The magpie approach

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day in store something I haven’t done for a while and boy I’ve missed it. Seeing people’s reactions to the flowers, the new products, the paint color even, makes everything so worthwhile. I’m certainly doing it more often,  4 am starts are all very well but I had totally forgotten the buzz you get seeing and hearing people’s reactions. Which reminds me I must try and shove some dates in the diary for our retail master classes as I honestly think there is the hugest gap out there from NY to London, Paris to Dubai for cool amazing interiors stores. There just doesn’t seem to be enough! I’m pretty flabbergasted to be honest how generic everything is looking.  Interiors stores around the globe with the exception of a few obviously are all looking like each other. What’s that’s about? Tantalize, surprise, intrigue and stimulate are the key ingredients for having a super successful store. That’s not so difficult right? Same principles apply to one’s home. You don’t need bags of money (it helps of course) but its not so necessary. You just need to check out the pages of US Elle Décor or AD to see how having money is not the answer to owning a cool interior. The key to having a cool interior is to take a magpie approach, mix a whole heap of finds together so that nothing matches. The hard part is that its all got to make perfect sense, the eclectic look being one of the hardest to pull off but if you restrict your color palette (sounds odd coming from me I know) then I promise you it will work. If on the other hand everything has a high voltage hue you will be running for the pills and it won’t feel very relaxing. Color is amazing I am the hugest fan but I restrict it to the odd couple of chairs, a rug, flowers, a lamp everything else is relatively neutral. Todd Selby a little while back took some fabulous pics of Charlotte Rust’s pad in Auckland, I was particularly drawn with her outside area, its not huge or fancy but it feels lived in and loved. Her look is bohemian and edgy at the same time and its been cobbled together with an assortment of things which haven’t cost the earth.  Flea market finds mingle with other quirky objects. Her home is totally unique – and her outside space particularly intrigues me. I have a plan, it’s an early one so no doubt it will take years to come into practice, to turn my flat roof into a wild roof garden for bees and martini’s for when the sun goes down. Only problem being I need to knock out a window to put in a door, (is that a planning issue not sure as don't want to get them involved) balcony off the roof so Maud and Mung's don’t take a flying leap, fill it with plants, grasses and bee houses, source all the furniture, including a drinks trolley and heave the whole lot up two flights of stairs. Yadda yadda yadda. An odd assortment of finds on a roof and I love it.