HALF PAINTED WALLS - I NEED TO TRY THIS

The half painted wall. I must do this. Now. It is sick.

Visually it creates interest and breaks up a room. It can actually make a room seem higher because it takes the eye upwards. If you have a low ceiling (below 2.5m) try 1/2 neutral darker on the bottom and go lighter on the top otherwise it will feel too heavy and won't work. Don't make the split over 50% of the way up the wall if your home is on the lil' side.

If you have the luxury of high ceilings knock yourself out in terms of proportion. I'm thinking a grey, something like The Little Greene Lead colour (117)  on 75% of the way up and then a bright but warm white on top. Take this girl to Homebase.

Check out my inspiration

All sources on my Pinterest board 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY (OF LABOUR-INTENSIVE STYLING) MAKES

Just a quickie. A before and after styling shot that shows just how much the 4am trips to the flower market, the obsessing / dreaming about which wooden bowl to use, the styling and re-styling, and re-re-styling can change the look of a space. Enjoy. In particular enjoy the thin layer of builders dust my i phone seemed to have on its lens.

BEFORE

AFTER 

Thankfully i'm lucky enough to work with the best photographer ever who helps to create these  images of beauty. As you'll notice we sneakily touch up a few ugly things like the smoke alarm (aint' nobody wanna see that) and altered the light and contrast which actually is far more true to life on the colours and tones.

I'll talk through the design of this kitchen on another post but so-long for now.

NAVY BLUE WALLS WITH BALLS

Which deep navy blue paint to use?

Rizzoli | © Ngoc Minh Ngo 

Navy is big now, it’s HUGE. It requires balls. Huge balls. Balls with bells on. But if you dare, the risk is worth the trip. 

Big blue BALLS 

Rules of slapping that inky blue hue all over your walls; 

1. TEST. It is a criminal offence not to test the actual colour in multiple places (on walls, generally) where you’ll be applying it. Rooms change in colour so much from natural light during the day and at night artificial light can have a huge affect. I usually try three walls (facing different directions) and look at them over at least 48 hours… in every type of light / time of day. 

2. Decorators Caulk - use it. If you have an old property or the walls are less than perfect use masking tape (low tack people, always use low tack or else the other paint will be ripped viciously from the walls) and afterwards use a decorators caulk to make the edges perfect. It’s sort of like a mastic that you would use in a bathroom but it’s more a filler / putty to make the edges perfect. Obviously only do this where a coloured edge meets a white edge…. plonker. 

Screw-fix (a single girl's best friend)

3. Brush it don't roll it. Rollers give a stippled (stipple = gross word) effect application which is fine on light colours as it's not quite so noticeable (maybe it's the light) but to get a really rich, matt application you need to use a real good quality brush. Don't be a stinge on this, get the best you can afford. It will take longer, but dark colours and dramatic walls deserve respect. 

Source 

My favourite EXTRA deep blue paints (squid ink if you will)

1. MOTT BY ABIGAIL AHERN 

She’s not cheap but she’s pretty perfect. WARNING: you will open the tin and as our American brethren would say 'freak-the-hell-out'. It looks turquoise, and a rank turquoise at that. You need to man up and get two coats of the good stuff on the walls. See? Despite the dubious look of the paint once it’s on the walls, it’s really deep and is almost black - blue. It’s smokey, if that makes any sense.

2. HAGUE BLUE BY FARROW & BALL 

A staple used by the yuppies across West London. In some parts of Nappy Valley entire streets paint their front doors in this, it signifies that the annual income of the tenant is circa £150k and that the only foods they will allow int their homes / mouths are organically produced, raw delicacies from the local independent grocer on Westborne Grove….. well of course except those marlborough lights. Anyway, a nice colour none the less. It has a hue of green in it, which, in the right light becomes ever so slightly teal-y, but it has a real depth that makes it perfectly flat and matt on the walls. It’s a pretty penny mind you and my decorators hate using the stuff. It takes AT LEAST two coats to manage a perfect finish especially in the darker colours which is why I always colour match Farrow and Ball colour books at Dulux counters (arrest me).

3. CARBON BLUE BY FIRED EARTH
A slightly chalky shade, it’s got very little green pigment (as far as my humble eye can tell) and it’s not too dark and scary either. It has a lightness to it.

