Travels in technicolour

Hi everyone and welcome back to regular posting here on make space! 

A whole lot has been happening lately, what with travels and then finishing (part of) my studies, so it's great to finally make (space and) time to reflect on the things that have inspired me lately and share them with you.

Colour, colour - everywhere!  Travel awakens my colour senses even more than usual (sometimes I wonder if that's possible, but anyhoo, I digress), so here are a selection of colour hits from my recent trip to Paris, Scotland and of course, Singapore ....

Macaroons - the new cupcakes!  Spotted these in a Paris patisserie window.

How good do these look?  Good food and colour all in one - a dream come true!  It was early morning in Paris and this shop wasn't open, so the tasting had to wait until Singapore and the wonderful Jean-Philippe Darcis cake shop at Marina Bay Sands.  Don't miss it if you're visiting Singapore!

A gorgeous vintage car being used as a promotional vehicle for the Tour de France

My visit to Paris also coincided with the Tour de France, so cycling-mania was all around.  So much passion and pride surrounds this race and whether you're into cycling or not, you can't help but get swept up in the excitement.  And to the two lovely old French blokes I got chatting to at the start of Stage 8 - what was that about Cadel not being up to the task???!!!

In actual fact, I saw very little of Paris beyond the first day or two, because I fell ill with a virulent flu virus and spent the majority of the stay sweating it out in my tiny apartment (thankfully one with a great view overlooking the Seine).  What I did manage to visit, though, was the Musee d'Orangerie ....

One of the Monet curved paintings at the Musee d'Orangerie.  Unusually, you're allowed to take photos in this gallery - of course unfortunately that applies to everyone, not just me!

Despite the hordes of tourists (Paris in July - never again), I found this building and the treasures within very calming, almost ethereal.  Thanks for the recommendations to visit, everyone.  Well worth it.

And so on to Scotland, where summer in the countryside is always a riot of colour ...

If you missed my Six Senses tour of Fife last week, make sure you check it out here.

A field of oilseed rape - a common, but stunning, sight in Scotland in July

  

But Scotland always has the ability to surprise me too, every time I visit.  I hadn't planned to, but I ended up going to Stirling Castle and I'm so glad I did - it was a major highlight.  I'll do a separate post just on this at a later date, but here's a sneak peek of the nearly 10 years of painstaking research and restoration that just blew me away ....

The King's Bedchamber in the Palace at Stirling Castle

The passion, craftsmanship and attention to detail that has gone into restoring Stirling's Royal Lodges to their 16th century splendour oozes out of every room, every piece of furniture, every tapestry and every painting.  Do not miss this place if you ever find yourself in Scotland!

And so finally to Singapore - a colour and pattern lover's paradise!  From the flowers planted and blooming everywhere you look, to the simple but beautiful designs on my hotel stationary, Singapore had me at hello ....

 A beautiful example of traditional shophouses in Singapore

This row of 'shophouses' in the Katong and Joo Chiat area of Singapore had me snapping away like crazy.  Ok, just one more ....

Not to mention my new favourite shop ....

Rumah Bebe - a shop selling traditional Peranakan fabrics and other fabulous items.  I'll show you what I bought in a later post!

Well, that hasn't even skimmed the surface of my photos, so with my colour tour complete, look out for the pattern and texture tours that will be coming to make space very soon.

Enjoy the rest of the week, everyone, and may something colourful brighten your world today -and every day.

Til next time, Nx

The sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes (and secrets) of home ....

Hi everyone,

It's Friday, the sun is shining and I'm where I'm supposed to be - life is good! 

A sneak peek from my Six Senses Tour - link below

Spring must be on its way here in Brisbane, as Jezebel the cat just brought me the first lizard of the season.  Thanks Jez, I love you too. (If only the tail would not detach and wriggle about on the carpet all by itself!!!!!)

I wish I could take credit for this great shot of Jezebel, but I have to thank Ruth, who with her husband Fred, took the best care of the girls and the house while I was overseas - thanks guys!

Since my trip and then my graduation, there's been a lot of thinking about 'home' and what that means to me. 

Fitting then that my post today is simply a link to the post I've written for a gorgeous blogland friend of mine, Felicity, of Gifts of Serendipity.  Felicity regularly posts a feature on her blog called the Six Senses Tour, and when she read that I was heading back to Scotland to visit my family, she asked me if I would write a Six Senses Tour about the little corner of Scotland that is my original home.

So here it is - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it:

My Six Senses Tour of Fife, Scotland

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  I'll be back to regular posting next week, with a mix of new thoughts and ideas, as well as a host of highlights from my trip.  Don't expect too much from the Paris part, however - most of that was spent in bed with a hideous flu!

Til next time,
Nx

Coming home ...

Happy Saturday everyone!  Back from my amazing hols earlier this week and madly working away to complete all my course work before next Wednesday - I graduate from the Beaumont School of Interior Design and Decoration here in Brisbane next Friday evening!

