Liberty London

Last weekend I had the opportunity to *finally* visit Liberty. I know it was very overdue especially that almost every English crafty friend I had recommended it. Liberty was tucked away from the main street, which makes it more of a destination. The shop was established in 1875 by Arthur Liberty. After the great success it was received with, this current Tudor style building was completed in the 1920s. It was designed by Edwin T. Hall and his son Edwin S. Hall and constructed from the timber of two ships: HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan. You can clearly see all of this in the facade. Read more about the history on the Liberty's main website.  

There are few doors to Liberty and my favourite one was the florist front. The flowers were colourful and smelled so good. 

and you go in and see more arrangement choices and lovely flower pots and bits. 

The interior design of the place is as magnificent as the architecture, especially with the quadruple open ceiling that ends with a glass roof that brings a lot of natural light. The style of balconies on each floor of the four floors makes the whole store interconnected. 

The design and the divisions of spaces are symmetrical and angular. 

There are many subsections for all the different available categories from fashion, accessories, stationary, home ware, furniture to everything in between.    

Below is my favourite shot, when the elevator opened and had a second to click. It really felt like Liberty is an open door to fashion. 

I loved the lights that were dangling from the fourth floor to the ground floor. It gave an urban feel to the historic space. 

The building was designed to have three main wells and each one will have smaller surrounding rooms to give a homey feel to the visitors. The other well area had these beautiful crystal chandeliers.  

The ground floor of accessories and stationery was fabulous and tempting was hard to escape the sparkle and all the little goodies. The third and fourth floors were decor, furniture, cookery and interior design accessories. I have a special blog post about that, but take a little sneak peek!  

They also had a beautiful craft section with YARN! *my love* fabric, threads, buttons and more beautiful crafty things that I couldn't resist. 

Look at all the beautiful options!

All high quality and with lots of yummy colours!

Overall, Liberty was a lovely place to visit and to be inspired by. Highly recommended if you are visiting London. 

Victoria and Albert Museum

Happy Sunday All! 

Sundays are great to relax and to go around town. People are happy and everyone is mostly chilled out. I spent my Sunday with my friends at one of my favourite museums in London, The Victoria and Albert Museum (AKA V&A). This museum has collection from all over the world. It's known as a source for art, design and photography. Going there will give you a preview of the world's crafts and arts. Really worth a visit. *mashallah* Here are few pix I took on my visit today. There are more to see in person! :)

Entrance!

Glass sculpture over the reception area 

There were a lot of people drawing in this area

China!

Such a gorgeous tea set!

Middle East & Islamic Art:

A tea set from the muslim world!

Islamic patterns

I love the colours combo and the calligraphy 

More Islamic Patterns 

There was a massive Quran there!

Persian Carpet! It was HUGE! this is just a little part of it

The Garden: 

The weather was gorgeous! super windy, but lovely. Perfect for a quick garden stroll. 

The Bookstore: 

There were so many wonderful books there. I wanted them all! 

The Cafe: 

I love the inside part of their cafe. It's so gorgeous!
A mix of contemporary and traditional. 

Make sure you go visit! 

Al Bustan Palace, The Ritz, Muscat

Last summer, I decided to discover the gulf. I lived most of my life in Saudi, but every time I travelled I went far away. The gulf all felt very similar, but then I went to Oman and that changed my whole view. It is a very beautiful country and more developed than Saudi, but quieter than UAE. The first time I went to Muscat, I stayed at the Ritz (Al Bustan Palace) and I really LOVED it!

Welcome!

The Lobby: 
The hotel lobby was so grand! The staff welcomed me with Arabic coffee and lovely orange dates

Grand and beautiful

I loved the patterns on the floor, on the walls and the ceiling. The attention to details in the lobby made it look immaculate. The style of the hotel was based on traditional Islamic architecture with a contemporary twist of using plain marble in most of the floorings.

The touch of gold in some of the accessories gave the hotel a luxurious feel

The chandeliers were placed at different heights, which changed the lighting levels and gave a powerful impacts in some areas.

The fountain was a nice touch, but didn't make any spacial change 

The Room: 
The room was really nice with a mountain view. I loved the bathroom and the deep comfy bathtub. The ambiance in the room was classy and the decor was well thought of.

The sitting area

The mountain view from the room

The bed. Look at the details on the side and top panels.  

The funny thing is if you don't put the "don't disturb" sign the cleaning staff will keep coming and clean the room! One day they came about four times and did the bed.

The bed during the day had more cushions.  

I liked that even the bathroom decor was considered. These touches of adding a mirror with borders and a small crystal side lamp really makes all the difference.

The Breakfast: 

After a restful beautiful night in the room, you are welcomed to a wonderful breakfast that has so many options. The staff were very friendly, polite and helpful. The view from the breakfast buffet is gorgeous. I think I spent nearly two hours there trying all kinds of food! They had Eastern and Western options. The design of the buffet was ergonomic and had touches of Omani traditions through the woven baskets and the colour choices. 

The start of the buffet. Notice all the milk options!

Fresh and ready cut fruits. Amazing. 

breads and muffins! YUM!

The pool and beach view from the breakfast buffet

The Beach: 
The hotel outside grounds were gorgeous with a wonderful pool and a private hotel beach. This hotel is the perfect spot to relax and to chill on the beach.

Note: I have taken all these pictures myself and all the rights are reserved to me. If you would like to use any of the pictures, please mention www.designeresra.com as a source.