Grand Designs Awards Dinner

I’ve just got back from Grand Designs Live at the Excel centre, where I was signing Cracking Antiques books with Kathryn this afternoon. Kathryn had given a seminar on incorporating retro furniture in interior design, together with eco-designer Oliver Heath and Wayne Hemingway, the design connoisseur and founder of ‘Red Or Dead’. We were also […]

Antiques Roadshow in Saltaire

The World Heritage Site of Saltaire, founded in 1853 by Titus Salt largely for the benefit of his workers but also his business, provided the perfect backdrop to yesterday’s Antiques Roadshow. Despite the predicted rain, the good folk of Saltaire turned in force, and the queue was already stretching around the block when I arrived […]

Cracking Shopping Sources No.4

Kathryn and I hope you all tuned in and enjoyed last night’s episode of Cracking Antiques, where we helped Jodie & Adrian from Stockport find Victorian and Edwardian antiques for their living room with their limited budget. So, if previous weeks are anything to go by, you’ll all be wondering where we went! Well, here […]

The Cracking Antiques look spreads…

Leafing through this morning’s Metro newspaper, I spotted this advertisement for HSBC mortgages. I smiled as the quirky and appealing arrangement of antique pieces, including frames, mirrors, furniture, and glass decanters, is exactly the sort of look that we love on Cracking Antiques. It’s interesting to see how the look is really moving into the […]

Cracking Shopping Sources No.2

Both Kathryn and I have had loads of emails and tweets asking us where we found the antiques and vintage pieces we used in the series. None more so than for Karen Jones and her ‘shabby chic’ dining room this week! So, to save some time, here goes. The chairs, ceramics and wonderful French ceiling […]

Interview with Paul Fraser Collectibles

Last week, I was delighted to be interviewed by Paul Fraser of Paul Fraser Collectibles. The main focus was the new BBC2 TV series I’m co-hosting with interior designer Kathryn Rayward, but as I’m a man of (too?) many words, we soon moved onto many other subjects such as buying online, the recession, and the […]

BBC Interview with Mark & Kathryn

Interior designer Kathryn Rayward and antiques expert Mark Hill, from BBC Two’s Cracking Antiques, tell BBC Programme Information‘s Tony Matthews about their plans to fill people’s homes with individuality and vintage quality. Recessions, what are they good for? Not much, but if there’s one thing an economic downturn does encourage it’s thrift and a fresh […]

Cracking Antiques – A BBC2 Series

Cracking Antiques is on a myth-busting mission to prove that people can add style and glamour to any type of home by investing in second-hand, vintage and antique furnishings – without breaking the bank. The prime-time series, which aired on BBC Two from 7th April to 12th May 2010, is presented by interior designer Kathryn Rayward […]

Exciting New Ceramics & Glass Fair in London

I love a good fair, especially those run by Specialist Glass Fairs. The dynamic duo behind the rapidly expanding portfolio are delighted to announce an all-new fair to be held at Dulwich College in South London on Sunday 28th March. To be held in the beautiful and aptly Modernist style Christison Hall from 10.30am until […]

They’re still out there….

….bargains, I mean. Too often do I hear the moan that ‘There’s no point looking, everything that can be found has been found…’ Not true! Last month my glass collector friend Bob discovered this gem in his local charity shop in South London. Designed by Frank Thrower in 1967, and numbered ‘FT23′, it was part […]