Colour + Design Archives - Page 33 of 60

Go Love Your Room – Colour Me Amazed

September 14, 2009 By Paola 3 Comments

I was just flicking through the most recent copy of the Elle Deco UK when I came across this house by Dutch designer Carlos Weeber.

I’m not sure I could exactly live with the colour scheme, but it is so refreshing to see an architect using colour – so many seem to be members of the ‘any colour as long as it’s white’ school.

Funnily enough the architect himself is colour-blind, so he works with an artist friend to put the colours together, and yes, the house is in Curacao, where a bright palette like this will fit in more, but still, I wish others were a bit more brave.

All photos from Elle Decoration UK (Aug 2009)

I apologise for the scanned-in quality of the images. Of course if Elle Deco got its act together and had a website….

Ta-da!

September 11, 2009 By Paola 11 Comments

So here is the new sofa in situ. It is as comfy as hell, IMMENSELY practical, extraordinarily well -made and we are thrilled to bits with it. Thanks Couch Seattle!

You will note that we’ve also taken your advice – you were right of course – and bought a new rug for that end of the room so that the coffee table sits on it correctly and moved the green rug to the dining area. We also moved the green curtains to that end of the room to give a bit of colour and raised the curtain pole so that they hang better and give more of an illusion of height.

Things Still To Be Done About Which We Need to Talk

– Paint the walls. I have a completely different colour in mind from the last time we discussed this and am going to get samples this weekend.

– Reframe and move the artwork. Commission or buy huge and expensive piece of art (ha ha! – Ed) or at the very least do SOMETHING with the wall above the sofa.

– Replace (or possibly just paint?) the incredibly ugly door on the left which leads straight out onto the porch.

– Do something about the light fixtures, about which we have still done nothing since last we spoke.

– Crochet the sofa a beautiful present.

– Learn how to style photos better and at least smooth down the cushions on the couch before photographing it.

There is much to discuss and much to do. But we are getting there slowly.

The weather is supposed to be glorious this weekend which I suspect will be the Seattle summer’s last hurrah. So we are going to go out and PLAY!

Engraved Upon My Heart

September 10, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Like everyone else in the world, I do like a good Moleskine notebook. Portland-based company Engrave Your Book produces beautiful reuseable leather Moleskine covers, laser engraved with artwork by up-and-coming artists and graphic designers, including Amy Ruppel.

Aren’t these just fabulous? I might try and get some of these in the shop. Currently available here.

Amy Ruppel for Engrave Your Book

Jubilee

September 10, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Isn’t this rather gorge? It doesn’t quite fit into our house decor, and it costs an absolute fortune, but je l’adore, oh yes I do.

To me it sort of sums up Britain in a way – different and edgy, fun and funky, a mish-mash of styles, slightly uncomfortable-looking and with a heart of pure unadulterated old-fashioned chintz.

Available at the Rug Company, { via Countryside Wedding}

Adventures in Knitting – Knitting the Ocean

September 9, 2009 By Paola 6 Comments

The only thing I have really been able to achieve this summer is a ton of knitting. I was inspired by all the fabulous patterns on Ravelry to embark on a cardigan for myself, the first time I’ve knitted an adult-sized cardigan or sweater since I was at college (more years ago than I care to remember).

This Featherweight Cardigan was a really quick, simple and pleasurable knit, particularly as it was the first thing I’ve made out of yarn dyed by a Seattle-based woman who goes by the name of Sundara. The woman is a colour genius and I’ve recently been bankrupting the family buying up her limited edition yarns, but the colours, oh the colours are a-maz-ing. I will blog about her separately as she really is an artist who deserves to be seen by knitters and non-knitters alike.

But I digress. This cardigan was made in Sundara’s soft and sumptuous Fingering Silky Merino in a limited edition colourway ‘Macedonia’ and, with its variegation from dark to light blue with little flecks of pale ‘foam’ on top, it was just knitting up the sea. The photos really don’t do justice to the depth of the blue and how it glows in the sunlight. Full project details on Ravelry as usual.

These pics were taken by my friend Kassandra at Seattle’s Golden Gardens beach on the last beach day before school started. Our kids are rioting gently somewhere a few yards out of shot.

While we’re on the subject of rebooting and reclaiming one’s life after the baby years, looking at these pictures I think I also really need to start reclaiming my body – it seems a bit much to be carrying ‘baby weight’ when the baby is nearly five.

