{Manic Monday}

We're in two minds about Mondays: on one hand they are, for many, the start of the working week and therefore another five days until lie-ins and lazy breakfasts, but on the other hand, they are often days full of ideas and inspiration. Refreshed and recharged from the weekend, we find Mondays a great day for making plans and looking forward to the future. Do you like Mondays or do you find other days more inspiring? Either way, there's often lots to organise for the week ahead and a blackboard panel, like this stylish one featured in the September issue of Ideal Home Magazine, is sure to help keep things on track.

Image: HomeShoppingSpy

{Habitat A/W09 preview}

Oh, how we adore this store. Lucky enough to lay our hands on some preview images of Habitat's new Autumn/Winter collection, we decided to put them straight up on Bright.Bazaar. This collection looks set to continue the current trend for bright, block colours. The Umi table, shown below, screams personality and vibrancy - especially in that gorgeous red, which is offset by the buttercup yellow Bobby floor lamp.

What products do you like? Are you a fan of the current trend for bright, block colours?

Images: Habitat

{Cushions with a difference}

We first heard about Bridget Davies over on Domestic Sluttery - a fab site by the way, be sure to check it out - last week and have been hampering after all her quirky cushions ever since. You can check our Bridget's online store here, which sells lots of lovely goodies - we've picked out our three favourites to share with you. Do you have a favourite?

Top to bottom: The Hall; The Street; A Stroll In The Park

Images: Bridget Davies

{Office Inspiration - PaPaYa's studio/office/warehouse}

It's a triple whammy in this week's office inspiration post and there's certainly plenty of inspiration to be had from these gorgeous images we saw on decor8 recently of lifestyle, stationary and gift designers PaPaYa.

PaPaYa's work spaces are full of colour, charm and personality - we love how the deer's head in their office adds interest to the azure blue wall it adorns. The quirky and original interior spaces of the designer's studio and office areas even extend into the warehouse, which speaks for itself in showing the company's fun, creative and highly productive approach to their working environments.

For many a home office may only be a small room, or if you work for a company, then perhaps it's just a modular pod within a large and bland open plan office. Either way, large office spaces like PaPaYa's and Urban Outfitters can still provide great ideas to introduce into one's own office, no matter how small. How about adding a glamorous chandelier as the light fitting? Perhaps using old wallpaper samples and framing them to add interest? What do you find inspiring in your office? How do you decorate it to make it your own? As always, we love to hear your thoughts!

Images: decor8

{Plate me up}

These silhouette wall plates are really funky. We're not sure if it's that NYC meatpacking-inspired exposed wall, or if it's just the super cool idea that's driving our love for these plates: either way, we're putting our orders in right here. Elle Decoration recently awarded Andrew Tanner's - designer of the plates - work as future design classics. You know what? We're more than inclined to agree.

Silhouette Plates - £66, Lifestyle Bazaar

Image: Lifestyle Bazaar

{New season preview: Next}

Next's homeware ranges have been coming into their own over the past few seasons. Their new Autumn/Winter collection looks set to continue in this fashion, offering some great value buys for your home. Here's our pick, room-by-room, of the best value buys this season from high street and catalogue store, Next:

//Bedroom//

//Bathroom//

//Kitchen//

//Accessories//

Images: Next

{Mini, but amazing!}

Mini Moderns are, quite frankly, really annoying. Why? Because we want to buy everything from their great range of homewares and wallpapers for kids and 'kidults'! Jointly ran by an ex-graphic designer and experienced brand strategist, Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire respectively, this is one super cool company. Mini Moderns is also the sister arm of Absolute Zero Degrees, which is Keith and Mark's London based design and branding agency.

Not only are their products lovely, but they are all made in the UK - a policy which has not only helped them keep their carbon footprint to a minimum, but also supports local businesses in the process. You should definitely check out their Shoppe and they are really nice guys, too, so why not say hello to them over on Twitter? Here's our favourite picks from their fun/funky/Ineedthatformyhouserightnow product range:

Cushions

From top to bottom: Sewn Sequels Limited Edition Cushions - Figs and Plant Pots; Sitting cushion

Wallpaper

Top to bottom: Town wallpaper; C60 wallpaper; Tick-tock (snow) wallpaper (you can colour it in - a-maz-ing!)

Stationary

Top to bottom: Let's Get Busy pad; Memorabilia pad; Timely Reminders pad

Images: Mini Moderns

{Free tickets to London Design Festival event}

Love design? Fancy getting direct access to designers and manufacturers? Would you enjoy spending a day amongst fellow design fanatics, perusing all the latest innovative products that are yet to hit the high street? Well, thanks to Living etc, you can - and the best part is: you can do it all for free.

