Masterclasses coming to NYC

Lots to talk about this morning, first up I’m off to NYC in about a months time  and have decided to hold some  masterclass out there, as we are continually asked to hold them Stateside. As my schedule is beyond crazy it may only be for just one day, still juggling things around in the diary (so places are very limited) but I shall keep you guys posted. It will be on a first come first serve basis but I will tweet, fb and post here all at the same time to give everyone a chance. Oh and its going to be at the Ace Hotel (amazing coffee, cool interior, everything that I love). Very exciting indeed.

Oh and big thank you for all the amazing feedback we got for last weekends masterclass, if I may here are a few quotes:

“As much inspiration as 1000 Elle Deco’s all crammed into 1 day”.

“Didn’t get much sleep as all the things we discussed were going round my head”.

“Thank you for letting us enjoy your staggering beautiful home”.

Thank you, flattered, delighted and surprised if I am honest at such fabulous responses.  AND its a two way thing its not just me up there yabbering we all pitch in and put out ideas, sources, dilemmas,  so I get as much from it as everyone else does.

Next up our latest product, the illustration table. I am a little obsessed with this I have to say. First up its super cool, arty, compact and totally rocking! I’ve plonked one in my bedroom see below.I wanted to actually put one in every room but that would delete stock way to much so for once I am being professional and leaving them in store!As a buyer I find tables one of the hardest things to purchase since so many of them are so boring, one of the reasons many of my tables are vintage old African drums. I want a table to be cool, then practical not just practical which goes for most things in this house if I am honest.

Again I should be at yoga, again I bailed. Maud and Mung’s were in top snuggling mood so we lay in bed in a sun beam baby talking! Nuts yep, who cares,  the sun is out today which makes everything alright.  After so much rain and miserable weather its a big tonic. . I’m half tempted to skip work and potter around the garden so much needs doing but I can’t. I want to, so I might, after a little bit of work, but then I’ll feel guilty as there is so much to do. Who knows I might sneek and potter and plonk the computer on a table near by. Dilemma’s dilemma’s.

Happy Wednesday xx

Keeping it Personal

We brought trees. Not many, even though I need a forest at the end of the garden just 3. Big bay trees with bushy untidy heads (not unlike my hair) which stand super tall, grow to over 12 meters and hopefully along with the jasmine will now do the trick. I won’t bore you anymore on the garden front, needless to say never rely on someone’s else’s planting as beautiful as it may be, always for ever more everything this side of the fence!

Lets talk design what’s great about it these days it that anything goes. I favor a silver pig hanging out on my landing, you might favor a painting. I plonk an acid yellow chair on a little rug on another landing outside my loo, you think I’m nuts and what’s the point – but hey each to our own. Colors, styles, art come into fashion and go again just as easily. Ignore all of that and follow your heart. It takes time to build up a collection of finds but if you follow your heart and not trends you can’t really go wrong. OK maybe sometimes you can, I have. Brought a 60’s coffee table not so long ago which I can’t make work no matter where I try to place it, and a flea market painting – again can’t make work no matter where I plonk it.

If you don’t fail you don’t get better its as simple as that. Below an image I found from US Vogue, a totally personal apartment that may not be my exact cup of tea but it feels loved and that really is the whole point. Who cares who likes it, if you do you’ve nailed it. What I do love is how traditional hangs out with edgy in this apartment which sort of  throws it off balance. I yabber all the time about this in the school, if you can add an off note, an animal, something kitsch, some zany colour you will find you’re knock your interior out of the park as Ms Rachel Zoe would say.  Its not easy but it is far cleverer  than having everything co-ordinated and balanced within an inch of itself.

I should be at yoga in 100 degree heat instead I had 2 beers last night and couldn’t stand the thought of that combination of heat and booze so feeling very disappointed in myself . Instead I’m going to make coffee and plan all the things that need to get achieved in the next 12 hours!

Oh and I’m certainly in NY end of June or beginning of July just trying to work out if I can swing a weekend of master classes into the schedule. Will keep you guys posted.

