Various coffee makers on commercial kitchen counter
Custom wallpaper company Design To Print has collaborated with RMIT textile students again this year with some pretty fabulous results. The partnership (which began in 2015) gives RMIT students studying the Bachelor of Arts in Textile Design, the opportunity to work on a live brief and sell their designs to the public. Obviously, this sort of commercial exposure is invaluable for any budding designer.
Design by RMIT student Stephanie Cannalonga
“It goes without saying that it is of primary importance that emerging textile designers have every opportunity to work with the industry on live projects. The Design To Print custom wallpaper project engages students with the wider market comprising home renovators, decorators and designers, enabling them to bring their highly creative design ideas to a myriad of applications,” says Claire Beale, RMIT program manager. The collection has certainly piqued our interest and we’re particularly taken with Stephanie Cannalonga’s striking designs.
Design by RMIT student Alice Rooney
“From the perspective of the program, projects that showcase the skills of textile designers to a broad customer base are a great way to inform the public about just what it is we can do to enhance your life and demonstrate to the design profession the potential for collaboration and innovation in a commercial sector,” says Claire.
Design by RMIT student Maddy North
“It was a totally invigorating experience to be among such enthusiastic and talented young people with a passion to create, and who are not afraid to explore their imagination,” says Gianni Favaro, managing director of Design To Print.
Design by RMIT student Qing Lin
Available to purchase on the Design to Print custom wallpaper shop, all of the new student designs are available for $120 per square metre and a commission is paid to each student when their work is purchased.
You can now pick up some sheets with your stationery as Typo extends its homewares offering into linen, launching its first collection next month.
Available online and in select Australian and New Zealand Typo stores, it includes fashionable and affordable quilt covers, sheet sets and pillowcases, all designed to be pared back with their signature printed cushions and throws.
As we head into autumn, the colour palette is about soft pastel tones with mint and yellow mixed in with neutral hues such as taupe, charcoal and white, allowing the most novice of home decorators to create a fresh and vibrant living space.
The new collection will allow Typo customers to refresh their space completely or add items to update it, with the range offering an abundance of new room décor and accessories, including floor mats, textured vases, printed wall hangings, dreamcatchers, light boxes, twinkle lights and brightly coloured candles.
“We created the collection after seeing a gap in the market, particularly among university students and young adults, for unique, fashion-driven bedding and room décor at an affordable price,” explains Typo’s head of trend, Jessica Granberg. “The range is all about bright, vibrant colour mixed in with more neutral tones to create a positive, calm and relaxing space to study or unwind after a hard day’s work.”
Staying true to Typo’s value-driven promise, prices start at $24.99 for a cushion through to $149 for a queen quilt set, allowing customers to create a stylish and unique living space without breaking the bank.
Available from next month. Watch this space for more details on the exact February launch date.
Entries are now open for the 2015 Dulux Colour Awards, Australia’s premier showcase of paint application in commercial and residential environments.
The newly expanded competition will see the introduction of three new categories, increasing the possibilities for innovative examples of inspiring colour application.
Commercial Interior – Public Spaces & Hospitality (New)
Commercial Exterior
Single Residential Interior
Single Residential Exterior
Multi Residential Interior
Multi Residential Exterior
International (New)
Student.
The 2015 program also sees a change in the entry process with entrants not required to submit a board as part of their initial entry, making it easier for industry professionals to gain recognition for their work. Only those who make it to the finalist stage will be required to complete a showcase board.
Each category winner will receive prize money and a certificate. All entries, except for the student category, will also stand the chance of taking out the Grand Prix title. The Grand Prix winner will receive $5,000 cash and a certificate.
Entries for all nine categories are open until Thursday 12 February 2015. For information on how to enter visit their website.
Here at Interiors Addict, we just don’t buy into the idea that rental homes have to look bland or lacking in style and personality. Rent My Style is dedicated to showcasing the best of our readers’ rental home decorating efforts. They’re not show homes, they’re real homes!
With an artist mother, Bonnie Muir grew up in homes bursting with colour, pattern and paintings. “To me, the little touches and objects wherever you look that show the personality of the people that live in the space, are what make a house a home,”she says.