I do keep having to pinch myself, but it looks like I may already have work lined up as well.  More details to follow, but it seems surreal that just a couple of years after deciding this was the direction I wanted to take and just over one year after I quit full-time employment, I have - all of a sudden - changed career. 

I am an Interior Designer.

And it feels good, and right.  After years of - not what I would call unhappiness - more of an internal disquiet, like radio interference humming away in the background, I'm finally . . . .

Paris shop window - more holiday photos and tales to follow!

Til next time,
Nx

Giddy up!

I know I should be packing, but just a quick post before I go!  Just time to declare my latest crush ...

Now you all know how much I love wallpaper, but these days I'm pretty good at, and even enjoy, coveting without owning, appreciating without purchasing, admiring from afar, or just plain salivating over beautiful objects and interior decoration that take my breath away without needing to have them. (It's just as well, really, given the amount of magazine and blog ogling I do - I'd be broke and/or forever moving house, knocking down walls and rearranging furniture if I were to try and accommodate every latest object/interior of my desire.)

But there are times when I just know, when I see something that - if it's still on the market when I get back into a house I can really call my own - I will definitely make space for  ....

Horses warm grey on white paper by dearwood

I think this paper is a bit paler in real life - I've had to increase the contrast on the photograph, so you can actually see the horses.  What a perfect, perfect backdrop in a room where I might decide against colour on the walls and go for colour in the furniture and accessories instead.

I just love it - it does the same for me as colour does - the movement in the pattern creates energy, which I love to feel in any space I call home.  It's handprinted, so each repeat might be subtly different and I really don't mind if it goes on a big wall, or a tiny wall - it just draws me in and I get lost in it. 

It's a childhood thing too though.  I love horses and was lucky enough to have my own when I was growing up ....

A couple of companions I've picked up along the way

They are the most amazing creatures if you get to know them - they're smart, strong, and they have such personality.  You can easily end up loving them like a friend ....

My Kikki-K Dala horses enjoying some fresh air yesterday ...

And the term 'workhorse' didn't happen by accident either.  We humans have relied on their strength and stamina for as long we've both existed, and they've proved again and again to be the most loyal and reliable of companions.

I am not prone to shoplifting, but there's a giant red Dala horse in the Ikea food shop in Brisbane that I'd love to take home.  Do you think anyone would notice?
(photos from balticproducts)

As a child, I was thrown off a horse more times than I care to recall.  I was dragged through tree branches, stood on and kicked, and the awards I usually got at the events I entered were for worst-behaved horse or most spectacular fall ....

Mustangi fabric by Marimekko

But I also got to jump gates and ditches, to feel the grace and poise of taking a horse through its paces in the dressage ring, to get nice and muddy and smelly along the way and, best of all, to race as fast as my horse would take me along deserted beaches and through miles and miles of beautiful forest without a care in the world ...

Horses Stampede by Florence Broadhurst, shown here as a rug by Cadrys (via rugdesignblog)

The very best of childhood memories.

Chinese Horse by Aurore de la Morinerie (allposters)

Til next time, Nx

5 and counting ....

Only 5 more sleeps until I jump on a plane, bound for Paris, Edinburgh and finally Singapore.  I am a very lucky girl!  Precious time with family in Scotland, shopping in Singapore, and soaking in the sights and sounds of one of the world's most beautiful cities - what more could I ask for?

So here's a question for you?  What is (if you've been) or would be (if you dream of going) your favourite thing to do in Paris?  And what should a design/interiors/colour/pattern/texture addict like me be sure not to miss?

I'm thinking I'll swing by here on my wanderings ....

Hermes' newest Paris store - image via Elle Decor

And while I've been to Paris many times (oh I do miss the heady days of cheap startup airlines in the UK, when you could be whisked off to Barcelona for less than the cost of a deep-fried Mars bar), I've never visited this ...

The Scare Coeur ('sacred heart') - beautiful photo by Arnaud Frich

Or actually been inside here ...

The Louvre - photo by 'mcpig' on Flickr

My favourite fabric house in all the world has a Paris showroom, so it'd be rude not to drop in and say hi ...

Both images from the latest Accessories catalogue from Lelievre

I'd love to eat at an art nouveau or art deco restaurant or cafe, so let me know if you have any suggestions! What with the whole gluten & dairy free thing, and being a vegetarian (when in France, I eat a lot of omelettes!), I might just be ordering the 'potage du jour', but hey, who cares if I get to soak up surroundings like these!

Bofinger restaurant - photo by blogtrotta

So if I've whet your appetite for more of the French capital, why not pop on over to Gifts of Serendipity for today's six senses tour, which just happens to be about Paris (serendipitous indeed!)  And don't forget the beautiful range of photographs from Little Brown Pen, brought to us by Let's Go Moerkabout just a few weeks ago ...

La vie est belle!  A bientot ... Nx

Starck reality ...

