Adventures In Areaware

 Art, collaborations, decorative, fun things, homewares, nice things, organisational, product design, shopping  3 Responses »
Mar 122013
 

Areaware Adventures In Areaware

Kicking off the rapidly-approaching New York season which sees me jetting off to join this year’s BlogTourNYC, is a blog post on Areaware. It seems serendipitous that I came across a very satisfying tape dispenser in the Barbican’s shop (as part of the The Bride and the Bachelors exhibition) which happens to have made its way across the seas from the city I’m going to next Tuesday, to find a new home on our little island. With a polished grey concrete base and a wooden reel to hold the tape, this nice piece of office desk-ware really puts its cousins to shame, in all of their plastic-nastiness. Its charm led me to venture a gandering at Areaware’s other products, and disappointed I wasn’t. A nicely curated website with lots of collaborations with excellent product designers. Here are my top 7 products.

1. Concrete Desk Set, Designer: Magnus Pettersen, $60, 2.) C’Mere Hand Hook, Designer Harry Allen, material: Resin and Marble, $65, 3.) Cargo Container, Designer: Daniel Ballou, material: Ceramic, $30, 4.) Brush Vase, Designer: Harry Allen, material: Resin and Marble, $110, 5.) Little Distortion #2, Designer: Paul Loebach, material: Resin and Marble, $18, 6.) Dinner Plates Set of 4, Designer: Jason Miller, material: Porcelain, $130, 7.) Star Spangled Spatula, Designer: Jacob Riley-Wasserman, material: Nylon Resin, $12

Stack ‘Em Up

 architecture, Art, colour, decorative, fun things, furniture, inspirational, organisational, photography, random  No Responses »
Feb 132013
 

Michael Johansson Stack Em Up

The more I wander through Swedish artist, Michael Johansson‘s website of sometime-colour-coded-but-always-stacked-up household paraphernalia which for once, actually does include the kitchen sink, the more I like it. Actually, it’s definitely verging more on the love. They are WICKED. And so NEAT. There are a variety of installation spaces, from exhibition to domestic places and areas of whimsy but all executed with the same precision and care. I can’t begin to imagine the time and effort that goes into filling each void but the shopping must be fun. It’s beautiful mundanity.

Colour In Your To Do List

 animation, Art, collaborations, colour, decorating, fun things, inspirational, interiors, organisational, shopping  2 Responses »
May 012012
 

Created by Yaniv Fridman and Daniel Luna
Music and Sound Design by WhiteNoise Lab / Roger Lima

Seeing as it’s the start of a new month, I figured we could all do with turning over a new leaf of good intentions to put into practise to re-adjust the work/life balance. As a freelancer, I am especially guilty of working long hours; all evening, all weekend, and with the introduction of smart phones, it gets worse. Hands up everyone who immediately checks their phone at the sound of that incoming ping of an email? ALL of us. This little video not only reminds us of what’s important in life but also what’s not so important. It has nice graphic illustrations and a pleasing linear theme. Also notable is the rather lovely paint palette that seems to be very relevant to the popular colour theme coming out of this year’s Milan design week. Now, you might want to turn the sound down a bit as it’s a trifle intense (unless electronic-techno-meditation is your bag) but a rather nice piece of work anyway. A good way to say hello to May. Here are my top nine interiors paint colours to match the video.

To Do List1 Colour In Your To Do List

1.) Zoffany’s Snow, £32.90 for 2.5l emulsion, Cromwells Interiors 2.) Paarl, 2.5L flat emulsion, £32.50, Paint and Paper Library 3.) Arsenic No.214, £32.50 for 2.5l Estate Emulsion, Farrow and Ball 4.) Kevin McCloud’s Oak Apple, £29.50 for 2.5l, Fired Earth 5.) Earthborn’s Lucy’s Scarf, £22.88 (sale price) for 2.5l emulsion, The Green Shop 6.) Colours by B&Q’s Turtle Seas, EAN: 0000003836545, £13.98 for 2.5L Silk Emulsion, B&Q 7.) Mono, £30.50 for Absolute emulsion, Little Greene 8.) Marston & Lainginger’s Homberg, £41.50 for 2.5 L, Designer Paint 9.) Barbara Hulanicki’s Fang, £21.99 for 2.5l emulsion, Amazon

Heavy Metal

 decorative, furniture, gardening, homewares, interiors, lighting, nice things, organisational, product design, shopping, shops  4 Responses »
Mar 022012
 

Heavy Metal Heavy Metal

It’s all gone a bit rock’n'roll over here in finch land today. I may be feeling far from rock’n'roll myself but that isn’t going to stop me from indulging in some pure heavy metal. Long gone are my days of head-banging, and boy, I did for a while (less said about this the better) but I still like the look of unadulterated metal. Just without the distressed leather, cans of lager and grimy bandanas. And how better to bring in some industrial-chic than with this selection of hardcore items. No Nine Inch Nails and certainly no Guns and…, though roses would definitely work. In a suitable vase, of course. Get out the air guitars and get rockin’, people. Let me hear you say ROCK!

p.s Slash- yes, I’m happy to come and interior-decorate your office, it’ll cost you though.

