Feeling blue

Apolgoises for lack of post yesterday wasn’t feeling so great. As for today I am feeling blue – the suns out and suddenly I want to summerise the house with splashes of yellow, blue and verdent green. Not that I can get the paint brush out and start taking out down pipe that will never happen but I think I want to inject summery hues, fling open the back doors and bake rosemary flat bread and pizza (my newest thing). I’ve posted a few images on my blue theme and I have to say this turquoise hue looks stunning with inky black glossy floors. Reality regrettably doesn’t enable me to bake and potter I have Christmas to think about, a new collection to design, a store to potter around in and alter and so on.

Adore the glossy floors – super sexy

Transitional areas

Have a bit of a problem with hallways and other such similar transitional spaces as often times they are the neglected, over looked and very dull. Mine included!  The key I’m thinking is not to treat them like a passage way and do all the things you would do in a normal room. Layer the lighting – think chandeliers, side lights, wall lights you know the thing. Your hallway sets the tone for the rest of your pad so its important to make it as wow as possible. Shelves are fab – the Ikea lacquered ones were genius (they doubled up as storage) although not sure they do any longer. If you layer such a shelf with artwork, mirrors and lighting it will create a super interesting tone and totally up your style ratings. Being a high traffic area of course flooring needs to be sturdy so not a beautifully woven merino rug then– god dam! I’m making a console for our hallway (did I say me I meant Graham – he is very behind schedule now I come to think of it) and then plonked on each end two of our new animal lights.  Weird maybe, boring certainly not!

A beautiful way of making a hallway stunning – vamp up the colour.

This pretty much nails it – super sweet and a charming little nook

If had the space I would panel the walls put up a couple of cute paintings and buy this chair. Heaven

One of Britains coolest interior designers

That’s moi you know – not that I want to bang on about it and brag and so forth but Stella Magazine (Sunday Telegraph) very kindly said as such so the hugest thank you to them. They also said the store was an edgy modern baroque wonderland so thank you again am totally totally delighted and flattered.

Now down to business we have a small problem in that my car has packed up again (clutch gone) and so I will be cycling to the store on a bike that’s prehistoric with a wicker basket that doesn’t stay on and dodgy brakes. Yikes! Which means I am late late late. So I have to leave you with a very short post today reconfirming what we were talking about last week. That very wondrous subject of moving furniture away from walls. If you need anymore convincing then check this out.

PS sorry I didn’t get round to shooting the moose I know I have a number of requests so please forgive – its was a gloriously sunny weekend and nearly a whole one without working just pottering, cooking and playing house.

Creating the illusion of space

We all want more space even if we have oodles of space we want rooms to look bigger, grander and super cool. Well my friends there are some tricks of the trade that can make even the weeniest of spaces appear larger than they possibly are. First up hide your boundaries and stop please stop shoving furniture against walls aka doctors/ dentists waiting rooms.  We need to trick the eye so it can’t automatically read the size of the space so by bringing furniture away from walls your space will feel way bigger. This helps generate movement, or flow in designer lingo and very soon you will all my emailing me to say how clever I am!

PROMISE

Next up vary the scale- this really does work I am a case in point. I have designed my outdoor terrace to appear like another room. Extra large out door chairs (black of course) sit alongside bijou occasional tables all presided over by a life-size cruelty free moose which doubles up as a light. This dotting the odd super sized or teeny piece graciously around the place means that these objects hold that area and create a far more interesting perspective than if everything were one size.See easy peasy as they say.

Happy Friday everyone I am off to a breakfast meeting to discuss Christmas – yikes its that time already.

Moving furniture away from walls adds interest, intrigue and movement.

Plus its way more interesting

Wish list

With Spring very much in the air (its the most heavenly day in London – sun out, birds yabbering my wild grass scented candle burning slowly away) and I am thinking paint palettes. Not your average Spring paint palette rather a sludgy background with shots of colour. I am planning on changing one of our rooms – have been planning for decades it seems but I feel like a change. Once I’ve nailed the colour for the surfaces everything else should fall into place. Am thinking about black (yes yes I know its dark but I am getting rather obsessed by this hue) especially when you add to the mix splashes of red and lots of pattern. I don’t want an oriental feel rather a witty, informal, eclectic aladins cave of gorgeousness. That’s my plan and below are some inspirational images I have flagged.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Another obsession – kelims this image makes me want to jump on a plane to Istanbul wander the souks and go buy one.

By the way a big thank you to Elle Decoration this month who has featured our new fake flowers and called them cool.

Told you so!

Nooks and crannies

This month’s Livingetc has  a fab feature all about alcoves and how to work them into your scheme. Living in a Victorian house with fireplaces in every room I have alcove galore going on. My opinion (yes I know I rarely have opinions)! they shouldn’t be left unadorned. This doesn’t mean you have to layer them with mags like the image below you could instead make them way more gallery esq. by boxing them out so that they look more bespoke. Or as I have done in some rooms ditch the shelves completely and instead layer the walls with sidelights and quirky tables.  Magic will happen if you look upon these sweet little nooks like a vignette and dress them as such. I can’t recall who said ‘good taste is amazing, bad taste fabulous its no taste that’s hideous’ or something along those lines. I hate to sound like a broken record but no one is going to remember or want to visit a beige haze off blandness so if you paint them a dark smoky hue all the better.

Super libray esq – at home I have magazines stacked both ways so in piles as well as above which makes it a smidge more interesting I think!

Photography Mads Mogensen

My old office before Graham joined the business and starting messing it all up! For my sanity I moved out and he moved in so needless to say its not looking quite so lovely under his ownership. My new office though is beyond gorgeous and far bigger so as Martha Stewart would say ‘its a good thing’

Spring, Grazia & Flowers

It is a beautiful day in London with the air heavy with the scent of spring. Typical that as everyone goes back to work after the easter break and the sun shines. Hey ho. Saturday was the first in our  free style clinic that we are running (first Sat in each month, appointments essential) and I have to say it was great meeting everyone and helping (I hope) come up with interesting solutions for their spaces. Its fantastic that so many people are into creating spaces that are personal, unique and full to the brim of interesting stuff. Talking of interesting stuff we cannot keep up with the demand on our faux flowers flew out of the store like hot cakes over the weekend. More arriving this week including lilac, vanda, peonies and hydranger oh and we will sooner rather than later put them on line for all of you not able to get to the store. Meanwhile I leave you the latest image of our faux’s taken by the fabulous Mr Graham Atkins Hughes.

Oh and Grazia have just published my sister’s pad which looks glorious – its out today. Taken I might add before the fakes came in otherwise I can guarantee she would have sneaked a load home!