 

Thank you

Hugest thank you to all those that attended the classes at the Design School over the last 3 days, it was a amazing few days spending time with so many creative, passionate people and yabbering about design. We covered alot of stuff during the day but one of my favourite bits was yabbering about styling, be that a cool mantle, shelf, console, or tabletop. There are all sorts of rules and regulations of which I tend to ignore. All that stuff about having negative space between items so that they can breath, (rubbish) or symmetry (way too uptight for me). As I mentioned in the class the eclectic look is one of the hardest to pull off as nothing matches and yet everything has to make perfect sense. Pulling off say a rustic, or Scandinavian, or retro look is way easier as there is a very simple formula to follow. My kind of design pulls on every period, size and shape but (top top top tip) if you restrict the colour palette its so easy to pull off.  Back to my point (apologises for the distraction) when styling say a shelf you want to think about creating a vignette  that is as three dimensional as possible, by this I mean plonking things in front of things and not putting accessories in a straight line. First of all visually it’s more interesting, secondly you are consciously or subconsciously tantalising the eye so it doesn’t quite know where to look and therefore  your senses are activated, whether you realise it or not. Cool hey! I leave you with an image that has no negative space (the trick to this kind of styling is to introduce lots of different heights) therefore you are creating a lively rhythm. Oh and never have a whole load of stuff one end and a few bits and bobs another otherwise it will feel like a sinking ship.

Ok that’s me done, today at least half of today is a rest day. Some work this morning and then off to a bunch of garden centres this afternoon to sort out the terribleness of our back garden where the neighbours if you are listening neighbours chain sawed a 25 foot decades old wisteria so they could replace with a new straight fence, criminal! We’ve brought 10 three  metre high jasmine but its not tall enough I need instant, instant instant 25 feet planting to totally and utterly seclude us from the outside world. And I need to spend time with Mungo and Maud who were rather well behaved for the last few days and need a lot  of gallivanting at full speed around a park to let off some stream.

Happy Monday

 

Designing with attitude

Wow guys thank you yesterday for all your comments on classes. Retail and Finishing Touches are the leaders by far so they will certainly go onto the agenda along with dates. Give me a few weeks to write them up, figure out the presentation and formulate and shall post as soon as its done. Very excited plus the great thing about half day classes is , if you have the time you get to potter around my neighbourhood, there are some fab cafes and cool junk shops which I can tell you about.

OK so if it doesn’t stop raining then I’m up and moving. Cannot stand it any longer – Australia, America, France maybe. Somewhere warm where I can potter in the garden it’s spring after all. This evening I am being photographed in the garden no doubt looking windswept, wet and cold if this blasted weather front keeps up (we are supposedly in drought conditions), it’s driving me nuts!

Anyways lets move on and talk about something fun like accessories. I have a saying you may not be an extravert but your accessories should be. By adding the odd random crazy thing, something kitsch something animal inspired maybe you are throwing your interior off balance. That is a good thing not a bad thing, rooms co-ordinated to within an inch of themselves are an instant no no in my opinion. You will find me backing out the door with any old excuse to get out – Maud needs her pills and I forgot them, gotta dash (she’s not taking any), Mungs’s blood sugar is so low gotta dash and give him some food NOW (not true), that sort of excuse.

You don’t get an instant surge of serotonin if you play it safe with everything. Be safe with furniture and lighting if you like but with accessories take risks. Not too many we don’t want rooms to look crazy she says with a papier mache elephant and large plaster parrot sitting on her mantle piece. You get my drift right or am I droning on about the point too much?   I do that, people moan at me for not letting things drop. The other day I said to Graham ‘do you remember how cool that hydrangea looked in our well before you killed it by over watering! That was over a year ago but you know its worth pointing out every now and again, poor hydrangea!

Pictures below taken by the fabulous Mr Todd Selby:

This is what I am talking about, perhaps its a little crazy but its fun and it makes you smile.

It might not be your cup of tea, or even totally my cup of tea but the point is the people that live here love their space. You get that feeling the minute you lay your eyes on the images and that dear friends is what I am talking about.

Question

We are thinking of running some more courses over at the Design School as they are proving rather popular so I came up with the following, listed below. What do you guys think? Some of these will run for half days over the weekend so far on fb Retail and Finishing Touches are ahead.

