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

Uxus Design

Uxus Design was featured recently on TheCoolhunter.com.au for their work on the Merus winery in California. I love the tasting room below, especially the lighting and the 'traditional but modern' feel.

Image: www.thecoolhunter.com.au

Delving further into www.uxusdesign.com I found pictures of this wonderful family home they have designed. The Mendoza Residence is very much in keeping with my own taste - classic but modern. Great wallpapers also.

Images: Jansje Klasinga via www.uxusdesign.com

More chairs . . .

These chair cover ideas are in a lovely 'home projects' booklet from Homes and Gardens in the UK. With very little fabric and some imaginative trim the possibilities are endless and still removable. I also like the idea that you could have different colours or weights of fabric for summer and winter.

Images: Beautiful Home Projects Homes and Gardens 2002

Silverchair

This picture is from a feature in Vogue Living Australia on Indian decor. Apart from liking the styling of this shot overall I kept this because of the chair. Its from Ruby Star Traders www.rubystar.com. I think the silver paint on the ornate chair looks great with the plain white upholstery and is less flashy than gold. I will bear this in mind next time I am considering breathing new life into an old chair.

Image: Vogue Living Australia

Leah Gilberson

I didn't write a lot for this blog over the Christmas period but I did spend some time browsing around the blog world. I came across Leah Gilberson via A Studio with a View who I found via the Desire to Inspire holiday reading lists.

These prints and paintings really caught my eye. Leah Gilberson is based in Boston works with digital photos, paint and mixed media to get the effects below. I like the work she is currently showing in her Etsy shop, the major themes being architecture and streetscapes, chairs and swimming pools.

Images: Leah Gilberson

Colour trends for 2009

I've been reading about the '09 colour trends on various sites. In summary there is a lot about natural colours based on our environment, soft neutrals, greys and blues. Calming greens were featured frequently and by way of contrast some very bright colours teamed with white. More about the restful greens later but for today here are a couple of images of the latest in naturals.

Images: Earthborn Paints, Sofa Workshop via C4

Fitting in the photos

Ok, back to business. One of my projects for this year is to sort out our living room and one of the challenges about my living room is that there is pretty much no wall space. One wall has a huge window, one wall is nearly all sliding doors to outside and the other two have cupboards and shelves along them - so there is little space for pictures etc to personalise the space.

This beautiful home has been featured in a few magazines - its in St Barts and is owned (if I remember correctly) by a Scandinavian couple. I had never thought of displaying photos around a door like this and I think it works really well. I am not sure what the angle poise is doing top right though - maybe highlighting a few favourites . . .

Image: Living etc