I was asked to come up with a sleek and simple curtain treatment to complement this architectural designed interior. I chose to create a two tone affect using the stone and aluminum hearth as the ‘line’ between the white and warm grey fabrics. These are thermally lined for added comfort over winter.
The thing that I love most about restaurant design is that you are creating a short but dynamic experience for someone. You’re conjuring up an environment where they can feel like they’ve escaped the outside world. It’s as important as the quality of the service and the food so it’s really fun when the interior reflects a theme to provide an all encompassing experience. I particularly like the styling in this Melbourne Restaurant; Hellenic Republic. The hardy rope room divider, the surly ‘lobster pot’ shades, the Greek key motif on the blue and white tiled table and the painted chairs with rush seats magic up a Greek experience that would leave you feeling like you’d escaped urban reality for the evening. You can almost smell the salt in the air…
Images via Gourmet Traveller, The Melbourne Age and Good Food
This morning I saw some Roman blinds that I arranged for a Client last year. Her children had chosen their wallpapers so I came up with window treatments to complement them. New York cool and a contemporary floral…
Surface, texture and pattern get me very excited so the discovery of Giles Miller Studio has totally made my day! First up to whet my appetite is the hexagonal ‘Alexander’ tile in white ceramic or walnut. The scale is immense and its three dimensionality gives it a shimmering quality. What’s more the appearance can change depending on the angles that the tiles are laid, playing on light, dark and shade. This works particularly well in the walnut finish as subtle graphics can be drawn out of the pattern. All of Giles Miller Studio’s tiles are like this – they blow the traditional notion of ’tiling’ right out of the water.
They’ve also very cleverly created ‘Fluting’, a process which adjusts the angle of corrugated cardboard. This allows them to depict shadowy scenes or images in an abstract kind of way. Stella McCartney picked up on this and used the finish in her Dallas boutique (below). Incidentally I’ve always loved Stella’s shop interiors – they often play with new materials and beautifully crafted finishes that are either new or artisan. The dancers in the image below that are in the Met Bar in London.
I am totally wowed by Giles Miller Studio and I look forward to seeing what they do next!
All images via Giles Miller Studio website
Timorous Beasties first caught my attention when they launched their London Toile fabric; a cheeky take on the traditional French Toile de Juoy. Instead of quaint country scenes of folk frolicking in meadows with rabbits, this is an edgy toile depicting inner city mischief against a backdrop of London landmarks. In classic Timorous Beasties style the overall pattern is quintessential, appealing and even pretty until you get close enough to see the detail. Since then they’ve launched their Glasgow and New York toiles with the same attitude. But these Gaswegians don’t just start and stop with Toile de Juoy, they’ve brought so much more to the party with a growing selection of fabric, wallpaper and accessories along the same cool, sometimes alarming, graphic lines. They’ve also had input into some seriously gorgeous interior and exterior design.
There’s a great interview / article with the guys themselves via The Guardian here. All visuals care of Timorous Beasties website.
London Toile
Grand Blotch Damask
Tree of Life
Birds and Bees
I have this wee fascination with tented rooms and a hankering to design one – anyone up for it? Sure they could be chintzy, overly patterned and scary but then again they can be masculine, elegant and supremely cool like these…
I don’t often get excited about gadgets and hi-fi (or whatever you’d call it), but these speaker-y things are just so damn sexy!
So I’m currently obsessed with Geneva Sound Systems and the sound that these babies produce is amazing (even I could tell that but I did double check with my husband and he confirmed it). My big lust is for the ‘L’ in walnut. I mean, how discreet and sassy can your sound system get? Check out BoConcept because that’s where they’re at. Yum.
Photos care of Geneva
Resene’s Habitat of the Week online newsletter has not one piece of my painted furniture but two pieces! How fab. Check it out here. Now is the perfect time to be thinking about garden furniture and colouring your summer landscape. Remember, these are made to order and the design and dimensions can be adapted to suit your requirements. The same applies to the Teddy House… Everything is do-able and we love a challenge!
I’ve just returned from dressing the living room of a lovely home in Plimmerton. My Clients asked me to re-cover their sofa and chairs and add finishing touches with cushions to balance the scheme. With views directly to Mana Island and beyond that the South Island, I couldn’t help but be influenced by the seaside location. The curtains and rug informed the palette and we took it from there…
The sofa before re-covering
Chairs and an occasional chair that wanted some attention too
The sofa and scatter cushions
Chairs with 'happy' cushions
Occasional chair
The dressed room
This image of a bedroom designed by Todhunter Earle has been sitting on the pinboard above my desk for a couple of months now. I love the combined textures of the fabric, ceramic, timber and cane, the colour palette, the collection and the scale and composition of the room. It’s just yummy and it illustrates how serene bold colour can be if you’ve got the recipe right.
