Diptyque – Baies

As a general rule, I prefer to keep my home scents and personal fragrances at a happy distance, but this is the exception. The second I smelt Diptyque’s Baies candle it was love. Velvety soft, clean and reminiscent of the first blooms of Spring, it’s based around roses and blackcurrant leaves, making it both floral and green. It came of something of a surprise to find that my favourite of their perfumes, L’Ombre Dans L’Eau, is its companion, albeit a sweeter, more sparkling version. But then, with such an impressive 50-year pedigree, if anyone can break my regular fragrance rule, Diptyque can.

Cire Trudon – Nazareth

If you bottled all the best bits of Christmas – mulled wine, toasty fires, chocolates and the annual trip to midnight mass – this is what it would smell like. Neither sickly sweet or overpoweringly spicy, the warm and woody aroma creates the perfect atmosphere for the festive season. The French company Cire Trudon has a long and illustrious history that can be traced back as far the 17th century when candles became a luxury for special occasions, rather than just a source of light. So it seems fitting that my choice conjures up one of the year’s most special days. Think cinnamon, cloves, mandarin, vanilla and golden resins resonating from a ruby red glass, and you’re there.

Green & Spring Revitalising Candle

Candles that aim to put some pep in your step often fall foul of smelling like Toilet Duck. Not so with Green & Spring. The cool and quirky British brand is inspired by our beautiful countryside, so the company pack all of their body and home products with locally sourced, sustainably grown herbs and flowers. The mix of peppermint, fennel, dandelion and rosemary in the Revitalising candle subtly refreshes the air around you as well as perking up your mind, while the candle itself is made from 100% natural wax. Handmade, the pretty bird-adorned packaging alone makes it completely covetable.

Votivo – Red Currant

At first glance, the scents in the Votivo candle range may seem pretty one-dimensional: Red Currant, Morning Violet or Mandarin, for example. On closer inspection however, you’ll find that they are cleverly constructed like fine fragrances. The sharp and sweet (and perfect dinner party accompaniment) Red Currant has green and citrus to notes that give way to a cassis and tropical fruit heart and finally the fruity musk base. Add to this that each is handcrafted, hand-wrapped and dressed with a hand-pressed pewter seal, and a single fruit or flower is transformed into something very special.

Christian Dior – 30 Montaigne

As you would expect from the fêted fragrance house, Dior’s candle range takes home scent to another level, not least because it nestles alongside their La Cellection Privée range of exclusive and exquisite perfumes. Inspired by the first Dior salon, it was created by Creative Director Hedi Slimane to scent the flagship Paris store. As befits a scent of that haute couture stature, it’s chic, sensual and addictive thanks to an evocative blend of cardamom, cedarwood, amber and incense. My verdict? Unfailingly seductive.

They say that you can’t take it with you – but we hope that if there is a heaven, that it has walk-in wardrobe provision (maybe like that one in Clueless) and oodles of shelving space. Storage and organising your belongings is a tricky art – luckily Easy Living has some clever tips…

Unless you’ve cracked minimalist living (we certainly haven’t!) keeping your home in order and everything in its place can be difficult. Good storage doesn’t mean sacrificing style, in fact quite the opposite; try our stylish home storage ideas; you’ll notice the difference right away. Read more: Easy Living.

The Medici Chair is lovingly crafted in a choice of three woods – including one suitable for use outdoors. The poshest picnic chair ever? You can buy Konstantin Grcic’s winning design online at The Conran Shop.

Back to (Stylish) Basics

First things first; roll up your sleeves and pop on some rubber gloves – these girly polka dot ones might make cleaning seem like a fun and frivolous pursuit rather than a tedious toil. You can’t clean properly without the right basic equipment, so be ruthless and send old cloths and almost-finished bottles of detergent towards the bin. And we suggest replacing those cloths with something a little more chichi – try these cobalt-hued printed dishcloths from Jangneus.

Murchison-Hume make luxury cleaning products packaged in lovely vintage-inspired glass bottles – and they’re available in a range of fragrances that wouldn’t look out of place at the perfume counter. Try the Original Fig Counter Intelligence Safe Surface Spray for size. All of the products are chemical-free too. Mrs White’s Bathroom Cleaning range is similarly chic, with natural ingredients such as ylang ylang, jasmine and narcissus. Just remember that you’re washing cupboards and counters – not yourself! And so that your cupboard don’t become a disorganised muddle just after you’ve sorted them, choose a chic caddy to store cleaning products.

Elegant Equipment

Stylish spring cleaning requires the right equipment and for slick, well-designed products (as usual), the Scandinavians triumph. Iris Hantverk’s tall brush and dustpan set looks far too elegant to stash in a dark cupboard. The same goes for the simple, clever – albeit a little more petite – dust pan and brush from Normann Copenhagen. We also like the brand’s award-winning washing up bowl and brush.

