Sneak Peak

Delighted to show you guys a first glimpse of my new book, Decorating with Style which I have to say I am enormously proud of. It’s full to the brim of the coolest photography EVER by my best bud Graham Atkins Hughes, tons and tons of savvy tips, insider sources, speedy updates and sound practical advice for taking your pad to the next level. I’m decoding, demystifying and proving that interior design is enormous fun and you don’t need a big budget to pull off jaw on the floor spaces.

The most exciting thing, its launching in Australia next month at Decoration and Design where I’m the keynote speaker, so if you’re in town I would love you to come along to the seminar I will be book signing and yabbering about interiors afterwards.

In the UK I will be book singing in my store (and others) and will keep you posted on that. Anyone who has attended the Design Classes will be invited to a special VIP evening which we are in the process of organizing, more on that another day.

Hope you guys love it as much as I do – here is a link to the blad which is publisher speak for a little taster of the book. Hope to see and speak to as many people as I can in Australia in February and London in March.

Cover above,  and my new bedroom as seen in the book.

Oh and back at midday with two flash sales as I missed one yesterday (the day got away with me). Correction I spent too long in Liberty’s sale buying up Prada boots which have been discounted beyond belief, which for the record was on the way to John Lewis to buy the milk frother that someone broke so there!

January

I like January first up its my birthday, next Tuesday if you must know, secondly its a buying trip to Paris for three days (next Friday) where my head gets so full of ideas that at night in the hotel room I literally can’t sleep. Thirdly it’s the start of new things, dreams and ideas that were simmering on the back burner now get shunted to the front burner. Plans that got made last year have changed (thought we were moving from our current store to a larger one down the block but the landlords are (putting it a far too politely) putting up too many hurdles.

Amazingly for me I haven’t lingered on it, I’ve pulled the plug, detached myself from the situation and moved on, giving it nota  seconds more thought.  but then I’ve always been quite good like that. Once its over its over no reminiscing or wishing things were different, or playing moody tunes on the iPod or taking long strolls in the hills ‘thinking’. Nope onwards, upwards as they say.

I’ve got big plans for this house, over hauling the school room, finishing off the bedroom, doing something with the darn stair well and knocking out the back wall of the bathroom and creating a roof terrace to block the neighbours ugly who knows what in the back yard.

Anyhow digressing digressing we are here to talk about interiors not my daily yabberings or problems. One thing I’m seeing a lot in American interiors is the love of the black and white rug, and although I have none here I like them very much. Supremely graphic they give a room an edge and make anything on them look way more expensive than it really is. You can pay big bucks or you can make a quick trip to Ikea and buy their black and white stripped one as I did last year for the TV show I was working on and it literally transformed the room. Also if I recall correctly Design Sponge somewhere in their archives shows you how to take a super cheap white rug and paint on the stripes the whole thing costing no more than around £40 – clever no?

Also it doesn’t matter if your interiors are pale or dark it works equally well with both, a few images to inspire below.

Talking earlier about problems we have a major one. Graham has just broken the milk frother so no coffee for me, and because he is in meetings all morning guess who now has to run into town to John Lewis to go buy one. Not happy – only consolation Liberty is on the way! Oh and excuse the fact there are no links to Design Sponge and Ikea, running way to late for Pilates, the coffee situation or lack of it has lost me precious mins this morn

Flash Sale

Flash sale time, a little later than posted (apologises) its been a bonkers sort of a day, worth it though as these last few remaining pendants are now 50% off. They were £135 and they are now £67.50 available in black, red and green.

Discount will be applied if you order on line or email or call the store to secure +44 207 354 8181, contact@atelierbypost.com

Global interiors

You wouldn’t think you could look at an interior and shout ‘oh so British’ or oh so American or Italian or Australian would you, but I guess subconsciously or not we all decorate according to where we live.  We’re influenced by our culture, history, climate whether we kind of think about it or not.Whenever we exhibit as Masion Objet in Paris buyers always come onto our stand and say ‘so British’ which always kind of takes me aback as I can’t quite see that it is, but obviously it is. Giving it some thought I gravitate to inky sludgy gentleman’s drinking club type rooms or dens – that envelope and wrap me up with warmth the minute you enter, like the softest cashmere blanket with a bit of tongue in cheek madness thrown in. If I had lived in a hot country all my life would I be decorating in this fashion, I kind of like to thing so.

