RED CARPET TO NUDE WALLS

Nude is back on our backs.

To try to establish what interior trends will rear their beautiful heads for AW15 one must always look to the catwalk. One trend I noticed in particular is our controversial friend nude. It was all over the catwalk, the red carpets and magazine covers.

Dolce and Gabanna AW15 'Hurrah for Mamma':

Well hurrah for the random use of babies in this show. Show me something cuter. I'm sure they must have doped them on something to keep the peskies quiet for the show. I'm also curious to know if they designed D&G AW15 nappies.. if so I want some to backstock some for when I pop kids out. 

Jo Lo and some random from the Oscars in their nude ensembles:

Now in fashion there is a straightforward equation; Nude + fit girl = winner.

But in the home Nude = 1982 just called and asked for their nude bathroom suite back.

Oh, fancy tile trim you design maverick you...

But look here;

J-Lo is Elie Sabb | Bodie + Fou 'Brooklyn Tins' Wallpaper | ASOS nude skirt

What'd'a know. It works! 

Design tips for making nude work; 

1. Always partner with a cooler colour; greys, whites, blacks.  It needs a strong colour to ground it and keep it bold and not insipid. 

2. Work natural timber finishes alongside; ash, lime-washed pine or oak, avoid wood with warm tones as you need an obvious contrast. (NB. Pic 2 above works only works with a warm wood floor as there's a solid block of a contrast colour in black separating the floor and nude wall) 

3. Use coppers, golds, brass metals with nude. It brings in another warm dimension but in a contrasting finish works with, not against, a nude wall 

4. Use accents to update your home; cushions for a sofa and bedding will make your home feel current and are a inexpensive update. Try H&M home for amazing deals 

5. PAINT IT!!!

I would recommend 'Pink Ground' by Farrow and Ball. Pretty as a peach. 

BRAND NEW BRAND

Well they're not exactly new... but nevertheless the title works and the products works even better.

Feast your eyes;

Stockholm-based Superfront are absolutely obliterating the 'fear-of-ikea' so many of us have. The idea is simple; you buy / upgrade your existing products from the basic Metod or Besta range - anything from sideboards to kitchens, and then you funk that shit up with Superfront.

Exhibit A:

Standard Besta storage unit 180 x 40 x 74cm
Total : £208 + hell trip to Ikea.

Side note;  always go weekdays people, always. Skive work, leave the kids home alone, do anything it takes but avoid rainy weekend days like Ebola. Also the delivery service they offer is quite possibly the biggest shambles that I have ever encountered; I would have rather walked the 15.4 miles through London to ikea and manually carried the 72 units home. I'm a seasoned ikea delivery user and it seems to get worse and worse each time. The last plonkers (what a great word) had a van that looked like a skip they'd robbed (maybe they had).

Exhibit B

Geometric charmer of a sideboard. That colour. That kick board.

Ikea hacking at it's best. The theory is that its gives us "the possibility to create high quality furniture and interiors at sensible prices". Nice concept. But actually once you buy the original unit from the Sweedish mothership, how many G's are we splashing on this?

BREAK IT DOwNNNNN:

Ikea Besta unit:                             £208

60 x 64 doors x 3: Total :             £243
60 x 40 Sides x 2: Total:               £79
180 x 40 (for 2 sides) Top: Total: £72
120mm plinths (x2 needed) :       £153

No handles required for this model (assume push pop)

Total = £755.

Now this may seem like a lot, but then when you look at what other funky, playful little sideboards are out there;

This chappy from Beut.co.uk at £2,694

This little minx from made.com at £399 

This mid-century inspired bloke from Swoon Editions at £499

And Mr. Smarty Pants from Nest.co.uk at £1,995

These are the 'affordable' ones. there were others, that required re-mortgaging to buy. So, £755 (plus postage of around £70) don't seem so bad after all. In fact, for a pretty much custom buy that you can get for an existing peace of furniture this is a god damn bargain!

Thoughts? 