I’ve been hampered in my efforts to exercise recently by lack of time and crippling plantar fasciitis -an excruciating pain at the bottom of my foot, which I think has been indirectly caused by twisting my ankle very badly a couple of years ago. At the moment the best exercise for me appears to be yoga, so I’m committing to doing a bit of yoga (either a class or a video) every day for the rest of September. I used to do quite a bit of yoga before the Minx was born, and it’s horrible to realise how inflexible I’ve become.

Separated at Birth?

September 5, 2009 By Paola 3 Comments

Or, calling a Spade a Spade

Incredibly fashionable Kate Spade Fall 2009 bag

Fantastically terrifying decoy owl

{via Making It Lovely and Whorange}

So, let’s start as we mean to go on shall we?

This bag has been doing the rounds of the blogs in the last day or so. Much as we like an owl motif or two round these parts, and much as I hate to contradict two of my favourite design bloggers, I frankly find this bag both extremely ugly and utterly, bone-chillingly, terrifying.

It reminds me of the ferocious looking plastic decoy owl which you, dear readers, encouraged us to buy, and which was perched on our roof deck for the best part of the summer in an attempt to scare the birds from our cherry tree. I think it worked with the birds – there definitely seemed to be fewer around this year, and it certainly gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies every time I glanced it out of the corner of my eye.

Oh, and if you must buy this bag (and we would encourage you not to) the bag is available here.

We’re off to visit our friends’ cabin in the mountains this Labor Day weekend (oh how painful it is to write ‘Labour’ without a ‘u’ ) so I’ll be back on Tuesday. Next week we’ll be talking about my new knitted cardigan and the new sofa. How can you stand the excitement?

And speaking of owls…

August 11, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

…I’m very much loving the new bamboo owl mobiles from one of our favourite suppliers Petit Collage.

For UK peeps we also have her beautiful wooden owl collage for sale on mirrormirror.

Lorena at Petit Collage has also brought out a couple of fun owl-y packing tapes

Must think about getting all these in the shop.

While we’re on the subject of real estate…

August 11, 2009 By Paola 5 Comments

… this has just gone on sale for $25million in Brooklyn, NYC. This is apparently twice the previous record price for Brooklyn, but, truly you can see why. I think I could live here quite easily, if anyone fancies gifting me $25million. The clocks all work too…

See the full slideshow here

Wise Guys

August 7, 2009 By Paola 2 Comments

We all loved the Mibo Beetle stickers I blogged about earlier this year (and no, I haven’t yet done anything to personalise the car) and today I found out about another cool idea from the Mibo website – downloadable, print-at-homeable OWLS.

The Minx and I will be making these on Monday after we return from camping. That is if our fingers can move for the chilblains and frostbite – after last week’s record high temperatures, temps have plummeted this week and the weather forecast for the weekend is awful. I will be attempting to blog my camping experiences from my new iPhone (the silver lining to my car being broken into on Tuesday).

Speaking of iPhones, has anyone get any favourite apps they want to share? Either for me or the Minx? If you have a pre-schooler about the house you could do much worse that to download Smacktalk.

Alexander McQueen’s (Ex) East London Home

August 7, 2009 By Paola 4 Comments

As you know around here we’re rather partial to a peek at fashion designers’ houses (we’re looking at you Matthew Williamson, Betsey Johnson and Vanessa Bruno), so here for your delectation and delight are pictures of Alexander McQueen’s East London townhouse. {From the Real Estalker via the HolyMoly mailout – yes I do read it}

I don’t think it’s fair to make this a ‘Go Fug Your Room’ candidate as these photos are only estate agent’s photos and don’t fully reflect McQueen’s personal style, but it’s still interesting to snoop.

Personally I’m finding this rather boring. As you may have guessed I’m not hugely into minimalism at the best of times, but this strikes me as rather boring minimalism. My main gripe is with all the square and boxy built-ins – I prefer a few elegant curves in my rooms. And that house looks as if it dates from the 1850s? so it probably had quite a few nice original features – ceiling mouldings, fireplaces etc - which have all been summarily destroyed.

I also have to say that this house could benefit hugely from a bit of American-style home staging – some pictures, maybe a rug and a funky chair here and there would make all the difference.

I am loving the roof deck (though for me the glass skylight directly above the bed is not exactly a selling point), the pond thingy (pool?) and what we can see of the outside spaces though. Here the minimalist lines are softened by the plants, though a few flowers wouldn’t go amiss.

Anyway, if this house is for you it will only set you back 1.7 million pounds (I’ve just got a new computer and now have no idea how to find a pound sign) or around $2.8 million. Please bear in mind though, that this house is in Hackney, one of the, shall we say, edgiest areas of inner London.