Supermarket Surprise – how to turn your pad into a super cool abode by buying stuff off the shelf. 1/2 Day

Retail class. `imparting all my knowledge, tricks of the trade, insider advice about how to launch your own retail business 1/2 Day

Short Cuts to Decorating – how to turn your pad from ordinary to extraordinary in no time.

Finishing Touches – Accessories are the 5 minute facelift of the decorating world. Learn how to accessorize and layer with attitude

Entertaining 1/2 Day. Wow friends, family or colleagues with innovative flower arrangements and some unique super cool tips.

A wedding in Sierra Leone

Our flowers have gone all over the world, I kid you not.  The British Embassy in the Vatican, wineries in California, A list Hollywood celebs, yachts in the Med and just recently to Sierra Leone for a wedding, Khadijat and Hammed’s wedding no less.

Yesterday was a long tough day until that is news of this amazing wedding popped up in my inbox and took my breath away. Due to the heat the couple wanted artificial flowers so all the men wore gelda in their button holes, the bridesmaids clutched big blousy bunches of hydrangea’s and the beautiful bride a cluster of our roses. Amazing to think of our flowers all that way out there looking stunning at this beautiful wedding, more images of the wedding can be seen here.  I was so proud, to think that an idea a year or so ago to house a fake flower shop in store has taken off so amazingly its incredible. We’ve had such an amazing response from our customers and press alike. To be called the Chanel of Faux Flowers by Red Magazine is a huge highlight.

My point in a very rambling way is this. If you have an idea and believe in it, ignore the people that laugh and tell you it will never work, follow your gut. As women I think we self-doubt more than men, I did, and I still do. Forever I am thinking things are never good enough, never quite right but time has taught me to follow my heart. It doesn’t always work out and I fail often but if you have a dream and believe in that dream you can make it happen. It just takes time and patience (something I am very short of) and a belief in yourself, just you, no one else.

I’m off to make coffee this is sounding like a self-help blog God knows what’s gotten into me today!

 

 

 

Ditching snobbery

I brought a geranium.

Does this mean:

a) middle aged has set in big time

or

b) I’m going with this one by the way, I’m ditching the snobbery attached to them and embracing them.

I should point out that I’ve only brought white, haven’t plonked them in a hanging basket and multi planted them with red ones – that is bordering on criminal, but that goes for any flower, red and white are a bad combo please pay attention Supermarkets and DIY stores! Instead in a big zinc pot I’ve planted mine right near the outdoor fireplace and I kind of like it.

A very tough gardening weekend has just passed can hardly move, putting up a fence and planting 10 jasmine doesn’t sound like a very big  job, except where we wanted to plant had a concrete slab underneath  that had to be sledge hammered out. The fence isn’t exactly state of the art, some orange hideous cheap thing from Travis P that we had to walk home as the bloody Merc has broken down again. Dragging huge fencing panels home for the record is not my idea of fun and of course I couldn’t wait for them to be delivered but that is neither here or there.  I thought the jasmine would cover the whole fence hence I wasn’t so worried about the orange ness, but no of course it doesn’t.

Enough on my weekend, best forgotten about  although still felt with aching muscles and a throbbing forehead  I walked into a big lilac branch and have a huge scratch across my forehead. Nice!

Even if you have the smallest outside space or no outside space at all utilise window sills, entry ways and plant the odd thing. As you probably know by now its all about creating as many layers as you can so stuff on window sills draws the eye outside, and elongates the room as it were. I’m a huge fan of anything scented, herbs, lavender, jasmine. Plants and flowers add life, movement and soul to a space. Below a few inspirational pics, Nigel Slater’s garden of which I want to move into and a cool idea for a loo embracing the beauty of flowers.

Beautiful, love its rambling. pots and plants everywhere it feels lived in and loved.

Kath Kidstone’s loo, bringing flowers indoors in a very cool way.

