Creating a great bathroom

How to create a fab bathroom without it costing the earth thats gutsy, a tad offbeat but also a seductive antechamber to preen and relax.

Paint plays a huge part in transforming a room – deep sumptuous hues will give the room an edge by establishing a visual identity that just shouts sophisication. Taps, baths and basins can all be brought relatively  inexpensively from reclamation yards – the real key is to keep it simple with clever little touches – such as whimisical drawer pulls that update cabinets – unusual lighting, a rug – anything in fact that could be at home in your living room. This is a fab way of connecting your bathroom to the rest of your house – instead of making it a clinical space devoid of character and life.

Jenna Lyons has created my all time favourite bathroom I am seriously considering repainting mine and starting again. It has that hotel luxe feel (see below) yet feels modern, but rustic at the same time. Very very jealous – infact if I wasn’t reworking another room right now I would be painting my bathroom walls deepest darkest black.

Love the herringbone floor, love the sumptuous black paint, love the brass fittings and rustic plaster walls – perfect, perfect retreat!

A clever idea to create a beautiful little antechamber by having the bedroom flowing into the bathroom. Its so simple and yet is feels so luxurious.

Meet Maud

The first afternoon Maud arrived she jumped on our george smith sofa (a cashmere/mohair blend I might add) and fell instantly asleep as so. This is her favourite spot.  Having never been inside before I was flabbergasted just how instantly she made herself at home!

Get cosy

With Autumn fast approaching I am thinking about cosying up my space, softening my rooms with rugs and heaps of cushions. I kind of love winter -those saucepan lid soft grey skies, roaring fires, soft lighting, tons of candles, a yummy stew on the stove, a ramble over hyde park with all the leaves on the grass – fabulous! A weekend spent pulling all our winter stuff out of the loft and layering it around the space is my idea of heaven!

The image below took my fancy because although white is not a colour I would not normally endorse this living room looks beautifully cosy, with its tempting textures. It feels lived in and loved and  just because winter is round the corner it doesn’t mean you have to stick to somber colours.  The curvy chair and lamp softens the hard edges of the room and the rug looks perfect for snuggling toes. Maud (my new puppy) would go bananas over this rug – talking of which apologies for the late posting today – I had forgotten how crazy life is with a new puppy. She is currently snoozing and I am creeping around the place so as not to disturb – yikes!

Private Spaces

A nook of one’s own to hideaway and rejuvenate from the rest of the world is pivotal for me. Hobbies are a thing of the past so no sipping whisky and knitting I hate to say but I have started taking time to call one spot my very own and take time out to flick through magazines, work on ideas or search for remote houses in Italy and Wales that I fantasize about living in (sorry honey haven’t mentioned that idea yet)!

My nook is not a very big space – a comfy chair, big old lamp, piles of mags and other stuff transform my little corner into a very private nook.  Came across a great quote from Lewis Carrol ‘Who in the world am I. Ah, that is the great puzzle” Retiring to my nook to figure it out – may well be a while!

I’m liking this nook– I so want  to snuggle up with a cup of tea, my magazines and Maud my new puppy – although she is into eating magazines at the moment  (as well as throws and sofas the list is quite endless) so I will imagine it instead.

Tear sheets & kids drawings turn a boring white wall into something truly personal and intriguing. Its intimate it oozes personality and the emphasis is on individuality. A perfect little nook.

Photograph Polly Eltes

This is my nook – my bookcase wallpaper transforms a difficult wall by cozening it up – a big old chair or love seat as it is called gives me plenty of room for lounging and although hugely edited for this particular shoot, magazines, books, postcards abound on an old lump of wood around the corner and add layers.

Home is where the heart is

Slightly obsessed by book shelves these days since returning from the fabulous store Merci in Paris. I absolutely adore how shelves give immediate atmosphere to any space. Below is a detail of Johnson Hartig’s LA pad (huge fan) – he balances formal with playful (yay). It’s the hardest decorating trick to achieve – stuffy or minimal rooms with no notes of unconventionality are extremely dull, don’t excite the imagination and I have to say make me want to instantly leave!

Its not hard this ‘bad boy way of decorating’ – its just you have to think a little harder. Think bold, blingy and fabulous and you are half way there!

Love love love the dogs, love the art hanging in the middle of the shelves its a little out off radar but that’s what makes it so totally fabulous.

Far more conservative and grown up is the fabulous image below of a fairly unobtrusive corridor which has been given an interesting embellishment. It’s a little too grown up for me but I am very much inspired by the idea and am thinking of doing something very similar in my hallway. My images might be a little different – think of a painting of a 19^th century gentleman given a pop art twist and proclaiming such fab words  “thou shall always keep thy perm in tip top condition”! But totally loving the idea of a gallery in a hallway or entryway – I want to linger, examine be taunted and inspired – and all of this is such a transient space– genius!

