Chameleon

Power points and light switches are mostly pretty unexciting until HPM Legrand come along and present you with 15 different coloured cover plates to click on and change to your hearts content. I received a sample in 5 O'Clock Olive from the Earths colour set which is very tactile and restful. The full Linea colour range is below.

Although you probably wouldn't pick it from the swatches below Gun Metal looks great with the stainless steel appliances in my kitchen - stainless is darker than you think.

Images: HPM Legrand, Emma Mitchell

How about orange ? ... and blue ?

One of the things I found at Designex was that size wasn't everything. There were a number of smaller stands that were crammed with great products - one of those was Ferm Living. This wallpaper - Ferris - is inspired by the ferris wheel at the Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen which is a very tasteful fun fair / park in in the centre of the city. I spent a great summer in Copenhagen as a student and love Danish design. I am loving these colours for kids rooms - a refreshing departure from the red/blue or pink purple combos. The second is by Porters from the range designed by Bholu. Mavis Monkey Ma and Pa also comes in a very sophisticated natural colour way. The penguins at the bottom are by Isak. This UK based design company also has Scandinavian origins and they ship worldwide. Incidentally the title of this post is inspired by the highly entertaining blog how about orange.

Images: Ferm Living, Porters Paints, Isak

The Outdoor Room

I attended the Designex trade show in Sydney yesterday. There was quite a big section on outdoor rooms which I wasn't really expecting but it was great to see some products I have blogged about but had not seen in real life like Joost Bakker's vertical gardens and Kif and Katast's fabulous Gingko screen. The Kif & Katast stand was one of my favourites of the day and I loved the new Gingko bench pictured below. There is a poor quality iphone photo that gives a bit of an idea of how you could light this bench to make a real feature of it at night.


The Kif & Katast stand also featured these garden bags called Bacsacs which can be used eiether as a permanent garden for herbs for example or simply for transporting plants.

Images: Kif&Katast, Bacsac

School tour

I went on a class excursion to Porters Paints in Waterloo yesterday which was very interesting and enjoyable. I could happily poke around in the little room of wallpapers and super swatches in all Porters colours for a few hours. I saw samples of the range designed by Julie Paterson of cloth for the first time - very calm and serene colours. Looking for Water below was my favourite.

Image: Porters Paints

Sultans of swing

Just picked the latest Vogue Living out of the mailbox and saw this lovely fabric in a feature on Tigger Hall. From LA based designer to the stars Martyn Lawrence-Bullard this is Sultan's Suzani in Sage and Blue. His signature fabric style is the development of traditional designs using luxury fabrics and comtemporary colour schemes.

Images: Martyn Lawarence Bullard

Agatha and friends

I'm travelling to Europe in June which is exciting as I have not been for over two years and am looking forward to checking out my old favourites from my years in London and Dublin. These little side tables are Tigarah and Agatha from The Conran Shop which is now open in Dublin as well. Very tempting. I keep telling myself that my shopping will have to be limited to soft light furnishings. Anyone planning a move to Sydney let me know and I would be most interested in subletting a spot in your container !!

Images: Conran

Waterflower

This is Orla Kiely's waterflower fabric design for her fashion range, not on a handbag or home accessory yet but we can hope and look out for it. I don't know hwich I like better the blue or the pink.

Images: Orla Kiely

Missing out

I have missed having the time to blog - no proper excuse really, I just seem to be over committed at the moment. Even more though I have missed out on reading blogs and all the inspiration out there. So I finally got the chance to click through a few new spots yesterday and am reinspired by images like the one below from Greige. I will find the time.

Image: Skona Hem via Greige