I know it’s hard to think of winter JUST yet (the weather’s still pretty nice after all) but what might cheer you up are the gorgeous new things released by Freedom this week.
Here’s a first look at their new collection. Which pieces do you like best? I’m mad about all things copper so those table lamps have me really excited! No surprises that the popular Brooklyn sofa (below) is going nowhere.
And there’s my old favourite Spaghetti side table (below) in a new black version.
By Tony Isgrove
You’ve been through the process of designing your dream scheme, so now what? How do you engage a professional and reliable tradesman to bring your vision to life? Engaging a true painting and decorating professional can represent a bit of a minefield.
Your first step is choosing who to invite in to your home to quote. There are two ways I recommend to narrow this down:
Downsizing is never easy, from prioritising what to keep to storage optimisation; a life change that is supposed to make things simpler can be riddled with challenges. An empty nest is very rarely empty of stuff; in fact, quite the opposite!
Interior stylist Bettina Deda, author of the new book Downsize with Style, has created a foolproof five-step process to help start the next chapter of your life:
Step 1: De-clutter and tidy up
Start to tidy up and de-clutter your family home. Take inventory. Allocate each item to one of these piles: things to keep, things to donate, things to sell and things that go straight into the bin.
Interior stylist Tahn Scoon, author of New Vintage: the Handmade Home, is running a workshop on 1 March called Decorating Kids’ Rooms and Family Spaces.
Learn tips and tricks for how to create gorgeous interiors for children and families on any budget.
Coco Republic Design School have just released their new courses for the first half of 2014. If studying decorating or styling is one of your New Year Resolutions, why not check them out?
There’s everything from one-day masterclasses to 12-month TAFE-accredited courses. Study is in Sydney’s Alexandria, but they also have a number of online courses.
I only discovered House of Lulu this week but it just celebrated its first birthday. It’s owned by Vicki Sapountzis, who studied decorating at RMIT, and is one of those people whose friends always wanted to know where she found her latest buys.
There’s a great selection of rugs, cushions, vases, prints, kitchenware, accessories and more. I pulled together some of my favourites (above) including the gold leaf agate bookends (can’t get enough of agate lately!), dip-dye tassels and cool cushions. I think the prices are very reasonable.
Sponsored by Nuffnang
Imagine an online game (I say game because it’s so fun, but you could also call it a tool on account of how useful it is) where you can spend hours creating dream rooms and filling them with furniture available in the real world, then sharing them on your social networks at the click of a button. Introducing neybers!
The possibilities are endless. You can change everything from room layout, wall coverings, number and type of windows, lighting, furniture, rugs, art and accessories. It’s easy to resize, move and flip the furniture and you can get started straight away. Whether it’s just for fun, to help you with your plans for your own home, your future home, or even as a budding interior designer, this is addictive and the results look great. If you have some time off this Christmas, you may find yourself on this for hours without realising it!
By Lexi Kentmann
I am a massive fan of colour. I think it helps lift your mood, makes life more fun, and in a kid’s room – it’s a no-brainer. Kids naturally love colour.
My approach to kids rooms? It’s pretty relaxed. I’m not matchy-matchy, and I love collecting bits and pieces that tell a story, or have a function. I am huge on products that do double-duty (like a stool also acting as a bedside table), I’m not a fan of treading on LEGO, and I adore storage. Because let’s face it – when you have kids – you need storage. And lots of it. I’m not into licensed kids products. Gosh. No siree. However my kids ARE. So where possible, I steer them away from that stuff, and into good stuff. Non-merch stuff.
1. Giant Corn Cob Stool from Third Drawer Down:
Look – I adore the big things Australia has. The Big Banana, The Big Pineapple, The Big Ram, The Big Prawn. For so, so long I have adored this! It’s fun, quirky, and certainly not something you’ll see in everyone’s home. What’s not to love about an oversized corn cob that you can sit on and do story time on. Plus I think just as it might appeal to a small person – I can easily imagine this being quite at home in a teenager’s bedroom.
2. Kip and Co pretzel sheet set:
These pretzels don’t make you thirsty – and if they do, don’t come out and ask for a glass of water 76 times stalling bedtime. As a kid I always loved having my own special sheets. These are SO on my wish list! Of course for my daughter’s room *cough*, and not mine.
By Karen Clough
It’s amazing what a lick of paint can achieve when you’re looking to transform the feel of a room in your home. Sadly, it’s not always going to cut the mustard – particularly when your home needs some drastic modernising or renovating. This is the story of my recent life.