Rugs

Rugs absolutely love them – skimming the floor and completely changing the dynamic of a space creating cosy nooks of loveliness. I am changing one of the rooms in my house to a library and am on the search for a fabulous area rug to anchor the space. Not being a fan of carpets I look upon rugs as one of the fastest and simplest design elements around to totally revitalize the existing scheme. The question is do I want contemporary, Persian, Indian, geometric the list is endless. Below is a board I thru together of some of the rugs that have taken my fancy plus was trawling thru Anthropologies website and their  rugs are fabulous and inexpenisve! I would post some but we have just gotten a new puppy and she is gnawing at my feet and we are late for a vet’s appointment!

80s motel style – back with a bang!

Never thought in a million years I would be endorsing this – but hey I must say I saluteMs Wearstler and how she manages so effortlessly to create a room that very much looks like a throw back from a miserable motel of the 80’s and yet by god its stylish and I kind of like it. Believe me it’s a tough one to pull together a multitude of different patterns which sit side by side cohesively and should but don’t look whacky.

The wallpaper she has used below would normally induce an instant migraine on my part, the very same with the headboard. On its own it’s so not my thing but yet the scheme has a unity to it without looking crazy.  Of course colour is the cohesive factor drawing on a unifying palette of raspberry and plum tones. And yes it may not be everyone’s cup of tea but this is what I love about design – it’s challenging, it’s spirited, it’s enriching and most importantly it’s individual.

Sneak Peak

We are opening in  The Shop at Bluebird in less than a month (yikes) and here is the sneakiest peak of what our collection will be looking like.

Paintings of 19 century gentleman proving that bad hair days are avoidable (yay), rabbits with some serious attitude and poodles cast from ceramic with light bulbs on their heads. Its a bold highly personal collection of things I love and I hope you do to. Its a trendy mix of home furnishings, whimisical, wonderful and very close to my heart. To me home is all about having a space that is comfy but filled with stuff that makes you smile – witty, sophisticated and a little bit tongue in cheek.

What could be better than coming home after a long day at work to this guy – love his exuberant hair and only wish mine looked like that! Painted by the super talented Russell Lewis this is the first in the series. Totally exclusive to us we  can’t wait to see more of his collection!

Rabbits with attitude that double up as a money boxes. LOVE them – so old school yet new school with a modern vibe.

We are a little animal mad here at Atelier as animals (so we believe) raise your spirits like nothing else. This little lady is playful, fun and the perfect side light. She’s still in her infancy but hopefully in a few weeks day will be making her debut in our new store.

Posh but approachable

Posh but approachable!  Kind of liking the sound of that as it very much epitomises my design ethos.  That and the fact that there are no rules,repeat no rules in interior design. Most of my best ideas are born out of risk and an utter conviction that they will work.  To all those builders out there who continually say ‘oh you’re not supposed to do that” I say ignore!. The results can be truly unbelievable – trust me!

To me design is about unexpectedly catching the eye – so that you are always doing something that is a little off radar – mixing up textures, materials, pieces from different periods and creating one dam sassy dialogue! Trust your instinct and cause some friction as friction dear friends makes everything  look way more interesting.

Graham Atkins Hughes

A pink blind skimming a kitchen window,  and gosh kitchen walls adorned with pictures  (super  galleryesq)- its these personal displays (the mismatched frames and images, the shot of unexpected colour ) that create this off radar look that I have been banging on about and that I SO love.

Graham Atkins Hughes

I have to use this image again because to me this exactly personifies what I am going on about. Who would think that putting a highly reflective pink (outside table) in a Victorian dining room would work. The whole space is brought alive by the glossiness of the flamboyant furniture and the super scale lamp. Its modern mixed in with traditional, its called decorating with drama and its gorgeous.

Get creative

Today’s thoughts centre on bookshelves. I am reworking a room in my home and turning it into a library or snug as I like to think of it – with floor to ceiling shelves lined with heavy tomes. The plan this winter is to sit by the fire on my little green tub chair (with a red Jielde light beside me which I haven’t brought yet) sipping whisky, reading and researching!

The thing is I’m quite fussy about how book shelves should look – yes those Ikea ones are fab if you just want a few – but I want floor to ceiling with cubby holes. On a recent trip to Paris I happened upon a truly inspirational store called Merci with just the very thing – see below.  What I love here is there is no ‘negative space’ no room for books to breath they all reside in very tight quarters and look beautiful. The tone they set is cosy, friendly, intimate and in designer lingo ‘aesthetically fabulous”.