COLOUR: The new pink rules

PINK. YOU EITHER LOVE IT OR HATE IT. Either way if you have a little girl in your life, you can’t avoid it. But Gail Taylor of London-based interior design house Taylor Howes has found a way of doing pink tastefully: “It is a tricky colour to use as it’s so feminine,” she says. “But if you use different shades of pink rather than your typical baby pink and combine it with fresh colours such as citrus green or turquoise, it can be really fun and interesting.”

In this UK space for a five-year-old girl, Gail fulfilled the brief of “a multi-functional space that offered work, play and room for sleepovers, and there had to be a piano too,” with an amazing citrus and pink wallpaper, Anichov Leaf, from Designers Guild, and classic Vitra Panton chairs and mini Vitra table. So that the scheme doesn’t look “too themed, meaning less typically girlie.”

Our favourite bits? The built-in beds that make the most of the space, separated by a privacy wall, and the slide. What a way to start the day… Click on the below gallery pictures for a closer look.

*Taylor Howes Design, www.thdesigns.co.uk; + 44 (0)207 349 9017 Read the rest of this article

Posted 7 August 2009 in Real Life Interiors

TOP SHOP: Present & Correct

SURELY WE CAN’T be the only ones obsessed with retro stationery, desk tidies and midcentury graphic children’s books. Which is why we are frequently found window shopping at our current favourite original stationery and graphic goods’ shop Present & Correct.

In a bid to find out more and fuel the stationery obsession fire, we spoke to owner Neal Whittington, 29, (pictured above), a designer and illustrator, who is also a fan of “a good rummage, fun knitted jumpers, making cakes and cutting up paper” about this love of all things papery.

LittleBig: Did you just get bored one day and decide to open a shop?
P&C: Since I left college I made things and sold them in other people’s shops, but in the back of my mind I guess I was working towards having one - in some shape or form - of my own. A real life bricks and mortar store would be a dream come true, something I have always wanted to do and one day hope to have. The online store was the next best thing, and to be honest it reaches a far wider audience than a London based shop would, and of course the overheads are a lot smaller!

LB: Why are there so many (retro) stationery (and the like) obsessives out there?
P&C: It’s amazing isn’t it! I think one of the big reasons is that it is reminiscent of school and college (not always a good thing!), but also because on the high street, in the UK especially, it is quite hard to find cool, original stationery and so people put more effort into seeking out the old and unwanted. The design and feel of the older things is so nice, and hard to emulate. I think most designers love stationery of all shapes and sizes - we were the ones at school with the pristine exercise books and a different pencil case for every term and season. Stationery, to me, makes me think of birthday gift vouchers from WHSmiths - this was a time when a £5 voucher would go a long way. You could get some nice rubbers in cases, a notebook or two, some stickers AND have enough for a copy of Smash Hits! Read the rest of this article

Posted 14 July 2009 in Shop Watch

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