STYLE NV WISHES AHPPY BIRTHDAY TO RAY EAMES

HAPPY BIRHTDAY TO RAY EAMES, who was born today, December 15th 1912. Ray Eames is half the tour de force design duo Charles & Ray Eames. Together, The Eames couple designed some of the most important examples of 20th century furniture; they also applied their talents to devising ingenious children's toys, puzzles, films, exhibitions and such iconic mid-20th century Los Angeles buildings as the Eames House and Entenza House in Pacific Palisades.




From researching this feature, it is clear, that their success in design stems from their happily married home life together, and whilst the Eames furniture has usually been listed as by Charles Eames, Ray was deeply involved and should be considered an equal partner. The Eames fabrics were mostly designed by Ray, as were the Time Life Stools. But in reading the various books on Eames, and seeing the photos of furniture development, it is clear that Ray's involvement is absolute



Ray Eames was born in Sacramento, California in 1912 as Bernice Alexandra Kaiser. She came from a close, creative family. Her father, Alexander Kaiser, was a theatre manager-turned-insurance salesman and both parents encouraged her love of art, film and dance. After her father's death in 1929, Ray and her mother, moved to New York to be closer to her brother, Martin, an army cadet at West Point. Ray enrolled at the Art Students League and studied painting under Hans Hoffman.



When her mother died in 1940, Ray moved to Cranbrook. She began studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where she met Charles Eames while preparing drawings and models for the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition where she met and fell in love with Charles. He divorced his first wife, Catherine, in May, 1941 and married Ray in Chicago a month later. They set off for a long honeymoon drive to their new home in Los Angeles. On the journey, they picked up tumbleweed from the road which still hangs from the ceiling of the Eames House today.



Whilst Charles found work at MGM studios as a set designer, Ray created covers for California Art & Architecture magazine. Setting up a workshop studio in their spare room in their home, they began experimenting with moulding plywoods. They produced their first mass produced manufactured product which a year later, the US Navy made an order of for 5000 units.



The US Navy order enabled the Eames to rent an office on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1942 and to gather a group of collaborators including Harry Bertoia and Gregory Ain. Continuing their experiments, they produced sculpture, chairs, screens, tables and even toy animals in plywood. The US furniture group, Herman Miller, was persuaded to put some of these pieces into production by George Nelson, its head of design. All the Eames' plywood combined an elegant organic aesthetic with a love of materials and technical ingenuity.



These qualities were also apparent in the showroom they designed for Herman Miller in 1949 and the Case Study Houses, a low cost housing project sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine which included the Eames House, a steel structure with sliding walls and windows. Designed for cheap, speedy construction, it took five men 16 hours to raise the steel shell and one man three days to build the roof deck. Spacious, light and versatile, the vividly coloured Eames House was described by the design historian Pat Kirkham as looking like "a Mondrian-style composition in a Los Angeles meadow".



Unsurprisingly, the house and its contents epitomised Charles and Ray's approach to design and their "good life" concept of celebrating the beauty of everyday objects as well as precious ones. The dried-out tumbleweed from their honeymoon hung alongside a Robert Motherwell painting. Toys, masks and other folkloric souvenirs collected from their travels were laid out on tables next to stones, buttons, pieces of bark and favourite books. The British architects, Peter and Alison Smithson, described the house as "a cultural gift parcel". Its fusion of the mass-manufactured and folkloric appeared in the Eames' films and graphic projects, like their 1952 interlocking House of Cards game, for which Eliel Saarinen coined the term "spiritual function".



Charles and Ray sustained this spirit in the way they dressed: he in open-necked shirts and loose pants, she in a bohemian version of a conventionally feminine wardrobe of short-sleeved blouses and full skirts. The film director Billy Wilder and his wife Audrey, who befriended the Eames after commissioning a sadly unbuilt house from them, remarked that Ray's idea of formal dress was to put on a clean blouse and Charles' take on black tie was literally to wear a black tie. Ray's self-consciously feminine guise underscored the role she adopted within their relationship of Charles' younger, adoring protege and underplaying her contribution to their work, which contrasts with the picture of painted by Charles himself of a gifted, energetic woman.