After moving into an abandoned home with no kitchen – you read that right, no kitchen – a little over 2 years ago, I’m finally extending the house and shall be installing a brand spanking new culinary masterpiece before Christmas. It’s a messy job, and although most people don’t wait quite so long to get the job going, here are some things I’ve learned along the way as to how you can get by without those essential rooms.
By Shaynna Blaze
Travelling the world via the web – trawling blogs, pinning images on Pinterest and saving endless images to style folders – is one way that I like to draw inspiration, but it’s my actual visits to far flung destinations that really ignite my senses and get my creative juices flowing. Recently I was lucky enough to travel to some notoriously stylish American destinations: New York City and its nearby beach town, The Hamptons.
Taking in the visual style of New York City I saw that light greys, raw concrete, battered timbers, contrasting black and whites and industrial lighting are indicative of the city’s décor palette. The overall lack of vibrant colour was noticeable throughout the borough of Manhattan and it became apparent that NYC tends to stay true to its traditional blend of raw material and simple white-on-white colour scheme.
As we prepare for the unveiling of our Palm Beach apartment project at the end of the month, I asked Emma Blomfield of Nest Designs what special considerations need to be made when furnishing a holiday rental.
Durability and being easy to clean are 2 of the top, and less pretty and creative priorities when embarking on your holiday rental. “You never know who will be renting the apartment and when you might have families with children there for summer holidays, you can’t be sure how it will withstand a visit from sticky fingers or what will happen during a game of hide and seek,” says Emma. “Materials that should be avoided are things like glass top tables that aren’t secured, veneers — they are soft, dent easily and don’t withstand heavy duty cleaning agents that the cleaning company might use – and high gloss MDF as it scratches easily and ages faster.”
When it comes to flooring, hardwearing is key. Tiles, sisal carpet and timber floors are best. “There are loads of wool carpet options too that are commercial grade and come in a huge range of colours to suit your decor.”
Emma also had to think about easy and regular cleaning between guests. “I’ve chosen bench tops that have flecks of taupe and brown so any scratches or spills won’t be obvious. The sofa is scotch guarded to prevent spills staining and the rug is a jute material, making it easy to shake out to clean. Sisal carpet is good for disguising sandy footprints.”
I have an exciting new project to share with you today and I’ll be sharing it with you from start to finish over the next few weeks! A few months ago, I was approached by Judith Webster, who had just bought an investment property on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, to help her style and decorate it and share the process with my readers.
I loved the idea of course, but with a wedding to organise and not actually being a stylist or interior designer, I thought I decided to pass this project on to my friend Emma Blomfield at Nest Designs, knowing what a great job she’d do. One of you will get the chance to win a weekend away at the apartment once it’s finished! Sound good? Yes, I thought so!
Work has just begun, with a a thorough clearout and paint job and plans for a new kitchen and flooring. Today I’m sharing Emma’s moodboards for each room with you.
Judith, who first met me when she came to my blogging course at the Australian Writers Centre in Sydney, said: “Earlier this year I bought a two-bedroom apartment at Palm Beach. It is in a small, resort style complex that was developed about 10 years ago for holiday stays. It’s right in the heart of Palm Beach with the beach, restaurants, boutiques and ferry all within walking distance.
For the third year running, the Design Institute of Australia Victoria/Tasmania Branch’s student and graduate body ED (Emerging Designers) is hosting Inside Nights from 26 to 29 August.
The unique opportunity allows design students and recent graduates to visit studios, meet practicing design professionals and gain valuable insight into their profession.
I don’t have kids, but stylist Megan Morton does, and she can often be found creating magical experiences for other people’s little ones at The School too. On this basis (and the fact her last two books were fabulous) I was pretty sure I Heart My Room, a book about children’s bedrooms, would be great fun. And it is.
Kids’ bedrooms can be a series of challenges and charms from precious first drawings to piles of toys and dirty washing. I Heart My Room showcases the charms and presents solutions for the challenges. It’s keeping it real and I love that.
Rather than a collection of immaculate children’s rooms created by interior designers, the pages are filled with spaces which celebrate the young occupants themselves. From whimsical nurseries to expressive teen rooms, you will find clever storage methods and inspiring ideas on how to decorate in a way that is true to your child’s personality. And if you can’t have fun with kids’ rooms, when can you?
As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Brit Abigail Ahern and her bold, unconventional interior style, which tends to break every rule in the book, with gusto! I’m delighted she’s written these tips for Interiors Addict and shared photos from her home, and her sister Gemma’s, with us. “Pattern and texture are the herbs and spices of the decorating world,” she says. “They add instant pizzazz to a room, turning if from drab to fab in a second, and I am the hugest fan. The trick is to ditch everything you’ve ever been taught about combining. You won’t need to bring anything to the table other than the ability to think a little differently.”
