Colour + Design Archives - Page 3 of 60

Life is Delicious

January 2, 2014 By Paola 7 Comments

I’m not a huge believer in resolutions, though I do like the idea of taking stock and making ideas and plans for the year ahead at the beginning of January. In fact this year I’ve decided that my new year will start on January 6th, as we’re still in full Christmas mode here – the Minx is home from school, the Christmas decorations will stay up until Twelfth Night and we still have various gatherings and activities planned.

Detailed resolutions don’t seem to work for me but I like the idea of choosing areas of focus for the year. Last year was The Year of Photography, The Year of Getting Fit and The Year of Getting Organised and I’d say I achieved one out of three (the photography), though I did make progress on the other two (and yes I DID tidy my desk). So this year is going to be The Year of Marketing (this blog is going to be a big part of that) and the Year of Getting Fit/Getting Organised 2.0.

I also love the idea of choosing a word of the year though I’ve never done it before. This year though, my word chose me.

I hit a big birthday at the tail end of last year and decided to give myself the present of a life coach and have been working with the inimitable Susan Hyatt. Though I’m very grateful for my lovely life and know I’m so much luckier than most, I wanted help with the stress, adrenal fatigue and insomnia which laid me so low this time last year and also help with building my new photography business.

We’re just starting the process and it’s been a fascinating so far, though there is still a lot to do. But the one thing coming out loud and clear so far is that I don’t stop enough to smell the roses and just ENJOY the simple things of life. That instead of rushing around from place to place that I should take the trouble to stop and just BE.

I got back from Whistler to find that Susan had sent me a special word charm necklace that she had commissioned from her best friend, jeweler Frances Cadora from Studio Fran, who makes the most spectacular one-off hammered silver pieces (I do LOVE my friends, but how lovely to have a tame jeweller at one’s disposal).

I was a bit teeny bit sceptical about someone else choosing my word, how could they know better than me?

But Susan did. She chose the word DELICIOUS and it is perfect and wonderful and feels just right. (I also feel honoured as she runs a fabulous online program called ‘Life is Delicious’ so it feels like she is lending me HER word).

So 2014 is the year that I look for deliciousness – in food, in photography and in life in general.

Have you chosen a word of the year? Or an area of focus? Or are you sticking with old fashioned resolutions? Or are you perfect just the way you are? And if you want to commission Fran to make you your own word charm necklace for the year then I’m sure she’d be delighted to hear from you. (Oh and even her gift boxes are beautiful, handmade and covered with gold leaf).

Whimsy & Tea Towels

December 16, 2013 By Paola 6 Comments

As you know one of the most inspiring and life-changing things I did this year was to attend a fabulous food photography workshop in Gulf Shores, Alabama with Helene Dujardin and Clare Barboza. It was probably the highlight of my year and certainly a turning point for me, and I wanted to celebrate/commemorate it if I could.

During that workshop I happened to share a room with weaver Marilyn Webster of Whimsy & Tea, and we went on several long walks along that perfect beach, chatting about fibre arts, colours, photography, creativity, her childhood in India, US politics, life, the universe and everything in between. So she seemed to be the perfect person to commission to weave a couple of commemorative tea towels, inspired by that exquisite beach beside an emerald ocean and fringed with macaron-coloured houses.

Marilyn is a joy to work with, is full of ideas and sends lots of pictures along the way. It was huge fun to collaborate with her on colour choices and design and to see the beach come to life in tea towel form.

Although they are expensive, the towels are handmade, of FABULOUS quality and will last a lifetime. Marilyn wants her towels to bring beauty to people’s every day lives, and not just tucked away in a drawer for a special occasion. There’s an important message in there somewhere.

And, as you can see, they go fabulously with a certain pistachio-coloured fridge and my crazy colourful kitchen shelves. They also provided the perfect backdrop for some pistachio shortbread cookies I just happened to have lying around. (Recipe on blog later this week)

If you’re looking for a special Christmas present for someone who would appreciate some real beauty in their kitchen, then look no further than the Whimsy & Tea online shop or else if you’re looking to commemorate a special vacation, trip or other occasion then Marilyn is happy to work on commissions, she just needs photos.

