to choose from are probably drawing to a close.

Here’s a new website that’s just come to my attention: Kitchen Synch, a brokerage service that will flog you a used or ex-display kitchen at a bargain basement price.

It’s a bit like a TK Maxx for kitchens and lists dozens of models by everyone from Poggenpohl and Siematic to Oxford and Alno.  You can also sell off your old kitchen here, so it covers all bases.  Nice!

Prices start at £3,000 for a ‘wood look’  Wellman kitchen in Beech Vinessa (retail price, £10,000, so they say) and rise to £65,000 for a stone two-island extravaganza with a Gaggenau ceramic induction hob … which I’m guessing is some kind of fancy schmancy cooker.

Mr Benn, for anyone who isn’t familiar with the name, was a bowler-hat-clad character from a popular kids’ TV show in the ’70s.

He lived at 52 Festive Road, a street which also housed a fancy dress shop, of which Mr Benn was a very regular visitor.

He’d pop into the shop where, as if by magic, the shopkeeper would appear and suggest a particular outfit for Mr Benn to try on, whereupon a whole load of jolly escapades would ensue.

The show’s creator, David McKee, lived at 54 Festing Road in Putney when he wrote the show – basing Mr Benn in the house next door and changing the street name to make it more child friendly.

And now, current residents of Festing Road have clubbed together to honour the TV series in the form of an engraved paving stone which will be unveiled this Saturday.

Mr McKee will be there for the unveiling ceremony, although at present it’s unknown if he’ll turn up in fancy dress.

Fancy a trip down memory lane?  Here’s the Mr Benn intro sequence:

This week, a timeless classic: the mews house.

Originally built to house horses and grooms back in the day, these properties have become hugely popular dwellings.

London boasts many, many mews houses, lots of which are set in quaint little cobbled streets with a cluster of fellow mews homes as neighbours.

They’re also usually located within trotting distance of main thoroughfares so they’re central as well as secluded.  A high pedigree, indeed.

Here are five of the Capital’s finest mews houses to admire.

(Click on pics for more images & property details)

1. Grosvenor Crescent Mews, SW1
£6,500,000

2. Lennox Garden Mews, SW7
£5,750,000

3. Petersham Mews, SW7
£3,500,000

4. Montpelier Mews, SW7
£2,690,000

5. Spear Mews, SW5
£1,795,000

A converted watermill comes pretty close to being my ideal home – and watermills don’t come much better than this beauty in Piltdown, East Sussex.

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

Sadly, these properties tend to have hefty price tags, so it’s unlikely I’ll be buying myself one for Christmas (or ever, to be honest).

Still, on a filthy wet Monday, this is a very pleasant bit of escapism.

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

£1,600,000, Converted Watermill, Strutt & Parker, Lewes (Tel: 0843 2823 360)

Ok, this won’t come as a big surprise to parents: a property close to a good school will cost a whole lot more than one close to a … not so good school.

But how much more? Savills have crunched the numbers and concluded that:

• Homes in the vicinity of the top-performing 25 per cent of secondary schools now cost 16 per cent more than their county average, up from 13 per cent in 2007.

• At the extreme, homes in areas with a combination of good state and independent schools can be worth two or three times their county average.

The results are much more dramatic at suburb level than at town level.

House prices in first placed suburb Altringham are more than twice the average for Greater Manchester, while those in Hallam in Sheffield, Clifton in Bristol, and Solihull and Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands all outstrip their metropolitan authority average by more than 50 per cent.

(Ps: I know this is a table, not a graph. There is a graph in the Savills’ report, but it will make your head hurt.)

The Property: A disused Victorian water tower plus two gatehouses.

The Place: London SE11

The Price: £995,000 for the three properties, or £395,000 for the water tower, £350,000 for gatehouse 1, and £250,000 for gatehouse 2.

The Pain: Eight floors, all of them Grade II listed, with a water tank on the top. This is a challenging project, and if you don’t manage it well, it could very quickly become an expensive one.

The Gain: It’s unique, it has amazing potential and it could be your big chance to do the whole Grand Designs thing. Nice view from the top as well!

The Agent: Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

£995,000, London SE11, Daniel Cobb, Tel: 0843 2834 915

For a home with the wow factor, it’s hard to beat a bespoke architect designed property.

We’ve found some fantastic examples from our listings but it’s worth bearing in mind that architects are there for everyone and not just for the grandest of designs.

Indeed, it’s thanks to the popularity of TV personalities like Kevin McCloud and George Clarke that more and more ‘normal’ people are opting to commission an architect to design or improve their home these days. Fine work, chaps.

Here are five of our favourite architectural creations from our current listings:

(Click on pics for more images & property details)

1. London SW8
£1,950,000

2. London SW19
£1,650,000

3. Esher, Surrey
£1,285,000

4. Orpington, Kent
£1,200,000

5. Bath
£645,000