Adding some zing

I think someone from above is possibly not on my side, on deadline with craziest two weeks of my working life ever with 4 am starts , crawled into bed a little over 90 minutes ago when a stray old basset hound started barking down the street. He has been at it since then, the police won’t do anything, the RSPCA have passed the buck and now we are waiting for the council. I tried to bring him in here to comfort him, (that didn’t work), tried sitting beside him (that didn’t work made him even more crazy) took Mung’s out to calm him down (that didn’t work) so here we all are, 12am awake and working with our two going nuts at the sound of him. Happy days.

Lets talk pattern since we  might as well get down to business, am sure someone somewhere  in the world is awake to follow my thread. People are a little scared of pattern I find, I know I certainly used to be. Once you take the plunge however your confidence levels build up and then its like discovering great coffee, or a great wine, your like why or why didn’t we become buddies sooner. I’ve said it a thousand times over so forgive me for saying it again but rugs are a great way of introducing pattern to a space. Check out the image below, can you imagine how dull that space would look without that rug and those cool cushions? Yep so can I. Pattern wakes up a room, it gives it a whole dimension a new lease of  life so I cannot sing its praises enough. Without the pattern of the cushions below and the rug this room would suffer from bland room syndrome – not something a room needs I here its rather contagious!

Photography Petra Bindel

Number  one top top top top tip if you restrict the colour palette  you can actually mix more patterns than you think,  see how this palette below when broken down is literally just  a few hues  predominately plumy tones and  yellows.

Start small if a rug is too scary opt for cushions , or a fab painting or wallpaper a nook in some zany pattern or put stripes in the  loo, or paint something abstract on back of the door. Am I sounding nuts, lack of sleep better stop before I make even less sense.

Happy Wednesday (NOT)! Going back out there, poor dog its horrible not being able to help

Making a u turn

Today its just me, Mung’s and Maud at home, a little unusal but the team are either away, or manning the store, or doing other things.  Since  I have a day of writing, writing, writing I plan on being  super lazy and actually staying in my pjammas the whole day, heavenly. Providing of course I can actually write I’ve spent such a long time at my desk this last week my elbow has kind swollen up and is a little painful, making writing a tad unpleasant – not that there is anything I can do about it, just carry on as the saying goes.

So I am about to make a u turn and admit on occasion I can be wrong, its rare but it happens!  I’ve had the biggest aversion to plants inside for the longest time, now  excuse the word (but I love it), house plants have to me at least just felt a little pedestrian, house plants  along with hanging baskets that is but lets no go there. Hated for years but gradually  I am coming round. It started with a shot Anthropologie did of this amazing huge cactus in a room, and then a whole load of other cool house plant images started filtering into my brain so I admit, I was wrong, I like them infact I might even go as far as saying I want one. Like flowers they bring a room to life, I would say however unlike flowers they work more in isolation and the key I am guessing is to have a really cool one. They don’t have to cost oodles of money, style as we all know has nothing to do with that but they do wake up a room beautifully.

Check out these images below all styled by Hans Blomquist who I used to work with strangely enough in my old styling days, they are one of the reasons for my u turning.

Never mind the plant for a minute, when I hit the campaign trail going door to door attempting to convert EVERYONE across to the dark side, this is the image I will be shoving through letterboxes to highlight my case. Dark interiors just make stuff look way more expensive. I digress back to the plant very very simple but totally effective.

Happy Tuesday