See more of the beach that inspired the towels here. And Marilyn has written a blog post where she explains all the work that goes into her towels here.

Ha! I’ve also noticed that they go superbly well with my new blog too…

Things I Am Loving: The Secret Garden

June 20, 2013 By Paola 6 Comments

Pssst. Don’t tell the Minx, but I just bought her a colouring book for our plane ride at the weekend.

Well, to be more accurate I’ve just bought myself a colouring book, as I’m sure she would probably prefer to be plugged into an electronic device of some sort.

But honestly, who in their right mind could resist the intricate and magical pen and ink drawings in Secret Garden by ‘ink evangelist’ Johanna Basford?

Twelve hours on a plane doesn’t seem nearly so long now. (Check out this review from the Guardian, which includes some printable pages to download).

Speaking of The Secret Garden, which remains one of my favourite children’s books of all time, check out these beautiful clothbound keepsake editions of children’s classics from Puffin, designed by the amazing Daniela Terrazzini.

As the mother of an utterly voracious and rather advanced reader I’m the finding the classics to be one of the best ways of giving the Minx age-appropriate reading material. I understand from the Internet that these beautiful books can be hard to track down, but we found ours at the weekend in Seattle’s wonderful Elliott Bay Bookstore. Some are also available on Amazon. (There are some more boy-friendly options too.)

I, er the Minx, can’t wait to read them.

The Bathroom Is Finished

June 4, 2013 By Paola 9 Comments

Delighted as I am with the kitchen, I am almost happier with the way the bathroom turned out.

What used to be such an actively unpleasant, uncomfortable space now feels peaceful, clean and soothing and is filled with the most beautiful light.

Again I took these photos just after it was completed. I’ll do some more when all the details are finished and it’s fully ‘styled’.

We’re really delighted with the vanity units, which we designed ourselves and had made up by our contractors (again heartfelt thanks to the utterly amazing craftsmen at GTR Residential Contracting). We’ve kept the old round medicine cabinets for the moment (which are chipped and can’t be opened with the taps in the way) but they will be replaced with round mirrors which should be arriving shortly.

We wanted this bathroom to be in keeping with a craftsman house, but also fresh and modern and so decided to use ceramic tile in a non-traditional way, particular as this is in a non-Craftsman part of the house.

As you know we were thrilled with how the large hex tiles on the floor worked out (now complete with delicious underfloor heating) and decide to complement them with smaller hexagons around the bathtub and shower.

As with the kitchen, the hideous panelled ceiling has been transformed into a beautiful design feature now that is painted with a coat of gloss paint (all the trim is Benjamin Moore’s Simply White).

And yes we replaced the even more hideous glass brick window with something a little more pleasing.

The paint colours ended up being inspired by my trip to Gulf Shores and the beautiful white-trimmed pale aqua houses near the almost white sand beach. (And I like to think that the emerald green leaves shining through the window look like the emerald green sea).

It took me a long time to hit on a perfect aqua, that wavers just at the midpoint between blue and green and found it with Benjamin Moore’s Lido Green. I’m SO in love with this colour.

The alcove at the back where the toilets (and also the washing machines) are situated was painted in Benjamin Moore’s Lychee, a soft luminous colour like a shell-sand beach. The colours work so well together and I am thrilled.

Again here are a couple of pictures of the previous baby poop coloured ghastliness. The full ‘before’ horror-story is here.

Grand Hotel of the Week: Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

May 31, 2013 By Paola 2 Comments

There’s a great exhibition currently showing at the Vancouver Art Gallery entitled ‘Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life’. I saw it when I was in Vancouver last month and highly recommend it to anyone in the area who loves hotels like I do.

The exhibition traces the rise of the modern hotel, and celebrates hotel design, hotel life and hotel branding (lots of examples from the Ace Hotels funnily enough). It also, not surprisingly, makes a lot of mention of the venerable Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, just opposite the Vancouver Art Gallery and fabulously located in the heart of downtown, where we stayed on my recent visit to Vancouver.