The 22 year old lives here with her boyfriend Samuel, and it’s their first home since leaving their parents’ nests! They’re both students, so can’t splash the cash on furniture and homewares, but they’ve certainly put their stamp on the place in just five months! “I have always loved interiors,”said Bonnie, who’d like to work in the industry one day. “It was really important to me to create a space I love to be in. The thing I worried about with renting, was that I would not be able to create a homely feeling, and that our house would end up stark and bare. I definitely think I had nothing to worry about!”
Bonnie had a decent art collection thanks to her mum’s efforts which helped fill the walls. “She paints on incredibly lightweight canvases, so they hang on removable 3M Command Hooks, which makes life incredibly easy! The majority of the pictures hanging in the bedroom are bargains that I picked up in secondhand shops. I have always loved dogs and flowers, and so I have been building up a collection over the past few years whenever I see something I like.”
Gallery wall in the bedroom
The map collection in her study was one big bargain. “The large ones are wrapping paper prints and were only $8.95 each. The small ones all come from an old mini desk calendar that I pulled apart and put into op-shop frames, all painted white. Again, Command Hooks are the saviour here! I did a similar thing with pages from an old diary in the kitchen. The diary featured images of ads from the 20th century, and I just picked a few favourites and put them in some IKEA frames.”
The couple, who live in South Australia, are lucky to have friendly landlords (they even said yes to a kitten!). “There have been two things that I have actually had to put nails into the walls for (the pegboard for my jewellery, and the large map in the bedroom), but I checked with them first, and they gave me the all-clear, so long as I patch them up when it comes time to leave.”
In the living room, Bonnie swapped the existing curtains (putting them away safely to return when she moves out) for a cheap fresh white pair from Spotlight. “It has really made the space a lot lighter and brighter!” When it came to furniture, the students bought their TV unit, dining table and couch from good old IKEA. “We managed to get the couch as an ex-demo for only $500 because of a tiny scratch on the arm. Our dining chair are just fold-up chairs we got from Officeworks for $12 each, but the colours match perfectly and they’re all we need.”
There are pre-loved Gumtree finds in the mix too. Bonnie’s bedside table is an old meat safe with the legs cut off. “It did take some patience: I was compulsively checking the listings every hour for about two weeks each time, but it definitely paid off!”
Her main tip for renters is that it doesn’t have to be expensive to put your personality into your home. “Be inventive! Use bits of interesting wrapping paper in a cheap frame to create some artwork, go trawling through junk stores to find things you can update, or even just do something as simple as getting bedding that makes you happy and gives an injection of colour into the room!
“Customise anything you can to get the feeling you want your house to have. The lamp on my bedside table was only about $50 from a lighting shop, and it came with a boring, basic white shade. I had met a woman at a market who made lampshades and pillowcases, and so I got her to make something funky for me. Bargain shops and secondhand shops will become your best friends if you let them.”
Bonnie’s been surprised at how easy it’s been to make her places hers (even though, technically, it isn’t). “I honestly thought it would look a lot barer than it does, and that it would also take me a lot longer to get it looking how I wanted it to. The only real challenge I have had was trying to convince Samuel that it would all actually look good together! Because I have quite eclectic and colourful taste, in the moving van it all looked like a hot mess! He has really let me take the reins on decorating here (which I am very thankful for), but I think I’ve managed to create a space that we can both share and enjoy. I’m very proud of the home I have created.”
We think you should be, Bonnie! Thanks for showing us around and sharing your tips!
Three up-and-coming designers have been given $2,000 towards their professional qualifications: the first recipients of the IKEA Rhodes design grant.
They are Christina Brooks from Concord, Sarah Reason from Campbelltown and Celine Huggins from Winmalee in the Blue Mountains. They now have the opportunity to take their design career to the next level with financial support to study interior design at one of Sydney’s top interior design schools, based at TAFE SWSi’s Lidcombe College.
Up-and-coming local designers have the chance to win a $2,000 grant to help them gain professional qualifications next year, thanks to IKEA Rhodes and TAFE NSW – South Western Sydney Institute (SWSi).
TAFE students on work placement at IKEA Rhodes
To be in with a chance, they must demonstrate their creativity by redesigning a corner of their own home using images of IKEA’s products from its iconic catalogue. Entries will be published on the Lidcombe Xposed Facebook Page where members of the public will be encouraged to show their support by ‘liking’ their favourite design.
The top 5 entries with the most Facebook likes will then be printed and displayed at the Rhodes store between Monday 30 December 2013 and Friday 10 January 2014, where customers will get the final say.
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.