Abigail’s pattern and texture tips
1. You can never (repeat never) overdose on texture. The more you add the more intriguing a room becomes. The key is to create as much friction as you can (bad in relationships, fundamental in interiors)! Mix rough with smooth, slubby with polished; it will never feel too much.
2. You can mix as many patterns as you want (forget all that mumbo jumbo about combining small scale motifs mixed with large scale patterns). The game changer is to reign in the colour palette. Do that and you can mix to your heart’s content.
Sherrie Coleman helps people with choosing special pieces of art for their homes on a daily basis. She has noticed more and more Aussies running with the European trend for changing your decor with the seasons.
“Four seasons? I’m not sure about that. These days there are probably about eight – and none of them run in order anymore!” she says.
“In the cooler months, we tend to live a little slower, cook hearty meals and spend more time at home. People are inspired to bring their focus indoors, bringing warm colours into the home, rich in golds, pinks and deep oranges. In the warmer months, people put more energy into life. We want our key environment, our home, to reflect the way we choose to live – which changes with the seasons. Warm, comforting colours for the winter and cool, energetic, bright images for summer.”
Sherrie, who runs Saltmotion Gallery in Sydney’s Manly, advises keeping it easy. “Adapting your home should be simple by just focusing on the key rooms: the living area, bedroom and even the kitchen if you’re the overachiever type. With just a few changes, you can make a huge difference to your home environment and how it makes you feel.”
Her four tips for a seasonal home
1. Install a dimmer switch on your lights (can be as little as $20 and installed yourself) and use in conjunction with candles in winter.
Houzz is the largest platform for home design and remodeling in the US, online and on smartphones. And it’s now starting to make an impact on Australia.
Imagine the biggest design magazine on earth; the single largest library of design photos and articles, all in one place, that can all be sorted, shared and curated to a personal scrapbook. It exists. More than 550,000 full size, original residential design photos, contributed by almost 100,000 interior designers (including Sydney’s Greg Natale), architects, photographers and other design pros from around the world, can be sorted (by location, room type and style), searched and saved.
It’s amazing how much you can pack into three hours. I left last night’s Coco Republic Design School session with Darren Palmer feeling three things: impressed (by Darren’s amazing work), inspired (to make my own home even nicer employing his expert tips) and just generally excited (because that’s how I get when I’m around anything interiors, especially surrounded by other interiors addicts!).
It was a full house for the session (there’s another tomorrow) which was all about how to work with your home to show it in its best light, covering the most common problems, offering solutions and advice. And Darren made it a really enjoyable experience by being a natural, warm presenter with a sense of humour who shared countless before and afters (you can never have too many before and afters in my opinion; interiors or weightloss!) and answered many questions.
Now I couldn’t possibly share it all here in one blog post (which is why I’m going to do one a day for the rest of this week) and I’m going to pick out what I took most from it and hope you find it useful too.
You know what my biggest issue with decorating my home is? IMPATIENCE. This is why I rush into choosing and buying things, only to get them home and find they don’t quite work, or love them for two weeks and then want a completely different scheme (we don’t talk about the orange bedroom anymore). So although I found it hard to hear, I totally agree with Darren’s advice to put a good deal of planning into your interiors before you even start parting with any cash. He threw around words like focus, control and EDITING which are hard for a girl who wants everything done by yesterday to hear, but I have to admit he is so right and had I been at this session last year I could have saved myself a lot of time, money and frustration (not to mention arguments with the boyfriend about wasting money).
We’ve all been there. There is SO much choice you don’t know where to begin. Darren says: “The more constraints you can put on an interior the better. An interior can’t be all things to all people,” and adds: “it’s important to have a consistent, considered and cohesive approach to the items you choose.” My approach is so the opposite of that, I have to laugh. Sometimes I’ve got it terribly wrong. Other times I think I’ve been blessed by a bit of luck. Just when I thought Darren was already sounding way too serious, he says: “Be diligent, focused and controlled. It’s not that fun!” Spoilsport or what?!
He is absolutely right though isn’t he? How often have you wished you’d waited until you could afford the coffee table you really wanted or wished you hadn’t rushed into that ‘trendy’ colour scheme that really didn’t work for you in reality?
So, today’s lesson is patience and planning. Tune in tomorrow for some more fun stuff…
(Did I mention what a pleasure it was to finally meet Darren in real life?)