After plywood, the Eames focused on equally zealous experiments with other materials by creating furniture in fibreglass, plastic, aluminium and, for the 1956 Lounge Chair, leather and very opulent plywood. The Lounge became an icon of the 1960s and 1970s - no ambitious executive had made it until there was one in his (or very occasionally) her office - but Charles always expressed a preference for his earlier, less expensive plywood designs.



Their collaboration with Herman Miller continued and extended to Vitra, its European partner. The Eames also began a long-lasting relationship with IBM for which they made films and designed exhibitions. Like all important designers, the Eames was blessed with good timing. There were no shortage of empathetic corporate partners in the expanding US post-war economy at a time of rapid advances in materials and production processes and their democratic view of design struck a chord in an era of growing affluence. Throughout the 1950s, their furniture was exhibited in the Good Design shows with which MoMA, New York sought to raise the public's awareness of design.



The Eames' furniture, especially elegant office chairs such as the Lounge and Aluminium Series now seem synonymous with mid-20th century Corporate America, but Charles and Ray equally influential at making respectable the then-neglected folk crafts not only in the US but in India, for which they produced the 1950s Eames Report on raising standards of design training. These concerns dominated their later work in the 1970s when, able to live comfortably on their Herman Miller and Vitra royalties, they concentrated their creative energy on propagating their ideas in exhibitions, books and films.





Work remained the centre of their lives - with working days running from 9am to 10pm and a full-time cook on hand so they needn't leave the studio to eat - until Charles' death in 1978. Ray then worked hard to complete any unfinished projects but, having done so, did not seek new ones. She devoted the rest of her life to communicating their ideas through talks and writing. Ray Eames died of cancer on 21 August 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.



With such a vast back catalogue of designs, it is hard to pick out STYLE NV’s favourites.

STYLE NV CHATTING WITH - Claire Brewster

Claire Brewster's intricate paper cut bird pictures are stunning. Using beautiful old maps, she cuts out birds and flowers . STYLE NV caught up with her recently to talk about her work.

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=50

STYLE NV - TRENDS: Bring back the Paper Chain

More by luck than good judgement I am bang on trend with Christmas decorations this year and was possibly avant garde last season tidings. Although there have been no wedding bells since moving in with my boyfriend, there has certainly been a marriage of Christmas decorations. Unlike our relationship, it was not a match made in heaven, but in these austere times, I decided to just go with it, throw it all together and hope for the best. We now have a multitude of baubles, in a full rainbow of colours; black, white, pink, blue, green, red, purple, yellow and orange adorn our tree, mantle piece and anything that stands still for long enough!

Thus we have happily greeted the season with a retro themed tree. In retrospect, retro Christmas revival was always going to happen, Mad Men has infiltrated every possible fashion vintage is no longer a fashion trend, it’s a way of life, so multi coloured fairy lights and glass baubles is just the next step. So let’s go one step further and bring back my favourite decoation that has been sadly overlooked recently - the humble paper chain!

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=49

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to CONSTANCE SPRY

My mother had a Constance Spry’s Cookery Book – a giant tombe of a book, bound in bright pink cotton; it was hilariously old fashioned and my sisters and I used to love mocking its contents. It was not until recently that I have read about Constance Spry’ work and life in more detail, did I realise just what a front running, STYLE NV woman Constance Spry really was.

Few people have had such a powerful influence over the way we decorate our homes as Constance Spry. First as a teacher and social reformer, then as a society florist and best-selling author, Spry taught mid-20th century Britons how to beautify their homes with such unassuming materials as berries, vegetable leaves, twigs, ferns and weeds displayed in a motley assortment of containers from gravy boats and bird cages, to tureen lids and baking trays.
In an era when millions of people were decorating their homes to their own taste for the first time, Constance Spry helped them to do so with flair and for very little money. Believing that everyone had the right to beautify their home and that the means of doing so could be found in woods, hedgerows, vegetable patches or scraps of wasteland, Spry popularised her democratising and essentially bohemian style of home-making by dispensing no-nonsense advise in books, articles and radio broadcasts all over the world. “I do feel strongly,” she once wrote, “that flowers should be a means of self-expression for everyone.”

STYLE NV Review - At Home With the Georgians

Sitting a few millimeters away from my radiator, whilst this wintery weather wars on outside, I can’t help but feel sorry for the Georgians, or in fact any other period in history that didn’t have central heating. All well and good high summer, but right now I’m rather pleased I live in a time where I flick a switch and can feel totally toasty in my little home office.