It's Monday morning and all is not quite well with the world.

Last night I stumbled upon a programme called Design for Life - anyone seen it?  It's a reality TV show (originally aired in '09 in the UK, I have since discovered) where 12 designers aim to impress Philippe Starck with products they develop.  The brief, from Starck, is to make something "useful to humanity and democratic" and the prize is 6 months working in Starck's design company.  Now, you can love or hate Starck, but I'm assuming if you've got any ambition in the tough world of product design, that prize would be pretty cool, not to mention professionally useful, to win.

Starck's ubiquitous Ghost chair - image via everythingsimple.com

It was the first I'd seen of this show, so I didn't know (until I read later) who the contestants were.  I was really hoping they were random strangers plucked off the street, but alas, they're mostly qualified product designers, some already employed in the industry.   So I am just a bit gobsmacked at the ideas some of them came up with ...

Bottom of the list for me, hands down, was the bedside lampshade that you could take off the lamp, roll up and fashion into a sort of baseball-bat-looking object, in case you hear a bump in the night and need to go and investigate, and you wish to look vaguely menacing in your jim-jams as you do so.  Hmmmm.  Starck was harsh - "you arrrrre in la-la lande and you heve complett-ely miss-ed ze point" (he has a very strong French accent!).  I did feel a bit for the guy who came up with an ergonomic chair to be used in schools based on the exercise ball idea - a tad heart-breaking when the first thing Starck said was, "I made zat, uhhh, twenty yearssss ago".

So before I get on with the week, I feel the need to remind myself how beautiful, useful and ingenuous design can actually be ...

Ahhhh ... I feel better already.  This chair, called the Valet Chair, was designed by Danish designer Hans Wegner in 1953.  Originally commissioned for a hotel in Copenhagen, at a time when most business travellers were men, the chair was designed to allow the hotel guest to hang up their suit ready for the next day, and keep contents of their pockets in one place.  Here's how it works ...

The workings of Wegner's Valet Chair - photo via chairblog

You hang your jacket on the back, then the seat flips up to create hanging for the trousers.  Lifting the seat reveals a tray in which you can pop the contents of your pockets.  Simple!

William Morris is famed for saying, "Have nothing in your homes that you do not either know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".  I love it when the 'or' in this quote becomes 'and' - when you come across a product that ticks both boxes - beautiful and useful.

Order restored. 

Hope all is well in your world.  Til next time, Nx

Is it summer yet?

My family back in Scotland would laugh out loud.  I live in Queensland, but of course I hail from that much colder (yet stunningly beautiful) country, where winter lasts for months on end and where summer happens on a Thursday, so you'd better have your shorts and swimmers at the ready, because you don't want to miss it.

And yet I still struggle, just a little bit, in winter - even when winter only means a couple of months where the mercury dips below 20 degrees Celsius!  A 'hothouse flower', my mum calls me.  I always look forward to the turning of the winter solstice corner and with that out of the way this week, my thoughts are turning to spring and summer and my colour radar is picking up on hues of sunshine and blue skies ....

Small but perfectly formed pops of yellow and turquoise in plenty in the apartment of Spanish Designer Mikel Irastorza.  Image via the always-inspring yellowtrace - click here to see more of the apartment.

I find it so strange how colours just sneak up on you. I've never been one for yellow really, but lately I'm being drawn to it more and more - maybe 'Yellow is the New Orange', a post that made me smile this week from the folks over at prairie hive.  Combine yellow with those favourite shades of turquoise or blue green, and it really is a fresh and summery winner.  I've only been doing this blog for a few weeks, and look how much of this combo has snuck in already ....

From left to right, a photo of mine, two colours from the Kevin McCloud Mid-Century Modern range for Fired Earth, Soprano wallpaper from Graham and Brown (and that chair again) and a recent feature from Livingetc

I also realised how many touches of these colours I have dotted around the house ....

From left to right, some bottles from my (growing) Avon collection, blue mud bowl with Penguin pencils and yellow Pienet Kivet fabric by Marimekko (now discontinued I think), and one of many secondhand finds with those 50s buttons

So it's time for us here in the Southern Hemisphere to start daydreaming of summer ....

via karma button

Of long lazy lunches ....

I must write down the source as soon as I find the image - if this is yours or you know where it's from, let me know!

And making the most of our outdoor spaces ....

Umbrella by OEKE, Acapulco Chairs in Turquoise & Neon Yellow, reversible cushion from Thomas Paul (and I did see this on one of the blogs I follow but can't seem to track back to which one - if it's yours, let me know and I'll credit)

Of sipping homemade lemonade (or just arranging some lemons in a jar if making our own soft drinks is too much of a stretch!) ....

via Decor8, photo by Julia Hoersch

And last but by no means least, of days at the beach in this beautiful country I am so lucky to call home ....

via Eclecticrevisited

What gets you thinking about summer?