REAL LIFE, CALIFORNIA: Boodalee’s bedroom

FOUR-YEAR-OLD BOODALEE IS, says his mum, Jeanice Skvaril, owner of the mod graphic bedding company Boodalee, a naturalist at heart. In his newly decorated room in Jeanice’s 1950s California Ranch home, Jeanice has indulged Boodalee’s love of all things natural right down to the view of the camper van birdbox right outside his bedroom window that houses a family of finches.

Boodalee chose the digital print wallpaper himself, pictured left and sourced from Urban Outfitters US store (click to enlarge the picture), so that his room resembled “a jungle” says Jeanice, and the WeeGallery decal graphics indulge his love of “animals and insects.” Jeanice has added her own-range Trees cotton bedding on the bottom of the IKEA bunk. Initially Boodalee decided to sleep on top of the bunk, but he’s now decided to be down low “where Mom and Dad can snuggle him more easily.” And so the top has become a bit of a cool, jungly reading area plumped with Jeanice’s Boodalee-range cushions.

Up here, Boodalee can survey his favourite drawings and pictures on the ceiling, all his animal decals, and spend time poring over his favourite superhero books “although he’s not yet five and can’t even read!” says Jeanice. Read the rest of this article

Posted 2 July 2009 in Real Life Interiors

SMART TEAS - ceramic dinnerware

Illustration by Marina Kharkover

THERE COMES A TIME when all those melamine plates, dishes and cups seem just a little too baby-ish. And risk of breakage aside, you decide to upgrade to real life pottery on the dinner table.

Actually, we think the breakage risk is minimal - unless you have tile flooring - because the weight of real glass or ceramic usually means better anchoring to the table than lightweight plastic. The trickier challenge is finding crockery you like as much as the melamine, because there seems to be one pretty huge gap in the market for child-sized china plates.

Often the best option is to plump for adult-line side plates - we like Alessi’s Bettina side-plate by Future Systems, Muji’s Hakuji porcelain, and Habitat’s side plates by Concetta Gallo. Otherwise, these are our current favourite child-friendly crocks designed specifically for little ones.

Click on each gallery image for full caption details…. Read the rest of this article

Posted 17 June 2009 in Eating / Drinking

TEN QUESTIONS, TEN ANSWERS: Isak

THE SCANDINAVIAN GRAPHIC DESIGNER and illustrator, Sandra Isaksson, has been designing lifestyle products for her label Isak since 2006. She lives with her partner and sons Theo, 5 (pictured left reading with Sandra) and Eden, 8 months - his new bedroom is pictured bottom - in the beautiful, historic English town of Arundel. Her Isak products focus largely on eating and drinking, as well as a growing range of illustrated posters, textiles and wallpaper (her penguin design is pictured below) for children…

LittleBig: What do you want your kids’ products to say?
Sandra Isaksson: I want them to be user-friendly and kind, the kind of things you want to look after and save for your own children when you grow up.

LB: How has having children made you more design-aware?
SI: Without them I would never have started to design for children. Yes, through their needs I have become more design-aware. Or its made me understand what was lacking out there.

LB: What influences have you tapped into in your designs for children?
SI: My childhood! I was brought up by a family of trolls in the heart of a Swedish forest. Summers were spent sculpting clouds and painting rainbows. In the winters I carved with wind and whittled skybears from snowflakes. I want my children to be as blueberry kissed and filled with magic as I was.

LB: Why your (initial) focus on tableware?
SI: Because I like to eat! And cook! And all my childhood memories are around food and the pleasures of sitting down with family, talking and eating. We had great fun going fishing with granddad, berry and mushroom picking with grandma, coming home and cooking it and sitting down and eating it. We did
proper things, ran around naked in the woods and swam in lakes. My grandparents grew their own veg, went hunting in the woods for meat. And Swedes love eating in the garden! Read the rest of this article

Posted 3 June 2009 in Designer Profiles

REAL LIFE, EAST SUSSEX: Florence’s Rooms

WE ARE JUST A LITTLE bit envious of Nubie owner Amanda’s 2-year-old daughter Florence. For this is her bedroom and playroom at her home in East Sussex, filled with goodies that Amanda has sourced for her modern kids’ goods boutique.

“We moved house when our daughter Florence was just 6 weeks,” explains Amanda. “This isn’t something I’d recommend when you have raging nesting hormones plus I was also in the process of setting up Nubie with Mischa my business partner. The up side though was that as we sourced products for Nubie I also took the opportunity to choose things for Flo’s nursery.” The décor evolves around the zebra cot made by ninetonine, which Amanda spotted at the Kids Modern show in Dulwich. “It was love at first sight! Not only is it creative and fun, but beautifully and thoughtfully made, with great detailing such as slanted bars and wheels. Florence just adores it and feeds and pats it.” Read the rest of this article

Posted 18 May 2009 in Real Life Interiors

TOP SHOP: Mini Moderns Shoppe

$Mini Modern\'s wallpaper collection$ THE BOYS AT MINI MODERNS - they of the Modernist-influenced wallpapers, dinnerware and soft furnishings for kids - have finally opened their own online shop - in recognition that their customers around the world were keen to get their hands directly on the boys’ goods. The Shoppe - contains Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire’s best-selling wallpapers, £38 a 10 metre roll, including the newest number and our current favourite, the ‘Sitting Comfortably?’ print - featuring images of modern chair classics - in a warm buttercup yellow, as well as their brand new shopper, £20, available in ‘Are You Sitting Comfortably?’ in black (see right), ‘Do You Live In A Town?’ in milk chocolate and ‘Six of One’ in pear green, (LittleBig’s Ed has been using her black bag for the last few months). Plus look out for four new wallpaper designs later this year (they’re currently being printed), and a range of stationery is in the offing too… Mini Moderns’ desire to manufacture and print all their products ethically within the UK (using water based inks and sustainable papers) means a relatively slow new-launch process - but this just adds to their appeal.