Layering

Morning – it’s beyond early 6.30 actually which means I should be heading off to the gym to pound the treadmill but I worked 17 hours yesterday came home ordered take out and drank wine and am now paying the consequences – feel like an enormous lump.

Am off to Bluebird in a shortly for my weekly walk through and re-stock and then the day gets beyond crazy – oh and its my husbands birthday and I haven’t gotten a thing – no cake no present no champagne. I thought of buying him a fab lamp for our new library but then my inner voice snuck in (beyond annoying) telling me I always buy him things I actually want for the house – YIKES. So this time I will buy him something he wants and Maud my puppy can buy him the lamp –brilliant then we are both happy!

The library doesn’t exist quite yet its in progress as they say – but the key to making this room work, in fact the key to making any roomwork is all in the detail. Its all about creating layers which in turn prevents rooms from looking to regimented. So for an individualtotally unique look forget a rigid scheme – instead go disjointed and out of kilter. Don’t match, don’t worry about symmetry just make surethere are enough gentle rhythms to take your eye from one arrangement to the next. Allow stand alone pieces to breathe and mix everythingelse up – that’s layering in a nutshell. Have fun  x

Layering done well from the little grouping on the floor to the more structured shelves.

Sweet sweet layering – it looks easy and it is if you start with one small piece like the little table and then build up.

 

Rugs – tres chic and bang on trend

I am on the hunt for a rug – to go in our new library which hasn’t yet been built (its still as they say in the planning stage). The desk that I have been coveting for what feels like all my life is too darn big. My plan to build an extension thereby resolving the problem – husband not so on board with that one unfortunately!

So I need to source another desk and with that of course a rug. Rugs are hard to get right.  I have had no problem with the lower ground floor, a Jonathan Adler zeebra rugs skims our concrete floor and nestles  up to a beautiful hand woven merino wool rug.  Upstairs though I want a grown up gentleman’s club vibe, where I sip whisky, light fires play some jazz and pretend to work. I’m thinking I need something with pattern to break up some of the solid colour but then I am always drawn to blocks of colour. Then there is all that thinking about how one space relates to another – the cohesion of the rug to the exisiting furniture and so on and so on. Decisions, decisions

Some possibilities I am considering below:

Love the palette, love the rug – its  grown up and its beautiful.

Again love love love the palette and love the funky rug. The rug is from the Rug Company and it was shot at my friends house (the photographer Graham Atkins Hughes  and his wife Jo). The most stylish couple on the planet I must say and whats more I can’t copy so back to the drawing board I go!

Question

Question – is it to early to pour my husband a glass of wine, bake him he’s favourite cake and make my case for a desk we just have to have. Its wrapped in leather with the base crafted from old suitcases. It breaks every budget there is but would be beyond perfect for our new library.

Plus to help my case I did some calculations.  If as I am intending to do live to 100 when you divide the price by the amount of years I have left its vertially nothing! Its currently residing at Bluebird and every time I go to stock our concession there I give it a little pat and tell it it will soon be home. So beautiful is this desk that it literally stopped me in my tracks, made me dizzy made my heart beat so fast I thought I was going to die!. As Rachel Zoe would say it knocks everything else out of the park.

We have the day off today, Maud is off to her new school for a few hours and we are off to Ikea to buy a few bits and bobs. We may or may not be speaking depending on how it goes on the desk front – but I wanted to show you how fabulously you can make something from Ikea look beyond gorgeous.  Marie Claire Maison (super fabulous French interiors mag) shot my sisters and her boyfriends apartment beautifully (it appears in their current issue) and one of my favourite shots is of their Ikea floating shelf and our bookcase wallpaper. It just goes to show that you don’t need to spend tons of money to get a totally unique, fabulous look. Obvioulsy when it comes to my desk this argument does not apply – OK – normally it does – today it doesn’t!

A floating lacquer shelf from Ikea looks super cool against our bookcase wallpaper. Prints and quirky finds from flea markets add to the eclectic vibe – love love love it.

My Festive Life

Hugest thank you to Livingetc for featuring me in their December issue yabbering about all things festive. Its a fab issue jam packed with fabulous festive ideas – am feeling very Christmassy indeed. If I could buy my tree now I would!

Its a short post today – am off to Bluebird at this very early hour  (our new concession) for a walk through and a stock take and then stuck in meetings for the rest of the day. Yikes I want to make Christmas cakes and decorate the house instead!.

Animal Chic

I think I am getting a little obsessed – obsessed with dogs that is. Our new range of lighting (still in production I hate to say) is a tongue in cheek collection of dog lights. Its amazing how having an animal inspired product in your home immediately lightens the mood and turns it from plain to playful in a nano second. That doesn’t just have to have be lights of course both Jonathan Adler and Kelly Wearstler are huge fans of placing animals throughout their installations (see below).

Its amazing how an interior that is relatively straight laced gets a big dose of playfulness with the presence of the lifesize dog. Love it – now I just need a piano to put him on and I’m there.

Of course real life ones add oodles of character too here is my dog – taken by the fabulous photographer Ray Man who was shooting my house on Monday for  the Times Magazine.

Excuse her wet beard – she had just returned from her first morning at school and was gasping!

Apologises

One thousand apologises for the lack of posts recently my schedule is becoming more and more frantic and whilst I will try my upmost to post most days with the holidays fast approaching and it being our craziest time of year – there might be a few gaps here and there.

Yesterday I spent the most delightful day with a team from the Times Newspaper – they were photographing me preparing my house for entertaining and the holidays – the feature comes out  in the Saturday Times magazine on the 21st of this month – so hugely excited about that.Maud (my puppy who had been been to school in the morning – it was her first day) was beyond good and modelled beautifully!  Now that I am very much in the holiday spirit I have started to think about place settings since we are hosting Christmas this year. Of course one need look no further than the queen of entertaining Ms Martha Stewart to see some of her fun ideas – I am deliberating between going fun and funky with the settings or glamorous and grown up – oh what to do – decisions, decisions.

Simple, super glam and quite beautiful

OR

Funky and fun, sweet and cute!