CREATING A (GOOD) ATMOSPHERE

Whilst I love the expression ‘when the nights draw in’, with all it’s connotations of the natural world closing the curtains on Autumn and beckoning in Winter, I am not a great fan of the reality of darkness beginning mid afternoon. However, I am in favour of seizing an opportunity. Years ago I was in Stockholm at New Year, it was minus 16, snowing and dark, but it was magical. In every doorway throughout the old town, Gamla Stan, candles burned marking the way and offering little pools of flickering light. From then on I have resolutely lit candles in the kitchen, in the bathroom, wherever. They make the darkness magical.

Here our Wax Atelier Dinner Candle in Pistachio is nestled in an old Italian ceramic carafe and happy on the mantelpiece amongst a collection of pottery, glass, wood and metal treasures.

And below, the Seaweed Dinner Candle is in a flea-market-find brass candle holder, framed by a paint sample postcard and next to the ‘To The Sea’ Scented Candle. My favourite (tiny) cactus is just visible in the Mini Cork Planter.

One of the very best pieces of design in the Simple Shape shop is the Caster Candle Holder. It is everything that I firmly believe good design should be, no-nonsense design + functionality (one side holds a dinner candle, when that has burnt down flip it over and it’s a tealight holder), it is well made (at a foundry by the river in Greenwich) and it looks brilliant. The solidity of the cast iron candle holder with the pretty Blossom Pink Dinner Candle is a joyful combination.

But, if the dark days and the long nights truly get too much, I suggest making a banana bread just for the hell of it. Lighting a glorious inferno of celebration candles and making an occasion out of it.