Aug 152012
 

A Grey inte­rior sounds drab and depress­ing to many peo­ple, yet if used in the right way, grey can be atmos­pheric, ele­gant & dra­matic. With so many shades mak­ing an appear­ance at the moment it’s now get­ting dif­fi­cult to choose a favourite.

Neu­trals like cream, black, beige and white tie in well with soft shades of grey.

Grey

Grey

Source: herblog.com

 

A punch of bright colour adds inter­est. From neon pinks, to yel­lows, turquoise and red, the use of a fresh accent can illu­mi­nate any grey space.

Source: ffffound.com

Source: Pin­ter­est

Source: dailymail.co.uk

 

Grey looks luxe next to metal­lic sur­faces such as sil­ver, gold and cop­per. To cre­ate a sense of opu­lence, add stain­less steel or nickel fin­ishes. Or go for a shim­mer­ing greys in the form of fab­rics with a lurex blend, wall paper, metal­lic paints.

Source: decor8blog.com

Source: emmas.blogg.se

Source: Pin­ter­est

Source: digsdigs.com

 

Another great way to use grey is in the form of black and white pho­tographs, mono­chro­matic art­works or some of your favourite fam­ily por­traits printed in black and white, hung to cre­ate an inter­est­ing grey-scale fea­ture wall.  There are some beau­ti­ful pat­terned and tex­tured wall­pa­pers in a sub­tle shade of grey, which can be both warm and inviting.

Source: issuu.com

Source: planete-deco.fr

 

{ addi­tional source — http://designfieldnotes.com }

 

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Aug 142012
 

Trend­set­ting duo, Chris­tine Ralphs and Michelle Lloyd Bermann, com­bined their exper­tise to cre­ate the design con­sul­tancy, Lloyd Ralphs Design. Both for­mer Club Monaco design exec­u­tives, these women are renowned for clas­sic style and impec­ca­ble detail. Their sig­na­ture high-contrast spaces are sleek and glam­orous, and often punc­tu­ated with bold zebra-print.

Here’s how these two fash­ion­able design­ers cre­ate time­less spaces.

 Mix­ing a vin­tage metal sculp­ture with pho­tographs brings archi­tec­tural inter­est to a strik­ing black and white art wall.

 Posi­tion­ing the white cab­i­nets lower makes room for cre­ative dis­play on top.

Trendy Gold Accents adds warmth and sparkle in the kitchen.

Sym­me­try is key in the lay­out of this din­ing area. A pair of floor lamps sit on either side of a black and white pho­tog­ra­phy dis­play. Two white bird sculp­tures are perched atop the table, which is sur­rounded by casual, Eames style chairs. The del­i­cate lines of the glass din­ing table make the room look even more spacious.

In a Petite Pow­der Room a side-mounted faucet makes the most of an oblong sink, and even offers stor­age underneath.

In a Sparkling White Bath­room draw­ers of many shapes and sizes accom­mo­date stor­age needs.  Mirrored walls and glass pan­els play with one’s per­cep­tion of space. An over­all white palette keeps the look immaculate.

In this White-on-White office, sim­ple stor­age boxes main­tain a sense of order and cre­ate a beau­ti­ful dis­play. Open shelv­ing looks calm, not chaotic, thanks to the all-white scheme and closed containers.

 A Glam­orous Back­yard Design

Mod­ern ele­ments meet clas­sic details in this eye-catching space.

In this mas­ter suite, a soft taupe fea­ture wall bal­ances qui­etly lux­u­ri­ous ele­ments like the sleek white uphol­stered head­board, mir­rored side tables and lamps. Black and white bed­ding is mixed with zebra-print sheets for added graphic appeal.

A teenage girl gets the star treat­ment in this sophis­ti­cated space - the epit­ome of the graphic-meets-glamorous look: a room inspired by a print of Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe.  The gold-toned bed is a warm con­trast to the black and white fur­ni­ture and linens. Retro-style lamps, on low side tables, suit the min­i­mal­ist design.

Wicker, raf­fia and rat­tan accents offer tex­ture and a casual, beachy note.   Mix­ing play­ful, rough and unex­pected objects with a sleek daybed and Saarinen-style table keeps the cot­tage from look­ing too pre­cious. White paint, fab­rics and Moroccan-style lanterns and cab­i­net lattice-work cre­ate an exotic feel.

