Designer Spotlight: Margo Selby

Tags

Colourful, cushions, design, fabrics, home, homewares, interior design, Interiors, lampshades, Margo Selby, rugs

Sometimes I see something and fall instantly in love. Seeing Margo Selby’s cushions was one of those moments. I was at a trade fair speaking to all the amazingly talented designer-makers and then out of the corner of my eye I saw it…glorious green interlaced with calm blue and vibrant purple…a kaleidoscope that called out..buy me! OK…enough silliness…but you have to admit this cushion is pretty lovely and worth every penny of its rather pricey £78.

Kaleidoscope cushion by Margo Selby

But Margo’s way with colours doesn’t end with this cushion, she has lent her fantastic fabric designs to vivid coloured patterned lampshades like this one…

Caroline lampshade by Margo Selby

…and to fun handknotted wool and silk rugs like this blue beauty (which might require a bit of penny pinching at £1,166.00 but I can testify to the fact it feels lovely as well – almost too lovely to walk on in fact!)

Hand Knotted Rug by Margo Selby

If you like Margo Selby’s work then she also has fabrics, furniture, scarves, ties, bags and much much more, all available from her online shop at http://www.margoselby.com/. We advise you set aside a few minutes to browse and adore!

That’s all for tonight folks

 

Designer Spotlight: Kartell – an iconic Italian brand

Tags

bookshelf, Chair, design, Ghost chair, iconic design, Italian brand, lighting, plastic

So although my own taste veers towards the more rustic/traditional/feminine end of furniture and product design, I still appreciate a great modern brand when I see one. Kartell is one such great brand, hailing from Italy it’s a real design powerhouse (and has plenty of history to go along with it!)

Kartell started out in the 1940s, when the company founder Guilio Castelli – a chemical engineer – began manufacturing plastic car accessories. Later he moved into the creation of plastic lab equipment and from there onto the creation of plastic household goods. This history gave the company a lot of skill with the manipulation of plastics, and this is evident today in its fantastic range of furniture and decor products. The brand has a team of incredibly talented designers and produces accessible, unique designer pieces for the home. The use of unusual shapes, clever designs and bold colour choices make a real statement and they have some truly iconic pieces in their collection.

By far and away my favourite thing from this brand (being a bit of a bookworm myself) is this bookcase that takes something practical and makes it into a piece of wall art:

Kartell bookworm bookshelf

OK so to keep the effect you probably wouldn’t want to cover it in books, but a few carefully chosen titles would complement the shape. You can pick yourself one up here for £395 (its available in black, white, cobalt blue, matt aluminium and red)

My next choice from this brand is a rather sexy set of lampshades. I seem to feature a lot of lighting on this blog, and I think it’s because changing a lampshade is one of the easiest but more effective ways to update your space and add some personality. The Fl/y Icon suspensions lamp is made in all the colours of the rainbow, and whilst they are available singly, I think they look best hung as a beautiful bright group. You can pick up the whole range here for £149 each.

Kartell Fl/y Icon Suspension Lampshade in Rainbow Colours

Finally, no blog post on Kartell would be complete without mentioning their most iconic piece – and one that has been copied countless times since it was first released to market – The Ghost Chair. This chair’s shape was based on a Louis XV chair (in fact I saw one in just this style last weekend at the Palace of Versailles!) but Kartell (along with designer Philippe Starck) reinvented this for the 21st Century, manufacturing from various colours of transparent glossy plastic. The original clear version remains my firm favourite however, and you can get one for £179 here. I recommend pairing it with a rustic wooden dining table to get the maximum impact (and because their chair has such classic styling, it will look like they were made to go together!)

Kartell Ghost Chair in Transparent Plastic

The Ghost Chair paired with a solid wooden table (Image credit to theoutfitoftheday.blogspot.com)

Product Spotlight: Hyphae Lamp

Tags

delicate, design, etsy, homewares, lamp, lighting

Sometimes I spot a product that is so amazing that it deserves a blog post all of its own (like this fun animal hand shapes wallpaper by Mary Kilvert). Today I stumbled across another one of those “oh wow” products so I wanted to share it with you right away!

Without further ado:

Hyphae Lamp by Nervous System on Etsy

Isn’t it just BEAUTIFUL? I have never seen anything that so clearly evokes leaves or maybe the organic shapes of living coral and it is just so delicate and intricate and amazing!

