Author: home:blog

home: trend [ Rustic Utilitarian ]

home: trend [ Rustic Utilitarian ]

Taking a slightly softer approach to the Industrial trend of last year, Rustic Utilitarian focuses on worn and textural finishes – combining hard working materials with a soft colour pallete.
In the 1900s utilitarian design was created for use rather than beauty, but now things have changed.
For example the practical use of enamel-coated tableware and light shades has now become desirable for the home as objects of beauty, but still maintaining the usefulness if needed.
Another example of this adaptability could be galvanized buckets which aren’t necessarily used for carrying water anymore, instead used for storage or as a planter.
The great thing about this trend is that traditional materials are there to be used, whether you choose to use them for function, for looks or both, it doesn’t matter.

Guide:
1. Falcon enamel dishes – amazon.co.uk [ from £12 ]
2. Rug – rockettstgeorge.co.uk [ £80 ]
3. Bucket – labourandwait.co.uk [ £28 ]
4. Leather chair – johnlewis.com [ £350 ]
5. Pendant light – artifact-lighting.com [ £60 ]
6. Copper shelf – grahamandgreen.co.uk [ £39.95 ]
7. Bar stool – vincentandbarn.co.uk [ £95 ]

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Mix wood, metal and leather on furniture and seat covers, softening the look with linen and wool soft furnishings such as throws and floor rugs.
Wall colours to consider are cool grey, moss green and cream, which work really well next to metal and wood tones. You can also add small punches of colour like yellow and red – achieve this with chairs, lighting and accessories.

A couple of shops who do Rustic Utilitarian very well are Labour and Wait [ step back in time to find traditional products, from hardware to clothing ], and Rockett St George [ great selection of industrial furniture and lighting ]

home: made [ cloud light ] 

home: made [ cloud light ] 

How about your very own cloud lighting up a room? Perfect for a kids room but cool enough to look grown-up in any room. 

There are countless tutorials about DIY cloud light making, so we’ve rounded up a few. 

Essentially, for a basic DIY cloud light you will need :

• a standard paper light shade, available on the high street and online from various stores including Homebase, IKEA, B&Q and Wilkos. The cloud light can then be hung from an existing ceiling light pendant 

• cotton wool balls (and lots of them)

• a glue gun or PVA 

Extras can include fairy lights to create a drizzle of ‘light’ rain from the cloud-looking shade, and you could also buy multiple shades in various sizes to create a bigger impact with a few clouds. 

Tutorial links : 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQkqUFpn3M

http://www.littlethings.com/diy-cloud-light/

https://www.nousdecor.com/blog/diy-l-led-cloud-light

http://astyleofliving.com/2012/01/diy-cloud-lights-for-your-wedding.html

home: nice price [ vases ]

home: nice price [ vases ]

With Spring here and flowers in bloom, now is a good time to freshen up your living room with some new vases to put them in. If your looking for on-trend pieces at great prices then head to hm.com. With a huge selection in glass and ceramic there is something for everyone. [ from £4.99 ]

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Gather a few different styles & colours together to bring interest to a shelf, or pick a large statement vase for a centre piece on a table. [ We love a monochrome look, sticking with black and white in various styles ]

hm.com

home: favourite thing [ wallpaper ] 

home: favourite thing [ wallpaper ]  

Miss Print at John Lewis / bringing the outdoors in

Not that we don’t appreciate a painted wall and the ease of changing colour, but recently wallpaper has just grown in choice with incredible options of style and look for any room. 

Technology has helped us by bringing in paste-the-wall  paper instead of paste-the-paper, which allows us all to have a go at hanging wallpaper with much more ease. 

To pin point a favourite would be hard but we’ve rounded up groups of our favourite designs and found some of the best stores to head to. 

Make a statement with a bold design. For a wow factor, especially effective with nature and floral designs, cover all walls and then push the look further with more strong patterns in the soft furnishings. This look can be softened, instead, by using minimal accessories, clean line furniture and lots of white. 

Bold patterns can also be effective on a solo wall as a feature wall and then when styling the room pick one or two colours to follow through in the choice of soft furnishings. 

Baltic Shop / Graham & Browne
 
Fun and colourful designs are great for a children’s bedroom and can also be both educative, when the designs involve words, pictures and numbers, and interactive, with designs that involve stories, colouring in and games. Visit Graham & Browne and Baltic Shop for interactive options. 

Go bold / bright and patterned to make a statement
  
(Above) Wallpapers Direct / Homebase / Wallpapers Direct / Fabrics & Papers 

For a grown up, strong look, it is currently a key trend to go dark in interiors and contrary to belief it actually brightens a room. Contrast with white ceilings, light floors and sits well with dark woods and accessories in monochrome and metallics. 