 

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Aug 102012
 

It was with much excite­ment that Ninene & I set out on our annual trip to Decorex Joburg yes­ter­day. Decorex is the largest décor & design show in South­ern Africa. It fea­tures the lat­est on the local and inter­na­tional front with a fresh per­spec­tive on spaces in which to live, work and play.

A typ­i­cal day at Decorex is always a long one and part of the excite­ment is bump­ing into friends we haven’t seen for a while. We end up back home late after­noon, feet on the couch and chat­ting about our finds & new dis­cov­er­ies until we are drop dead tired! Exhaust­ing, but fun.

We’d love to share all of it with you, but it is sim­ply too much. Hence the deci­sion to do this post in 2 parts. This is part 1 and fea­tures “all things uniquely South African”. Be sure to catch up with us tomor­row for part 2. Apolo­gies upfront for the poor qual­ity of some of the images.

Uniquely South African

Pho­tog­ra­phy as art is gain­ing pop­u­lar­ity fast. Jan & Jay Roode of Sky­hawk Pho­tog­ra­phy is a cou­ple with an intrigu­ing story, liv­ing the African dream. He is a pilot and she a nature con­ser­va­tion­ist (to name but one of her qual­i­fi­ca­tions) and together they take breath­tak­ing aer­ial pho­tographs. The story is one we’ll def­i­nitely share in another post, but here’s a lit­tle of what you can expect.

Decorex

Decorex

The cre­ative tal­ent on dis­play is unbe­liev­able and this year we were espe­cially impressed by the South African Hand­made Col­lec­tion — a new ini­tia­tive by the Depart­ment of Trade and Indus­try. It cel­e­brates the fusion of her­itage with the future, and tra­di­tion with the imag­i­na­tion. This defin­i­tive col­lec­tion rep­re­sents the high­est qual­ity, hand­made and envi­ron­men­tally friendly South African craft products.

Beau­ti­ful Nguni Cat­tle rugs from Majay­im­ile Trad­ing.

Ace Maize flour pack­ag­ing in a quirky duvet design by Wozobona Cul­tural House

Unique hand embroi­dered table­ware and cush­ions made by the women of Sophumelela Women’s Co-Op

Laura Hewgill of Veldt draws on Nature for inspi­ra­tion to make her gor­geous home tex­tiles and ceram­ics — sim­ply to die for.

Craig Stowe of Stowe & so. hangs yet another one of his unique hand­printed table­cloths. Avail­able in a vari­ety of unique designs and an absolute must have!

Beau­ti­ful laser cut home­wares and gifts from Doo­dles.

Yda Walt with some of her hand­printed tex­tiles, art and ceramics.

Johan­nes­burg based ceramic artist, Julia K spe­cial­izes in Con­tem­po­rary hand painted ceramic pieces. We loved Julia’s bright, colour­ful shapes.

The adorable Ann (spelling!) Gadd with her equally adorable Ewe’s

www.artforewe.co.za

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Aug 092012
 

Adding the sharp-edged forms of Geo­met­ric shapes to your room is a great way to keep things interesting.

Many of the new wire forms act as a frame to the neg­a­tive space that exists beyond the piece. Here are some hot exam­ples of cur­rent geo­met­ric shapes that trans­form even tra­di­tional rooms with curi­ous contradiction.

Geometric shapes

 Here the sharp-edged forms add the nec­es­sary visual inter­est to an oth­er­wise plain room

Source: vartnyahem.se

 A restricted, neu­tral palette allows the sketched nature of this light fix­ture to pop.

Source: houzz.com

The sharp con­trast between the gen­tle curve of the ottomans and the jagged edges of the car­pet is echoed in the art and the throw pil­lows.

 Tiles have been cel­e­brat­ing geo­met­ric pat­terns for more than a cen­tury. This mod­ern take plays won­der­fully with the metallics & mirror.

The Lind­sey Adel­man chan­de­lier is at once organic and graphic, and for that rea­son it suits any style of room.

This chan­de­lier is a wire-frame won­der in a con­ven­tional form. It looks dig­i­tal and ele­gant, and right at home in this ornate Vic­to­rian bath.

Source: living.msn.com

 

Whether you take the Gutsy or con­ser­v­a­tive approach, there’s a way to incor­po­rate geo­met­rics into your design or interior.

Source: google.com

Source: homelife.com.au

 

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