Big and Beautiful Bed Throws by Cherryellie Designs

Take a look at these beauties - guaranteed to make your sofa or bed more georgeous and comfy. All of them the latest designs handmade by Cherryellie Designs using Designers Guild Fabric with one exception which is a combination of Designers Guild and Zoffany - what a great twosome!

First up is a Designers Guild "Irise" Satin Cotton large bed throw with a duck egg blue background and white, gold and yellow pattern. The reverse of the throw is in a gold silk style fabric and the throw is lined to create a duvet feel.

Second up on the catwalk is another Designers Guild fabric but this time pretty "Carrington" silk with berry, black and white in the pattern. In addition this silk throw has a top panel of white satin cotton. The reverse of the throw is in plain Designers Guild berry silk and the throw is lined again for that duvet feel.

Thirdly we have another fabulous Designers Guild large silk bed throw - this time in "Capucheen" which is a top quality silk with cream, gold, pink, black and yellow in the pattern of the throw. Again this throw is lined with wadding to create a duvet feel.

Last but very much not least is the Zoffany/Designers Guild combination. The Zoffany fabric is a beautiful silky duck egg blue velvet with a wavy weave on one side of the throw. The other side of this stunning bed throw is a Designers Guild Rosamund silk with cream, duck egg blue, pink and yellow in the pattern.

Cherryellie Designs and Arts & Crafts

Cherryellie Designs is very proud to sell cushions, throws and runners designed from Morris and Sanderson fabric. Most of the beautiful designs first created by William Morris from the 1860s onwards are still being printed and still as popular today as they were then. Their beliefs sit very well with our own. We are against mass production and in favour of individually designed quality products being hand crafted in the UK using the best British designer fabric.

Arts & Crafts Movement a Brief History

William Morris who hated the mass production of the Victorian age was a founder of the Arts and Crafts movement of designers and craftsmen who formed themselves into guilds and viewed the middle ages as the golden age of craftsmanship with quality and use of right materials for job.

The guild restored the dignity and prestige of the artisian which had all but disappeared with Victorian industrialisation. The artistic integrity using humble local materials with an honesty to function . Most Arts and Crafts furniture had an austere strong architectural form.
William Morris & Co produced style colourful embroideries woven textiles and wallpaper and carpets based on flowers, foliage and animals using natural animal and vegetable dyes.
At the same time Arthur Sanderson founded his wallpaper firm in 1860. From his premises in Soho Square, London, Sanderson distributed American, French, Japanese and English products, becoming one of the leading wall covering merchants in Britain. This period of success culminated in 1923 when Arthur Sanderson & Sons was awarded the Royal Warrant as Purveyors of Wallpapers to the King.

Architects of the time such as Philip Webb and F.G.A. Voysey designed houses in the same style. Rooms were light and spacious in white or pale colour natural coloured wood floors with rugs. Furniture plain and upright and largely made of oak. Walls often had picture rails painted a uniform pale colour to match the ceiling or dado or tongue and groove panelling. Windows treatments consisted of a simple style curtain hung from a pole.

Decorative motifs were inspired by nature birds, animals and flowers. The Arts and Crafts movement introduced olive greens, plum, hyacinth blue, burgundy, lemon yellow, taupe, rose, ivory, pale grey and white.

Tiffany & Co produced leaded stained-glass lampshades while Handel & Co based in USA also produced beautiful hand painted crafted glass lamps.


Moorcraft’s beautiful Arts & Crafts design pottery began in 1897 and in 1913 he set up his own ceramics factory with designs such as Pansy, Orchid, Leaf and Berry, Ruskin and Doulton embraced Arts & Crafts.


William de Morgan one of the most important and prolific designers of the Arts & Crafts period produced tiles and pottery with bird, animal and plant designs in exotic colours, gold, rich ruby, reds and vivid purple, green and turquoise blue.


Libertys opened in 1875 and began by selling furniture from Arts and Crafts designers but then went on to produce their own furniture and sell through their stores and by catalogue at a cheaper price which undermined the movement and eventually led to its downfall.

Cherryellie's Hols

Here are some of my favourite pics from a break in Cornwall - what a georgeous place!

