Some design principles

It’s like Siberia out there, the wind is whirling and buffeting and whacking the house at full throttle, temperatures have dropped and we’ve gone from feeling that spring is here to being propelled back into the depths of winter, Horrible.

On the weekend we did a bit of sorting out, the junk room which you literally couldn’t walk through the door of now feels a little more orderly, no way sorted but at least not migraine inducing. There was a reason for undertaking such a task, we are launching a sale section on the new website and each Thursday it will be updated. So as well as discounts on store products there will also be things from my pad; vintage chesterfield, coffee table, lamps that sort of thing. Goes live this Thursday at 11am which is exciting.

The thing about decorating is as much as I can bang on about do this do that it really is down to you because our homes are a reflection of things we love. Of course you can learn design principles or unlearn them I say (they tend to restrict us) but ultimately it’s all down to choice and personal preference. All I am trying to do is to make you think a little differently.

For instance if you love colour but are scared of it introduce it in small ways like a door or doorway. Not only does this elevate your space to a whole other level it adds immediate happiness. The trick as I say a zillion times is to select colours a little off radar and non predictable it ups the anty so to speak.

Double up on pattern, ideally to tantalise the eye we kind of need more than one pattern going on in a space. Take my studio I have a zebra rug and a tweed chair, or in this image below – cool rug, cool table.

Bottom line we are trying as odd as it sounds to confuse the eye so it literally doesn’t know what to look. Then wham bam our senses are more engaged and whether we realise it or not our spaces feels more intriguing, more exciting and way cooler.

Am off to an early Pilates session which I shouldn’t be going to as last week in class I did something to my knee and its now puffed up in size and looks odd, plus it’s a tad painful. And yes I know I should rest it and not put pressure on it but it’s been like this since Thursday (AGES) and my patience is running out. Enough already,  am over it.

Sneak peak of our new faux flowers

They are not quite on line yet, still working thru but wanted to show you guys a sneak peak of the our lovely spring flowers.

So we have a selection of Gem’s posies – pretty adorable no? There are way more going on line its just a little example,

Then jugs of the most amazing mimosa in zingy yellow, also a soft buttery yellow which isn’t shown here but will be online

Jugs and jugs of lilac which I am obsessed with in different colours so spring like and heavenly

As do the roses, super glam and very sexy, you can get them in  single stems or in beautiful domes

There are of course tons more and all in the vein of English country blooms. Our plan is to make you feel like you’ve just stumbled across a meadow with the most heavenly bunch of blooms all hanging out together.

Have a lovely weekend

Wowzers

Wowzers what a response to my question regarding  e design classes, thank you big time.  We are certainly doing them and very soon (give us about 3 to 4 weeks) they will be up on the website I will keep you all posted.

Yesterday we trashed, totally trashed the store with the photography of the flowers. All the lights had to be turned off for photography purposes, so it was pretty dark; Gem was making bouquets on the floor like no tomorrow to photograph, people were coming in and buying the bouquets before we had even shot them it was crazy but in a good way!

The flowers look beautiful, I am hoping (although this really depends on the team and how much work it entails) that everything will be up by mid afternoon, including all the bouquets. There will be more bouquets on line in the next few weeks but we couldn’t keep up with the demand of Gem making them and  them being brought (nice problem to have right). Anyways as I said yesterday she will be in every Thursday so can easily throw one together for you guys (says I)  Gem was having a heart attack yesterday keeping up with the demand but I’m thinking  double speed Gem, double speed!  Shall be killed for that comment I can assure you!

So its Friday (yay hay) and we have to talk business. I am often yabbering on about on about how bathrooms and kitchens (hallways also actually) are the most boring rooms in the house. I find they are the most neglected as we all stop decorating to soon, me included. So a simple trick particularly for bathrooms and kitchens is to put in some open storage, shelves, some unit something where you can place a stack of things. The reason with everything behind closed doors (especially kitchens) rooms read as boring. You don’t need to over do it and you don’t need to spend a fortune.  The best thing you are intriguing the eye by breaking up the formality of the space.

So in my kitchen below I found this cool vintage unit where I house all my crockery and it looks alright,no? It distracts the eye from all the cupboards going on and gives the space a bit of edge. Its not styled to within an each of its life its simply plonked together in a relatively ad hoc fashion. If you style it formally it will feel uptight, whereas if you go for a bit more of a casual approach like i have done it will feel more laid back.

Photography Graham Atkins Hughes

You don’t need to spend the earth, here (my kitchen again) you will see I have upturned apple crates and used them as storage units to house recipe books, and pots of pasta, pulses, sun dried toms etc etc. Again it breaks up the boring ness of the room because our eye goes immediately to it!