1.) Chip the paper clip holder by Rodrigo Torres, £32, Design Museum, 2.) Hee lounge chair designed by Hee Welling, £215, SCP, 3.) wire wall rack, £60, Cox and Cox, 4.) set of 4 hammered metal coasters, £9.50, M&S, 5.) Ginger table light, £259 exc. VAT, Original BTC Lighting, 6.) Wirehouse magazine rack, £34.95, Pretty Dandy 7.) Basket of glasses, £26.50, Ben Pentreath, 8.) Kalveri metal chest of drawers, £695, Conran, 9.) vintage metal boxes, perforated £45.95, plain £40.95, The Balcony Gardener

Come To My Garden

 books, colour, decorative, Designer-Maker, flowers, illustrators, interiors, nice things, organisational, paper, product design, shopping, stationery, textiles  No Responses »
Feb 242012
 

Abigail Borgs Notebooks Come To My Garden

This season saw the launch of Abigail Borg’s new range and a very welcome range it is. A natural tangent from fabric and wallpaper, notebooks are an easy accessory that everyone can indulge in without too much bravery or having to redecorate. If you’re too nervous to embrace big, bold hand-drawn florals in your home (shame on you) and you’ve already got more cushions than you can shake a stick at, then why not carry about your own little piece of floral fancy in hardback A5 form. What better way to celebrate the first signs of spring than with a nice cheery flowery notebook? A welcome burst of colour and I reckon they can only serve as further inspiration for all your already splendidly creative thoughts that, no doubt, you all have in abundance. The tricky thing is choosing one. I like all the designs and her colour palette so much that I think I’ll just have to have one of each. But which to start with…? All notebooks are hardback and A5, £16, available in Abigail’s on-line shop.

1.) Friti in plum, 2.) Hello Yarrow in teal, 3.) Mr Chrysanth,
4.) Lady Green, 5.) Laburnum in raspberry, 6.) Dahlia Fox in golden,
7.) Laburnum in teal, 8.) Polka Pollka, 9.) Friti in teal,
10.) Hello Yarrow in natu, 11.) Dahlia Fox in sky.

images with thanks to Abigail Borg.

Ship-shape and Bristol Fashion

 homewares, nice things, organisational, shopping, shops, stationery  1 Response »
Jan 272012
 

Get Tidied Up Ship shape and Bristol Fashion

1.) button push pins, £14, Present & Correct, 2.) wooden stapler, £16, Shelf 3.) letter tray in Petrol Blue, £25.95, Pretty Dandy 4.) Decode’s Heavy desk light, £331.50 (sale price), Mydeco 5.) delete eraser, £2.99, The Oak Room 6.) Hex paper weight in black, £25, SCP 7.) yellow tape dispenser, £8, Heal’s 8.) Dulton 5-drawer storage chest, £225, Oliver Bonas 9.) Winston antique globe, £85, Graham and Green

The Joy of Books

 books, collaborations, fun things, nice things, organisational, shops  No Responses »
Jan 232012
 

This little bundle of joy has been painstakingly created by creative couple Lisa Blonder Ohlenkamp and Sean Ohlenkamp on behalf of a Toronto bookshop called Type Books. Another example of stunning stills animation, this is a tale of magic. A tale that tells of the life of books at night when the world is sleeping, everything we have always secretly hoped for having grown up with Bagpuss and Disney’s Fantasia. I really enjoyed the added extra of the little creatures seen moving around the store chasing each other and the books. I can only begin to imagine how long it took to constantly turn around all those books on all those shelves. But turn they do and turn beautifully to boot. This is a masterpiece of shelf organisation and how good it can look and if nothing else, of patience. The video is accompanied by a splendid score by Grayson Matthews which conjures sparkles and wonderment as the books dance the night away before they all return to their rightful places as the new day dawns. I shall never view my bookshelves in quite the same way and the next time I wake in the night, I shall lie quietly whilst sneaking a peek to see whether my books are doing the foxtrot around my bedroom floor. Oh, if only they would!

