Simple pleasures…

June 9, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie Gardner2 Comments

I really like the shape and style of traditional Moroccan pouffes and thought it would be good to have a go at making one. These will eventually be made from my screen-printed designs but I thought I’d practice on bought fabrics first.

This one is made out of three fabrics: John Lewis Chevron in sulphur, a plain natural coloured linen, and grey cord as the top and bottom. Can you spot the gilhoolie label in the seam? (Seeing them attached to something I’ve made makes me smile!)

I really enjoyed making something a bit different from standard cushions. The question is, what to make next?….

….well, I realised yesterday I’m not happy if I don’t have my next project at least in my head, but the next ‘project’ is to clear out the utility room and try and set up a workshop so that I can start screen printing. Not as much fun as making stuff but it has to be done. Hopefully I’ll be posting pictures of my first prints soon!

Interior Design · Soft Furnishings

Not exactly designer labels…

May 27, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Some people will only buy something if it has a label… so here are some gilhoolie ones I made today! Printed on natural cotton twill tape.

You know when you think, WHAT AM I DOING?! Well this was one of those moments, but hopefully they’ll look nice when sewn onto things I make. I just have to perfect the technique but I guess the imperfections make them look more home-made… well that’s my theory…

Interior Design · Soft Furnishings

First gilhoolie designs

May 23, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

I’m really keen to make lampshades out of my designs but decided to start more simply by printing tea-towels. I spent a day last week on the computer drawing up the designs that have sat in my sketchbook for the last few months and ended up with quite a few basic repeat patterns I’m happy with.

Here are a couple of images of my favourite tea-towel designs. Luckily, I can buy them already made and will just need to sew on the gilhoolie logo. This is the blue colourway but they will also be printed in a dusky pink and powder green. Hopefully they’ll go with most kitchen designs and look as good printed on fabric as they do on a computer screen!

Interior Design · Soft Furnishings

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

May 13, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

I’ve just finished making a beanbag for a friend. It’s still blue denim but with a colourful stripy pocket and bright pink stitching. I really need to borrow a studio so that I can take some decent photos of these when they’re filled but you get the idea. Mind you, I think the pebbles go well with the deckchair stripes; it could almost be at the beach, not in our back garden! (fabric from http://www.deckchairstripes.com/)

I’m thinking about making smaller ones for pets as our cat seems to find them very cosy… I might also have a go at more sophisticated big floor cushions for the grown-ups but these will be in my own printed fabrics, eventually….

Decorating Projects · Interior Design

Interior Design in Reverse!

May 12, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Well, this was all done a bit backwards seeing as I finished decorating a month ago, but I still wanted to publish the sample board and floorplan I put together for our bedroom. Gilhoolie Designs is working out to be a great place for me to keep track of my ‘work’ and build up my portfolio.

Enough of interior design though, I’ve just received more fabric to make a beanbag so I need to get out the sewing machine. Watch this space for photos of a more girly beanbag with pink stitching!

Decorating Projects · Interior Design · Soft Furnishings

Where is the bed?!

May 4, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Well, the three weeks of the Easter holidays were glorious but it’s good to be back making things again (not how I was feeling yesterday, it’s weird being in the house on my own again!) I finished the runner and one of the cushions for our bedroom today and I was dying to post them on my blog so here they are. There will be two cushions when I’ve finished and they’ll go on the bed but I was trying to be artistic with the shot in the garden and it looks good on the chair too.

So that’s the bedroom all done (except for the bedding, hence still no photo of the bed, sorry!) I must say it is very calming and I’m really pleased with the design. Now onto making a beanbag for a friend (my first commission, thanks Sandi!) and thinking about decorating the living room. I’m also going to try and master Adobe Illustrator as I’ve heard it’s good for textile design, busy busy…

Decorating Projects · Interior Design

Our bedroom, a calming gooseberry fool!

April 13, 2011April 25, 2025 Julie Gardner

Okay, so it’s true, I am no decorator but I do like seeing the results of all that hard work (well, a few days painting and a day wallpapering). So I thought I’d post a few pictures here even though it’s not quite finished (I’m waiting for the fabric for the cushions). I know it’s hard to tell from my amateur photos but the walls are a really calming green (gooseberry fool apparently) which goes really well with the white fireplace and amara wallpaper on the wall behind the bed. I’ll post a picture of the cushions in a few weeks hopefully, plus I’d like to re-cover the tub chair but I’m not sure whether I’m up to the challenge!

Decorating Projects · Interior Design

I’m no decorator…

March 30, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

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 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 dahlia — 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.

That’s it for now, I’m hoping to make lampshades myself but that’s another project for another day…

Creative Courses · Interior Design

Design for a Museum Cafe – the 1950s are very in you know!

March 25, 2011February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

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.

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.

Here are a couple of boards I produced:

1. Perspective painting of the feature wall with comfortable seating by Robin Day

2. Sample board showing sofas, flooring and fabrics

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!

(available in various colours from John Lewis)

Decorating Projects

Tintin on a feature wall

March 15, 2011June 5, 2025 Julie Gardner6 Comments

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!