I made a lampshade on a course at The Make Lounge last night. It was fun and I was really pleased with the result but as usual I struggled to find a fabric I really liked so I’m even more keen to start designing and printing my own. I’d definitely recommend the Make Lounge even though it’s a bit of a trek (10 minutes walk from Highbury and Islington tube in North London). The shop is lovely too with lots of inspirational books if you like crafty things that is. Must buy a lottery ticket so that I can set up something similar round here…. in my dreams….
This week I am mostly decorating….. (our bedroom) As usual it’s taking far longer than I expected and I just want to do the fun bits so I thought I’d put them on here while I have a break from painting.
I’m kind of cheating a bit by putting together a sample board as I go along but sometimes it’s easier that way and I can because it’s for me. I haven’t based it on a mood board but on a wallpaper I liked.
Amara wallpaper from John Lewis
Amara is a wallpaper from John Lewis which is a ‘folk inspired floral pattern in an illustrative style, with accents of vivid citrus’.
This will go on a feature wall behind the bed with the rest of the walls a pale gooseberry fool green colour.
I’m going to make cushions next week and I’m probably going to go for this Romo fabric from their Casson collection. It’s a 1950s inspired geometric print (see, I told you they were in at the moment).
Romo Quadra is a striking geometric design printed on linen. I realise the wallpaper and fabric I’ve chosen don’t go brilliantly well on a computer screen but they look good in real life, honest. The pink compliments the green in the rest of the room and I really like mixing floral designs with geometric patterns. I’ll put an update on here once the room is finished, soon I hope…
Romo quadra fabric in dahlia
I’ve bought an ivory mirror from Laura Ashley to go above the fireplace. At the moment I’m thinking about painting the woodwork an ivory colour too but not quite decided yet.
Olivia mirror from Laura Ashley
That’s it for now, I’m hoping to make lampshades myself but that’s another project for another day…
At last, I finished my Interior Design project this week – a design for a museum cafe. The brief was to choose a furniture designer and a location for the museum and then design an interior incorporating their designs. I chose a married couple, Robin and Lucienne Day, who worked independently in different mediums from the 1950s. Robin was a furniture designer most famous for his polypropylene chairs (one of the first pieces of furniture to fully use the mass-manufacturing opportunities of injection moulding…) You probably sat on one at school and they are still produced today.
Robin Day's Polypropylene Chair
Lucienne Day designed fabrics for Heals and John Lewis, her most famous being one called Calyx which I used on the feature wall of my cafe design.
Calyx fabric by Lucienne Day
Here are a couple of boards I produced:
1. Perspective painting of the feature wall with comfortable seating by Robin Day
Museum cafe perspective
2. Sample board showing sofas, flooring and fabrics
Museum cafe sample board
While I was working on this design 1950s furniture and fabrics have become very popular. I’d love a Charles and Ray Eames chair for example, better get saving!
We decorated the boys bedroom a while ago but it was a bit plain so I decided to paper a small section with pages from a Tintin book as an alternative to wallpaper or stickers. This was so easy and the effect was great, I love the muted colours of blue, green and orange. Just shows what you can do with a second-hand book, if you can bear to cut it up!
Before I finished work a month ago I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish and this was high priority as I’ve been promising to make them for ages. I wanted to make beanbags for the boys that were a bit different from shop bought ones and I’m really pleased with the results. They are a pyramid shape with a square base, with a handle at the top and pockets on the sides with their initials. One in soft grey cord (J) and one in blue denim (D), both top stitched along the seams to make them really strong. I’m making things like this to perhaps eventually sell as items on somewhere like Etsy, so I’ll let you know if this goes ahead, or get your orders in now! Let me know what you think, it’s always really helpful to get your comments… Also had a play with Photoshop to try and make the images more professional, thanks to a book from the library! (such fun…)
This is just something I did the other day to fill some time in between appointments. I’ve always loved our house and I can remember really clearly the first time I saw it two years ago. I thought it would be good to do a simple drawing to put on the wall as a keepsake. I hope you can see the resemblance (and for those who have never seen our house, now you can!)
I have booked an evening course at the Make Lounge in north London so that I can learn how to make my own lampshades. Really looking forward to this, it looks like a really cool place where you can learn lots of crafts from soap making to embroidery to quilting and cupcake decorating. Making magazine featured The Make Lounge in its inaugural issue, calling it a ‘haven for creative people and a craft trail blazer’. (November/December 2010). Someone really should set up a place like this in Berks/Bucks, if I won the lottery I would!
I’m really interested in making lampshades out of my own printed fabric designs so I’ll post how this goes with photos, watch this space!
I attended a 5 day screen printing course last week at the London Printworks Trust in Brixton (an experience in itself, including Electric Avenue!) We were taught by Dawn Dupree who is a textile artist exhibiting in the UK and Internationally (http://www.dawndupree.com).
I learnt various techniques I’d never heard of including foils and flocking but my favourite was just straight forward screenprinting onto fabric or paper. I finished the week by printing one of my geometric designs in different bright colours on cotton fabric and made them into tea-towels on my sewing machine yesterday. Not brilliant but it’s a start and one step closer to making my own fabric. I just have to find a workshop I can use or set one up at home now!
This was the first project for my Interior Design level 2 course at East Berkshire College in Windsor. We had to choose a global theme, a client and a room to design. I decided to go for a Chinese bedroom in an Edwardian house but with a European, contemporary feel.
Please see photos below showing how the scheme developed.
As with most interior design projects this started with inspiration from a concept or mood board.
Then we had to draw a floor plan and elevations to scale, showing a feature wall.
Finally, sample boards displaying the flooring, wall and ceiling paint colours, furniture, ornaments and fabrics. I chose a damask wallpaper for the feature wall with silk apple blossom fabric cushions and fretwork fabric for a chaise longue. The design includes a dressing area with chinese screen as well as chinese furniture from Orchid and lighting and ornaments from John Lewis. I know the photos aren’t brilliant but hopefully they give you an idea.
I was really pleased to get a distinction for this project, making it worth all the hard work and hours I put in. Now on to the next project (designing a cafe in a museum, a bit more tricky!)
Well, it took 2.5 days to complete, I’d forgotten I don’t actually like decorating that much although I do like designing and the wallpapering bit was fun! Here it is completed. If you see any wallpaper you like I made a note of them all so let me know… (I should charge commission!)