Last night I watched the new series At home with the Georgians (BBC2) presented by Professor Amanda Vickery and I can’t wait till next week. It was a fascinating insight into how the Georgians lived and how they felt about their homes. What made it so good was that Vickery brought the whole thing to life giving real insight normal Georgians, living their lives, using a letters, diary entries which she called up using her e-reader. She used actors to reconstruct and narrate the stories she told.http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=47

COMMENT - Christmas Illuminations

Tonight, the 1st of December marks the grand Christmas Light switch on ceremony for our lovely Irish next door neighbours. This year we are guests of honour because we have helped them buy a set of lights to go on their large fir tree in their front garden. Earlier this year, we had bought ourselves a set of white outdoor festoon lights, to illuminate our back garden. Our neighbour, Dennis was most impressed with them and asked us for the vendor’s details. “At last” I arrogantly thought, “I’ve managed to make them stylish! No longer will there be five sets of different multi coloured lights wrapped round the enormous fur tree outside their house and maybe, just maybe they will also take down the light, shaped like a Christmas tree, which sits, all year round, on the top of their very tall fir tree”!The lights were bought and Dennis and Joan knocked on our door to proudly show us that they had arrived.. . . .


To read more, click on the link STYLE NV BLOG

STYLE NV Rant - Kirsty Allsopp's Homemade Home

This is not a deformation on Kirsty Allsopp’s character; but when I watch “Kirsty's Homemade Home on Channel 4, I feel my hands tense up and I feel this compulsion deep within me to rise up and throw the television set out of our living room window!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=45

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to Gio Ponti

Our Happy Birthday today goes to Gio Ponti, who was born today 18th November in 1891.

Ponti. was an architect, furniture designer and founding editor of Domus magazine. Through his designs and his work at Domus, he was the godfather of Italy's post-war design renaissance . . .http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=43

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to Isamu Noguchi

A Big Happy Birthday to Isamu Noguchi (pronounced sämoo nogooch) who was born today, 17th November 1904 and would have been 106 years old!

Isamu Noguchi was a Japanese, American sculptor and designer whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward . He sought to make sculpture useful in everyday life. Amoung his furniture work, his collaboration with the Herman Miller company in 1948 where he joined forces with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames is considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=42

STYLE NV - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PIERRO FORNASETTI

A big fat HAPPY BIRTHDAY to PIERO FORNASETTI, who would have been 97 years old today.




In terms of variety of decoration, Fornasetti’s production of objects and furniture is one of the largest of the 20th century. Fornasetti is celebrated as being among the most original creative talents of the twentieth century. During his career he cdesigned a magical world, filled with wit, that is instantly recognisable and unceasingly engaging.



http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=41

STYLE NV RAVE - Rothschild & Bickers Lights

Like giant boiled sweets hanging from the ceiling, Rothschild & Bickers hand blown glass lights look almost edible. Design partners, Victoria Rothschild and Mark Bickers give traditional techniques and design a contemporary twist. The shapes of the lights are traditional but the use of coloured glass, silk tassles and their small size, keeps them modern.




See some of their latest work at Nandos in Glasshouse Street and Ted Baker in Westfield, London.



Tasty treats!
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=40

STYLE NV Rave - Virtually Inspired

You know that lovely house proud kinda feeling you get from throwing tablecloth over a table? You know, ‘rain drops on roses’ is playing in your head and whoosh the tablecloth is up in the air and gently, it falls down. No? Well Daniel O’Riordan from Orchard Studio does and he was inspired by this to create his beautiful cloth pendants.

Homes that STYLE NV Love - Vanessa Battaglia & Brendan Young of Studiomold

Take one small and neglected terrace cottage in Cambridgeshire, add a design couple. Wait for a few hellish months and the result is this small, but perfectly formed house full to the brim with delicious ideas and hidden treasures. If this house was a cake, it would be a rich, tasty Christmas pudding, topped with brandy butter, a holly leaf and stuffed with coppers and buttons.

STYLE NV CHATTING WITH - Jason McDonald

What could be more suitable on Halloween than chatting with Jason McDonald from Koff, the designer of the skull candle? His skull candles are a fantastic design celebrating life, death and the beauty of the human skull. We caught up with him to talk about his work.http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=36

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to David Weeks

Happy Birthday to American desginer, David Weeks! David is known for his lighting and furniture products.