This is beautiful Padstow - Rick Stein's haunt

Ellie and friend on the beach in Porthleven

The harbours at Penzance and Porthleven...

The lovely beach cove at Porthpean

Charlestown near St Austell

Pretty Newquay

Cherryellie's Autumn/Winter 2009 Handmade Handbags

Here are some of my new range of Autumn/Winter 2009 Handbags.






These are great everyday hard wearing fashion handbags. The middle pic being an across the body bag. They all have internal pockets and magnetic fastenings

This is a beautiful navy and gold chenille handbag with internal pocket and magnetic fastening.

The pics above and below are all silk handbags and clutch bags. They are made from designer silks and most have internal pockets, magnetic fastenings and matching scarfs.

You can view and purchase all these bags at my website http://www.cherryellie.co.uk/.

Ideas for using Colour in your Home

Stepping outside your door you are surrounded with a myriad of different colours presented to you by nature from the sky to the grass, flowers and trees. The beauty of a colourful dawn or a magnificent sunset over the sea. Here's how you can transfer this beauty inside your house.

To choose an overall colour scheme your starting point is nearly always an item, which is your favourite colour, such as a rug or even a vase.

You may well have to work around an existing colour in a room in which case try to apply the above rule to your scheme, for instance in a lounge if you are keeping your suite, look at what you will have to incorporate.

If you are starting from scratch all well and good but if not you will need to work around existing furniture.The function of the room must also be taken into account when putting together a colour scheme. As a rule of thumb, rooms that are not used all the time can take stronger colours. Smaller rooms or those with small windows would benefit from pale, reflective colours.

Check out what direction house faces – eastern rooms need subtle warm colours. Yellow and muted orange work well, making the most of early morning sun and work well as sun moves away later in the morning.

West facing room benefit from cooler scheme, blues, violets to a green which will tone down the intensity of the light in the afternoon.South facing rooms will get the best quality light all day and therefore somewhere between the warm and the cool will be fine.

North facing rooms are obviously the darkest rooms and need the best artificial light and warm colours.

If you would like to add a bold colour to your décor but are scared of going overboard why not add it as an accent colour to cushions, candles and pictures. You will get a feel for the colour and can easily tone the level down or raise it up by adding or taking these items away

If a combination feels too strong then concentrate on using the paler shades and adding plenty of white or cream to cool a scheme down and just a few darker accents.

Pastels always mix more comfortably than other shades.Layer whites and creams together they will create more depth of tone.

If the colour values are too bright the effect can be disturbing a watered down version such as olive green and light pink works well.Use neutrals to pale down a scheme rather than on their own where they just look bland.

You can camouflage unsightly features such as radiators by painting them the same colour as the rest of the room making sure your paint is suitable for this or use a receding light colour.Emphasise features such as an imposing chimney breast or fireplace by using darker shades so that it will stand out.

Large patterns in wallpaper generally suit large rooms or are best used on a feature wall even as curtains with a plain background in a small room they could be somewhat overpowering and make the room seem smaller.Small patterns suit small rooms and can give the illusion of larger space, small patterns in larger rooms can look spotty.

Colours based on the yellow-orange-red part of the spectrum seem warm. The greater the intensity the more they move forward and the “warmer” the scheme. These are also seen as “fire” colours. Orange and yellow work well in a kitchen/breakfast room. Earth colours, which include browns green or gold, harmonize well together. They look good in family rooms such as the living and dining rooms.

Violet, blues, green-blues and black appear to recede and create a feeling of space. They are generally seen as cool colours. Air and water colours include grey, blue and silver. These can be used anywhere in the house but are most effective in bathrooms, bedrooms and halls.

Generally work with a larger area of the cooler, receding colour balanced by smaller quantities of the advancing complimentary warmer colour. Both can be modified in tone and intensity. This can be achieved by choosing one colour for the sofa and the other for the cushions, for instance.However, using pigments can easily modify different colours. Green-blues to which a touch of yellow has been added can appear vibrant and warm.Children love bright colour schemes but temper loud colours with plenty of deep contrasts and gentle harmonious tones