A New Blog and Fabric love

Today I have fallen in love with Schumacher Fabrics all over again and found a new blog. Whilst innocently browsing the web I came across this most wonderful blog, Little Green Notebook run by the very talented interior designer Jenny Komenda.  You have to check out her daugther’s bedroom makeover. She recovered the headboards in super cool Schumacher’s Chiang Mai Dragon, painted the side table, turned an old mirror into a funky hot pink framed chalkboard, created art for the walls, repainted an old lamp, revamped white bed linen, revamped a mirror, constructed pelmet boxes for the three windows and the list goes on …… Amazing and all doable!!!

and if that ain’t enough Jenny has just completed her office makeover.

After I stopped drooling over all the colours I searched the web for some Schumacher fabric and just purchased a metre and half of Hot House Flowers! Yippee.

Get Voting

And I am not talking about the Lisbon Treaty – don’t get me started on that one.

No I am talking about voting for The Best British Designs launched in 2009, brought to you by Elle Decoration. Check out the shortlist and place your vote here. The winners will be announced in the December issue of Elle Decoration.

There are two categories – Best Design and Best Surface Design launched in 2009 -

You can only pick one but here are my three for the Best Design from Elle Decoration’s shortlist -

1st pic – Steve Watson – Prop Lamp 2nd pic – Chauhan Studio – Lula Kitchen Accessories for Habitat 3rd pic – Tom Dixon (just because I love everything he does) – Pressed Glass Lights

and for the surface design – here are my top three from the list -

1st pic – Abigail Borg – Polka Polka wallpaper (I have a real thing for florals with dark backgrounds) 2nd pic – Harlequin – Illuminate wallpaper 3rd pic – Sanderson – Dandelion Clocks wallpaper

DIY Saarinen side table

Plastolux has a few DIY projects and hacks on his blog but this one is my favourite. A DIY Saarinen side table made from a pair of Bose speaker stands and a round piece of wood. Genius! Click here to check out the how to.

Tips from Better Homes and Gardens

While cruising the web I stumbled across this article from Better Homes and Gardens on how to maximise space in a small bedroom. Now I strongly disagree this is a small bedroom but I do agree with the tips to maximise space. So I thought I would share their wisdom with you.

First tip – choose furniture that allows you to see through to the floor. This gives the impression of more space.

Second Tip – Frosted glass on internal doors lets more light into the room and also lets you look beyond the room giving the impression of more depth. I am not a door closer but I like this idea. We would definitely benefit from this tip for the door that leads from our bright living room into the dark and scary hallway.

Third tip – Hanging fabric panels, or curtains to you and me, on the front of your wardrobe instead of doors to save on space. I like this one because I have a curtain over a storage closet in the space bedroom / office as there was no room for a door to open and close.

Me old china… er cabinet

A few years back my mum moved from a big house into a very small apartment close to the city. She has since moved up the coast but when she made the original move all of the family furniture was divvied up amongst my brothers. Some of this stuff was dragged all the way from the UK in 1974 when my parents moved to Australia. I missed out. Well in fairness its because I live all the way over here.

I guess that’s my punishment for moving so far away from my mother!

But one thing I really would have knocked old grannies over for was our old china cabinet. There was probably nothing special as far as antiques go but it had a special aura. Mainly because that’s where all the good stuff was stored and only came out on special occasions or when we had guests my mum was trying to impress. And the occasional bottle of booze – which didn’t interest me as a child – but the fancy glasses with gold etchings that sat next to the booze did.

I guess I could scour the second hand classifieds and I might get lucky but nothing beats good old sentimental value.

Pic 1 – from Rearranged Design House Tour

Pic 2 – from Brooklyn Vintage

Dublin Flea Market on this Sunday

After a break last month Dublin Flea is back with a new selection of vintage & retro pieces including furniture, lights, ceramics, glass, clocks, mirrors,  magazine racks, prints, radios, coasters, cakestands, record players, coffee sets…………………. The list goes on.

See you all there!

Pretty Old

Michelle from Pretty Old has just emailed to say  her website is now up and running.

We blogged about Michelle about a year ago so its great to see more of her work.

Michelle’s passion is vintage furniture. She enjoys buying pieces at auctions and markets and restyling them to create a fusion between old and new.

Michelle prices are reasonable and reflect the cost it took her to restyle them.

Here are some pieces she has available on the new site.

Favs from Bolig

Here are some pics from the Bolig website

Love the colour scheme and art display in this room

Love the pops of colour in this house tour and the cushions on the sofa!

Love the wallpaper and pinky / purple light behind the mirror in this bathroom

and finally – love the brightness and full length window in this bathroom

A good weekend

Sometimes the weekends whizz by without much happening but this weekend was full of little surprises.

We scored a new dining table from Oxfam on Francis Street for 40 euro and its exactly what I wanted.

and I set up a new work area for blogging / sewing / sketching using the old dining table. It needs some more finishing touches but I love having an area all of my own.

and finally the green thing I have been watering for two months finally sprouted a flower. I think I’m right in thinking this is a type of pansy? Whatever it is it made me happy to see the sunny little flower on Sunday morning.

SCP sale love

Oh I want! I would never EVER get sick of this sofa and chair. NEVER! EVER!

These sexy mo fos are on sale at the moment at SCP with 30-35% off.