Playing with golden honeycombs and hexagonal design

Hexagon illuminated shelving in Anthropologie

For one of our current design projects, I’ve been playing with hexagonal design. There’s something endlessly fascinating about the beautiful natural shapes created by bees in their honeycombs, shapes full of golden light, ethereal yet incredibly mathematically solid.

Busy, busy, busy!

Prepare to see piles of hexagons in coming months, as it seems a lot of other designers are also feeling the honeycomb love. This image below of some stunning B&B Italia glass tables and beautifully padded seating was taken by Curve Interior Design over in Milan for the 2013 Design Week:

B&B Italia glass tables and beautifully padded seating, Milan 2013

I know where I’m heading with our design, but here’s some ideas for you to play with….

Mood & ideas board for a glamorous yet industrial interior design look

Thought I’d post the mood / idea board I did for Project Rivet, using images sourced online and drawn together in Photoshop. Doing things this way helps me to pull together ideas and create a one sheet design guide, which usually mixes up inspiration and also must-have products. Not all designers do it this way but it works for me!

Some featured above are:

Farrow & Ball – Hague Blue paint

Jaime Hayon marble and metallic tables

Andrew Martin Isambard steel rivet wallpaper

Elle Decor tear sheet

Lauren Baker designed skulls

Coach House table & chairs

Rocket St George ‘Koziel’ leather padded wallpaper

Lefroy Brooks marble bath

Jude 604 – Jlanbai Shi skull artwork

Designers Guild bedding

PS This doesn’t mean we got ‘em free, just letting you know where to get items from! x

How to use copper spray to customise some Ikea bedside tables

Delighted with today’s extremely inexpensive transformation of a couple of new Ikea side tables from the PS 2012 range into something unique and designed around the colour scheme of the bedroom they’re going in.
Involved were two tables, some copper Plasticote spray, Aubusson deep blue chalk paint and me with a slight hangover ~ remarkable they were done so quickly really
So, here’s a how to:
Unpack your boxes….

This is how Ikea have designed them to look……

But, like us, you can rethink them and get the paint & spray out….

Of course, the tables still look great if you don’t do anything other than build them, but it’s nice to have something individual isn’t it?

2013 ~ Let the property whirlwind begin!

So 2013 begins with at least one day this week when I was actually working on 7, yes 7, properties in one day!
In landlord world there have been heaters to fix, showers to sort, washing machines to clear of hair grips, fuses to change, tenants to move in and out, kitchens to paint….
In interiors world, bathrooms to seal, a terrace to tile, lights to install, a giant smart TV to hoist onto a wall… another endless list! The nicest job this week was installing my Manchester letters onto a kitchen backdrop. I’d like to say it was a one take wonder but today’s job is filling all the holes where I moved the letters around
The vintage shades I had made into single pendants look fab against the deep blue wall:

We’ve all been gobsmacked at the weight of this 6yr old TV compared to the new and larger Smart TV. I couldn’t even lift this old one off the wall with one of the lads as it was so heavy, but can pick up the entire new TV on my own. Tech changes in such a short time never fail to amaze, do they? Loving the industrial inspired wallpaper I spec’d for the huge living room wall too!

Delighted with my bargain of the month, a console table needed for the dressing area at #ProjectRivet… £349 reduced to £85 in John Lewis – result!!

Upholstery Project No 2: Chairs all waxed and finished

It’s been the final week on my dining room chairs project and the undersides have all been protected with dust covers of light hessian.

Seriously getting this upholstery bug now, have decided I want an air compressor for Christmas!

So just as a recap, these chairs have been painted using Annie Sloan’s Emile pale purple chalk paint, then clear waxed, lightly sanded to allow some of the dark timber to show through, then waxed again and polished to give an elegant sheen.

This is what they looked like before, with sagging faux leather seats:

And after: 

Now we just have to re-do the whole kitchen to make it as gorgeous as the chairs….

Upholstery Project No 2: Traditionally re-upholstering my dining room chairs

Absolutely loving this upholstery course I’m on and thought I’d share my latest project with you. As usually happens, the Moregeous rotational system of furnishing has meant our oak kitchen chairs have disappeared into a tenant’s flat! Rather than buy some more, I’ve rescued 4 rather dilapidated chairs from the Cellar of Shame and am mastering the skill of taking them apart and putting them back together again – properly. As you can see below, the webbing had rotted away, meaning very saggy bottoms. It was fascinating seeing how the chairs had originally been made….

And so to putting them back together. I’ve learnt how re-web the chair bases, do slip knots & bridal ties and the quite hard-on-the-hands process of stuffing the chair with hair to create an even, comfortable pad. It’s brilliant!

 

How to create a vintage look on a plain veneer headboard

One of our tenant couples moved out last week, taking with them their bed and leaving a big space! I like providing the Brimnes Ikea beds as they look great, plus are very sturdy with incorporated storage in the form of four big drawers as part of the frame. This stops boxes and crates being dragged in & out and wrecking any flooring, plus keep rentals tidier. However, I don’t like the headboard designed to go with the bed, it adds too much to the length of the bed for smaller bedrooms and is clunky design-wise.

It’s easy to fix on a timber headboard to the Brimnes bed and I had a beech style one already in the cellar, but it looked a bit modern &, well, cheap. The apartment is lovely with creams, taupes and some French styling, so I decided to paint and wax the headboard to give it a more vintage feel.

I used two different chalk paint colours plus both dark and soft wax, with a very random brush stroke pattern. Totally on a roll with this whole upcycling thing