My Latest Obsession: Nautical Stripes

It’s been a while since I last wrote. Thank you to those of you who said you’ve missed me, it means a lot! I’d like to be able to give you a really exciting reason for my absence. A backpacking holiday to India perhaps, or an intensive course in nail art (a long time secret interest of mine, who knew!) Unfortunately the reasons are depressingly mundane. A combination of tummy bugs, birthday parties, housework and general life has rendered me pretty incapable of coherent thought after 8pm, which is the time I usually sit at my laptop to write.

I find that tonight I have the energy, having spent a restorative day at home with my family. The summer weather really does help give life a little boost. So here I am, introducing my new occasional feature titled: My Latest Obsession, in which I will be sharing trends, furnishings and objects that I covet. Indeed there are many so I’ll try not to bombard you. From blog post famine to feast!

This week I’ve found myself drawn to all things nautical, particularly stripes. If you’ve read about our Blue Kitchen you’ll know that I’m a big fan of the colour blue already but our latest purchase brought stripes to the forefront of my mind. As the weather has improved recently we’ve been spending more time eating outside on the decking and our old parasol desperately needed replacing. Not just because one of the struts was secured with brown tape (the shame!) but it was also generally looking tatty and I wanted something with a bit of colour or interest. There’s not a great deal of choice around it seems, a few plain bright colours and two main shapes: Standard or Shanghai. However, I did find a lovely navy blue and white stripe version from John Lewis which I couldn’t match elsewhere and after a few weeks of deliberation it has now massively upgraded our outdoor dining area.

Once I have a style on my mind I usually have to stop myself from buying everything I see that matches. It’s tough because there is so much brilliant stuff out there, but below are a few of my favourite affordable picks for the sailor in you.