According to the listing on Etsy:

Hyphae is a collection of 3D printed artifacts constructed of rhizome-like networks. Inspired by the vein structures that carry fluids through organisms from the leaves of plants to our own circulatory systems, we created a simulation which uses physical growth principles to build sculptural, organic structures. Starting from an initial seed and a surface, we grow a hierarchical network where nodes constantly branch and merge. The densely interconnected structure is at once airy and strong.

Well, we don’t know about all that, but we know that even for $600 we totally want one!

Lighting the way – chandeliers with a difference

Tags

chandeliers, design, homewares, lighting, modern

Continuing on my French inspired theme, today’s blog post is about chandeliers. This elegant and rather feminine type of lighting is the a typical choice for either traditional high end or popular shabby chic decoration schemes. But, as I very quickly discovered, you don’t have to stick with traditional shapes and materials – the chandelier has run wild (and so have the price tags!!)

For a real colour statement we love the Johnny Egg flocked chandeliers. A choice for the brave, their acid bright tones would look striking in a modern clean neutral apartment!

You can buy yourself one for £770 at Heal’s

Johnny Egg Flocked Blue Chandelier

Next up is this AMAZING work of art by Ingo Maurer, available from the ever fabulous SCP Ltd. Each lightbulb has its own pair of goose feather wings evoking an image of birds. Of course, it will hurt the wallet at the rather sensational price of £5160 but if you have the pennies to spare then how can you resist?

Bird Chandelier by Ingo Maurer at SCP Ltd.

Finally for something totally unique and quite stunning because of its beautiful organic shapes and natural material, we had to showcase this amazing deer antler chandelier. Before you get all worried, it’s made from the antlers of Norwegian deer who shed their antlers naturally, so no animal cruelty worries! It is going to cost you a fair whack though, at around £2,800 from The French Bedroom Company

Norwegian Deer Antler Chandelier

And if like me, none of these are in your budget, well you can always cheat with a fabulous cushion from RawXclusive starting at just £35

Blue Chandelier cushion by RawXclusive

Retail Therapy: Ruby Roost – delightful home accessories to suit any budget

One of our favourite things about twitter is that it lends itself perfectly to discovery, and sometimes a real beauty crops up in our tweet stream. Ruby Roost is one such find – their product range ticks all our boxes with an inspiring handpicked selection that blends the “ooh isn’t it pretty” effect with “oh that’s so unusual, where did you get it?” You might not need everything this online boutique sells, but you are certain to want most of it!

Describing itself as selling “little treats for the home” we stumbled upon something we liked inside every category. Here are a few of our favourites:

Stoneware coffee beaker by Karin Eriksson

These smart vessels have a beautiful hand thrown finish and although we haven’t held one ourselves, we are betting they feel rather lovely in the hand. Practical (dishwasher and microwave safe), interesting and unlike anything else we have drunk coffee out of we think at £30.40 for the pair (in the sale) they are a must have! Get them here

Individual mini wooden drawers for storage

We are always looking out for attractive says to store bits and pieces and these mini drawers are a great idea for a study or a crafting desk. Made from lovely dark wood and with a very useful slot for labelling, we would use them exactly as shown in this picture, stacked haphazardly for best visual effect. They are just £5 each so no complaints on price either! Get them here

Silver aluminium pendant lampshade

We love kitchens which have low hanging pendants over a dining room table, and this pendant lampshade is just perfect for that effect! I would line them up in a row for the most striking look, so get one, two or better still three here for £36.99

There are plenty of other fantastic things on the website, so go check it out! www.rubyroost.com

Inspiration: White Roses

Hey there blogosphere – sorry we have had a few days of quiet, I was lurking out in the countryside attending a rather beautiful wedding, which provided the inspiration for this post. The bride had done a stellar effort on the planning and kept her theming very simple, choosing the warm white of the white rose as her inspiration.

It was truly beautiful – pure and very very classy – so I thought I would come home and look for some homewares and furnishings that were similarly inspired by this lovely flower. Turns out there is plenty to choose from, so here are my picks:

This chair by Gianluigi Landoni for Vibieffe would look amazing in the garden, but equally striking indoors. It might not be that comfortable to sit on (and leave funky patterns on your legs if you do), but when a chair is this pretty it is more decorative that functional anyway You can get one for yourself here for £900

Vibieffe White Roses Armchair available at http://www.awhiteroom.com

We love the Mackintosh-esque take on the rose that this Etsy seller has use for their white rose inspired cushion

White Rose Cushion from Mazizmuse at Etsy

Finally we think that these silk sconce lampshades are very pretty indeed, although they would look OTT in a room with too much going on, so I would keep them for an otherwise simply decorated bedroom. They come all the way from the USA and you can get yourself one here

White Rose Sconce Lampshade