By Samantha Hillman

Editor of D&D’s Sunday Paper

YOU ARE THE CABANA.  

This week's leisure letter is a rolling list of good things, inspired by the Medina print - which is sort of the like the all-rounder bracelet of zesty, FUNcation, here-I-am-hello outfits. Destined for bedside! Bath-side! Beachside! Poolside! It’s for men, for women, for kids. For you! Clean bright stripes. Enthusiastic brushstrokes. Who needs a cabana when you are the cabana?

Also, re brushstrokes, the kind that mesmerise: I have been utterly (BUT UTTERLY!) lost in the instagram of Robson Standard ever since Pandora Sykes had him in her This and Tat roundup. 

Our Subtly Tropulent Wall Sconce of the Week (a series that I just invented, like just then, featuring light fixtures that I can in no way actually afford) goes to: these opalescent pair of shells. 

And speaking of fancy beach houses and things to hypothetically furnish them with: everything from the New Zealand based Fourth Street Home is worthy of your attention, but an extra shout out goes to these dimpled ceramic vases and this speckled clay pitcher, in lapis blue.  

And speaking of water, being in it and near it, I just re-read this book by Leanne Shapton, itching for summer and places to swim. Have you read it? It’s not new, or anything, but it’s good! You should! She’s a painter who describes things like a painter would. To read it is to be in the pool with her, “tiled in dark yellow and green, the windows are high and let in a bright but milky light.” 

Heaven, no? I live for descriptions of water! And of colour! And of light! Amid a long list of sentences that have truly ruffled me (I keep an embarrassingly long list in my iphone notes) is this one from this book, re the sun and skies of Greece, “the light, the famous light, was not brighter than light anywhere else but softer, more delicate, like milk instead of cream, or real maple syrup tasted for the first time.” 

Ugh! Yes. If you planned on being on a Greek Island somewhere circa now, but can’t - because of, idk, everything -  that book is undoubtedly the next best thing. That, or a perfume that pays homage to that feeling of looking out an airplane window. 

But circling back colour, and descriptions of it, this series on peculiar hues, from russet to periwinkle, is an absolute treat to read. And if you, like me, buy multiple sample pots of paint with little to no idea about how to actually use them, might I direct you to the joyful mouldings of this Barcelona apartment?  

And lastly, just a really fun mug. 

Happy Sunday!