Kim's personal links
MY FAVOURITE DECOR SHOPS IN OTTAWA
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kitchen remodel in my last house
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my twin sister's mostly kid's rooms decor blog
I adore this home. All that wood, the massive amount of art mostly leaning casually on the floor, the gorgeous kilim rugs and pillows, the burlap window treatments...it does not get much cozier than this. By Commune.
English antiques and a stiff upper lip tempered and teased by mid-century classics, fab fabrication and colour, great licks of colour. Play spot the Scandinavian icons, Wegner, Saarinen, Iittala, Josef Frank. The new traditionalist that is Ben Pentreath.
I didn't really know what to blog today and since there are a couple of new little projects around my house I thought I would just share that today (a sad day I might add - we're heading to my sister's cottage with the family to help close it up for the winter). Aside from the cat house and new paint job on my desk, I did more painting and some fabric dying which I had never attempted before. Fabric dying was quite the experience. Since I don't have a big laundry sink I'm grateful to have a backyard with half dead grass where I could make a mess without harming anything. I have had a very large piece of white linen in my fabric stash for several years that I have been dying (pun intended) to do something with. I decided I would use a piece of it for a curtain over my desk and another for a seat cushion for a chair in my bedroom. So off to the fabric store for some black dye. All they had was 'black velvet' which I assumed meant a light black. I tested a couple of strips of fabric - one bundled up tight and wrapped in rope, and the other I dipped right in.
I opted for bundling up the fabric and wrapping it because I wanted it to look really odd with faded parts. Unfortunately not knowing what the frig I was doing, I bundled it too tight and there were too many light spots, and the fabric didn't turn out dark enough. So I had to do it all over again.
After a second bath in the black dye the result was perfect! Much more subtle and dark but not too black. While I was at it I added all of my vintage doilies that I had dyed dark grey a while back but they turned out too blue.
After washing and hanging them to dry, I balled up the fabric and left it like that for a while because I LOVE the look of wrinkled linen.
In reality the lighter parts are not as bright as in the photo above. It turned out pretty awesome. My doilies are still fairly blue. Ah well. I have wanted to stitch them together into a table runner for ages but never got around to it.
Melbourne based interior designer Adelaide Bragg has a relaxed traditional aesthetic. Her rooms are all about fabrics and layers, muted colours and scale. Elegant but never chocolate box they are about living an everyday life with something just a little special, something a little refined. Sophistication with families and dogs.
Don't know if it's the light. Not sure if it's the juxtaposition of modern with old, the organic patterns with the solid man made, the too cool with the warmth of well loved homes. The composition. The story told through the lens. I love these shots for Marimekko by Finnish photographer Kaapo Kamu. Fun and light hearted. Simple but stylish. I think it's the mood he has created through the light. Real life. Beautiful.
Thu, 29 Jan 2015