Chic Boutiquers At Home by Ellie Tennant

Grab a cup of tea and settle in for some major design inspo with today’s look at Ellie Tennant‘s second book, Chic Boutiquers at Home: Interiors Inspiration and Expert Advice from Creative Online Sellers. The UK-based interiors journalist takes us inside the homes of 12 designers, makers and curators known for their stylish online shops and shares a wealth of advice on how to set up your own. These are carefully curated, impeccably styled homes in New York, the Netherlands and the UK that still manage to be homey and warm, spaces designed for work, rest and play by entrepreneurs with style and substance. Show me to the guest room — I want to move in! 

Swedish calligrapher and designer Ylva Skarp makes a living designing art prints, cushion covers, ceramic tiles and other home accessories featuring her lettering, and makes a home here in this converted lakeside schoolhouse in rural Leksand, Sweden. Rustic whitewashed floors, exposed beams and well-loved furnishings are warm against the white, black and grey walls and soaring ceilings. It’s hard to choose a favourite home in the book but this one’s my fave for the light, the spaciousness and the Scandinavian design. It’s inviting, lived-in and look:

Full of books! These shelves flank the doors to the living room, offering the perfect opportunity to grab a book before sinking into the cushions of a sprawling sectional.

I also adore with heart eyes the office of Danielle de Lange, blogger and boutiquer at Le Souk in Zuiderwoude, Netherlands. The light, the white, the colour! And the legs on that desk! Danielle sells handmade homewares, jewellery and fashion accessories from Turkey, Morocco and the Netherlands and these influences are all reflected in her cozy, scandi-boho style.

I had as much fun snooping inside the dozen homes as I did visiting their online shops. (All of them new to me.) I could spend hours mooning over the Welsh blankets and enamelware at FForrest General Stores — yes FForest with two f’s — in Cardigan, Wales, and Elaine Tian’s hand-thrown, hand-painted porcelain bowls and vessels at Studio Joo in Brooklyn, New York, inspire me to try a different craft.

Part of the appeal of ceramics to Elaine is that it’s so different from her past graphic design work. “When you’re a graphic designer, everything is precision-heavy — you’re pursuing perfection,” she explains. “You check and double-check, there are edits and it’s a whole cycle of checks before something gets published. There’s no room for error. If you make a mistake in a magazine or on a logo, it gets reproduced many times. There’s no appreciation of the imperfect.”

Instead, Elaine practices the art of imperfection.

“I can be technically proficient, but can also appreciate the humble, human qualities of what I make. You can see my fingerprints and where I didn’t stand the glaze perfectly, but the imperfections are appreciated — they show that somebody made it.”

Chic Boutiquers At Home (along with Ellie’s first book, Design Bloggers At Home) is widely available at book stores everywhere.

Images 2, 3 and 4 shared with permission from the publisher. Chic Boutiquers at Home by Ellie Tennant, published by Ryland Peters & Small, photography by James Gardiner © Ryland Peters & Small. Thomas Allen & Son sent me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.