Photography Graham Atkins Hughes

It is pretty dark for you guys to see, but I’ve draped it with fairy lights, banged a print above the crates and its turned a really boring little corner into something quite sweet for literally no money. £30 I think the creates were!

Don’t you just love interiors?

Have a lovely weekend, will be back later as soon as the flowers are up (no pressure team) to show you guys x

Thank yous, questions and some insider advice

Wow what an amazing response to our new website, thank you guys for all your feedback we’re feeling slightly overwhelmed but so flattered so big thank you.

Today we are shooting in store all the flowers so they can go online.  Gem is making up bunches of wondrous things which means that everyone will now be able to buy not just single stems, but posies and larger bouquets created by her for the first time on line so we are very excited. It feels with the revamp, the website and not forgetting my fabulous new book that we have evolved. Now I say this time and time again but that is the thing with this style of decorating, it takes time. Not just that it’s a confidence thing the more you dabble the more you want to dabble.

Before we begin with today’s musings I have a question, which I am wondering if you might help me out with. Our Design Classes as I am sure you know are incredibly popular (we have new dates to announce for Australia and NYC very shortly btw) however we get so many requests for me to run classes all over the world I had a thought. As much as I would love to spend all year teaching around the globe regrettably it’s not so practical (plus I have two kids under 4 to bring up, OK OK dogs same thing, same thing).

So how about an E class.

For all those people that can’t get to my London home to take the class or be in Australia or NYC we were thinking we could create something online. All the tips, tricks, insider knowledge that I impart in the classes could be accessible on line. I know it’s not quite the same thing, but short of cutting me into 1000 pieces thought it might solve the problem? What do you think?

Right down to business – something I drone on about all the time in the classes is how to create jaw on the floor interiors. Here it is in nutshell, are you ready?

You will need in no particular order:

Focal points zillions of them (not one, not two at least three)

Something unexpected -  like say a kooky piece of art, or object a piece of  furniture. The reason we are trying to throw the room off balance and thus make it more unexpected. The more predictable a room looks the more boring a room feels.

Colour – either on walls, rugs, objects somewhere, anywhere oddball shots of colour, fundamental in taking a room to a whole other level (see yesterdays post).

Scale – with all my interiors I want you to feel like you’ve just fallen down the rabbit hole and entered a magical world, and you won’t feel like that unless you play around with scale. Put things that are to big on things that are to small, super size lighting – that kind of stuff

Talking of stuff the more you have – books, plants, flowers, art – the more  interesting a space becomes.

See its easy no?

Couple of images to inspire and oh for anyone coming to the store today excuse the mess its flower centric in there today!

All photography Simon Watson

 

Colours of Spring

Two posts from me this morning, at midday our new website goes live so shall be back with some peaks and will post a link. We have gone through a bit of a re-branding exercise and have dropped the word Atelier so from next week when you click on the old site it will be re-directed to the new site, this week it won’t.  Since you guys are like my best buddies and I can’t wait until next week when everything is official, you can view it live from midday. Its caused a few heated discussions in team Ahern, certain people thinking I should wait until everything is linked together, but hell with that, who can wait till next week, its like years away. Plus I love the new site and I want to show you guys, DOUBLE PLUS I’m the boss, so there, discussion over right?

Down to business. I talk about colour a lot, it seems particularly apt at the moment with the last few days being sunny and dare I say a tad warm. Spring is around the corner; things in the garden are starting to bud and the birds (even at this hour are singing full throttle). Love it! Now if we were following convention (thank God we are not) I would be yabbering on about pastel hues, as soon as spring arrives out they come from the dreary back cupboard. Put me near a pastel and I swear I have an allergic reaction, itchy, twitchy, followed by a strong bout of depression, cannot stand them. Put me near some electrifying oddball type hue like yellow, burnt orange, red and suddenly I’m skipping and singing like the birds. Colour is the most transformative thing you can do to any room, and its effect on each and every one of us is personal. I like yellow, you might like pale blue and that’s all fine, except we must never ever meet it would be a disaster!

From experience the more namby pamby you are with you colour choices, (i.e. wishy washy pastel type hues) the more namby pamby your scheme. With all my years in the business, it’s the most tantalising interiors that stand out. I’m going to compare it to food, Heston Blumenthal’s food stands out and he pushes convention, dares to be different and takes you on a journey you never thought possible. I had the enormous pleasure of working on one of Heston’s programmes last year and he blew me away. Passionate, energised and totally at the forefront of his game – and that comes across with his food. It raises your spirits, makes you happy and not only that you start to look at life slightly differently. To deep? Stay with me a second.

