REAL LIFE LONDON: Edie’s Room

EDIE HALL’S MUM Bianca admits she’s something of a control freak. “Looks-wise we don’t always see eye to eye,” says the printmaker - who runs the sweet graphics brand Kiss Her [see Toot Sweet left on Edie's wall] - of her six-year-old daughter. “It’s tricky because obviously it’s her room and I want her to have creative input too, but hey, she’s six and prone to strange style ideas!”

Bianca admits her take on Edie’s room at their home in Stoke Newington, North London, is “warm and inviting for her rather than too styled” - something that has been achieved “over the years with collecting bits and bobs from here, there and everywhere. Read the rest of this article

Posted 5 November 2010 in Real Life Interiors

Real Life Interior: Copenhagen

Photographer: Tia Borg Smidt

COPENHAGEN-BASED DESIGNERS Tobias and Hanne Scheel Mikkelsen are parents to a graphics and interior design business, What We Do, their daughter, Silke, and a whole lot of talent.

This is put to good use in projects such as corporate identity, a brand new range of wallstickers for kids with Illux, (click on the ‘kids’ section) and their own home, featured below.

Tobias and Hanne’s home is a departure from typical ideas of Danish design. “We’re big fans of the functionality and coolness of Scandinavian design,” says Tobias, “but we also like to play with colours and patterns to avoid a too ‘cold and designed’ look. Too many Scandinavian design-classics and subtle colors are (though they look great on photos) just not our personal style. We like a tight style with colourful and eye-opening surprises! - that pretty much sums up why our apartment looks like this.” Read the rest of this article

Posted 26 July 2010 in Real Life Interiors

REAL LIFE BARCELONA: Lola’s Room

LOLA’S ROOM in Barcelona is a reflection of her mother’s love of print, textiles and travel.

Airí Ferrer was working in women’s clothing and accessories until she had Lola, now 20 months, and started making clothes for her. After a little while she was inspired enough to launch the super-cute line Lola For Kids - full of pretty textiles but also beautiful decorative onesies.

Now Lola’s room is scattered with pillows and patchwork quilts made from Airí’s collection of Lola For Kids textiles, as well as clothes from the latest collections, the newest of which (Autumn/Winter 2010) is inspired by traditional English country looks. Add to these the result of Airí’s inspirations including the fabulous textile-covered donkeys found in Morocco, and the room is an eclectic, intimate room of meaningful details. Does Lola appreciate the Liberty-style prints and animal theme? “Well,” says Airí, of the “very very affectionate” Lola, “she loves to make animal sounds every night before sleeping!” Read the rest of this article

Posted 10 June 2010 in Real Life Interiors

Real Life Mural: NYC

Photography by Akira Yamada

MURAL ARTIST AMI SUMA had an audience when she was painting Natsume’s bedroom walls in her parents’ NYC apartment. Natsume herself. “She LOVED it from the beginning. She would bring her little chair by and stare at me painting for hours - I really mean for hours! She never got bored. I was totally amazed by her. Her mom tells me she still talks about me a year later.”

But then, it would be difficult not to be intrigued by Suma’s delicate modern take on pink and brown, that was influenced by Natsume’s favourite animals - birds and bears - but also by her parents’ taste. “They left the design completely up to me but just asked me to keep the colour fairly quiet as they had to share the space with Natsume. I didn’t want it to be too childish, so I kept in mind the ‘French shabby-chic / antique’ feeling of the rest of the home, and I tried to keep the silhouettes vintage looking, and the colour minimal and chic.”

Suma pulls it off by pairing soft pinks with beiges and browns “keeping the tones of the colours similar by using soft, antique shades, to calm the pink down a bit.”

Read the rest of this article

Posted 19 October 2009 in Real Life Interiors

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