He was born today, October 30th 1968, in Athens, Georgia. He studied painting and sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned a BFA. Weeks went on to work in the Manhattan studio of Ted Muehling before founding the David Weeks Studio in 1996. The Studio produces lighting and furniture for commercial and residential uses. The Studio’s recent product lines include Sculpt, an upholstered collection, and Sarus, a lighting collection for Ralph Pucci; updated Semana chairs for Habitat UK; and new consumer products for Areaware and Kikkerland.The Studio also creates custom lighting, furniture, sculpture, and interiors. Commissioned projects include Barneys New York, Kate Spade, Saks Fifth Avenue, MGM Grand Las Vegas, Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, and Bliss Spa. Weeks has also been an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design, and was a visiting critic in 2002 at Yale.



David won Editor Awards at the 1999 and 2001 International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Butter's debut collection earned accolades including an award from Blueprint at 100% Design Show, and featured his best-selling Lunette lampshade. David lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Georgianna Stout, partner of design studio 2x4, and their children.




http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=35

STYLE NV - TRENDS: Spinning Tinned Peaches

There are only so many colours. So when one comes back into fashion, they need to be given a bit of a spin. While we have been happy dressing in flesh, putty and nude tones, for quite a few seasons now, when it comes to an interior trend, are you ready to bare all?

On the surface it seems that 80s pastel peach is back, but don’t despair this isn’t sickly tinned peaches in syrup, this is soft, just been picked peaches (I sound like a M&S advert). Imagine a hot sunny day in the meditaranean, sunbathing naked on a beach and gorging on a crate of lovely juicy peaches (mmm)! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=34

STYLE NV Rant - Moaning about Musac

This is going out to any event producers, shop owners, TV producers, anyone who anything to do with choosing background music or Musac, as it is more commonly known, to recreate interior, lifestyle environments. I’m speaking on behalf of many people when I say

STOP USING SUCH TOSH, WE HATE IT !!!!
The term for elevator music shouldn’t be Musac, it should be Musak a merging of the two words Music and Kak, because is that is way more apt.
This inane, dull, annoying, music, that’s supposed to chill me out, calm me down does nothing of the kind. IT DRIVES ME UP THE BLOODY WALL. It drives me up the wall and usually out of the room or shop, or show, which I’m guessing is not the general idea. It certainly doesn’t make me want to part with any of my hard earned cash.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=33

STYLE NV Rave - Gypsy Chic A+Z Design

Hungarian based studio, A+Z Designers launched their new collection at Tent last month, inspired by gypsy culture with a modern twist and using traditional materials and methods. .

There is bright red low table with built in burner and pendant lights that look like upturned enamelled buckets . Possibly my favourite piece is the Boden wine cooler with interchangeable tapestry seats, so that the wine cooler can also be used as a stool.
The table and stools are perfect for those who fancy glamping next year in the festival season, or if you have a little summer house at the bottom of the garden. The lights would be great as informal kitchen dining table lights.

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=32

STYLE NV CHATTING WITH - Michaela Fitzgerald

Flamingoes on the ceiling and distorted bathroom mirrors? Sounds like right up our street, STYLE NV caught up with bar and restaurant interior designer, Michaela Reysenn from Kai Desgin to talk about her work. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=31

STYLE NV Quelquechose - Lace Blinds

Lovely friend Emma asked STYLE NV to design a practical and pretty blind to be used in the bathroom. Her bathroom is on the vintage theme with white Victorian brick tiles and a roll top bath, but there is funky edge to it with a laser cut resin mirror by the side of the bath. My solution was to take a standard white roller blind and embellish it with pretty, ghostly lace pattern. Here’s how to do it yourself.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=5

STYLE NV - Pondering - Les Faux Fleurs

On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s’ Hour the other day, Abigail Ahern and Sam Youd (Head Gardener at Tatton Park) were discussing the pros and cons to artificial flowers. Fake flowers looked incredibly realistic these days; people’s preconceptions of tacky, dust gathering, pathetic bunches shoved in a small vase on a restaurant table are changing. Could they ever completely substitute the real thing?

