Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta

This is a scheme I designed for the son of a friend of mine, he is just six but the brief was to choose furnishings that he would grow in to rather than outgrow. The print is a perfect artwork for a boys room - it has both the NATO and nautical flag alphabets and is very reasonably priced from my long time favourite Keep Calm Gallery in London (who will mail prints to Australia)

Click to enlarge

Images: Keep Calm Gallery, La Maison, Sheridan

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

Striking stripes

These provide food for thought I think. The mix between matt and texture in the bathroom and living room is very effective. The living room below belongs to Tina di Lorenzo of Di Lorenzo Tiles and I like her style here a lot. In the accompanying interview she reveals that the striped wall was achieved using Dulux Fauna in satin and gloss ! Time-consuming she says but great style I think without breaking the bank.

Images: Living etc, House & Garden, Lonny

Not for the faint hearted - this geometric pattern is also painted on to the wall. There is an interesting article on Nina Freudenbeger in the last issue of Lonny here - she has painted her shop walls and parts of the floor in a fabulous zig zag. I also identify with many of her quotes:

"Make sure your home reflects your own style and comfort level; your space should not be designed only to be 'photo ready'. The chair you sit in to drink your morning coffee and read the paper should be just as comfortable as it is attractive. Make no compromises. "

My problem is the 'make no compromises' bit can make progress pretty slow on the home project front.

Light storage

I have posted about Vitsoe in the past here and love to find applications of this iconic storage system that I haven't come across before. This home is in California and the owner's goal was to have a home with storage and light. Such a great idea I am thinking that this could also be a way of screening a not so great view eg a side fence or something but still letting the light in.

Images: Home Beautiful

Spanish Style

This dining room is in a house in Andalusia in Spain designed by Thomas Urquijo and was photographed by Tim Clinch for the book Spanish style. I do love a round table and the drama of the light fitting. Even though I really like the room I feel it is missing a splash of colour - but I suppose that could come from people and the food - especially in Spain.

Image: Tim Clinch

Biedermeier bedroom

This bedroom is from the portfolio of long time favourite of mine Nathan Egan. The antique Biedermeier furniture takes pride of place and the plain white linen and neutral walls allow the furniture to star in the room. There is an interesting little piece on the Biedermeier era in design and architecture on good old Wikipedia. For those in the mood for a little history lesson read more here.

Image: Nathan Egan

Kitchen benches

These kitchens both have cleverly thought through seating. Simple tables with statement chairs are arranged for the usual number of family members but the side benches mean that when a crowd needs to be accommodated you can turn the table and seat everybody comfortably. The first kitchen is by Melbourne based interior design team Doherty Lynch whose broader portfolio here is well worth browsing through. In the bottom kitchen I also really like the cook book shelf over the bench seating. I love the colour and interest a line of good books adds to a kitchen.

Images: Doherty Lynch, not known

Keeping it real

As an aspiring interior designer I keep an eye out for creative solutions to practical decorating challenges. Out in the real world when people are decorating their homes there are always pillars and beams and columns to contend with. Here the stylists FriedaMaria have made a feature of this quite large column in a very understated way which addresses the column but doesn't overly emphasise it in the room. The wallpaper makes it look like an artwork. An old post from last year here shows another column idea.

Image: styled by FriedaMaria via Emma's design blog

World Exclusive !

Well - I'm not sure I'm ready for the world yet but here is a little peek at my latest assignment for my interior design course. The brief was to design a contemporary light fitting and design a room around it with at least 3 walls - no other constraints.

So here is my light and room. The light is inspired by tripod lights and oversized spotlights and is designed to tie in with the wallpaper which I also had to design earlier in the year. The wallpaper had to be based on a man made object, mine is based on a kitchen S hook and the little sculpture on the console is a twisted S hook (I had to get my husband to bend it for me). The photos are iphone photos so quality is little grainy.

Lets hope I can make the jump from dolls house design to real life rooms one of these years !

Images: Folder of Ideas

Difference of opinion

A fan of mid-century furniture, my friend's husband has fallen in love with an old sofa and wants to refurbish and reupholster it. Trouble is, his wife doesn't share the same level of passion for the mid-century look. Fear not, say I ( see this post also ) retro armchairs and sofas can look fantastic in all sorts of interior styles given the right fabric choices. See below . . . QED.

Image: via Homebug

Baby blogger

As a parent I know I sometimes wonder how much I impose my style on my kids surroundings will impact their own style. I smiled therefore when I saw this kids room by Meyer Davis via Desire to Inspire as, surely this is the bedroom of a future design blogger ? Joking aside, I like the panelled wall and the cream and brown colour palette and the shelves and mini chairs are both interesting and practical. Not sure how well the Arco lamp would survive the toddler years but each to their own !! The very tasteful and fun furniture below is in the same vein and comes from Habitat in the UK.

