Author: Justine Harvey

Clare Nicolson’s combinations of birds and vintage fabrics will be familiar to regular readers as we’ve featured her products before.

This Pretty Peacock Cushion has all her signature elements; a digital print of a peacock that looks to be made from vintage floral material, a contrasting background and the reverse of the cushion made from vintage fabric. The design uses big daisy prints and a mixture of brown, orange, pink and yellows to add to the retro appeal.

The square cushion measures 14 inches and is supplied with a cushion insert, priced £40. Buy online from Clare Nicolson’s website.

From the company that brought us the Pantone products, the latest series from Whitbread Wilkinson is the Striped Collection.

This retro-inspired collection consists of mugs, teapot, coffee pot, sugar pot, creamer and espresso cups, all decorated with a bold striped pattern in a rainbow of colours. The items are available to buy individually with prices starting at £9 for a mug up to £39 for the coffee pot. Or you can buy the whole family of striped products (12 items in all) for £130.

Buy online from the W2 website.

Heraldic Needlepoint has a great range of Austerity Era Cushions, which take images from posters issued by various departments of the British Government during previous periods of austerity, which may be equally relevant in these times.

These do include the now (over) familiar Keep Calm and Carry On and the well known Dig for Victory, but there are also a series of designs about feeding waste to pigs and hens and several on the “Make Do and Mend” sentiment. My favourite is the one with the warning that “To Dress Extravagantly in War time is Worse than Bad Form, It is Unpatriotic”.

The cushions all cost £34.99 and are available to buy from Heraldic Needlepoint.