Dark and grown up / dark colours actually can brighten a room
  
(Above) John Lewis / Miss Print / Sophie Conran / Wall Papers Direct 

A constant favourite is monochrome. Easy to style and regularly update with black and white accessories as well as new on trend colours like copper and also 80s brights, monochrome allows flexibility and never fails to look fresh and stylish. Monochrome sits well with walnut, white or wire furniture. 

Monochrome / timeless simplicity and easy to style
  
(Above) Graham & Browne / Cole & Son / Miss Print / Sanderson 

If you decide to go for a wall covering we’ve discovered the excellent range of Betapet who not only have a great selection of bold, on-trend patterned and exciting designs but also, quite brilliantly, their range is self adhesive ensuring decorating is even easier! Head to their Etsy shop and choose from stripes, geometric and nature-inspired designs.

Betapet / self adhesive wallpaper / find on Etsy
  
Wallpaper is definitely a modern look and needs to be considered a great way to bring pattern and strong design to interior design. And it isn’t to be   discounted, thinking its a hassle to change as realistically it’s just a strip and re-paper if desired. Patterned designs can be great at covering imperfect walls (unlike unforgiving paint) and with new methods of hanging there’s very little mess and fuss! 

home: featured [ Found ]

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home: featured [ Found ]

After a recent visit to Bath we came across Found – a great looking contemporary shop full of an eclectic mix of stationary, homeware, clothing and more.
Owned by Olivia Brewer and Nik Blake, it’s described as a ‘mini department store’ which we would agree with. You enter into gifts and stationary, through to tableware and homeware and at the back is clothing and accessories.
The hand selected pieces all work cohesively together creating a very pleasurable shopping experience. It’s hard not to pick up and feel everything as you go round.
Found also has an online shop worth checking out if your not in Bath. But if you are planning a visit then you must pop into this one of a kind store.

Found
17 Argyle Street
Bath
BA2 4BQ

[ Mon – Sat 10am – 5:30pm ]

home: event [ pop up shop ]

home: event [ pop up shop ] 

West Elm continue to support and give opportunities for new designers, and up and coming brands to get a platform to raise their profile. Here again they have cool, unique brand Refunk’d popping up shop in April at their Tottenham Court Road, London store. 

Running from 15-17th of April, head to West Elm and shop the one-off pieces of furniture and homeware. 

Opening hours 10am – 5pm / 209 Tottenham Court Road W1T 7PN 

” Set up in 2010 Refunk’d by Ursh Stevens in order to create one off pieces of awesomeness from preloved furniture & scrap yard finds.

From glamorous air hostess came the skip rat, salvage specialist, award winning furniture designer Ursh Stevens the owner of Refunk’d. Using scrap yard finds Ursh creates one of pieces that are far removed from the identikit furniture found on the high street. ” 

  

home: trend [ off the grid ] 

home: trend [ off the grid ] 

Dulux have sought out another exciting trend. Your interiors can become clean and bright with the lines and colours of the Off-The-Grid trend. 

It brings together the control of chaos  with the framework of lines, wire grid work and monochrome clarity, with a playful ‘off the grid’ freedom using splashes of colour with a fun bright tonal palette. Essentially this trend brings together the on-trend colours of coral, teal, copper and yellow with the crisp linear simplicity of the monochrome trend. 

Search for grid pattern wall papers ( try Ferm Living ), big geometric patterns on soft furnishings from brands including Next, Zazzle and John Lewis, and colourful bold items of furniture that will sit against a monochrome backdrop. Head to Made for a huge selection of bright stand alone pieces of furniture at great prices. 

‘We need boundaries in which to live, even if we seek to rebel against them, freedom is only understandable within the context of a framework’ Dulux 

1 Lewis shelf £600 Urban Outfitters 

2 Diamond table £150 Urban Outfitters 

3 Geometric cushion £7 George at Asda 

4 Sofia armchair £350 Urban Outfitters 

5 Nadadora Diver print £40 Southwood Stores 

6 White diamond cage light £79 The Electrical Shop 

7 Christian Lacroix wallpaper £65 John Lewis 
 

home: made [ peg boards ]

You have probably noticed in recent years, peg boards have been seen more in the home than the tool shed. And this is due to their versatility and quirky style. The simple design and functionality of equally spaced holes in a large panel of wood with accompanying pegs is genius.
Most commonly they are used as notice boards for hanging items and photos, and of course still used for tools and utensils in workshops. But have you thought about what else can be created with peg boards?!

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We have found some great uses including multi functional picture and shelving walls, doors for cabinets and even kitchen splashbacks.
Check out apartmenttherapy.com for a cabinet revamp, craftandcreativity.com show us how to paint a cool cross-stitch image and decor8blog.com has some brilliant ideas to get you thinking.

If your inspired then head to amazon or ebay to pick up a basic peg board. London Graphic Centre also do some fun coloured boards, great to get started with. [ Look around to find a good price as some can be quite expensive ]