Cool London haunts like Claridges bar, Mark Hix’s bar downstairs in Soho, Gordon’s wine bar purely lit by candlelight, and some of those Maltby Street warehouses  – fab little bars, and restaurants (go first on a Sat lunch time it’s the coolest time to go) appeal big time. The Ace Hotel in NYC,  those amazing dark interiors often found in Italy, Holland and the like are for me heavenly. I’m not into beachy pale interiors but then I have a problem with beaches!

I know I know crazy, who doesn’t like a beach right. Well me! Its not that I don’t like them, a 5 minute potter in the sand and then a swim and I’m as happy as Larry but then I’m done – ask my to lay down on the sand or hang out for a day on the beach and I go a little crazy. When I say a little I mean a lot. Too bored too many places too unearth, discover uncover, I start fidgeting and asking kid like questions ‘are we nearly done yet’? Therapy, well  possibly?I must say however I reckon its getting harder to tell, some interiors are obviously English, Australian etc etc but with so much visual stimuli out there, and the fact that we are able to purchase stuff from vertically any country in the world means all our interiors take on more off a global stance and I like that. When I go to Paris buying next week and trawl hundreds of stands from suppliers all over the world sometimes I can clock in an instant the country of origin sometimes not so much.

Some images below, guess the country?

BTW the flash sale will happen slightly later today, (3pm) and I will post on the blog as well.

Oh and very quickly I’m off to the store super early to get out way more sale stuff and the birds outside are singing their little hearts out, I think they think its Spring, its so mild at the moment it feels as if its just around the corner, cannot wait, love love love the birds.

Going for gold

Spent yesterday in the garden, tidying and putting up trellis as the next-door neighbour has built something ugly in his and I’m trying to hide it. G commented that by the end of the summer we will have a walled garden which at this rate will reach 25 feet high on all sides. Fine by me, I have become literally obsessed about not seeing another window, roof, building anything.  Anyone would think that I sit in the garden naked which I hasten to add I don’t but I do want privacy. I want to read the papers in my pyjamas, play with the 2 M’s and potter around totally concealed. Next project (some way off yet) turning the flat roof off the bathroom into the garden so I don’t have to see the said garden then I’m happy – I think!

Talking of being obsessed a colour that I am using more and more in my interiors is gold, it totally and utterly warms up a room, lends excitement and adds glamour all at the same time – genius no?  The Americans use gold alot more liberally then we do over here which is a shame I think as every room needs something blingy and shiny it gives it an edge. You don’t have to go over board and paper the walls in it (Mary Macdonald has see image below) but for me its a little to much I prefer it as an accent. The great thing about this colour is it works with literally any other hue beautifully; if you’ve got pale interiors add a dash of gold, beautiful. If you got dark interiors add a big dose of gold beyond beautiful!

So here is what I’ve got smattered throughout the house; gold pineapple sconces from the store (my most favourite thing) on my studio walls and bedroom walls, big supersized gold lamps oh and gold heads. Plus the odd little gold t-light and its magical. If I was given the choice between choosing a gold ring, bracelet some kind of jewellery or something gold for the home – for the home I would go. I’ve seen ceilings painted out in gold AMAZING especially in a dining room with a chandelier suspended beneath something almost spiritual happens with the reflections.  Gold door pulls are great (I’m on the hunt for the kitchen), gold taps and shower heads are phenomenal in the bathroom Jenna Lyons proved that in her incredible bathroom in Brooklyn. Also its a winter and summer colour, it warms a room up in winter but in the summer when the light is stronger anything gold glimmers and like magpies we gravitate towards it.

Oh btw (anyone on our mailing list will know this already)  our sale started on Saturday. For the rest of this month 15% off everything, 20% off all lighting and concrete vessels and throughout the week on Facebook flash sales on one of pieces heavily discounted. First flash sale this morning at midday. If you’re ordering anything on line you won’t see the discount applied but it will be (all this changes when the new website goes live later this month).

Gold pineapple sconces from the store, are all over my house, adore them.

How classy do gold pulls and knobs look – even a sink!

Mary Macdonald’s pad, gold leopard walls anybody? Bit OTT for moi but each to there own as the saying goes.

I’m off to Pilates again – double ugg!

 

Embellishing stuff

Morning, how nice its Friday very much liking the 3 day week I have to say. This morning I wanted to yabber about embellishing stuff, by that I  mean picking up some flea market find, or cheap mass market find and customizing it so it looks and feels unique and personal. In my new book, Decorating with Style  there are (if I say so myself) some very cool tricks for turning something mundane into something fabulous. I’m not just talking furniture I’m talking walls, floors, ceilings even. Nobody wants their  pad to look like its been decorated by numbers with everything from the same recognisable source hence my love of embellishing.

