Month: February 2016

home: made [ book organisation ] 

home: made [ book organisation by colour ] 

  

Whether people roll their eyes or ridicule the effort, they can’t deny that organising (visual merchandising ) your book shelves by colour (or colour blocking) looks good.

It’s about realising that books are as an important feature as any other piece of homeware. As they often take up such a significant space on a wall in the home, why not make them visually pleasing. They will add to the styling of a room and can aid bringing a colour theme to a room. 

  
Apart from looking well styled, it’s actually often a very useful way to find books, as many the human brain can work well with remembering colours (associated with a book cover and spine)  as opposed to names or authors to find the sought after book. 

The simplest way to create this look is to start with bare shelves and work out your plan of colour order. Colours should blend into each other i.e. Black into grey into white into yellow into orange into red into pink into purple into blue into green, with tones of each colour helping to blend the look. It can help to create piles of matching coloured books first to give yourself an idea of the amount of each colour and how much room they’ll need. It will envolve a little bit of trial and error but there are many images on google for inspiration as well as design blogs giving ideas. 

home: nice price [ cushion covers ]

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home: nice price [ cushion covers ]

When it comes to well priced, on trend homeware you don’t need to look much further than H&M.
New for Spring is an array of colourful pcushion covers, including Geo prints, Stripes and Tropical designs. [ All at £3.99 ]
With these prices it makes it so easy to update your sofa or armchair on a regular basis. Mix prints and colours for a bright fresh look for the coming season.
Available now at hm.com

home: daily [ exhibition review ] 

home: daily [ the Eames exhibition ]

Not long left to catch this incredibly collated exhibition celebrating the ‘World of Charles and Ray Eames’ 

 

Open til Valentines Day, at The Barbican, London, the exhibition is a delight of visual and written knowledge for any design, furniture and graphic design fans. Travel through the decades and learn what inspired the creative couple, learn their history, beginnings and the sweetness of how they got together. 

  
The Eameses are amongst the most celebrate designers of the twentieth century and so many of their creations influence designs of today. So many of their iconic designs have been reproduced and copied in modern homeware and furniture today, and are also still produced with the original designs. 

  
The Eames Office, at the centre of their product and graphics ideas world, was the hub where the magic happened. The couple and the office team produced incredible work for 45 years. It was a ‘laboratory’, a place for collaborating, researching and developing ‘products, furniture, graphics, architectural and exhibition projects, as well as new models for education.’

Their work covered print media, film, photography and more. Design work  covered projects for furniture, homes, and they embraced both mass production and common materials as well as embracing the potential of technology. 

As you head through the space, appreciate their extensive talent and abilities, you can slip into the couple’s world and minds, and understand that life was work, and work was life. 

Running til February 14th it’s definitely worth the £14.50 entrance fee. The shop is a post-exhibition tempting delight, with a variety of homewares, stationery, prints and cards. 

 

purchase the Eames memory game to get a selection of great design work and imagery for around £10
 
 
While you’re at the Barbican take advantage of being able to view the inside and out of this architectural brutalist dream. 

 

Visit on a Sunday (check website for openings) and explore the incredible Barbican conservatory. A little lush heaven of plants and wonder, slap bang in the middle of London – a surprising delightful gem not to be missed. 

  
The World of Charles and Ray Eames runs at The Barbican til Sunday 14th February 2016 / Sat – Wed 10am – 6pm / Thurs – Fri 10am – 9pm / £14.50 (concessions available) 

home: favourite thing [ lights ] 

home: favourite thing [ ceiling lights ] 

BHS never fails to disappoint with their lighting department with a mix of traditional, modern, retro reproduction and industrial lighting. 

Their current ceiling light collection is full of absolute design perfection using glass and metals, and styles including cluster, vintage and midcentury modern. 

Currently there is 20-25% off most of their lighting so it’s a good time to invest in something new for the home. 

  

home: featured [ Feathers and Nest ]

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home: featured [Feathers and Nest ]

Feather and Nest is an quirky home and lifestyle shop in Oxfordshire and online, full of British designed and made products, including soft furnishings, lighting, accessories and stationery. 

With well known brands like Donna Wilson, Katie Leamon,  Jimbobart, Scion and Nkuku, everything has a sense of fun about it and it’s a joy to navigate around the online shop.

‘In a nutshell Feather and Nest is an inspiring little emporium full of products with personality, hand picked by us to share with all our lovely customers.’

We love the  Skinny LaMinx cushions and Garden Trading lamps. Check them out at Featherandnest.co.uk or if your in the area head to their bricks and motor shop.

Feather and Nest
26 High Street
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 0BU

home: events [ sample sale ] 

home: events [ sample sale ]

From the team behind the critically acclaimed designjunction, now London has The Sample Sale. 

Count down to March 4-6 has begun for this eagerly awaited event. Tickets are now available. 

Under one roof, The Sample Sale brings you contemporary cutting edge furniture, lighting and accessories from iconic brands, leading designers and top manufacturers. Shop from ex-display, prototypes, one offs, design classics and discontinued lines. 

This highly anticipated event is a new venture and not to be missed. 

 

home: found this [ coffee table ]

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home: found this [ coffee table ]

Looking for some Scandinavian style at a great price, look no further. We came across this Fern and Grey walnut veneer coffee table this week and we love it.
With the dark wood top and matte black metal legs, it’s a classic mid-century inspired piece.

fernandgrey.com price £179 [ RRP £375 ]

home: trends [ Brazilian modern ] 

home: trends [ Brazilian modern ] 

Bring together all the pattern, colour and vibrancy of a Brazilian carnival in your home. With major sporting events heading to Brazil this year, homeware is taken inspiration from the strong ‘more is more’ attitude of the colourful community. 

Brazilian modern, mixes prints and patterns with well thought out clashing flair. Stimulate the senses combining patterns of flora, fauna, tribal, vintage and stripes, sitting patterns of different scale together, and miss matching woods and textures. 

Seek guidance from the colour wheel to ensure colours, although contrasting with each other, still are harmonious and complimentary. 

 

the colour wheel
 
Missoni is a key brand to seek out for inspiration but high street brands including BHS and Anthroplogie, and one of our favourites Mia Fleur all have great pieces to suit this trend. 

 
1 Parrot bedding / BHS £14.99

2 Using South American hardwoods / Dwell 

3 Littalia Alvar Aalto Vase / Selfridges £59

4 Inspiration from Mia Fleur 

5  Pineapple / Mia Fleur £89.95 

6 Geometric bronze vase / Not On The Highstreet £9.50 

7 Cushion / John Lewis £70 

8 Rug / Anthropologie £398

9 Clashing pattern inspiration 

home: made [ tie dye ]

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home: made [ tie dye ]

Memories of the 80’s and 90’s tie dye may be a thing of the past, but now tie dye is back in a new modern way. Gone is the rainbow of colours and in is a more monochrome simple colour pallette.
It’s very easy to get the look yourself on pillow cases, tea towels and napkins, with a few essentials. And it’s fun!

Head to A Beautiful Mess and Honestlywtf to see tutorials on following Shibori tie dye [ a simple technique ]

home: nice price [ cushion ] 

home: nice price [ hand illustrated cushion ] 

We love the illustrated designs from Naked Lunge and this design on a cushion, of a hand drawn vintage Cadet camera is one of our favourites. 

The lovely Pippa & Ike Show, that stock a variety of homeware, kids wear, stationery and more, currently have this cool camera cushion at the NICE PRICE of £30 (usually £35) 

These cushions are handmade in England, 100% cotton, screen printed and with a black canvas backing. It can even be machine washed!