My point, you’ve got to push it when it comes to design, not to be gimmicky or on trend but in order to take your scheme to a whole other level. Pastels, well may I suggest you ditch them, go oddball, be daring even if its the smallest thing in a offbeat hue, and watch just how transformative it is. Once you’ve crossed over there is no, repeat no going back!

See what I am talking about, by going slightly off radar with colour.

Also you don’t have to have a dark interior like me to make it work, check out Jenna Lyon’s office at J C Crew. The red desk elevates the office, not to mention the splash of yellow in the corner. Even a vase, a throw, the odd painting, you don’t necessarily need to go down a furniture route, will elevate, up lift, pack a visual punch!

See you later.

Patience is a virtue

Morning, an early one for me as I’m off to the store to check on a few last tweaks. Talking of the store the biggest, hugest thank you for all your kind words about the revamp. The feedback has been overwhelming and makes everything so worthwhile, cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.

Designing a space is an organic process I find, you can plot, draw out and plan to the tiniest degree but when the time actually comes for the install things always change. The exact same thing happened in the store last week, the flower shop was in the first half of the space, and we spent hours sorting it all out HOURS. Then I stood back and thought nope, hate hate hate it. So down it all came and now it’s positioned in the back of the store and I love it. That’s the thing with design just when you think you’ve got it nailed, and you’ve got like a hundred million years of experience behind you, wham bam it slaps you across the face and makes you re evaluate. It keeps me on my toes and never ever allows me for one second to get bored.

So the point of today’s post is that if something isn’t working out initially,  lets say the paint colour looks flat, or the furniture isn’t quite right or that picture on the wall looks lost, rather than starting again take a step back and think what can you do to improve it as opposed to paint it out a paler hue, or get rid of something.  Do you simply need to prop the painting up against a console rather than putting straight on a wall, or do you need to add more lighting to enliven the paint colour that kind thing. Maybe sling a throw or angle the furniture.  Something simple as turning one of my chairs into my fireplace as opposed to out towards the door revolutionised my studio I kid you not. Some rooms work initially and some don’t. Just don’t let it put you off.

Take my bedroom this half of the bedroom I love:

Photography Graham Atkins Hughes

This half of the bedroom I hate.

Photography Graham Atkins Hughes

Its lacking in something and its just not good enought! Although I haven’t found a replacement chair, a mirror above the mantle (that all takes time) its all on my to do list. Over Christmas I brought the amazing linen bedding that Merci in Paris sell except as soon as I put it on the bed it zapped the room of energy and now I have to decide bedding stays or rug gets re-located.  Decisions, decisions – I think the rug will get relocated to the school room but then I need to find another darn rug for the bedroom, on and on we go, it never ever ends!

Patience is a virtue something I lack, big time, particularly when you embrace eclectic decorating, it’s the hardest look in the world to pull off!

Talking of the school by the way,  a whole bunch of new dates on classes goes live tomorrow morning on our new website! Yippee yay

 

 

 

 

Store reveal

Finally after a full on week like no other, ta da da, we have a new looking beautiful store. There are still a few tweaks to make – my office which is turning more into a mini sitting room at the back, still needs to be done, but we are so nearly there.   I don’t think I have ever been quite so proud, its like my child is all grown up, on Friday I didn’t actually want to leave fancied moving in and just hanging out.

Here are some peaks :

We now have a book section, so fav interior books of mine that I reference all the time are now in store and available to buy:

Super sized lamps hang out next to super sized lamps, not forgetting the odd rams head and heavenly jugs of faux flowers of course!

Our new selection of faux spring flowers takes your breath away. Mimosa, lilac, delph, roses, blossom are sooo beautiful this season.

Also Gem, my sis and the best florist in the world (I can say that she has created some amazing creations for Paul Smith and President Clinton) has made a selection of bouquets small, medium and super sized that you can literally take away with you, and she will be in store every Thursday until around 3 if any of you guys ever need flower advice.

So there you go some little peaks. Every thing looked so cool when Gem and I left on Friday that I said to her that I kind of wish it would stay like that, so nothing would sell EVER, people could just come in (maybe pay a pound, we have to make a living somehow right ) look around and go again! Cool concept no. NO i know a rubbish concept but you know what I mean! Worth all the hard work and the long hours because when you walk through the door you smile, its an interior that makes you happy. No matter what is going on in the world, in your life, with the weather you enter this little magical world and your heart rate beats just that little bit faster. That to me is what decorating is all about!

Happy Monday