Oh dear, gorgeous new prints to tempt me at Keep Calm Gallery!
Category: Interiors Addict
A lesson in homing from work
Staff from Surry Hills brand engagement agency The Messenger Group decided to style their office interior themselves so their clients felt at home. As you can see, the results are divine!
Project manager Theodora Chan, says: “We had wanted to get an interior decorator but realised that option was a bit too pricey and we were working to a budget. So instead, we created mood boards with all the designs and furniture we loved the look of. Aside from the shops we love, the furniture is also from antique stores, secondhand shops or made ourselves
“When we decorated the office, our main aim was to make our clients feel like they were stepping into our home. We wanted them to feel relaxed and welcome and want to curl up on the couches with a good book!”
Theodora and her colleagues went for warm, neutral tones of tan, beige and camel with occasional splashes of colour. “We really wanted to play with physical sensations so we have a lot of natural fibres and woven materials as well as wicker and straw, not to mention a good scattering of plants to create a really natural vibe,” she says.
It started with a quilt
Hundreds of hours of painstaking needlework and love went into creating the Noah’s Ark patchwork quilt which was the starting point for three year old Will’s new bedroom.
Mum-of-two and freelance interior stylist Monique Sartor revamped his room after he was upgraded from cot to big boy’s bed! “My mum made the most beautiful and intricate quilt for Will based on Noah’s Ark so we decided to go the whole hog,” she says. “I found a gorgeous boat bed (the lid at the front lifts for storage), I ordered decals of colourful animals from the US and found the bright toy storage and bedside table from dealsdirect.com.au, which helped keep the cost down yet provide charming and practical storage. I thought the rug was perfect as it looked like water.”
Monique made the bunting to carry the bright colours up to the very top of the room. “I wanted to achieve a joyous, positive feel. I came across perfect tie-backs, the monkeys, (pictured) from Taronga Zoo online shop. I just added a polkadot ribbon around their necks! I also used that ribbon with some embroidered animal badges on a plain lamp I got from Target! Et voila! I’m pleased with the results and also happy that we did it for not much over $1,500. Will loves it. Mission accomplished on all fronts.”
Monique’s interior styling business is called Sartorial Interiors.
Who says straight men can’t do interior design?!
I absolutely adore this condo (that’s American for apartment) belonging to an Interiors Addict fan from Washington DC. I also love that this is the work of a straight man who lives on his own! I’m not usually one for stereotypes but come on, how many guys do you know who really care what their place looks like?
The proud resident is recording artist turned PR and political consultant Christian Josi, who writes occasional columns for the Washington Times and the Huffington Post. The 41 year old divorcee has three children who visit at weekends.
“Like my interests and background, my style is very eclectic and in a constant state of flux! My last place was very Ralph Lauren: country style which, as you can tell by the photos, is pretty much the opposite of my new place. I like change and I like to always consider everything a work in progress. I’m trying to create a nice space whilst meeting my financial obligations to the kids and their mom.”
We particularly love the orange paint, the pile of books by the bed, the cosy lighting and the Andy Warhol. Yes, it’s an original.
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Have you met Miss Jones?
I had a lovely little escape to the Hunter Valley at the weekend and the Autumn colours on the trees were just gorgeous. I paid a return visit to a small winery called Hanging Tree and fell in love with the Cellar Door’s charming decor all over again. There are plenty of larger, more expensive Cellar Doors in the Hunter these days but this little one really stands out for me. What do you think?
The White House in Daylesford, VIC
This beautiful country home full of vintage treasure belongs to interior designer Lynda Gardener, owner of Empire Vintage in Melbourne’s Albert Park. “The White House was something I had always dreamed about; a country property and somewhere special. Daylesford is just that,” says Lynda.
“The house is an 1850s brick miner’s cottage and needed every wall, floorboard and most windows replaced. The four walls are really all that was kept. It had been renovated in the 1980s and for my eyes, ruined. It took months of a great team to bring it back to life and I am just so very proud of it now.
“It has a great feel and as I have now also turned it into accomodation, my guests feel the same. I have filled it to the brim with all my favorite vintage items, from industrial work benches and a claw foot bath to handmade union jack flag cushions, vintage artwork, old leather 1930s club chairs and so on. There is a divine garden room for guests to stay in too that is a pure white, linen filled room, once again filled with character and hand selected one-off items.
“The place is so loved, not just by me now but all the guests who stay, that it is booked out six months in advance most of the time. I’m very happy!”
Tune in tomorrow to meet the woman behind the White House, Lynda Gardener. She tells Interiors Addict about her work, her style and her top tips for making your own home fabulous.
Photography: Tim James
Passion for print leads to a new wallpaper business for Lynne Testoni
Creating her own wallpaper range has been “the most wonderful journey” for former journalist and marketer Lynne Testoni, managing director of Moore & Moore.
