As you’ve no doubt realised, (although only since discovering the Architectural Classics blog!), the Internet is occasionally useful for something other than sales and advertising! Our gem of a site for this month is The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH), an effectively and simply designed register of architectural heritage in Ireland – home of our headquarters. In the future we’ll be looking at similar sites in other countries … but for now there are enough gorgeously composed, traditional buildings to satisfy any one of you!

Part of being a great website is not only having a great idea, but executing it properly according to what is easiest for the web. This site does that so well – with an easy to navigate homepage, a nicely limited number of options, with easy-to-spot links and a great use of colour to direct your eye. If you want to look at beautiful buildings, go straight to the Building Surveys link at the bottom left of the page. If gardens are more your thing, go for the green box. There are also quick links on the home page to the building of the month (so many to choose from!), to NIAH publications, as well as a whole bunch of resources regarding architectural history.

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Although it is sort of like giving away trade secrets, we felt we absolutely had to include this awesomely detailed, well set-out, clear, concise and above all, useful site in the blog! The BBC’s Homes area contains this very practical page, which details most things that you would want to know about a wide range of period styles, to make your traditional renovation more true-to-form and consistent.They include a range of styles, not just the traditional period styles – and definitely not only English period styles, although the site is, of course, English. Here is the list of decors you can get information on:

• 1920s
• 1930s
• 1950s
• 1960s
• Art deco
• Arts and crafts
• Art nouveau
• Edwardian
• Georgian
• Gothic
• Japanese
• Modernism
• Scandinavian modern
• Scandinavian country
• Shaker
• Victorian

As you can see, there’s a range from the modern to the traditional, and all over the world. If we had our choice, we would have included more of the older styles … the French types of architecture and décor don’t get a look in (I guess you can tell it is an English site in some ways!). However, the styles that they do explore have their innards pulled apart in great detail. You get tips on how to redecorate everything in your home according to a certain style, from floors to ceilings and everything in between!

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You may have noticed recently in some of our product descriptions (if you have been a diligent renovator!), that many of them advise on what sorts of rooms particular pieces will work best in. The delicate and detailed feminine pieces are often linked with rooms filled with flowers and lace – the bold, strong malleable iron and modernist pieces are linked with sparse rooms filled with dark colours and leathery or knobbled fabrics. But! You don’t necessarily need to have those sorts of rooms already in your house to enjoy the pieces … of course you can create your own individual ideas in your home space, but the site of the month also gives you an invaluable resource for finding the sorts of surrounding pieces that are suggested. Homebug has an uncanny knock for finding beautiful, artistically designed homewares, putting them together in colour groups that make you feel like you’re in a lolly shop, and giving you the exact place you can purchase them all from. Not to mention implanting the colourful and exotic seeds of design ideas in your own head!

You’ll find things like adorable fabrics from Japan – great if you have an Oriental style home, or even a period style with Oriental influences, like Victorian. There are awesome sofas, as well as wooden benches, art for your walls, chairs from the chunky to the cheap, cute kitchen accessories, anything to do with books, and other soft furnishings and textiles. Plus a heap more …

A lot of the pieces in here are quite modern, or at least modernist :-). Best for those of you that have homes from the early part of the century, or slightly before. Think Bauhaus, Adam Style, Victorian, and 20s or 30s homes. However, if you have an eye for design, colour and shape, you’ll no doubt enjoy looking over everything here whether or not it will end up in your own home!

Photo credits: Caldwell Beebe via Desire to Inspire by homebug

Here at Architectural Classics we know there is more than one way to skin a cat.

No, don’t send your cats here! Definitely not! All I mean is that there is more than one way to make your home a testament to what has gone before … and while period hardware is an endlessly beautiful way to do that, you can also do it with nothing more than a bit of creativity and your neighbour’s garbage bin. You can take that literally if you really want …!

Another website that knows the value of junk and imagination is the site of the month, Recyclamps.com. Here you’ll find awesome recycled junk like windows put on legs with LED lighting underneath – creating a very cool glowing snail trail effect on a glass table. Great for kids, yet not great for kids at the same time!

There is an old washing machine barrel that has been made into a light fixture, creating mood lighting with spots of light all over the room. Or the light fixture made of flexible insulation cable, which looks like an alien cocoon of some description and seems to throw a beautiful grey light – it would be awesome in minimalist black and white rooms. Some of them are a little more junky than others – the lead light under a grater throws light patterns, sure – but prepare to be as underwhelmed as I was! As a friend of a friend says though, you have to slay the dragons to get to the princess :-)

There are also some Ikea baskets hung over lead lighting to make outdoor lamps. Not waterproof obviously, so undercover only! But the wicker is a great effect outdoors, with all of the trees and lattice of the garden.

One of the more impressive pieces is the felt stars plant, where half a plant pot has been stuck to the wall, with Christmas lighting extending from it, taped to the wall with a felt star covering each of the lights. So imaginative … you can tell your friends that you thought of it first, and just hope that you aren’t discovered!

And whether or not the ideas work (and believe me, there are plenty of very cool ideas that come up beautifully), one thing the site does without fail is make you look at all of the cr*p on your garage floor a lot differently! Not to mention making you want to go straight out to Ikea and wander around for hours. Just let there be light…

One of the stand out features of antique and reproduction pieces is the fact that they use materials that aren’t often seen any more – how often do you see objects made of pewter, copper brass, or even patinated brass in people’s homes? One of the others which has generally been lost to the passage of time is bronze – however at Dinsdale Petch (as well as at Architectural Classics!) the love affair continues. Like a golden or diamond marriage, it is an affair which is only made stronger by the passing of time!

Dinsdale Petch make gorgeously detailed figurines, which can complement our bronze door furniture perfectly, or add light and shadows to your traditional renovation amongst the contrasting tones of brass and silver. There are some beautiful animal figurines, gorgeous little otters, proud roosters, and some for the individuals among us like bronze cast wild boars (so cute! Sort of…)

One of the lovely features of their bronze figurines is the wide range of patination finishes they are available in – while not all pieces are available in every finish, most pieces at least have a choice. There are some really gorgeous and unique looking finishes – check out the bright red or the bright green coloured bronzes (which your kids won’t be able to keep their hands off!). They also patinate with a traditional verdigris finish – you know the look of a piece that has been dug straight out of a remote field or desert somewhere stark and exotic, and has been cleaned but not interfered with – it is almost as if the verdigris finish is a sort of protective mould which has grown over the piece. However strange that sounds (!), you’ll understand the genuine look and feel that lends to many pieces when you see it!

Speaking of genuine antiques, while Dinsdale Petch are manufacturers not antique dealers, there is also an awesome antique reproduction page, with animals that have fallen out of favour for creating works of art – they may not be the cutest or cuddliest, but they suit traditional homes perfectly, which often give an impression of rawness, power and pragmatism – animals like bears, stags, bulls and bantam chickens.

Check them out at www.dinsdalepetch.co.uk to continue your traditional renovation beyond your doors and lighting!