Happy Tuesday – it would be except there is a little tension in the air.  Maud and I are not currently speaking, she dug up all the sweet peas which I didn’t notice her doing trying to get to Basil (Baz is a mouse who leaves in the woodpile at least I  think he does ). Why she just can’t let him be, let him go about his business, doing his chores is anybodies guess. Too dig up the whole sweet pea bed and very nearly ruin all of them is not acceptable behaviour, so until I get an apology tension remains. She is a little strong minded and hot headed to say the least apologies don’t come easy to Miss Maud , still I’m waiting!

 

Emotive interiors

New regime, no coffee the moment I get up instead orange juice and banana as I am off to another Bikram class in 20. Hated, hated it but I’ve decided I have to do at least 5 classes before pulling the plug.

This morning I thought we could yabber about emotive interiors seeing how it’s a bank holiday weekend, and the weather is supposed to be bad its a good time to concentrate on the inside rather than the outside. I’m often asked how to create personality laden emotive interiors, and I should say this advice goes for any size room super grand or teeny tiny. To add personality to a room first and foremost you have to add stuff, you won’t get that tug on the heartstrings if you keep things minimal. I mention it all the time in the classes but layering is key, plonking stuff in front of objects so each little vignette (shelf, table, mantle) is as three dimensional as possible is what you are after.

Pictures on walls, rugs on floors, books, ornaments and art on shelves that sort of thing. Throw in some shots of colour, the odd quirky find, some sumptuous textiles, lots of lighting and of course flowers and by Jove you’ve nailed it.

Below an apartment in NY on the Upper East Side illustrates quite beautifully what I am talking about. It’s restrained for me so there isn’t heaps of stuff going on but there is enough to tantalise the eye so it  darts around the room not quite knowing where to look.

Happy long weekend, back on Tuesday if I get through Bikram that is!

 

Staff required

Forgive the rather formal post this morning, the business is expanding at such a rate that we’re all a bit over whelmed and so need more staff. The positions we are looking to fill are part time sales assistants and a full time admin assistant. I should mention that experience is necessary plus there won’t be any cross over onto my side of things design wise. The admin side of the things keeps the business on the ball so its a fundamentally important role for someone who wants to become involved in the whole back office side of the company. Please send CV’s into admin@atelierbypost.com

Thanks guys

Flower Power

Morning, I should be on my way to Bikram yoga right now but I’ve missed the slot so contemplating going for a later class. Not particularly looking forward to it since I’m much more of a pound the treadmill at full speed kind of gal but regrettably my hip can no longer take that sort of exercise so this is my new plan. Tried Pilates didn’t exactly do it for me but then I gave it no chance (one class) got bored, wanted to sweat and run and all that kind of stuff, but hoping Bikram with the heat might at least make me feel I’m working out even though I am stiff as a board and will probably get beyond frustrated at not being able to bend into any sort of position.

Enough about my exercise regime or lack of it today I thought we would yabber a bit about flowers. As you all know I am the hugest fan, real, fake you name it of the transformative powers a bunch of blooms has,  its phenomenal. Gem (my sister) and a trained florist for over 15 years gives a fab presentation in the Design School on some cool tips for flowers. Like interiors its all about thinking outside of the box, so we are big fans of housing flowers in alternate vessels, t -light holders, beakers, bowls, kitcheny kind of things as well as standard vases. Top top top tip don’t let the stems show, let the blooms just topple over the vessel a la below looks far more sophisticated that way, and keep the colour palette restricted. I tend to opt for bunches of one type of thing, although Gem has made me up two amazing bunches of mixed county esq faux blooms  and colours which I adore.

One of them being this fabulous bunch which now presides on the mantle piece in the school

This is one of them. How amazing do these faux flowers look , they have completely enlivened the mantle piece.

Neither Gem or I are lovers of tropical flowers and are much more into big blousy blooms I guess English countryside  varieties. Growing up there were always bunches of flowers on the table from my parents garden, forget me nots in the spring, peonies and sweet peas later on so its kind of stuck with us and the flowers we buy very much reflect this.But listen its totally personal if you love the tropical stuff go for it just think a little outside the box when it comes to containers:

Beautiful for bulbs this green container as is this ad hoc collection of bottles, wine, oil and  perfume for housing single blooms below.

Happy Wednesday