Still life style by Holly Farrell

Chair by Holly Farrell

Toronto-based artist Holly Farrell creates painted still lifes which elevate seemingly mundane subjects into meditations on the objects we use every day. We speak to Farrell about her career to date, inspirations, and choice of subject matter.

HBL Book of the Week: Backyard Oasis

Hockney Painted This Pool, 1980 by Bill Owens, image via Another Mag

Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982 (Prestel, 2012) explores the changing meaning of these blue-green emblems of Californian culture from the end of the Second World War up until the status-driven 1980s, taking in a golden age of Hollywood along the way.

21st Century Romance at Rough Luxe

Rough Luxe in Kings Cross, London is a perfect example of our autumn/winter 2013/14 macro trend, 21st Century Romance: in each space throughout the hotel, contemporary craftsmanship sits together with distressed design.

Alessi launches lighting collection

Amanita by Fernando and Humberto Campana for Alessi

Italian design brand Alessi will launch its very first lighting pieces as part of its spring/summer 2012 collection. One of the highlights is the return of Fernado and Humberto Campana to the brand's catalogue with Amanita, a handcrafted rattan table lamp.

VanDusen Botanical Garden opens in Vancouver

The brand new VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre in Vancouver, Canada, has opened to the public. The green building was designed by firm Perkins+Will, and includes green features like a lush green roof and towering solar chimney, which exhausts hot air. The botanical centre has green features above and beyond most current day buildings and is striving for net-zero emissions and the Living Building Challenge — the most stringent measurement of sustainability in the built environment.

Tokujin Yoshioka: Creator of the Year

Earlier this month, we reported on Tokujin Yoshioka's new status as Maison & Objet's Creator of the Year 2012 and his corresponding exhibition Crystallized Project, which he describes as a reflection of the "relationship between the power of nature and human beings."

The video above shows the exhibition in more detail; to see more of the showcase, subscribers can read our full report from Maison & Objet.

London guide: Dumplings at Mishkin’s & the keys to Apartment 58

Mishkin's, London; image via Restaurant Gossip

This spring, our in-the-know guide to London highlights a homely new member's club and the latest New York-style eatery to make waves.

Every season we seem to highlight a new bar or restaurant from Russell Norman and Richard Beatty (Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino), a duo who have struck on a winning formula of upscale hipster eateries with low-key atmospheres. New to their stable is Mishkin’s, a slick take on a Jewish-American New York deli, which is just as stylish and popular as its stablemates.

Yayoi Kusama at Louis Vuitton's New Bond Street Maison

Renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has curated a display for Louis Vuitton's New Bond Street maison. A series of works on show, including Soaring Spirits (2008) and Stars in the Universe (2011), explore Kusama's interest in illusion and disorientation, while a pair of flower obsession films are also on display. Subscribers can see how Kusama's work feeds into a wider trend in interiors in our recent report.

Plinio il Giovane at Salone del Mobile 2012

There are three key words for the new collection that Italian brand Plinio il Giovane will present at the Salone del Mobile 2012. New products will be agile, lightweight and environmentally friendly; inspired by the nomadic life of modern times, which requires furniture that is versatile and easy to carry.

HBL Blog of the Week: Taste of Runway

Taste of Runway links food to fashion, with dishes that are creatively put together to resemble an outfit hot off the catwalk. Italian founder Miranda describes the blog as "a story of happiness, between an outfit and a recipe".

Blind Passengers by Julian Appelius and Karen Olze

Designed by Julian Appelius and Karen Olze and produced by muse.creativ industries, Blind Passengers is a collection of tongue-in-cheek car window shades adorned with some of the most famous faces in the history of art.

We Make Carpets: Consumer culture flooring

Clean Carpet by We Make Carpets

Staple carpet

Dutch design studio We Make Carpets' latest works build on their signature "contemporary temporary" philosophy for flooring, which sees full-scale carpets made from ephemeral materials including pasta, cotton wool buds and plasters.