Interiors Q&A – planning a kitchen
Dear Andrew, I am thinking about replacing my kitchen. How should I go about doing this?
Before you get carried away with choosing your worktops or the latest must have appliances, make a detailed plan of the space – measure everything, noting where the water and power points are. Your newly designed kitchen does not need to keep the same layout exactly but you may be constrained by space and should bear this in mind from the start – also does the existing layout work well but you want new units and appliances? If you feel the existing kitchen is too small is it possible to change the existing internal layout to provide a larger kitchen, one option for expansion is to combine a little used dining room into the kitchen.
What do you dream about?
As an interior designer I am in charge of turning client’s dreams into reality. This is often challenging and you have to try to understand exactly what people want. But away from interiors, what do our night time dreams really mean?
This weekend The London Bed Company is offering you a chance to have them analysed and explained. The company is based in Selfridges and as part of the store’s Big Open House Event is offering free dream analysis.
The dream analysis will be done by Emma Leverton who is offering free 15 minute consultations on Saturday the 19th May while you are slumbering on the rather grand Shakespeare bed. This week I had my own dreams analysed by Emma – and it was very interesting.
Room of the Week – colourful home office
This weeks Room of the Week is a luxurious home office bursting with colour. From the House to Home galleries this room combines purples, greens and gold to create a wonderful space for working.
Creating a home office that sits well with your home decorating scheme is often hard to do. The room can become very functional and boring but you need to remember that you really should want to work in this space. Take time to plan it to your requirements and you will love going to work!
Kay Bojeson Songbirds
Last year I featured the wonderful wooden animals of Kay Bojeson after discovering them at the Fritz Hansen store. Although I am still secretly lusting after a wooden monkey there is now a new range about to be launched.
The Songbird was designed by Kay Bojesen in the 1950s but never went into production. Taking inspiration from the birds in his garden at his home north of Copenhagen in Denmark there are 6 different coloured birds. They are named after the designer and members of his family – meet Songbirds Kay, Peter, Ruth, Pop, Otto and Sunshine.
4 products for 4 rooms
I’m running a series of blog posts, each covering product recommendations. These are products I have usually specified for clients, so I know they work well. There will be 4 products for 4 different rooms.
Living
After searching high and low for a sofa to meet a clients requirements we recently purchased the Aspen sofa from Conran. The simple design was perfect for their London apartment, the sofa is very stylish with the ability to dress up or down as needed. We purchased it in the lovely grey felt finish – the client is delighted.
Read more…
Design a bin and win from Brabantia
Our friends at Brabantia currently have a great competition that could see the bin you design actually go into production. The Design Your Bin competition is running until 10 June 2012 so you have a month to get creative and submit your entry.
There are two main prizes in the competition. The first prize will be judged by an international panel of Brabantia designers and executives who will decide which design has the best commercial potential. The second main prize will be for the design that gets the most votes online, you can see the current entries here to gauge the competition!
There will also be 6 prizes for the individual categories of Modern art, Street Art, Photography, Illustration, Montage, and Textiles and handmade. The full list of prizes can be seen here. I’m off to start my own design now … read all about the competition here – and good luck!
Room of the Week – modern toile bedroom
This weeks Room of the Week is a colourful bedroom featuring toile wallpaper. From the House to Home galleries this bedroom has a riot of colour that creates a very interesting and lively bedroom.
Toile style wallpaper has returned to fashion recently and there are now many great variations available. Originating from late 18th century France the style is correctly known as ‘Toile de Juoy’ and usually depicts a scene repeated on a plain background.
Goodbye The Sleep Room, Hello Loaf
Just loafing around, what could be a better way to relax? After around 3 years in business The Sleep Room is expanding and will become Loaf in October. This week I visited their rather fabulous showroom in West London to look at their new ranges.
Started by Charlie Marshall the company has grown slowly but surely, making sure they get things right before expanding their product range. They pride themselves on good customer service – your goods are delivered, installed and all the packaging is then taken away. And in the unlikely event that you are not happy they will offer you a full refund.
The New Traditionalists
Today we are featuring another discovery from my Blog Tour NYC trip to New York. The New Traditionalists very generously held cocktails for the Blog Tour crew at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show - and what great furniture for relaxing and drinking cocktails. The wonderful Bar Stool No. Forty was located next to their infamous Bar Cart on the stand – and after a long day at the show it was a very welcome sight!
Room of the Week – living room with feature wall
This weeks Room of the Week is a living room with a feature wall from Wallunica, one of the Blog Tour NYC sponsors. Featuring a grassland print this wall creates a very peaceful room setting.
Wallunica uses the very latest printing technology to allow you to create your own unique walls. The process is very simple, you upload your own image onto their website or choose one of the collection already on there. Then choose the size you want and they print it for you – easy!
