Brit Decor: Explores/ Kew Gardens

All Images / Copyright Mike Ahern

Shameful confession alert: It's not often that I get to spend quality time with my partner, Simon, but after an incredible week together in Vienna, we having been doing our best to set aside quality non-work time together. We've found that the best way to achieve this is to step aside from home-life and it's associated routines whenever we can, and go discover new places.

High on my checklist for many years, astonishingly it has taken me the long to make it to the world-famous Royal Botanic Kew Gardens in London. One of my many architectural icons has to be the incredible Victorian wonder that is the Palm House at Kew with it's elegant curves and condensation - no wonder it's one of the world's most important surviving Victorian iron and glass structures. This glass-house is epic and so are some of its inhabitants...

If like me you are a fan of foliage, there are some VIP specimens housed at Kew. I love the relationship between plants and manmade structures, with the latter throwing organic architectural shapes, or vogueing perhaps?

As always, I did manage to squeeze some work into our visit to Kew, as I spent time thinking about the relationship between the lush array of green foliage and colour-popping flora, with the current trend for houseplants and foliage-inspired decor. I also couldn't resist popping together this leafy shopping palette to bring a little piece of Kew home.

Have you been to Kew - what did you think?

1/ Banana leaf wall mural £229.15 Etsy 2/ Panama wallpaper £28 Wallpaper Direct 3/ Maury vase £20 Habitat 4/ Vintage 1970's wallpaper £13.52 Etsy 5/ Florentine tile by Neisha Crosland £10.98 Fired Earth 6/ Little Greene's 'Garden' (no.86) matt emulsion from £4 Go Wallpaper 7/ Cactus mural £189.03 Etsy