Making DIY cool

Thank you to everyone who posted in comments yesterday – consider the forum a go! Am juggling around with the blog a bit so hope to have all these changes up in the next few weeks. I think it will be great having a forum and connecting!

Also another big thank you to everyone, who signed up and has taken the online design class, today is the last day. It is because of you guys actually that I suddenly realised how fabulous a forum will be because I have gotten so much out of looking at your work, commenting, advising, feeling part of the team and so thank you again.

I thought I would talk a little about DIY this morning a subject pretty close to my heart -which is surprising because I am not the best handywoman in town nor do I have any sort of patience. I want everything done now, in an instant and looking fabulous! Plus DIY gets a bad wrap, sneered on by many in the field (design is a snooty old business you know) but I like knocking all those predisposed assumptions on the head. Bit like faux flowers and pot pouri – the more people turn up their noses the more determined I am to dy mystify– weird hey!

When budgets are restricted (actually even when they are not restricted) creating something yourself gives you the most enormous amount of pleasure and saves you mega bucks. I have a problem with spending any money or anything boring – cupboards, kitchen units, wardrobes hate it – I want to spend my money on the cool stuff. Or in my head I see things that I can’t find in any store or market so then I make them (when I say we that is the Royal we btw)!

This could be as simple as finding some junk furniture and painting or spraying a fab colour (paint being the most transformative thing you can do to anything). The trick as I will say until I am 90 and you are bored to death of me is to push the colour palette – do that and you take any piece to the next level.

My younger sister had  the brilliant idea of turning an old table she found in a flea into a bed head, cost next to nothing and yet it has given her room a totally rustic boho vibe. This isn’t her bedroom below found it on pinterest but next time I’m there will take a few pics to show you guys.

So I say we should embrace DIY a bit more, I’m talking lazy Sunday afternoon kind of DIY not something that takes a week (correction a month) like the blasted wardrobes in my bedroom. First of all you save mega bucks and secondly you give you home a totally unique vibe – a good thing in my book!

Happy Wednesday – (can you be happy when its blowing a gale is freezing cold and you have to pedal to Pilates at 6.15? Am thinking not!

A few questions

Morning, forgive the slightly later posting – had the deepest sleep for ages which was rather incredible since I had Mung’s snuggled between my legs and Maud snuggled in the crook of my arm and I couldn’t move an inch. Think it must be the new linen bedding from Merci and a slightly open window letting the coolest sweetest smelling air into the bedroom!

Today if you don’t mind I have some questions for you guys as I am in a bit of a dilemma. Firstly my crazy schedule means that the Design School will be stopping over the summer the last ones being in June. Huge shame I know but I just can’t juggle the schedule to make them fit in (btw if you are thinking of coming along there are only a few spaces left on the June dates). The good thing though is that they will be coming back with a bang in September, new content, new workshops and a whole different way of looking at interiors. And so here is my dilemma - I get asked a fair bit about doing half-day classes – do you guys think they are a good idea?  Rather than a full day a 3 hour morning or afternoon session held in my pad obviously priced according so £75 – with the option of staying for lunch, or later on in the afternoon for champagne and snacks? What do you think – would you prefer a whole day or a half day?  I am too much involved in the whole process to make a decision so thought I might ask you guys if you don’t mind?

Secondly I am changing the blog around in the next few weeks and as its been such amazing fun having a forum with my Online class, tossing around ideas, learning about peoples fears, seeing before and afters of their spaces I thought I would put a forum on the blog. That way we can all get to see what each of us is doing, encourage, help out, congratulate, and connect that sort of thing. When people come to the classes in my pad they often keep in touch, meet for coffee, loop us in with photos and so forth, exactly what is happening over on the forum. As that forum shuts down in the next month I thought it would be such a shame to loose it as its been fab for me seeing this community of kindred spirits. So what do you think?

