Monday 11th March 2013

One of my great regrets is taking the matching set path.

If only I’d gone harlequin in early life by now I could have had a glorious miscellany of glassware and porcelain and never the worry of matching the set.

Only three cups survive of eight in my Limoges matching breakfast set in cream. Aunt Lavinia’s daughter-in-law Lavinia suggested e-Bay. In a flicker, I’d forked £100 for Spode breakfast cups in different shapes and patterns.  When they arrived, a slight snag became apparent. I hadn’t really thought through the impact of the Spode.  The remaining Limoges cream … well, it doesn’t match. There’s harlequin, and there’s harlequin, you see.   Burrowing in cupboards, I’ve found sufficient odds and ends in stock to make do for the time being. But really I’m going to have to re-side-plate and re-cereal bowl.

Will there ever be an end to it?

Otherwise, I’m looking at carpet samples. Huge agony over the new stair carpet. I broke down in a low carpet emporium in the Holloway Road this afternoon. All I want is dirty old rose, flat-weave or loop, not pile. There’s nothing for it but Chelsea Harbour. Then Val, on the telephone, had a brain wave. Tancredo Viamare is coming round on Thursday to look at samples. I’m planning an Italian primavera menu with shades of winter.

On Saturday I gave a huge Charity dinner which raised double the amount expected. More to come on my menu and handling. Really I am improving in nerves but not perfect yet.

You’ll never guess who drove Val today from Chelsea Harbour, where he’d been looking at velvets with Genevieve Suzy of the magazine world (Lewis and Wood! Lewis and Wood!)the whole way to Notting Hill.

If you do guess, you won’t believe it. I’ll say no more for the time being, but, rest assured, it might as well have been Mrs Onassis – that’s the level we’re talking about.

Val is making a start on the blue armchair, to be re-done in the steel blue/grey (fascinating colour) linen-taffeta from Lewis and Wood. He’s making a calico dummy first.

Lewis and Wood! Lewis and Wood!

The Temporary Harlequin Look: Spode Cup from eBay, Plate and Cereal Bowl Already in Stock but Not Permanent