Captain Plum, Miss Toffee and Professor Pigeon...

Creating little nuggets, clusters?and gatherings of related threads is something I learnt during the summertime holidays spent with Granny in her larger-than-life household –?who, despite being an eclectic hoarder (she travelled extensively and would always return with her trusty carpet bag filled with her?"objets?chinés?lors?de?ses?voyages"), insisted that there be a silent order, a logic behind the creativity.

Pulling thoughts, places, concepts and makers into a thread, a knit, is something I continue to do, especially within my emporium of the things I love: The Aficionados. Online?comes with neat edits sourced from our random collections that share a sweet DNA, a narrative, setting and/or a genre that acts as the canvas for the likes of?Unwaxed Lemons?(the Mediterranean hotels),?Salt n' Turf?(the lost-to-nature pads) or the?Neu Heritage?collection, which wraps up?crafts made with?a modern sleight of hand.?

Using colour?to sieve?through?our collections?is another design anchor I often apply to?help?me create a visual edit. My?go-to?is a listing of?crafted?paint companies, my suppliers of happiness. I am not only addicted to those little colour swatches (a fetish) and?the?stories of heritage that come with them, but I also love?the?imaginative, wonderful descriptive play on words?used to depict,?say, a shade of perfect white that is not entirely?white (The Old Clock Face) or a dirty pink blush (Marshmallow Melt)?used to frame those old wooden doors painted in malachite. Whilst I'm parked in colourland – do you love orange??Check out the XXL bag below ??.?

Wafts of barely coffee, blackboard noirs or a hint of lead-pencil greys work seductively to perfectly frame aged wooden beams if used in the Alps; however, shift the scene to the Mediterranean (see the finca-hotel in Spain), and the colour swatch takes on a whole new ambience.?Cues from industrial relics (the new pad in Lisbon), architectural heritage, and, crucially, nature—Gaia provides an endless treasure pot of tones and accents—all play a part in?the paint colour's journey and the design narrative.

As I am still in my horticultural mode,?your Sunday Edit this week goes on the hunt for those Mother Nature callings of moss, wet clays, honeyed timbers and toasted sourdough, picking?out?the hotels, the artists, makers and?lovers of Gaia-inspired design. Talking of which, 'Pleasure Islands'?is the hot-off-the-press article by KONFEKT (the sibling magazine of style by Monocle ) about where and what the Finns get up to in high summer.

Perhaps I will start a paint collection (limewash, of course – my favourite finish) of my own. This collaboration will carry my invented names like Captain Plum, Aunt Martini, Bluebird Skies, Scottish Sand, or Baked Strawberries. They could also be the perfect dubbings for an ice cream label.

The old fisherman's coat gets a makeover, design?hotels inspired by a stitch or by the Norse?god of ski?in the Alps to the Highlands via Lisbon and Bressanone,?the German?ménage à trois, ceramic tile makers, old-school perfumier?made in Mallorca, the Greek artist Eleni Psyllaki?and her garden palette, and the tale of Crafted Society in Amsterdam –?your Sunday Edit. ?

Hugs

Iain & Co. PS: My Aunt Martini – an amber white spiked with just a hint of green olive.