Finally last night I had a Twitter chat with my on line class, I’ve got another one this morning at 9.30 and it was so much fun which made me think once a month I want a twitter chat – obviously I would time it for different zones around the world as we have a big following in Australia and America but I didn’t realise until the online class got underway just how much I enjoy the whole community spirit of the web – something I haven’t really thought about before. We are all scattered all over the world, going about our days, doing our thing but regularly on a forum or once a month on twitter I think it would be really cool for us all to connect. You never know we  might even encourage more people to cross over, convert, and push boundaries. Whadda you think?

Some decorating tips

Big thank you to everyone who attended Design School on the weekend, I had a fabulous day!

The weekend past in a nano second and with just Sunday as a down day I had a list as long as my arm to get through. It went a bit like this; garden (i.e. pour bucket loads of miracle grow, seaweed, tomato feed or whatever else I can think of over plants to encourage vigorous growth to hide neighbours ugly building at the back of the garden; put up shelves in the bedroom; style shelves in the bedroom (more on that in a bit) cook from Gwyneth’s book some recipes to get back on track, slipped off the wagon Saturday evening as had wine and an Indian takeout (whoops); nail what I have to get done this week, clean house, do the washing blah blah blah.

A question I get asked alot is how to style a mantle, a console a table and my answer is a simple one – patience! I don’t just throw a shelf or console together in a second, I put something together, hate it, stand back, tug my hair  try again, hate it, do the same thing over and over again until it feels right.

The bedroom shelves for instance are tiny narrow little things  so everything on them has to be front facing. Easy peasy I thought to myself at 6 o’clock last night – I can pull this together in 5, WRONG took at least an hour, until I was happy and we’re just talking about a few mags, the odd postcard and a bit of art – hardly anything as the shelves are small.So below I have listed some pointers which may get you on your in way in creating (as the Americans say) a tablescape.

1) Tucking something smaller like a postcard or notebook behind something major like a mirror or a piece of art takes the eye further and adds an element of intrigue

2) Stacks of books really help you out. A little pile of say 3 books with a small bunch of blooms or candle on top, adds texture and interest.

3) Rather than leave gaps, vary the height of your objects its far more intriguing

4) If you know anything about interiors or styling then the  old trick of everything  having one unifying tone plus one extra shot will get you out of all sorts of trouble. I tend to push it with maybe two colours but everything else is pretty much neutral. It allows me to mix far more easily.

Finally never ever ever put things in rows. Its to boring, its way to show home ish, and its  to easy. Interiors aren’t easy; putting things in rows is like decorating by numbers, interiors should make you curious. Being curious is being daring and being daring is being alive! Pretty deep sentence for 6am on Monday morning, but there you go!

Shot of my pad below (from the Independent) – a simple little detail of my desk, oh and by the way a big thank you to the Independent on Sunday this weekend for their fabulous feature on my house, love the images x

Pin it Forward

I  am excited to share with you this morning Pinterest’s Pin It Forward Campaign.  Pinterest is ramping up its international strategy by reaching out to other communities in other countries – the first one being the UK, which is hugely exciting. From today there is a new British English language setting, plus improvements making it easier to find UK content.  I am the biggest fan of Pinterest not only can I get to see beautiful images at the click of the button which inspire all sorts of projects it cuts down research time. In the olden days I would trawl through magazines pull out tears, flag them and stick them in a file – now I just grab an image off the web, plonk it on my board and wham bam its done. It you’re looking for inspiration or if you’re in a conundrum with your decorating decisions pinterest will become your best bud. It’s hugely addictive as well just to worn, but for anyone curious, passionate or into design it’s one of the coolest platforms. Of course its not just boards on interiors that inspire – there are some amazing food boards, travel, fashion you name it.

But back to interiors and Pinterest it’s totally great for finding things that are a little hard to nail. Like art for instance. As a buyer its one of the hardest things to source, and personally I find it one of the hardest things to actually find. Which is why I am excited to share with you Saatchi’s online gallery. They have some incredible boards on Pinterest (just started following them) with art up for as little as £100. Cool no?

Happy Friday – oh and follow me on Pinterest if you fancy, I’ve just created a cool board on breaking the decorating rules!