4. DULUX.....
self made my yours truly (at at least matched with something I can’t recall!) Are you ready: Code: 10BB071008/10. That’s exactly what the tin says.  Anyway check out the use of it below in a (you guessed it) Notting Hill pad I recently worked on. It's almost blue black, really inky and rich and deep and sexy and smokey and PURE PERFECTION. The client didn’t want to much so we compromised and did the dining area part and the bulkheads in the kitchens - which sets off the white kitchen so good. In my opinion, hell yes I would have done those back walls too but… you live and you... regret.

 (As below)

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE: THE SCANDI-INSPIRED LOVER OF INTERIORS

What to get for the mid-century loving home maker? The laid back but uber slick hostess with the mostess? Well look no further lads, these are currently on my wishlist (read = in my handbag / car / hidden in cupboards for myself) and they are just Sooooo good. 

Everyone needs a coffee table book. It is a life essential; along with food, water and sleep. If not more important that the former. This baby (no. 3) is B.I.G. he's probably big enough to actually destroy those cheapo £5 ikea coffee tables that we all buy for our disgusting uni digs. It also look tres intellectual, even if you never open / read it (arrest me). 

The wicker dear head (no 5) is just such a bloody good buy (£49.50 from memory) and who says a reindeer is just for christmas? This is an excellent gift choice, even if it will probably be the most difficult one to wrap. The lemon tree was last year's test, I need me a new challenge. 

The seriously affordable Dan Isaac Wallin print which I came across here  is destined for a matt white frame and to be displayed on top of this bad boy midcentury sideboard - these ebay suppliers are really good - trust. 

The & Other Stories candle (no 4) is a cheap buy but looks expensive (that's what we like) for a secret santa or a stocking filler, along with these brass fellas from Zara Home (no 1). You've done well.  

Links below kids. Don't all rush at once..... 

1. Brass Insects  2. Drinks Trolley  3. Coffee table book

4. Swedish candle 5. Wicker reindeer head  6. Metallic cushion cover  

7. Industrial table lamp  8. Photography print 9. Natural Basket 

10. Leather document box 

POPS OF PASTEL AND A BRASS HARE

This is all about the pastel. Pastel can be so … meh…. but adding some more 'refined' brass accents here - like the lil’ hare (scored him at M&S for nineteen pounds and fifty pence- thank you Marks ) removed any meh-ness at all.

I love doing kids; spaces -  they are just so much more F.U.N that standard bedrooms. Colour, pattern, texture can all be really amplified when designing for the bambinos. Having said that, this particular space was for a London crash pad -that will likely be rented out on airbnb or onefinestay (which is a posho version of the former) - so we had to restrain it in some ways. No crazy neon writing (although … ahhhh one of these babies would have been the absolute dogs in this bedroom, now i’m wishing I would have thought of that a while ago. Hindsight you rascal).

If you did want one of these guys, then look no further than Neon Creations. I've used them twice now for neon artwork for client projects and they are seriously good, and pretty competitive with prices. Neon installations do cost a pretty penny (my neon writing was 2m long in a blue and set us back £800 plus the electrician who has to install it was £250 so £1050 total) but if you see them as a pice of art (rightly so) then it's sure as hell worth the investment.

   

1.  Can't find |  2 . Gemma Tickle

Moving on, the brief for this bedroom was simple. I mean the actual brief was simple, as in ’a simple space which is cosy and girly but not too pink or bright with muted tones and somewhere that can be rented the hell out’ (ie no crazy-ass indoor swings and ballpits) so here's what I came up with;

1. Vintage Paris Map | 2. Mint Green trolley | 3. Pom poms | 4. Pom pom pouffe | 

5. Ikea lamp shade and brass lamp stand | 6. Brass bunnykins | 7. Stripey kilim rug in yellow  

And here she is. 

The photos are too dark here... however it picks up all the detail I want, including these amazing quilts from The White Company which are just adorable, and not too bright and garish like some of the floral ones I was looking at.  

I can't recommend Carpet Vista enough - the service, the quality and the choice of rugs is un-bel-iveable. Don't be freaked out by the corporate website. These guys have so much incredible stuff and also stock massive rugs (some that are actually too big for the room - guilty) . Here's a little selection; 

                 

1. Vintage blue | 2. Stripe | 3. Berber 

FLOWERS THAT I LIKE. (AND THAT I DON'T)

I love..... 

