Happy Sunday in Columbia Road

I love it when weekends are as chilled out, inspiring and full of great news as ours was. On saturday, we enjoyed a long, delicious lunch with some friends and had - in a typical French way - a delicious meal that kept us around the table until 4pm. By then we were so full that the only thing we could think of was going home for a nap. This morning, we got up bright and early to take the same friends to one of my favourite places in London: Columbia Road which once again was inspiring as ever.
I found an absolutely gorgeous set of 6 wooden bowls (photo to follow) in Vintage Heaven, a shop I always make a point to visit each time we go there and which is also featured in London Vintage by Paumes (a book full of fabulous addresses for vintage treasures). That really made my day because I'm planning to eventually give a minimalist, organic feel to our kitchen (something like this gorgeous kitchen in Amsterdam) and they were just perfect!! Last year, in the same shop, I had found a vintage French garden chair painted in grey blue which I absolutely adore and if I managed to convince Steve to take off the carpet of the old wooden stairs and paint them in white, this blue chair is just going to look magical on the landing stairs!
There was also a beautiful, small ceramic Tajine dish for only £8 in white. I hesitated but it was for one person only and I felt I ought to get a large one like the one I saw in Muji which is gorgeous. But these wooden bowls are just going to make me feel very happy and content each time I look at them.
Steve also got a great winter hat as a gift for my brother from Laird of Glencairn which Mila wore and then later one they were both asked by a photographer if father & daughter could pose for him. I should have asked him what it was for....duuh.
Unfortunately some shops have closed down but others have opened up and discovering Campania Gastronomica really made my day. Campania Gastronomica is at no 95 Columbia Road and is like an Italian version of an English greasy cafe.

It is very small but has bag of character...The things that I really adore decoration wise were the gorgeous vintage and whitewashed country table, the montage on the wall of B&W photos from the 50s, the gorgeous menu with retro photos in sepia and the food was nice....nothing pretentious but tasty and simple. It's tiny, you have to queue to get a table but I absolutely love it and I really encourage you to check it out. It's a really shame I hadn't taken my camera but hey I will be back...

The owner sourced all the old portraits on Ebay and I love how he displayed old paintings that one usually sees in a castle in his small flat. It's atypical and charming at the same time but it definitively works because the ancestors look at home next to Ferrucio Laviani's lamp Bourgie (edited by Kartell). I loved how he sanded the floorboards and whitened them with bleach which gives them a natural, distressed look. I also really like how the walls are half painted in grey and white. It's a very common look in old French houses but at the same time, it can look tremendously modern and it allows you to add intense hues of grey like the Downpipe from Farrow & Ball I used in one of the bedroom in our house in France without making the room too dark.

And the things that end this weekend beautifully was booking my train ticket to go to Maison & Objet next week and spend the weekend in Paris with my best friends from Uni. Book our ski holidays to Andorra with Elodie and her little family and finding out that there were also coming to stay with us in London for a week at the end of March.
I don't know about you but I have been really struggling being back at work after having a wonderful Christmas with my family and just having these few holidays to look forward with people I love really helped to lift the mood :-)
Have a great evening and I hope you had a wonderful weekend too. xoxo

(C) photos from Marie-claire Maison