With a background in lifestyle magazines, she then worked in marketing for some large retailers including a paint company. “That’s where I was first exposed to wallpaper and I was immediately smitten! I could see how much you could do with it and how much fun it was!”
Lynne saw a fit with her magazine experience as she knew a lot about printing and I found it fascinating. She has spent the last year establishing the business, doing market research and developing the designs. Moore & Moore’s first collection was launched in January.
“One of the most challenging elements was to source the wallpaper base paper, which was created especially for me by Australian Paper, the last remaining paper company in Australia. They developed it just for me using the benchmarks I set after my research. This development took about four months but it was worth it. A local wallpaper hanger says it is the best paper he has ever worked with!”
The designs were created by artist KT Doyle, in collaboration with Lynne. The pair aimed for classic with an Australian twist, so the Damask design (a popular European style) was created using native Flannel Flowers. The Gum Leaves design is, of course, particularly Aussie.
The wallpaper is printed in Australia, giving Moore & Moore a massive advantage over other companies. “Because everything is sourced locally I can respond to local demand quickly, which is a real plus in the wallpaper market. Most wallpaper sold here is from overseas so many people have to wait for weeks for stocks and even samples. I can supply customers almost immediately, plus I think that I have sourced the sort of designs and colours that Australians are interested in. Many of the overseas papers are far busier and in stronger colours than what we usually like in this country.”
Photography of Lynne’s Sydney home by John Paul Urizar.
In our bid to prove you really can make your mark on a rental home, this week interior designer Joanna Ford shares her living room with Interiors Addict. What do you think of the before and afters?
Having lived in London for almost five years, Joanna and her family returned home to Bayside, Melbourne at the start of this year. With longterm tenants in their own house, they have been forced to rent for a year or so. “This is the fifth new home for our young family in the past seven years and I needed to create a space that feels stable and familiar for the children, particularly as they transition to a ‘new’ country, new school etc. At the same time it’s likely to be just 12-to-18 months before we move into our own home.
“The living room/library is a large space at the front of the house that had previously been used as a formal lounge and dining area. My first step in transitioning this into our space was to assess the best zone and flow of the house for our family’s needs. With a younger family, we wanted the dining area close to the kitchen, and away from the television. We also deliberately wanted to separate our ‘work’ space from our relaxation space, and wanted to reinforce the importance of reading for all of us by creating dedicated spaces encouraging quiet reading (including reading nooks in the childrens’ bedrooms),” says Joanna.
“Having decided on the best use of this space for our family, the next challenge was to blend the traditional features and very neutral palette with our furniture, and add some colour, familiarity and identity. I used two feature floor lamps, one in black and one in chrome reflecting the furniture, to help create two distinct zones with their own ambience and mood. I re-covered the seating and some backing cushions in the bay window to lift the neutral cream by adding some bold colours which can be easily removed at the end of our tenancy. Then I used a bold rug to add warmth, colour and texture, which helps tie the stark modern furniture into the more traditional setting. The soft furnishings in the living room and the knick-knacks and the books in the library record our life and travels in Europe.”
Joanna is a great believer that you make rental houses homes that reflect your style and needs just as much as somewhere you own. “In London, my family lived in three different rented homes, which I also sought to set up and style as far as possible, given the constraints of a transient ex-pat renter’s lifestyle. While repainting or wallpapering a room may often be out of the question, there are a range of inexpensive, non-permanent fittings that can really style up a room, add your own personality, and be taken with you to your next property, such as a stylish lamp, wall art, rugs and throws. Even in the children’s bedrooms, small touches like a cosy reading corner made out of plush cushions can make a huge difference.”
She adds: “It’s also important to establish how a rented home can flow and work for you, rather than how it may have worked for the previous tenants or landlord. This one thing has made a transformational difference for my family in our current home.”
Milan Direct is probably the cheapest place in Australia to buy stylish reproduction dining chairs online. These are all just $99 or $129 each, a lot cheaper than some of the more well known repro furniture websites.
Some time back in 2009, before the world and his wife cottoned onto the whole Keep Calm and Carry On craze, I imported a pink version of this now iconic print from Keep Calm Gallery in the UK. I’m kind of over it now but it cost a fortune to frame so I’m keeping hold of it. I’ve also bought these other two prints from there. Being a journalist, I love typography and love having art on the walls that’s made of words. It’s like Keep Calm Gallery was designed with me in mind as the perfect customer! Every week I see something else I want and everyone comments on the prints when they come to my place. What with the fact they ship to Australia and the dollar being so strong at the moment, these are dangerous times…
Find them at www.keepcalmgallery.com
People are forever asking me how you can make a rental home nice without spending too much money or doing anything permanent. I’ve had a lot of fun and success with wall stickers. Melbourne-based The Wallsticker Company have some of the best around and I’ve owned a few, including the blossom tree (pictured), so I can vouch for their great quality and customer service. I think their chalkboard stickers (which you can actually chalk on) and wallpaper strips are particularly cool. Best of all, many of them are under $100. Check them out at www.thewallstickercompany.com.au
I always put fabrics down first, so I get the feel of the thing. I might put 20 fabrics down and end up using 7, then I start throwing in bits of furniture. I look at it like I’m taking pieces from a wardrobe and just laying them out. If you tried it all on, you would take a few things off, so that’s kind of how I approach it.