Hydrangeas

So big, so much variety and so easy to fill a big jar with. These babies are not cheap (say £5+ a stem in shops and something like £3 a stem at the flower market) but if you only need a few to work in a little vase you are Romeo dunn. 

White or green ones in summer (mmmm)

Styling from me. Photos by P. Durrant 

and these reddy ones that epitomise autumn in… the autumn. Although I do think I shoved maybe one too many in this vase… naughty naughty.They also dry really nicely, so if like me you leave flowers to die a long, painful death over a weekend away, these guys stay strong in the afterlife. 

Anemones 

For a long time (since a googled it 5 minutes ago) I had no idea what the pipe these ones were called. They are very very pretty. Very delicate but also have enough structure to stand alone (and not totally floppy like poppies). I love that you can mix them with bigger blooms like peonies and also really simple tiny heads, like clematis or daisies. These, and father Christmas are about the only things that come in red that I like. Red, nah thanks. I’ve actually removed every single red book in a bookshelf before photographing (it is the colour of danger for a reason) 
 

                

     Styling by me. Pic on crappy i phone (all props from H&M Home) | via Tumblr 

Tulips

I LOVE TULIPS. so simple, so underrated, so bloody cheap. I like them floppy and loose and organic when the petals are splayed out, grabbing on for dear life and the stalks bending over the vase. The biggest treat ever was when I mixed tulips and thistles together ..… AMAZING. If you want them to open fully for say a flower shoot or something then you can blow dry them with a hairdryer. I felt liek Cruella DeVil when I did this but consoled my bleeding heart by the fact that one beaut picture will last many, many more year than those pups would anyway. 

Michelle Warren | Me on  i-phizzle 

And not so much..... 

I just don’t ‘get’ orchids. To me, they are try-hard-ers. Also anything that you can buy at B&Q and relies on a hairclip to support it is not a real flower. I’ve tried, and I don’t like. No thank. you. Sir. Having said that, Wikipedia just enlightened me that “ the number of orchid species nearly equals the number of bony fishes and more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.” so i’m pretty confident there may be 1 or 2 that I could less-than-hate. 

Get them; 

Generally New Covent Garden flower market (in Vauxhall / Nine Elms) is the only place that you want to go to buy flowers in mass. When i’m styling I will only ever go here, this is where the trade, wedding organisers, stylists, hotels… the lot, come to get their flowers wholesale. I try as far as possible to get ’seasonal’ flowers and foliage because a) it’s cheaper, obvi. b) it’s more realistic in the shoots. When there is snow outside the window, peonies look like little pink frauds. c) I feel less like someone in a very far away land has bullied these flowers into blooming at an unnatural time and crammed them in a lorry for a 10 day shipping trip to London (which is probably true of all flowers anyway). To get in is a fiver, you don’t have to be trade, you can just rock up.  

I’d advise to go to NCG market in the FOURS OR FIVES, which as far as hours go are the least of my faves. Any later and the good stuff will have gone. This is how I usually look at this kind of time. 

Columbia Road in east London every Sunday is also great - though MANIC with the London crowds which makes me very sad. Also not as cheap as Covent Garden of course.

SLICK LITTLE KITCHEN

 So this is a kitchen that I worked on a while ago. We wanted a really minimal / clean finish so we used these amazing white matt drawers with a mitered edge opening detail which kind of gave the appearance of a shadow gap. Nice. Then we used a white corian surface, which I was really nervous about using. White + red wine + food grime = disaster? No in fact, it was fine, you need a bit more bleach than normal but otherwise corian is a great worktop product, it last a loooong time, longer than your units and appliances will that's for sure. I had the sink made in corian too, which kind of made the kitchen. 

The Silvan floorboard planks (made from actual Christmas trees!) were 30cm wide and came in lengths up to 6m - just like the  Dinesen ones in the Saatchi Gallery - were really worth the investment (NOT cheap). I used Fosters appliances - (hob and extractor are just in shot) because I am really anal about nice flush finishes with counter tops and ceilings, which these products offered for a decent price.

The Moooi Random Pendant I got from my amazing lighting supplier which created these incred patterns - well worth the £££. 

This was a test shot - so not properly styled like i'd want but I guess in this home less is more... Anyway a real fun kitchen to have worked, and definitely hits the 'minimalist' theme we wanted.