Displaying posts from February, 2009

Laura wrote us an email with the following:

“I was inspired by this entry to ask you a question. There is a lot of discussion about the perfect white paint, but I have yet to come across a discussion about the perfect off white/cream/beige paint. I know people use it because I see it every so often in Domino. One of the things that I love about Domino so much, is that they talk about paint colors. White is discussed a lot. But, I’ve noticed that if there is a picture of a space with an off white/cream colored wall, the paint is hardly ever mentioned. If the perfect white is so often hotly debated, why not the perfect off white?

I am really looking for the perfect color for a room in my house that I am working on. Just to prepare you for the picture, we had a terrible water pipe leak and as a result we had to tear down most of the left wall and some of the ceiling. You can see in the picture the new dry wall. Also, our windows are very special. They were made from old telephone pole wood. Every window in the house is some variation of this window. I don’t plan on painting the wood or the baseboards. I’ve already painted one bedroom a robin’s egg blue that looks beautiful. I plan on painting the master a light gray (right now it is a horrible yellow). But this room I wanted to do in a cream color. Hopefully, this will be a child’s room someday and I want a nice neutral background that will be able to take on blue or pink accent colors. As you can see in the picture the color that the previous owner’s of the house used is a beige, but it has a lot of yellow in it, which I don’t particularly like.

Here is the room. I apologize in advance for the chaos, but I am still working on the drywall:”

What a beautiful window – and a whole house of them?!?! I am very jealous. I explained to Laura that I had absolutely no experience with off-white, while I always stick to pure white or light grey when I’m looking for a neutral paint colour. My suggestion for a non-off-white would be a light grey as I think it would be really pretty with blue or pink. But I thought I’d throw this out to you guys if anyone has any paint colour suggestions for Laura. What’s your favourite off-white or beige?

Ian wrote us last week with a request for some ideas for this bathroom: “I’m trying to get my bathroom lighting sorted and I’ve decided against harsh overhead lighting with the plan of having the mirror lit either side instead which is a much more flattering light. However, I’ve looked everywhere and can find barely any ideas! I was thinking of a couple of Glo-balls coming out of the mirror, or recessed lighting, or a pair of Tolomeo lights coming out of the wall etc. Anything other than a horrid downlighter above my head! I wondered if you may be able to help me and post some much needed inspiration on your site?”

I went through my photos of bathrooms and selected some that hopefully give Ian some ideas. I personally think 2 glo-ball-like lights hanging on either side or wall-mounted Tolomeos would look fantastic. (I’ve got Tolomeos on either side of my range and I LUV them!). Examples of these and others are below.

Cossman_de Bruyn	Ami Mckay
Dolly Howarth	IFI
Location Works	Kate Hume
House Beautiful	mlk studio
Better Homes and Gardens	Jeff Andrews

Here’s my chance to woo you to my 1980s’ bandwagon. Children’s rooms, office space and storage. There are some very clever ideas here and with a colour tweak or a slight accessory change these rooms could be very now. See everything from the 80s wasn’t that bad! Except vertical blinds, too much knotty pine and those plastic door/drawer handles – I will never forgive who ever designed those. Now I just have to wait for power suits with shoulder pads and big big hair to come back and I’ll feel right at home. (Just kidding.) Once again and for the last time images come from Making the most of Bedrooms & Bathrooms, by Mary Gilliatt, Orbis Publishing, London, 1983.

… corner of my office. Hi I’m over here at my desk playing with Poladroid

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. So what’s in this week?

• • First up the wonderful creations of Cristina Serrano, illustrator and designer. haciendo el indio creates things for children, things made to endure, to become childhood partners, timeless objects and characters that tell wonderful stories in the universal language of children. Textiles, art, jewellery and toys. All so gorgeous and all so special.

• • Alischa from Bespoke Press emailed to let us know about her new letterpressed limited edition prints launched in her shop this week. Inspired by her favourite Kahlil Gibram quotes and printed in the most gorgeous colours using Bodoni typeface, they are each a limited edition of 50. Each is signed and numbered and only Au$25 each. BUT… if you are quick there is 20% off sale in Alischa’s shop! You simply need to enter the code ILOVELETTERPRESS when checking out to receive the discount. The sale will end at midnight on Sunday the 8th of February and is valid on all items. The 20% off takes the prints down to AU$20 or about US$13. Be quick!

• • Alex Brooks writes about homes, property, renovation, interiors and eco-living. Her blog is the discussion point for her main website Renovation Planning full of articles and e books. Don’t rush in blind. Alex will guide you through with her no nonsense approach. Disaster to success with lashings of common sense. Best thing of all it’s Aussie based. Hooray!

• • Heidi emailed to introduce Vinyl Silhouettes her new business that introduces a new twist on wall decals. Heidi will turn your digital photos of a child, pet, or object into vinyl silhouette decals. So cute! Think of a wall of traditional silhouettes in traditional fr
    ames. Yum!

• • Let your imagination run wild! Love poems for your partner, ideas board in the office, bread and milk from the shop. These boards designed by Kotona are a combination magnetic and chalkboard made of reclaimed plywood from the furniture industry offered in a wide range of colors and sizes. Designed and produced in Finland you’ll find them at Matteria.

• • Been to DigsDigs yet? Home design, decor, furniture and more. If a modern, clean lined and cutting edge aesthetic is what you dig then DigsDigs may just be for you.

• Sale at Lotta Jansdotter? Yes please. Love these fabric 2009 calendars now only $10! And there’s still 11 months to go 🙂

Lee-Anne from Toronto wrote us looking for help: “I love your website and thought you might be able to help me with my design dilemma. We recently bought a home that was built in the 40’s that’s a bit of a fixer upper. It has wooden baseboards throughout and lots of wood trim. I am still hanging onto my old furniture but I am sooooo ready to redo this room!! I want to modernise it and add colour and texture!! My dilemma is that in almost all of the design pictures that I see, the baseboards are painted white. My sister has told me in no uncertain terms that I am NOT to paint the wood trim in the house. I am looking for inspiration where people have kept the baseboards a natural colour.” Below are some photos Lee-Anne included of her home.

At first I immediately thought “PAINT!!” but if I had such beautiful baseboards and trim, I would be terrified to paint it. So after looking at the photos, I would listen to your sister. But I would get out the paint can for a few things. I would paint out the fireplace (and lose that huge mirror above), the risers on the stairs and maybe the balusters (a photo below shows this). That’s it. But keep your walls light and if you were going to get rugs, I’d keep those light too. Or you could go with a warm bright wall colour (see the yellow wall below). So the following are photos of spaces with unpainted trim (except the last one but imagine it’s a dark wood).

Better Homes and Gardens	Better Homes and Gardens
Caroline Beaupère	Alexandra Rowley
Todd Oldham	Fox-Nahem
Canadian House & Home	The Selby

And to make your decision even harder Lee-Anne, here are some photos of spaces with painted trim, you know, to keep your options open. 🙂