Do you remember the first time you got excited about interiors? I do, clear as day. It was 1994 and I was 13. After my father and stepmother’s messy divorce, I scored my (ex) stepsister’s bedroom. It was the first time I’d had my own room. Until then I’d shared with my younger sister Kate and in our early years we had a ‘telephone’ between our bunkbeds made of two toilet roll inners connected by a piece of string. That’s by the by…
When I moved into my new room I remember bursting into tears on my dad, proclaiming the room was “nothing like me!” What a brat, right? No doubt fuelled by divorce-related guilt, Dad got me a new (blue) carpet, yellow pine (cringe) tallboy and dressing table and new curtains made from navy fabric with gold stars and moons on it.
Oh, how I adored those curtains, and their matching cushions for my single bed (remember those?). I don’t know if it was the same in Australia, but back in the early nineties in the UK, if you were a teenager, stars and moons were everything.
This bedroom had a soundtrack of Blur and Nirvana and a smell of incense sticks and Calvin Klein CK One. I had a director’s chair, which I thought was extremely trendy, and soft toys were no longer allowed on the bed.
I think that’s where my obsession with interiors started. I really wish I had a photograph of that room now but I can see every detail if I just imagine it. Happy days…
The Bulimba home Fleur Madden-Topley shares with husband Rohan was a real family affair. Her brother Nick built it and her mother, Tracy, is an interior designer, who helped her achieve her “modern and glamorous” look. The 30 year-old PR agency owner admits she may have been her mother’s most challenging client yet!
“Working full time and selecting fittings, fixtures and interiors is challenging and daunting, so I would certainly recommend getting assistance from experts,” says Fleur. “The fittings and fixtures didn’t take long to select as I knew we wanted a neutral palette, but I had very specific thoughts on things I wanted for the interiors and we just kept searching until I was happy.”
Fleur stuck with a neutral base to avoid going too over the top, always keeping resale at the back of her mind. “The majority of things I selected were white, black, silver or latte. We just accented with wallpapers, soft furnishings and accessories in either pink or blue. I was really cautious in terms of resale as I didn’t want to have anything too overpowering that other people might find offensive.
“I also decorated a very masculine study and upstairs TV area so that there was a balance for Rohan. I’m still working on the accessories eight months later, it all takes time.”
Fleur, who owns Red PR gets the most comments on her bedroom. “The wallpaper really works because everything else is white and cream so there is no competing and the wallpaper really is the feature. We wanted a bedroom that felt grand and glamorous, but still comfortable and warm.”
The couple will be welcoming a new resident to their five-bedroom Queensland home later this year as they have been approved to adopt a baby from Korea. Fleur won’t be decorating the nursery until she knows if it’s a girl or a boy. “I do know what I want though for each though and let’s just say it won’t be a standard baby room!”
She’s promised us photos when it’s done so watch this space…
Valerie Khoo loves beautiful things and has a wonderful collection of pieces in her top floor apartment in Sydney’s Lower North Shore. She credits long time friend and interior designer Luisa Volpato with helping her get everything just right.
You’d be forgiven for thinking pint-sized animal lover Valerie was a pushover, what with her penchant for such girly things, but you’d be underestimating her. The founder of Sydney Writer’s Centre is a former journalist and very smart young businesswoman who has been known to work out with kettle bells! She’s also a successful blogger and in-demand public speaker.
Valerie says: “The look I would like to live in is “elegant opulence” but when you have two cats and two dogs this can sometimes turn into “Oh-my-God-who-spewed-on-the-designer-rug-and-how-the-hell-am-I-going-to-get-this-out?”
If you hadn’t noticed, Valerie loves her pets! She shares her home of three years with partner Peter, cats Rex and Rocky and dogs Rambo and Dougal.
“It was great working with Luisa Volpato. I’ve known her for many years so she understands what I like, my idiosyncrasies and how important my pets are. As a result, I trusted her implicitly,” says Valerie.
“She has a great sense of style. We talked about what I wanted to achieve and I also cut out pictures I liked from interiors magazines so that she could get a feel for what appealed to me.
“She developed some concepts and brought over pictures and samples. To be honest, it was a much easier process than I expected and I enjoyed every minute of it. If and when I move, I would definitely ask Luisa to design the interiors of the whole house.”