The iconic copper turrets of the ‘Castle in the City’ are nowadays somewhat lost among the other high rise buildings, and its gargoyles and statues look down on a sea of plate glass, but inside it’s just as you would expect – like its sister hotel the Fairmont Empress, it’s a gracious, elegant, timeless example of what hotel living really ought to be.

That’s not to say that they’ve forgotten all the modern requirements of a luxury hotel. The pool was one of the best hotel pools I’ve seen, and amazing for a tightly-packed downtown location, and the staff was kindness and helpfulness personified.

And on a Friday night the downstairs bar was hopping, and serving fabulous cocktails. I had the new-for-Spring ‘Royal Boulevardier’ cocktail, a heady mix of bourbon, vermouth, Aperol and maple syrup, which was delicious, but will get you royally somethinged if you’re not careful. (Click here for a PDF of Fairmont hotels Modern Classics cocktail menu, complete with recipes).

Our room was spacious, comfortable and supremely elegant.

Reflection of the hotel from our upstairs window

And the gold stickers on the loo rolls made me smile.

Full disclosure: We were given an upgrade to the Gold Lounge in return for a blog post. However, the hotel has has no influence on the contents of this post and all opinions are my own. We just had a right royal time here.

Things I Am Loving: Art et Manufacture

May 30, 2013 By Paola 1 Comment

Continuing on my dangerous Helene Dujardin-fuelled shopping spree (goodness that woman has a lot to answer for), I have been making my way down her list of great prop providers and spending far too much money.

These utterly gorgeous ceramics from Art et Manufacture are worth every penny though.

I love how the shapes they use are modern yet timeless and the blue and white patterns are utterly contemporary while calling back to Delftware and other traditional blue and white china. Very European, utterly chic and completely inspired.

The sweet little espresso cups and bowl below are MINE though. Look out for them in a food photograph near you.

The Kitchen Is Finished

May 20, 2013 By Paola 28 Comments

Dear hearts, it is DONE.

Just as I was losing the will to live with this whole remodelling malarkey, this morning is the first one for months where I have not been sharing my home with charming bearded contractors. The silence is utterly blissful.

And we are THRILLED.

I just can’t get over how beautiful the light is in here. I knew it must be, but it was almost impossible to see it against the forest green countertops and burnt orange walls we used to have.

There are still a couple of things to be done with the lighting – in particular we are waiting on a pendant light to go above the butcher block unit above – and I also have to edit and organise approximately eleventy billion megatons of kitchen crap er paraphernalia.

But I thought I’d show you the finished empty shell and then we can talk about some of the details and styling at a later date, when it’s properly finished. I just hope I can do justice to it.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite details.

Yep, the Big Chill fridge still looks awesome.

I’m so happy with this aluminium roll door ‘appliance garage’. We asked the contractors to customise the basic Ikea scrolling cabinet to make it deeper, so that I now have plenty of space to organise and disguise ugly appliances such as the slow cooker and panini grill and get them off the counter. I also like how the slats echo the panels in the ceiling.

We are obsessed with the splashback tiles in one of Heath Ceramic’s ‘Dwell’ patterns. The photo doesn’t begin to do justice to how beautiful they are. I’ll do a separate blog post all about these.

We freaked out a little and bought a slab of walnut butcher block for one part of the counter. I think it might be my favourite thing in the whole kitchen (the rest of the counters are in honed white quartz). We asked the contractors to add a hinged flap of butcher block at the end to provide an extra bit of much-needed counterspace.

The ceiling is painted in Benjamin Moore’s ‘Simply White’ in a semi-gloss sheen and has turned from being an eyesore into a design feature. I am besotted with how beautifully this has turned out. In fact we chose three different whites for the kitchen, which I will also do a blog post about.

In fact I have to say that I’m besotted with the whole thing. The only problem is I hardly dare use it.

It’s interesting to see how similar it is to our original Sketch Up designs. Goodness that was a useful exercise to go through.

And here’s one picture of the ‘before’ just to whet your appetite.

Here’s the kitchen in all its former monstrous hideousness.

Oh and many, MANY thanks to the wonderful GTR Residential Contracting for making our dreams a reality. It was a true pleasure working with so many craftsmen, in particular the ever patient and charming Dan for whom nothing was too much trouble. If you are in the Seattle area, I can’t recommend these guys highly enough.

