No time for yabbering or chewing the fat this morning regrettably, time as they say is of the essence. Its a little past 5.30am and I have to be out the door at 6.00 (off to the dreaded bikram miserable yoga for a full 90 minutes). So I can’t tell you stuff like how Mung’s and I found the coolest cafe serving the best coffee on Kingsland Road on one of our afternoon pottering’s, or how I learnt by watching Chelsea on the TV last night that you can buy whole flats of meadow grass rather than bothering with sewing seeds and waiting for the wild flowers to grow, fabulous no?
Straight down to business then, I wanted to show you guys today that creating a house you love takes time. You can’t just pop along to one store in my book buy it all up and wham bam instant cool eclectic pad. It has to grow with you, you have to rattle around in it a tad in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t. In all my years of looking at interiors the ones that stand out and are the most memorable are those that juggle vintage with modern, spontaneity with rigor, coupled with the odd tongue in cheek find. They don’t fit in, they push boundaries and stand out.
I didn’t start off with my house looking this way, we moved in painted the whole thing white and lived like that for a good few years until it no longer seemed quite good enough. Too easy, a little simple, I wasn’t taking any risks, pushing boundaries. There was nothing wrong with it and yet it didn’t make me happy. I felt indifferent walking through the door, now my spirits raise and my heart skips a beat no matter what time I walk through the door.
So we’ve gone from this
To this.
It takes time, if I were to give one piece of advice it would be to come out of your comfort zone, think slightly differently about colour, pattern, form, and scale and push yourself creatively. Creating a memorable interior takes a certain amount of confidence, you will along the way fail at some point. The trick is to not be put off, to keep pushing that envelope, and once you’ve got one room right all the rest will follow.
Happy Thursday
i agree completely! please don’t think me rude for saying, but after i watched your recent tv series something started to niggle at me about why i wasn’t loving some of the rooms as much as i had so wanted to (as i generally am quite gaga over so many of the spaces you create)… & it came down to this: i don’t think the rushed format did your particular style any justice… throwing rooms together in such a short period of time rarely produces spaces as beautifully curated as your own home… what i’d love to see you do is a show (like, and bear with me here, kirstie allsopp’s homemade home) where you curate one home over a series of shows… slowly adding layer upon layer… i’d love to watch you scouring markets and auction rooms, breathing new life into pre-loved furniture with a trip down to the car shop for some glossy paint, or nail gunning killim remnants to staircases… a bit like having your book brought to life!!! now that would be amazing! having said all of this, i think your design school room looks absolutely breathtaking, and that was done in a week… so maybe i’m talking completely out of my bottom… but there you go… random thoughts for a thursday! sue