One of my favourite parts of styling interiors is creating vignettes - collections of beautiful pieces that not only look pleasing, but also tell a story. It's the quickest way to bring your personality into a space. Trend forecaster (what a great job!), Anne Ziegler has mastered the art of vignettes and has created many throughout her new Los Angeles home.
White walls and blonde timber floors throughout provides a lovely base on which to layer her pieces. Everywhere you look you find gorgeous groupings and lots of yummy texture.
This (below) is one of my favourite vignettes. Your eye travels up and down the vertical line taking everything in. It's framed by the simple white curtains.
You can successfully group together pieces of a similar tone by making sure they are of varying sizes and textures - this adds interest and keeps it from looking 'blah'.
The use of art is another way to stamp your mark on your home.
And in the little nook outside the bathroom Anne uses the same vertical layering as in the living room. The little dipped stool in the bathroom beyond creates a visual link - so clever!
If you love this home as much as I do, go and get the entire tour over on Domino.
I'm finishing this working week off with a few magazine excerpts. First... the latest edition of Adore Home magazine is out, and is amazing, as always. It's focus this issue is on the beautiful city of Perth.
There's a lot of inspiration, and as usual, my favourite are the home tours. The first home belonging to interior designer, Lisa Marinovich, is a beautiful example of how you can use pattern and colour to bring a space to life. She's used one of my absolute fave wallpapers, Coconut Grove, which also appears on the cover.
The next home I love too, although it's very different to the first. It's funny... I feel like if you throw both homes in a big bowl and stir them around, you'll get my perfect home! I love the edginess of Samantha Tatulli's home. Samantha is also an interior designer, she works for Coco Republic, and she has a more neutral colour palette with the addition of warm leather, gold and greenery. If you look at both home owner's fashion style, it's a real reflection on their interior style. I often tell people to look to their wardrobe to help with their choice of colour palatte. There's so much more to see, so find some time this weekend to read all of Adore.
Dale & I, Bibby + Brady, were recently asked by Habitat, the Resene Magazine, to come up with an alternative room scheme. They sent us a photo of the original dining room and asked us to re-design it with our choice of furnishings and, of course, our Resene paint colours. We love the result...
And last but definitely not least, make sure you check out my new "Nook of the Month" in Your Home & Garden magazine. Each issue will have a new nook - ideas for what to do with an under-utilised, or awkward space in the home. You know I'm all about 'nooks', and there are some fantastic ones coming up, so pick you copy today.
Have a brilliant weekend everyone. See you next week, I've got some great things to share with you then.
If you're not blessed with a large, spacious home, don't be discouraged. With a bit of clever thinking you can make it work and look fab. Here are three examples to inspire you...
If you don't have an entire room to devote to your office you can set up a desk in the corner of your living room or bedroom, or tuck it away in a cupboard. I especially love this little office in an alcove belonging to Manhattan Nest blogger, Daniel Kanter. The wallpaper helps to define the space, and a simple floating shelf is the desktop. By having no legs it keeps it clean and gives the illusion of more space. And a second, even more tiny space on the right is perfect for shelving.
This beautiful dining space caters for five people and hardly takes up any room. By pushing the table up against the wall you instantly create more space. And a stool at this end takes up less visual space, again giving the illusion of more space.
Many kids share their bedroom with a sibling, sometimes for companionship, but often out of necessity. I love how the owners of this tiny bedroom have used a simple shelving unit as a room divider to give each child their own space, no matter how small. Using open shelves means the children can access the books and toys from their own side, and it doesn't completely close the back space up.
I hope that's inspired you. Now go forth and create your own amazing small spaces!
