Wonderful wallpapers

Last weekend we went on a 'jaunt' with MIL and SIL and ended up "noseying" around a couple of show houses in Melbourne.... In one of the houses there was a lovely study area and the walls had this wallpaper on them below... Of course I could not resist whipping out my iphone and taking a quick pic! And then doing some detective work to find out where it had come from.

Have since found out that it is by Deborah Bowness - another image above from her website. Such a talented designer and English too !

From her website : http://www.deborahbowness.com/

Deborah Bowness presents an original style of decorating. Her unique and timeless designs furnish interiors spaces with an extra dimension. A bold statement made quietly. Trompe I'oeil with a twist. Beautiful and functional. Wallpapers by Deborah Bowness are hand made in England. The combination of digital printing, silk screen printed colour and hand painting, makes every drop of wallpaper unique. Working in a small factory in Yorkshire, our expert crew of printers also hand mix our colours, hand cut the paper, hand make our screens and hand package the finished pieces.

And talking of English designers, Andrew Martin is one of my all time favourites... Just look at these images below all from his 'Inventor Collection' of wallpapers.

Multi coloured books wallpaper above

And in the 'stone' (or black and white) colourway above...

And here above in the 'Leather' version. So beautiful.




Also from the same collection this Penny stamps wallpaper... Below in the red...

And here above in the original Penny Black colourway.

For more information about Andrew Martin - website is http://www.andrewmartin.co.uk/

Hopefully one day I will be able to use one of these gorgeous designs.

Jumping on the orange bandwagon - new Orla Kiely towels

Although I said that I was going to do a further "Tasmanian" post I thought I would just show you my orange towels. (Hotel post to follow soon though).


Orange seems to be the new colour I thought it would be quite appropriate.











I bought this whilst in UK at Christmas, and in the sale too. Love Orla Kiely and especially her homewares. I thought these taxi motif towels were really gorgeous.

Whilst in UK my friend Stuart of FONTAINE Antiques (http://www.fontainedecorative.com/) told me that I was pronouncing Kiely ALL WRONG.... I was saying KEELEY well apparently it is KYLIE (like our Australian homegrown Kylie). You learn something new every day.

Above here they are in all their orange cheeriness!

Wonderful.

For more information about Orla's wonderful bits and pieces go here http://www.orlakielylcom/

Favourite paint colours

I really love the colours from the Paint and Paper Library range. They are perhaps not so universally well known as say Farrow and Ball but their colours are just gorgeous and the quality of the paint is second to none. David Oliver (photograph to the left) is Design Director of Paint & Paper Library based in Chelsea, London. He studied Fine Art, sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography and life drawing at the National Art School in Sydney where he developed his knowledge of twentieth century art. His work has been exhibited in Dublin, Madrid, New York, Sydney, Stockholm and London. Collections include the V&A Museum and the British Craft Council. In 2007 he completed his first book PAINT & PAPER A Masterclass in Colour and Light, published by Conran Octopus UK and Rizzoli USA. David unique sense of colour, demonstrated by his innovate architectural colours shades, has earned him the nickname the "Rock Star of Colour" or "The Prince of Paint" .....

Hmmm, quite a dish too (maybe because he's an Aussie?!!) which is of course nothing to do whatsoever with my decision to reproduce his photograph here on the blog for you all to see !

Anyway, back to the paint! A photograph above showing one of my all time FAVOURITE colours from the range - namely TARLATAN. It's on the wall on the right in our teeny little galley kitchen in our cottage in England. It's a sort of grey-taupe colour and looks amazing with white china as above. Yes, those are the very same gorgeous bowls that I coveted ever since I went (last October - see THIS POST) to Daylesford Organic shop in the Cotswolds. My dear friend J read that blog post and gave them to me for Christmas! What a lovely surprise. I know, - very lucky.


Should you wish to learn more about Paint and Paper Library - just go here http://www.paintlibrary.co.uk/ and you will also find that this month TARLATAN is featured as colour of the month.

Any paint ranges and/or colours you find yourselves using again and again...? Please do share.

Nobody Does It Better

than America I think for Christmas Decorations... All kinds really - The sheer exuberance of the beautiful abundance of little white lights in the photograph above .... Or, what about this reclining green reindeer with his bow-tie sitting on the giant red bauble below...

He certainly seems extremely jolly!

Not quite so happy, however, was darling little Bella when we put this Christmas ensemble on her. Bella is my friend's sweet Yorkshire Terrier... She (Bella) drew the line at the hat but I bought her the dress and she forgave us and wore it out attracting many admiring glances and smiles too!

And finally, my own little stash of Christmas goodies bought at Crate and Barrell - I could have gone CRAZY there (not enough space in my case alas and the 'good sense' of Mr SE preventing me!) .... I was really quite restrained but I am delighted with the reindeer napkins, the snowflake decorations, the snowflake tea towel and the mini gingerbread man decoration.

But now I have just realised that there are only just over 3 weeks to go and really I am not ready at all! Have not sent half my Christmas cards back to UK yet and there are several parcels I need to post off there too - I'd better get a move on!!

Spots in the Sitting Room!

Looking around the house I seem to have more spots than I was aware of (of the Leopard variety of course!!) - and when I come to think of it I have been partial to this sort of decoration for a while - above are two vases and an antique sort of Indian animal - well, not really a Leopard I admit but he does have the general sort of colouring required to be Leopard-y!

And then here - this is my favourite throw (also has a bright red lining) on the edge of the sofa - this I bought from OKA a few years ago (a great decorating source and they do Mail Order too) take a look at their website http://www.okadirect.com/ and at the moment they have an offer of 10% off and free delivery until 31st October.

So - Leopards are all around ........