Snowballs and Apres in Style...
Published on Sunday 18th November 2007
The recent cold (-5 cold as it read the on my car the other morning at some ungodly hour) has helped get me inspired for my most recent project, a ski lodge in Val d’Isere. And it was so easy to get in the mood as I sat at my desk gazing out of the window at twinkling frost in the garden beyond!
 To recreate the effect for the chalet, texture is everything and I used a multitude of fabrics to do so (texture is where the word luxury really comes into its own). If you think about the hard textures of glass, timber, stone and wood and the light that’s reflected by the glare of deep fluffy snow, you’ve got a great platform to work from.
Just add some cashmere, wool, faux fur and leather. The cashmere - cable knitted cushions and generous cable throws - came from Ralph Lauren  and I found some faux fur throws for the sofas at Pierre Frey along with the Stag china for dining in the chalet. Pierre Frey houses some of the most luxurious fabrics around (and being French) in the most eclectic colourways.
All the bedding came from The White Company (one of my favourites) - we just had to have the fleece blankets - sheer luxury at the end of a hard days skiing! Fleecy blankets , thick white towels, cashmere throws - hard to imagine anything better!
Doing this chalet was my chance to use one of the huge sofas I so long for... so I went for the Hudson corner unit from Andrew Martin and covered it in a very soft grey wool, scattered cherry red cushions and hung beautiful fine wool curtains, all from The Isle Mill in Scotland. The fabrics are all woven in Scotland and priced very reasonably.
The finishing touches... candles from Space NK, I went for Diptyque Feu de Bois , divine ! Oh and bath oil from Jo Malone .
All that work has inspired me to spend some time at Hotel Lodge Park in Megeve (pictured above left) with some friends over Christmas. I really can’t wait, especially if it’s as good as its sister hotel, Villa Marie, in St Tropez. If I’m really honest, I don’t do Skiing. It’s too much like hard work, it’ll be snowballs and après for me!
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