Pics of the bathroom remodel coming VERY soon.

Things I Am Loving: Forms in Nature

May 10, 2013 By Paola 1 Comment

This sort of stopped me in my tracks when I saw it yesterday.

Created by artists Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz, this ‘light sculpture’ entitled Forms in Nature is designed to cast spooky shadows reminiscent of a wild forest all round the room. I have long been fascinated by the beautiful shadows cast by chandeliers and I love how they’ve taken this to the next logical step and made the shadows the star of the show.

At the moment it is still a conceptual artwork, but according to their website they are looking at putting this into production.

Things I Am Loving: Wind & Willow Home

May 9, 2013 By Paola Leave a Comment

It’s been an expensive morning.

One of the more unexpectedly dangerous aspects of doing a workshop with Helene Dujardin was the list of favourite prop suppliers she sent us after the course. And after three days playing with all her gorgeous things it was impossible to resist going shopping.

My first stop was at Wind & Willow Home. Helene had a stack of these little wooden bowls in an array of colours, perfect for salt, oil or spices and for adding a little unexpected touch to a tabletop setting. And of course you could also use them for actual FOOD rather than just as a photography prop.

They’re incredibly tactile too. Etsy artist Araya Jensen starts with beautifully turned bowls and spoons and then hand dips each of them in a synthetic rubber in custom-mixed colours.

The beauty lies in the timeless organic quality of the wood combined with the soft modern rubber in a host of contemporary colours.

These walnut bowls are incredibly special. Trying to work out if I can afford them.

I REALLY want that plate too.

I was in yet another Creative Live workshop during the early part of this week, so apologies for lack of bloggery. So much to catch up on over the next week or so – more from Vancouver, more from the Gulf Shores photo workshop, more prop suppliers and the KITCHEN AND BATHROOM REMODEL IS SCHEDULED TO FINISH TOMORROW. Quite honestly it’s looking to me like there’s about six months work left to do, but the contractors seem confident.

I so cannot wait.

Canoe Island French Camp

April 5, 2013 By Paola 2 Comments

This blog post is by way of a little favour to a friend.

You probably already know how much we love Canoe Island French Camp in this family, and that’s before the Minx has even been to one of their residential camps on her own.

We always have an idyllic time at their Family Camps and I had a magnificent time on my own at Patisserie Camp last year.

Canoe is like a little Garden of Eden dropped into Puget Sound – a perfect little island with its own forest and beaches and astonishing views in every direction. The camping here is high class – you sleep in brand new waterproof canvas tipis and have access to a comfortable club house with a pool, games room and proper indoor washing facilities. There are opportunities to learn French if you’d like – many of the camp counsellors are French – but it’s by no means obligatory and the French atmosphere just adds a delightful touch.

And the food is unbelievable, created by the resident chef and a young pastry chef who take the delectable produce from their own gardens and the surrounding islands and turn it into utterly scrummy restaurant-quality meals. And then there’s the sailing, the kayaking, the tennis, the yoga and the opportunity just to curl up in a hammock looking out to sea with with some knitting or a good book.

The very nicest thing, though, is the laid-back and utterly relaxing vibe. Connie and Joseph, the camp directors, are kindness personified and do everything to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible. And everyone who works there, even the resident animals, are just so friendly and charming.

Every Spring Connie and Joseph run weekend camps for adults, which allow grown ups to participate in all this magnificence and also contribute to a scholarship fund for financially disadvantaged kids, so they too can benefit from the incredible learning opportunities at Canoe. Each time I spend a weekend there, I feel like I’ve been on a week-long vacation.

Connie asked me if I could promote these weekends on the blog and I am delighted to do so – Canoe is one of my happy places. If you live anywhere close to the Pacific Northwest and want to do some yoga, some art, some cooking, or just learn French, then I can’t recommend these weekends highly enough (and although the price of your stay includes a donation, they really are excellent value for money as you get looked after so very well).

Get more details about the adult camps here. I think you’ll be seeing me and the Minx at the Mother’s Day Camp.