One Box, Two Box, Three Box, Four

 decorative, interiors, nice things, organisational, paper, shops, textiles  No Responses »
Jan 162012
 

box trio One Box, Two Box, Three Box, Four
images taken from Manostiles’ website

With all this sunshine it doesn’t take long before I’m looking around my flat and starting to list all the things that need to be done. Oh yes folks, it’s the big annual Spring Clean. Alongside dust-bunny elimination, which seem to appear with little encouragement (like their real life namesakes) due to not having carpets or curtains (dust love both, you know), organisation is this year’s key-word. Having had lots of time over Christmas to myself due to a longer-than-normal bout of Laryngitis which has rendered me without a voice (there’s not much socialising that can be done in this state) and very easily tired this was the perfect opportunity to no longer delay the major task that I’ve been putting off the last few years. I don’t mean to yank on the old heartstrings, for that was not my intention, I merely wanted to set the scene, I promise, as to how I found myself with my hands tied over the festive period. As a stylist, I am the receiver and hoarder of an inordinate amount of paper, leaflets, pamphlets and catalogues. Truth be told, I am as much to blame for this state of affairs as the PRs and shops that send me reams of printed information through the post. I pick up and collect on days out, days off, days in (beat that), trade-shows, whilst shopping, ALL the time. But the one thing that I haven’t managed to do was sort out a filing system to deal with it all. Now, fear not, I am not going to bore you with the details but needless to say, all things box are at the forefront of my mind this January and whilst going through my paper-stacks, I came across the business card of Danish homewares retailer Manostiles. I have no idea where I picked it up from but glad I did indeed, for boxes they do, and very nice boxes to be sure. Fabric-covered and paper-covered boxes in good sensible colours with nice geometric prints- no self-respecting adult could ask for more. Here they are:

Neutral Line wide One Box, Two Box, Three Box, Four

Manocan molecules drop One Box, Two Box, Three Box, Four

All boxes available from Manostiles’ webshop, prices start from €7 for a single item.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring, it’s time to get up!

 decorative, homewares, interiors, nice things, organisational, product design, shopping, shops  2 Responses »
Sep 162011
 

alarm clocks Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring, its time to get up!

The start of term always begins with one sound….brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Your alarm clock. Here are my favourite nine!

1.) Okko, £28, Habitat 2.) Karlsson Time Pointer in green, £10, John Lewis 3.) Magno Klock 01, £87, Design Museum Shop 4.) Jacob Jenson’s Wake Up, £77, Panik-Design 5.) Celia Birtwell alarm clock, £18.50, Penelope Tom 6.) Retro, £16.95, Culture Label 7.) Lexon’s Beside in red, £25.40, Made in design 8.) Blanc in white, £49.96, Authentics 9.) Bell, £57, SCP

Knock Knock

 decorative, fun things, homewares, nice things, organisational, paper, product design, shopping, shops, stationery, things to do  No Responses »
Jul 272011
 

This month I’ve been so busy that things have got somewhat out of hand on the domestic front. My bedroom is a state (and it’s not united) and my ‘office’, this is a desk under my staircase, is piled so high with stacks of correspondence and AW and Christmas ’11 look-books, that it’s barely recognisable. One excitable flailing arm movement could send the whole lot to the floor at any moment. Not that the floor looks any better, the immediate area surrounding my desk is just as bad. A small metropolis has sprung up and similar to the ever-changing London skyline: a number of piles have already toppled only to be re-built.

So, what better me thinks than to invest in some of these products from American company Knock Knock to help get everything ship-shape. As their website advertises they’re ‘fun and functional’. Nicely designed with simple typefaces, lovely colours and amusing slogans, I could do with all the motivation I can get to attempt to organise and file my world into something manageable.

I think I’d start off with this to- do list mousepad so I have no excuse to not know what I’m doing at any point during the week…

12607 ThisWeek Flat Knock Knock‘cos it’s blatantly gonna take me ALL week to get anywhere. Then I’d have to break it down into manageable chunks so I don’t get scared off and start procrastinational (no such word) tasks such as washing up (which also needs doing along with the hoovering, mopping, scrubbing, laundering). So, I’ll need this notepad…

12007 To Do Knock Knockand then finally, having been super-efficient, time-manager-extraordinaire, I would have to congratulate myself with these…though of course, not until I’d actually managed to complete at least one of the tasks.

12330 GreatJob Knock KnockCor, it’s a time consuming lark, this being organised. I fear it may take me a week just to write all the lists of all the jobs that need doing. It’s almost like a whole other job. Maybe I should cut my losses and get a secretary. Imagine all the time saved with short-hand abilities…

1.) This Week paper mousepad, sale price of $5.50 2.) To-do notepad, $8  3.) Great Job sticky notes, $3.75, all online from Knock Knock.

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