An occasional guest writer here on decor8, you may best know Anh-Minh Le as the Bay area Co-Editor for Apartment Therapy San Francisco. Over the past few years I've grown to really like this lady -- she's smart, a great writer, and the girl has a serious travel bug so I love learning about some of her adventures. She just got back from London and asked if she could pull together a little post for decor8 documenting her journey from shop to shop and I couldn't refuse! I'll let Anh-Minh take it from here...

Let's Shop London By: Anh-Minh Le

Seriously, I don?t know if a morning in London could get more perfect than this:

Breakfast at Tom?s Kitchen (a late-ish breakfast, that is, since I was on vacation afterall!); A stroll down the block to Cath Kidston?s Chelsea location; Crossing the street to check out the goods at Neisha Crosland?s shop; Making my way over to The Conran Shop in the Michelin Building; Walking the short distance to Few and Far (which is owned by Terence Conran?s sister, Priscilla Carluccio); And, finally, oohing and aahing at all the lovely things at the Designers Guild store on King?s Road.

There was so much good design eye-candy, I just had to share! So here goes ?

Cath Kidston
Don?t let the small storefront of Kidston?s Chelsea outpost fool you: There?s plenty of wares inside, upstairs and in the larger downstairs space. I had to show some restraint here, since my suitcase didn?t have much room to spare. But I couldn?t leave London without a proper tea cosy, right?

Neisha Crosland
I am in awe of her work. Seriously, if the U.S. dollar wasn?t so weak ? and my husband wasn?t keeping a careful eye on me ? I think I would have walked out of the store with rolls and rolls of fabric and wallpaper. Although you can purchase some of her designs online at Fabrics and Papers, I haven?t spotted her pillows and lampshades anywhere else. Tip: There are goods stocked in every nook and cranny of this small shop. I spied some very cool pillows on sale, as well as a stack of remnant fabrics. The cheapest piece was ?5 and was enough to sew together your own pillow. Not such a bad deal.

The Conran Shop
The outdoor living collection recently launched here, so the display in the entry was pretty and colorful. Very spring/summer!

Few and Far
How cool is this: Carluccio opened this store just this February ? and she?s in her 70s. According to a Daily Candy write-up on the place, she ?has been a driving force behind The Conran Shop and Habitat stores for years ? Find trinkets for the home alongside jewelery, handmade clothing, vintage toys, quirky stationery, scented candles, baskets, hand-blown glass and silk flowers, all of which are offered in limited quantities.? And the people working there? They were as nice as can be, even offering us complimentary espressos.

Designers Guild
One of the things I love best about this store is how Tricia Guild has taken iconic pieces of furniture and updated them with her gorgeous textiles. By the way, this is one of those shops where you?ll want to spend quite a bit of time ? going up and down the stairs, in and out of every room, over and over again ? to make sure you didn?t miss anything.

And that concludes my mini-virtual tour of some of the shops I visited during my recent trip to London! - Anh-Minh Le.

(photography: Anh-Minh Le.)