B x

PRETTY THINGS FOR A GREY MONDAY

Sources here

And this amazing colour by Farrow and Ball. I'm thinking that this needs to feature somewhere in the Crib. In my head it's asking to be used on some furniture; legs of ash chairs, a feature stool or the like.... 

TUESDAYS SUCK

As I was walking to work on this disgusting grey, 'snowy' morning in London I wished I was here:

The Library | Hecker Guthrie 

Having this breakfast:

Blueberry Waffles | Joy The Baker

And drinking one of these:

That is all.

FEBRUARY WISHLIST

Do I care that throwing pink into the mix here is feeding the 'Commercialistic bullshit holiday' invented by Mega Corporations to make a few bones? Nope. Don't give a Fuck.

I like Pink and what better reason to chuck it in to a Feb-ulous February Wish List. 

If I wasn't poor i'd buy all of this immediately. But poverty strikes again. 

1. Sick Palm tree poster  that I want to frame in the slickest white timber frame (without a mount) and hang in my Miami beach house. That I don't have.

2. Perfection in the form of a dining chair. The Knot Chair by Tatsuo Kuroda. Look at him. So smart. I am punching above my financial weight with this chap - a girl can dream.

3. Pink blanket. Cheap and cheerful from my go-to place of all things affordable that are better than Ikea (in quality and style) H&M Home. So underrated or more likely under-discovered. Go there.

4. Marble Tray by Hay. That rhymes.

5.  'Blown' glass pendant. Probably not hand blown as it's a bargain from made.com possibly made.com in a factory in China/India/Thailand. Never-the-less it's cheap and it's pretty. And I want/need it. Oh just checked that..... My bad. It is 'mouth blown'. I like that term.

6. Rugs not drugs. A way more sensible purchase. This is begging to be placed on white washed floorboards layered under a jute. It's actually embarrassingly desperate.

7. A fig tree. If anyone can tell me where in The UK I can get my hands on an indoor fig tree (without paying for a private jet to fly one over) I will wear said fig tree leaves and nothing else for the rest of Twenty-Fifteen.

INSTAGRAM THURSDAY

Flowers from New Covent Garden Market | New bargain Kilim from H&M home | London being a babe

Pine cones & stripes | Sunny Saturday and this guy | New Herringbone tiles in my bathroom

This kids space | New lounge for client | On the Thames 

FOLLOW ME HERE 

MONDAY BLUES

A bit of blue for this grey Monday in London.

Take me back to Rabat in Morocco, the vividness of the blue buildings are just phe-nom-en-al. They actually paint their homes in this blue to repel mosquitoes. Apparently mosquitoes don't like blue. Fools. I do.

These are the ways in which I like blue most;

Blue with pink. Baby blue and baby pink. Bring me a newborn baby now. 

Navy blue and white. Royal Dolton got something right. 

Blue and lemon yellow. There's just something so happy about this space. I want to put a very loud Spice Girls track on (preferably a tune from the first album) and dance in this room. 

Blue accents. The blue in this kitchen just lifts the space so effortlessly. It could have been boring and  rather forgettable. But the crockery just adds some pops of colours that work so bloody well with the greyish wood and the marble. 

This photo is blurry. Such a sad thing. But the blue stripe in the doorway is such a genius idea. It makes you want to head on in to that other room, he's like the more exciting brother of this grown up space.... Very well done. 

 Blue tiles. Even with a chrome tile trim (a personal pet hate of mine) these tiles are perfection in this space. So subtle and intricate but so punchy at the same time.

Blue watercolours of any description are fine with me. 

Squid ink blue. Blue food is rare kids, this one makes the cut. That plate... 

Yes. Just yes. 

Oh and one for good luck. This is a neon writing that I created and sourced from NeonCreations in a house that I designed for a client. I was wary about the blue Bryn, i'm not gonna lie. 

It actually couldn't have worked better, it was so soft, but also a real statement that looked so god damn cool. 

The sad thing about this photo is that I filled the water jug half full and it clashes with those empty glasses. If I had a time machine this would be the first thing I used it for to put things right. I am a sad individual.  

All images sourced from My Pinterest board . last one my own.