Once you’ve done washing and cleaning, you’re sure to need some towels and there are lots of lovely ones to choose from. A humble tea towel really will brighten up the kitchen (plus they’re much more economical than fresh flowers), so perhaps choose three or four to match your colour scheme. Donna Wilson’s Use My Tail tea towel is impossibly cute, or why not Save Water (and) Drink Champagne?

Lovely Laundry

Ah the endless task of laundry! The more clothes you wear (a lot in our case), the more laundry there seems to be. And that’s before we even mention (in a whisper) the necessary evils of dry cleaning or hand-washing. The first step in keeping the Laundry Monster under control is to invest in a stylish or sensible washing basket. Wenko’s bin makes sorting laundry into colours a cinch, while this pretty woven basket from Idyll Home has that Homes & Gardens countryside chic look.

Once you’ve sorted out the laundry and are ready to dive into the pursuit of actual washing, may we suggest the most sophisticated detergent – that of New York-based company The Laundress. The packaging looks like it belongs in the boudoir rather than the utility room, and there’s an endless range of products available – from Denim Wash and Swimwear Care to a delicate Wool & Cashmere Spray. There’s even a couple of detergents created through a collaboration with posh parfumeurs Le Labo, which are scented with santal and rose. Washing done, peg out all of your underwear and let dry in the fresh air – we love these fun spotted pegs or try the V&A’s quirky Blackbird pegs.

Don’t forget…

…to jazz up even the most unloved areas of your home. How about an unusual toilet brush? We like this wood and concrete one from Lovisa Wattman. Use with Method’s amusing Eau de Toilettes toilet cleaner. Yes, really. And so that you don’t let things get into a mess – leading to an even more Gargantuan spring clean next year, we recommend this practical Random Crap storage bag. Truly ingenious.

Staying in is the new going out: spooning, snuggling and curling up with a cuppa are what these cold winter months are all about…

The Hamburg-based designer Markus Krauss is the man responsible for giving the rocking chair this sleek new makeover – and he’s embraced versatility as part of the design. The Sway Rocking Chair is made up of an upholstered seat housed on a steel frame, which either rocks on a curved base or locks into place. Here’s the science bit; a telescopic rod can be extended to fix the seat into an upright position, for those who are simply not in the mood to rock.

Thanks to its chic neutral colouring, this marvellous piece of snuggle-kit would look equally at home in a Norwegian-themed log cabin as it would in a minimalist urban loft. But the finest feature of this rarified rocker is the fact that it can comfortably accommodate two. Just the job for those who prefer to snuggle ‘a deux’.

As you might expect, Markus Krauss designs items that are reassuringly expensive. However, given the Sway Rocking Chair’s generous proportions it would be reasonable to split the cost with your spooning-buddy of choice…

For more information, see Markus Krauss’ website.

Made up of an upholstered seat housed on a steel frame, the Sway Rocking Chair either rocks on a curved base or locks into place

Diptyque’s elegant Le Sablier Hourglass Diffuser

In his novel Time Regained, Marcel Proust wrote that, “An hour is not merely an hour; it is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with projects, with climates.” It’s not only a sentiment that illustrates how the passing of time is enriched by scent, mood and memories, it is also the inspiration for an ultra-elegant way to fragrance your home. Parisian perfumers Diptyque – the purveyors of exquisite, artisanal scents – have created a diffuser so beautiful it could easily qualify as a work of art. A world away from the supermarket plug-in, think of it as pure perfume over eau de toilette.

Working with design studio R’Pure, the Diptyque Hourglass gently disperses fragrance around the room using a wick that runs between two glass bulbs. Chosen specially for their skill at creating packaging that balances simple shapes with meticulous attention to detail, the studio sculpted the glass to be soft, curved and sensual, so it fits and feels perfect in your hand every time you turn it over. And unlike a candle that disappears as it releases its scent, the egg-timer mechanics are meant as a reminder of how time is a never-ending cycle.

The fragrance itself is the sublime 34 Boulevard Saint Germain, chosen with good reason. With notes of blackcurrant and dried fig leaves, moist mosses and milky woods, it’s a fresh, green and spicy scent that’s impossible not to fall in love with, whatever your perfume preferences. It only takes twenty minutes for the liquid to move between the bulbs, but that elegant aroma will grace the atmosphere around you for hours. And if you’re working to Proust’s time scale, just think how many blissful experiences you’ll be able to fit in…

The Diptyque Le Sablier Hourglass Diffuser costs £100, refills £34. See the Diptyque website for more details and to purchase.

The Diptyque Hourglass diffuser…