Displaying posts from December, 2010

Ooops! Sorry! That was meant to read “Stalking family homes”. I’m really taken by the casual yet stylish feel of this seaside home. Not beachy. Definitely not beachy but I can just imagine kids in wet bathers and sand trekked in from beach trips. Lazy evening dips in the pool and toys strewn across the grass. Cricket on the gravel and dogs barking madly. Family movies. Big breakfasts after a morning dip. And friends. Yes friends making the pilgrimage every weekend to visit. Link here while it lasts.

Today’s reader request comes from Kate: “I’m moving to Florence, Italy in January (so exciting!) and the apartment we are renting is partially furnished. In the living area there are — gulp — two purple velvet armchairs and a purple sofa. They are in great shape and high quality pieces, I just never thought I’d be living with so much purple! I’ve read enough design blogs to know there has got to be a design solution to tame and balance the colors.” My 2 cents = embrace the purple! I wouldn’t try to tame the purple because why not have fun with it (plus I think it could easily look like you’re trying to hard to make the purple disappear). If you’re allowed to paint I’d either paint the walls (or at least the main wall) the same purple as the furniture or a lighter, lavendar shade. (If you can’t paint then I’d get a huge canvas and a couple cans of purple paint and do some funky simple art). Dark charcoal walls, purple velvet drapes would be hot. Accessorize with purple, and black and white geometric patterns. Below are some photos I found of living rooms with purpley sofas/chairs, and then a few photos where bold coloured furniture matches wall colour. (If you have ideas for Kate please drop a comment!)

Home & Decor
Sköna hem
Alex Papachristidis
Steven Gambrel
Shoot Factory
Côté Maison
Designers Guild
heyhome
Andrea Garuti

vtwonen	Pelle Bergström
David Kaplan	Tracey Garet

Living Etc.
Living Etc.
design*sponge
Folio
Greg Natale
Lagerlings
Andrew Suvalsky

Bo Bedre	David Netto

Yes I’m craving colour at the moment. Great big dollops of saturated colour. So I love these shots styled by Jakob Solgren. Sometimes quirky, sometimes bold, perhaps a little subtle, perhaps not. Great ideas to steal too. Loving the torn artwork in the first photo. The pink dresser juxtaposed with the psychedelic green dining room. Turquoise and chinese red nursery? Just a few calming Scandi white rooms too from real rooms, family rooms to some just a little more haute. All I know is I think though I need a pink plaid rug for my sofa and one can never have enough kilims…pink kilims!

If you like this post wait till you see what Kim has coming later today 🙂

It’s already been a long week (is it seriously only Wednesday??!!) and I really need a little pick-me-up to get me through the day. I thought some goodies from the portfolio of Dutch photographer Marjon Hoogervorst would do the trick. LURVLY! (Thanks for the link sis!)

From conception to completion art and photo director Jessica Thomas loves colour. Hey she loves maximalism and rooms as comfortable as a favourite old sweater! It’s casual yet stylish, never precious but always pretty. It’s what so many of us want to come home to. She certainly knows her job… to create the dream.