I’m halfway through the second series of Million Dollar Decorators – who do exactly the same thing customize and craft bespoke furnishings and furniture  for famous and super rich clients. Bespoke tables costing $50,000, hand made beds with the same amount of zeros added on so we’re all doing the same stuff except my way is a little cheaper. It takes a bit of time but nothing you couldn’t knock up on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The  most transformative thing you can do to anything is paint it. I went on about this all last year but its true, see something in a flea market that is a great shape with perfect proportions but the colour sucks paint it out! TOP TIP paint it out in an offbeat colour, you will have on your hands one cool piece of furniture that looks like it should be hanging out in a gallery! If you can find a car sprayer even better (I’m on the hunt since my old one has sacked me) because then you get the glossiest most lacquered looking piece in the world – all for next to nothing! Its called taking your pad to the next level and its fun, decorating is such fun. So yes you can do savvy style on a budget, yes you can have the coolest pad in town should you so wish. It takes a bit of effort and the odd bit of elbow grease but that doesn’t hurt anyone right?

Another idea that I saw in Lonny magazine last year that I am obsessed with, literally obsessed with – marble paper. Sheets of it were hung in this super cool bathroom and yet it looks like large slabs of agate or stone. Luxurious, unique amazingly cool for a loo or bathroom, brilliant. Somewhere in this house not sure where yet I am doing exactly the same thing.

Gotta dash new class, pilates. Ugg!

 

Raising the bar

Happy 2013, I’m excited to be back at my desk blogging (a little later than usual), yabbering to you guys about all things design. I’ve just come back from the coolest break, Christmas Eve in Paris which was beautiful especially at night, wandering along with Seine, the left bank, the Marais incredible, and then off for a four day break in the Dordogne at Chateau La Thuilliere

It was amazing; the food, the Chateau, the owners, Patch their dog the whole shebang. I feasted on foie gras soup, risotto with truffles, duck , salmon locally caught, pork, carrot crème, petit pois mousse, some hazel nut bread with a slither of salami, home made earl grey ice cream with whisky, on and on I could go, out of this world food.  The fire never stopped burning and scenting the air with the intoxicating smell of wood smoke, owls hooted at night as the two M’s and I walked the grounds for a late night potty run (not me them just so we’re clear). Hurricane lamps with huge fat candles lit up the castle at night, whilst the huge wooden stairs were layered with t-lights at night so you could see you way to bed. No noise no hustle no bustle just quiet country sounds .

I didn’t want to leave and in the summer I’m going back. Being winter we eat inside but in the summer tables and chairs dot the grounds so in the warmest of weathers you sit, relax, drink and eat some of the yummiest food I have eaten in a long time. By day you can drive to hill top villages perching perilously on cliff tops, and stroll by the beautiful river (canoeing is the sport of choice) not sure how Mung’s and Maud are going to handle a canoe but we’re working on that one. I found a super cool ceramicist in Salut who doesn’t want to wholesale to anybody (God I want her life) so I brought most of the place up, jugs, cups, little hand thrown beakers all simply but beautifully hand thrown.

So that was my break,  something I haven’t done nearly enough off but that I hope to change, now down to biz.   This is the year when dark interiors really take off I reckon. I can see it in the stars, (well almost) as more and more people are getting bored of dullsville white and are wanting spaces that mesmerize tantalize and seduce. Regrettably you can’t seem to get that with neutral hues so you sort of have to ditch convention, think out of the box and take the plunge. You don’t need to paint the whole house, or even the whole room dark,  but once you’ve crossed over there is literally no going back. No more procrastinating I say if you ‘ve been thinking about converting for a while, then covert.

We only live once, if you hate it (you won’t) hell its paint you can always go over it the next day!

I’m asked a million times a day if going dark will make a room feel gloomier, if having small windows will effect things, if its north facing will it work, if its located in the north pole or the south pole will it work. What if it’s in a hot country or a cold country, a city, or on the coast, uptown, downtown, it doesn’t matter paint it dark. It will work, not only that it will make you happier and change you’re life at exactly the same time. PROMISE. Its called raising the bar, and you can’t raise the bar unless you push a few boundaries and take a few risks, simple as that.

Happy new year again x