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

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. 

*And don’t forget to see some of their prints transformed into DIY sewing kits for Clothkits

**www.minimoderns.com/shoppe

Posted 7 May 2009 in Shop Watch

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