Have overslept, namely because half the night I couldn't sleep - what with Maud on a pillow above my head breathing into my ear and Mung's situated in between my legs with his ball (he is obsessed with balls and at bedtime before climbing the stairs I generally try and find each and every ball around the house and stash away because he hunts them out in the middle of the night and brings them up). So last night every now and again he would toss the darn ball up our end, I'm guessing to play, Maud would snarl, I would snap and back down he goes to the legs. Imagine that scenario times 5! So I need alot of coffees today.
The title of todayâs blog is actually inspired from the book The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman; have any of you guys read it? Its funny, Â its not so much a glossy coffee table kind of tome but its full to the brim of sweet little sketches and Deborah's musings on interiors which resonate with me big time and I love with way Deborah writes from the hip in a super casual relaxed fashion, refreshing considering she is the editor of the Wall Street Journal's magazine.
Anywasy the reason we want an imperfect home is because if you live in an interior that is decorated just so, perfectly, to within an inch of its life then whether you like it or not it will take on a very formal tone, even its it full to the brim of squishy loungy stuff. To elevate it, to knock it out of the stratosphere you have to add a bit of oddball and the odd imperfect thing which could be as simple as a pile of roughly hewn logs, or as grand as peeling old Victorian table with claw feet. Some pointers below in creating the perfectly imperfect room which with the holidays fast approaching we all want right?
1. Add texture (texture is like a herb it lifts an interior out of the mundane and elevates it to a whole other level, the trick is to create as much friction between surfaces as you can. Friction by the way in interiors is a GOOD THING!
2. Move furniture away from the walls, even by angling a chair or table slightly it will break up the linear aspects of your room
3. Layer, layer, layer the more layers you add to the space the more interesting it becomes. The reason being we want to confuse the eye, we want to tantalise the eye so when you walk into a room you donât quite know where to look and if you don't have stuff you just can't pull that off. Oh and don't worry about the dusting aspect, a bit of dusting on a Saturday morn with some jazz on its pretty dam cool if you ask me!
4 Lighting the more lighting you add the more interesting your space becomes, in my new studio 9 lights are on softly glowing casting a beautiful light.
5 Add something oddball, an unexpected piece of art, a sculpture, a spare chair in a odd colour anything that doesn't quite fit with the general scheme
6 Add something funny, easiest decorating trick in the book since it requires no skill but it immediately lightens the mood, animals are great for this, ceramic, papier mache or otherwise
7 Add something imperfect as mentioned above, it you go down the vintage route its easy peasy since vintage pieces have a narrative, tell a story that again elevates your interior to a whole other level
8 Lastly but most importantly add colour, the single most important thing you can do (if you reign in your palette you can mix and match far easier)
Phew!
Talking of holidays the Christmas master classes are booking up pretty fast since there are only four (regrettably my schedule is a little nuts a the moment, we're trying to figure out more days to add but it might involve cutting me in half and next to flying anything medical (the smell the sight of blood anything makes me faint) so spaces are limited.
1. Add texture (texture is like a herb it lifts an interior out of the mundane and elevates it to a whole other level, the trick is to create as much friction between surfaces as you can. Friction by the way in interiors is a GOOD THING!
2. Move furniture away from the walls, even by angling a chair or table slightly it will break up the linear aspects of your room
3. Layer, layer, layer the more layers you add to the space the more interesting it becomes. The reason being we want to confuse the eye, we want to tantalise the eye so when you walk into a room you donât quite know where to look and if you don't have stuff you just can't pull that off. Oh and don't worry about the dusting aspect, a bit of dusting on a Saturday morn with some jazz on its pretty dam cool if you ask me!
4 Lighting the more lighting you add the more interesting your space becomes, in my new studio 9 lights are on softly glowing casting a beautiful light.
5 Add something oddball, an unexpected piece of art, a sculpture, a spare chair in a odd colour anything that doesn't quite fit with the general scheme
6 Add something funny, easiest decorating trick in the book since it requires no skill but it immediately lightens the mood, animals are great for this, ceramic, papier mache or otherwise
7 Add something imperfect as mentioned above, it you go down the vintage route its easy peasy since vintage pieces have a narrative, tell a story that again elevates your interior to a whole other level
8 Lastly but most importantly add colour, the single most important thing you can do (if you reign in your palette you can mix and match far easier)
Phew!
Talking of holidays the Christmas master classes are booking up pretty fast since there are only four (regrettably my schedule is a little nuts a the moment, we're trying to figure out more days to add but it might involve cutting me in half and next to flying anything medical (the smell the sight of blood anything makes me faint) so spaces are limited.