Images: Meyer Davis, Habitat

Saturday in Design, Sydney

This is a slow blog - I am not very good at getting things posted quickly - more the tortoise than the hare. I attended Saturday in Design on the weekend and really enjoyed it. I will write about some of the shops and pieces that caught my eye - all in the fullness of time - but in the meantime here is a link to a fabulous post by Lucy at The Design Files which captures the mood and includes many of my favourite spots on the tour. So now thanks to Lucy I don't have to rush around and can direct you here.

Hall, stairs and landing

I really enjoy browsing through Nathan Egan's portfolio. Admittedly the New York based design duo (one half of which is Fiona Egan from Dublin ) work within some amazing properties, catering as they do for the high end of town, but there is a grounded nature to their choices which makes their spaces inviting and liveable in which can sometimes get lost in super luxe design.

These are just a selection of halls and landings that caught my eye. There is a lot more to take in on their website.

Images: Nathan Egan Interiors

Ibizan style

I get a number of Irish publications mailed to me in Sydney which is a luxury I really enjoy. Even though I read a lot online the power of print still reigns and I love flicking through my Irish Times magazine (equivalent to the SMH Good Weekend) and Image Interiors.

This fabulous villa in Ibiza was featured on the cover of Image Interiors recently and deservedly so. It was designed by John Meagher of de Blacam and Meagher architects. It is minimal without being sterile, and not just a pretty face, really functional as a holiday house with separate guest quarters - along by the pool which are rented out and a master suite upstairs. List of favourite things - the colonnade, the lanterns in the colonnade and the ceilings which are based on traditional style in the area of exposed beams and terracotta tiles.

Photos: Peter Cook via www.worldarchitecturenews.com

Furnishing fireplaces

There is great line from Friends - "You dont have a TV ? What do you point all your furniture at ?" If we have a fireplace we also tend to point everything at the fireplace - which needn't always be the case as in the photo below. This is a 'note to self' post to remember this especially where a fireplace is not used that much. This mantlepiece is beautifully styled and there is a dinky little side table between the two gold backed chairs.

Image: Courtney Giles

Portobello belle

This is the home of an Irish architect and designer Sibeal O'Sullivan. It was featured in Image Interiors in 1997 and I kept the whole thing - I love this house. My home town - Dublin - has a wealth of beautiful period Georgian and Victorian homes. While as a renovation project they can be a big challenge their lovely bones usually mean that the outcome is more than worth the effort and expense. This is a renovated and extended 4 bed Victorian house.

On one side the house is open from front to back.

Lovely study library in the middle

Leading to great family kitchen

Now on the left above is one of my favourite features - a TV den or snug is boxed away by itself so that the kids can watch tv. I am not a tv lover myself so this would be a big bonus. You can see in the photo below that the tv room is lit by internal windows and there is good hidden storage. Like the modern lamp / old sofa combination too.

House connects with outside

Beautiful bannister

Master bedroom ticks lots of boxes - window, fireplace, chest of drawers, mix of restful textures.

Pretty good guest room . . .

Images: Sibeal O'Sullivan www.sosullivandesign.com , Image Interiors Photos Graham Atkins

Beat lights by Tom Dixon

When I posted about the Merus winery in California I did not know the provenance of the lights but now I do. They are Beat lights by Tom Dixon. Another thing I learnt is that they are not smooth on the inside as they appear but are beaten brass as you can see in the bottom picture. The Beat light is available in Australia from www.dedece.com .

Images: www.thecoolhunter.com.au, Tom Dixon

SJP's dining room

A while back I won this book in a competition on Blogging Top Design and with all the hecticness of Christmas am only now getting to look through it properly. Its full of photos of the homes of glamourous / famous / stylish / all of the above people and provides lots of inspiration and ideas.



The dining room below is in Sarah Jessica Parkers home in the Hamptons. I've seen lots of dining settings with mismatched chairs but hadn't seen the all black approach before and it is very effective with the white table and splashes of colour. More from So Chic anon.

Image: William Waldron

Vitsoe: 606 Universal Shelving System

Vitsoe provide pretty much the best customer service and love of a product I have come across so far - in any retail sector.

My husband spotted the 606 in the Conran shop's staff offices when we were living in London and looking for shelves and a spot for our computer and so we discovered Vitsoe. The 606 shelving system was designed by Dieter Rams in the early 1960s and Vitsoe has been producing this high end modular system for over 50 years. They are a really interesting company focussed on timeless design that can be reused, added to and adjusted as you move house and your lifestyle changes. You can get a much better idea of what they are about at www.vitsoe.com.

The customer service is amazing - you are advised on which type of installation suits your home and application, beautiful drawings are emailed to you and kept on file so that your system can be amended at a later date and - when we moved to Australia they came and lovingly disassembled our shelves and packed them for overseas shipment pretty much for the cost of the packaging.

The shelves can be wall mounted, used as room dividers, floor mounted or compressed between the ceiling and the floor. A look through the Vitsoe site will show you the extent of what can be done with the 606. Mud Australia http://www.mudaustralia.com/ are the distributors for Vitsoe in Australia.

Images: NY Spaces Magazine via www.desiretoinspire.blogspot.com , www.vitsoe.com