Tent London calls itself the 'multi-faceted design event' and takes place at the Trueman Brewery, a vast reclaimed industrial site in Brick Lane. The event boasts a vast collection of shows, competitions and installations covering art and architecture, vintage and contemporary design, and emerging and established designers, dealers, retailers, manufacturers and brands from all over the world.

To get your free tickets, worth £10, all you need to do is quote the reference LE09 when you book online. Here's a flavour of what to expect from last year's event (we featured the quirky cake stand earlier this year - see it again here):

Images (from top to bottom): Undergrowth Design, The Greenhaus, Seletti, Melanie Graf, The Greenhaus

Images: Tent London Flickr

{Office inspiration - A blank canvas}

This week's office inspiration is all about making your mark on a blank canvas. Regular Bright.Bazaar readers will know we love colour and all the great things it brings to a room: personality, depth, character. However, just because an office is painted all in white, doesn't mean that all these great things can't be true of a white space. Take this ohsostylish home office we saw on this blog as an example; full of charm, it successfully manages to create a welcoming space in which to work, despite the all over white walls. Warmth is added through wooden furniture and creative mood walls - made up of photographs and tear sheets - provide plenty of inspiration.

Do you like the idea of an all white home office, or would you rather something more colourful like this? Let us know below!

Images: emma's designblogg

{Inspirational styling from DecorMaison}

There's a sure fire way to win our hearts over here at Bright.Bazaar: gorgeous, quirky, original styling. At this time of year there are countless companies, all of whom are vying for ones' attention with their new collections. As firm believers in the importance of presentation and attention to detail, we were delighted when we found these brilliant images of DecorMaison's new collection over on Emma's 'designblogg'.

Titled 'Oas', Oasis in English, Decor Maison's new wallpaper collection is a dream - one of the papers even looks inspired by another of our print favourites, Orla Kiely. It's great to see a company using their imagination to style their products. The amount of effort gone into creating these various caravan shoots has paid off - they've created quirky, almost fanciful room sets, yet the concept works and you can imagine yourself living in the various rooms. Simply placing the caravan within either urban, coastal or country environments, provides all the context needed for the viewer to interpret the interior in which the different wallpapers should be used.

Do you look for imaginative styling when sourcing products for your home? Which caravan room set is your favourite?

Images: emma's designblogg

{A weekend in the country}

Ah, so it's that time of the week again - Monday morning. A new week and with it lots of exciting interiors shaped news to bring you. We spent a weekend of fun and frolics in the countryside, enjoying the summery weather as we explored the networks of country lanes. The nostalgia of a few dreamy days in the countryside has clearly rubbed off on us: when these images of the gorgeous new Cath Kidson kitchen products popped into our inbox this morning, we new they had to get straight up on Bright.Bazaar.

Images (from top to bottom): 24-piece Cutlery Set - £60; Tea Cosy - £16; Radio - £200; set of four Canisters - £16 (all exclusive of VAT)

Images: Cath Kidson

Did you all have lovely weekends? Do you go for the country look in your homes? What do you like about it? Or maybe it's not really your thing? Let us know in the comments section - we read all your comments. Happy Monday everyone!

{Vintage hearts the digital world}

Two words: vintage shopping. If you're like us, then these words will probably conjure up images of romantic strolls through flea markets like this one in Paris; not images like this.

We're so excited to share this website with you all we might just burst! Supermarket Sarah is, quite possibly, the best online store we've ever used. Its a fusion of two periods; a juxtaposition of two very different worlds - the vintage and cyber worlds - and, amazingly, it works. The premise of the site is a simple one: Sarah arranges vintage objects on her living room wall, takes a picture of it and ta-da - Supermarket Sarah is born. How are new products added one may ask? Easily! Sarah makes another display on her living room wall and with the click and a flash of her camera, the new collection is ready to view and buy online. We love how ingenious this idea is - it's so simple, yet manages to effortlessly ooze imagination and personality. The Caravelle 50's Fergusion Radio has Bright.Bazaar's name all over it - considering our per chant for a good picnic we've an idea for the perfect use for it.

Image: Supermarket Sarah

Have you found any inspiring online stores recently? Why not let us know in the comments section below?

{Bottles and bottles of fun}

Glass bottles, especially those of vintage nature, are perfect for making stylish touches to almost any spare corner of your home. There is something rather satisfying about playing with different arrangements; trying them out to see how the light falls through the various coloured glass, casting shadows as it does, whist adding texture and depth to what would otherwise been just a windowsill/shelf/side table.

Bright.Bazaar headed over to Etsy this morning to browse through their bottle offerings. Here's what we found...

Images, top to bottom: Laundry glass bottle; Nesbitt's orange soda bottles; Log cabin syrup; Cola and soda bottles; Blue glass bottle. All from Etsy and individually linked to sellers.