LITTLEBIG LOVES… Center Parcs. Yes, really.

By Jenny Dalton

“I THINK IT’S LIKE a secret club,” says Tara Bernerd of interior designer outfit Target Living. “The more people you ask the more admit they’ve been, but no one really talks about it.”

No, we’re not talking rehab, but Center Parcs. This, says Tara over lunch, includes her nephews and nieces who have been with Bernerd (her sister isn’t brave enough), who herself fell for the place during her research into Center Parcs’ major interior re-design renovation project, which her design company is spearheading. It also includes one of Tara’s new clients: the head of a huge telecommunications company, who took his son for his birthday.

Yes, you heard right. Center Parcs, in a bid to seal its status as the new, cool eco destination for caring parents around the country who are keen on lowering their carbon footprint whilst giving their kids a traditional yet safe ‘outdoorsy’ holiday, brought in the fashionable design team behind Marco, the Marco Pierre White restaurant in Chelsea, and Aspinall’s casino last year to renovate a good proportion of its more upmarket lodges. And luckily Tara, who loves a luxury development, gets equal kicks out of lower-budget design challenges, which she manages to carry out in her own inimitable style whilst avoiding a Read the rest of this article

Posted 14 April 2009 in Travel

REAL LIFE EXTERIOR, NEW ENGLAND

SIXX DESIGN‘S Robert and Cortney Novogratz know families (they have seven kids, including two sets of twins) and they know houses (they’ve been renovating them all their married life). And so it was an obvious thing to share their knowledge in a book about renovating chic family homes that is genuinely useful. Our favourite tips from Downtown Chic (released the end of April, see sneak peek visuals below) include getting to flea markets before 6am, because all the best stuff goes before then; probing your local restaurant owners as to where they source their functional, stainless steel kitchens; go to the design fairs which are now open to the public as well as design professionals; don’t overextend yourself on your holiday home and do rent it out to help pay the bills. But although Robert and Read the rest of this article

Posted 26 March 2009 in Real Life Interiors

‘S’ IS FOR STYLE FILE: Suzanne Sharp

SUZANNE SHARP (FAR LEFT) FOUNDED The Rug Company with her husband Christopher 12 years ago in west London. Today they have 15 stores around the world including a new showroom in Miami, and have worked with designers Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, Diane von Furstenberg and Kelly Wearstler. Suzanne, who also designs, has, four kids - Jamie, 8, (the youngest) Nick, 20, (the oldest) and Sophie and Jack: click on the picture for a better look.

LB: What’s the one (design) thing you couldn’t live without?

SS: My iPhone.

LB: As a kid, was there an outfit you loved so much you slept in it?

SS: Yes, I had a black velvet dress with a white collar - I adored it!!

LB: What are your children’s favourite things that you also think are quite cool?

SS: I love my son Jamie’s nature collection. It has everything from bugs and reptiles to sharks teeth, crystals, shells and even a snake! Read the rest of this article

Posted 26 February 2009 in Opinion

WORLD TOUR: Famille Summerbelle

LAST YEAR JULIE MARABELLE, creative director of children’s decor design company Famille Summerbelle did what we all talk about. She, her husband Simon, and their two year old daughter Ophelia, took off. A world tour followed - intended as an inspiring few months of non-work life - prior to settling down to develop their newly launched company, and relocating to Paris from London.

Here, she shares her highlights of the trip, and her family-friendly pointers for a smooth life on the road…

LittleBig: What was the country that surprised you most with its child friendliness?

Japan [pictured above left] was a really pleasant surprise. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but we were astonished by just how friendly people were. Men and women would go out of their way to engage with Ophelia. On one train journey to Kyoto a little old lady made an origami swan which she gave to Ophelia - it was just wonderful. Read the rest of this article

Posted 7 February 2009 in Travel

TOP SHOP: Tas-ka

WARNING. YOU MAY FIND it hard to resist Tas-ka’s textile toys and soft furnishings. Certainly, co-directors Jantien Baas and Hester Worst of the textile house based in The Hague, the Netherlands, have their own designs at home: Hester the hand-made white ‘birdlight’ (pictured bottom in the gallery) made of clusters of handmade paper cranes, and Jantien their charismatic fabric monster on her couch. And she doesn’t even have kids. 

All that is to come. For now, the duo who formed Tas-ka whilst at design college at the Royal College of Art in the Hague and morphed the project into a proper business post their studies - becoming full-time in October of last year - have a growing line of textile products on their minds.   Read the rest of this article

Posted 31 January 2009 in Shop Watch