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=29

STYLE NV Rant - Getting the Hotel Look

Not everyone will agree with me on this one, and that’s cool, but today my rant is about “Getting the Hotel Look”

Many people love this luxurious, pared down look, of built in wardrobes, tall headboards, neutral tones and matching cushions and curtains, but I am perplexed why anyone would want to aspire to living in home like this.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=28

STYLE NV - Styling Tip - O.T.T.B.C (Over The Top Bed Cushioning)

I confess, I am completely guilty of O.T.T.B.C (Over The Top Bed Cushioning), but the thing is, when you are styling to camera, beds can look a trifle flat if not embellished and I'm looking to create a beautiful photograph rather than being practical. In reality, having ten scatter cushions and six pillows is ridiculous; it's another chore to take the cushions off the bed, then make the bed then put them back on (I know that as a stylist I should be encouraging OTTBC, but I’m also quite lazy)! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=27

STYLE NV Rave - Send in the Clowns!

Clowns or Lladro? For some, it’s a toss up between which is scarier! Not for me however and at Decorex a few weeks ago, Lladro showed their conceptual line “Fantasy”, created by Artistic Director, Jaime Hayon.

Hang on a sec, did you just say Lladro??? Yes I did, loud and clear; Lladro, normally responsible for some crimes against ceramics have manufactured this cool, quirky and a touch ironic, range of ceramics, my favourite being the Clown Lamp.

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=26

STYLE NV - TRENDS: David Beckham eating billtong

Ahh - the beautiful game! I never thought for a moment that I’d be mentioning football in my musings, but according to a talk given by Mix Publications at Decorex a few weeks ago, the euphoria, following the last World Cup held in South Africa has led to a colour story for 2011/12.

Truth be told, I only get excited when England play (I think I know everything there is to know about it), but if this fabulous colour trend developed from this year’s World Cup, then I’m all for it.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=25

STYLE NV Review - SUPER DUPER SUPER DESIGN

Just when you thought you'd hung your 'trade show' boots up, along comes another one and in this case, they've saved the best till last. The fourth Super Design exhibition launched today in the basement of the grand Victoria House, Bloomsbury, London and runs for the next three days until the 17th October. Super Design is curated by Patrick Brillet from the furniture store and gallery The Apartment. The exhibition boasts unique and limited edition pieces from international galleries such as D&A -Lab, Tom Dixon, Quadrige, Mitterand-Cramer, Herve Can der Straeten and Vessel Gallery and of course The Apartment.




Highlights for STYLE NV were the stunning (if no doubt a little uncomfortable) Brodie Neill's curvaceous chair, the fun and colourful 'Low Tables' by Johnathan Monk at D&A Lab and Studio Job's 'Industry Table' at Mitterand & Cramer - a quirky black wooden table with white maple inlay. It was also great to see Tom Dixon's new pieces as I missed his showroom at London Design Week. Tom's rusty 'Swing' and reclining chair were a fabulous contrast to all the polished surfaces. Infact, well polished woudl be good words to describe the exhibition, shame Patrick Brillet's people skills were not as polished as the furniture on display!
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=24

STYLE NV CHATTING WITH - Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnsons' designs exube positivity. Their primary function is to make you smile, which is precisely what they do! He developped the "Now Isn't That Lovely" series on his MA at the Royal College of Art. The china ornaments, precariously balanced on top of one another have been an immediate hit and he has continued to sell them all over the world. His latest work " HAPPY HAPPY" which comprimises of giant chrome silver present bows immediatley caught my attention at 100% Design last month and STYLE NV caught up with him this week to talk about his work. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=23

STYLE NV - Styling Tip - Art House

Art - What an enormous Pandora’s Box that is to open! Before I start, please notes that for the sake of this blog, I am just going to be talking about art which could be hung on a wall, i.e. frames pictures, unframed canvases or wall hangings.

Art is tricky one, several dilemmas to conquer. First of all, what the hell are you going to buy?!

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=22

STYLE NV Rant - Wicked Wicker World

Wicker was way down my list of ‘To Rant about’ List but I was on Twitter the other day and @Ideal Home magazine tweeted ‘Like or Loathe to these horrendous wicker sofas. I just couldn’t contain myself and replied back that I thought they were utterly vile. Now I have to be a bit careful here as Ideal Home is one of our clients, which is kind of why I’m rant blogging (should that be ragging?) and raving all at the same time –Is that then Ravagging?! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=21

STYLE NV - TRENDS: Head on a Onyx Chopping Block

Now if I didn't make any trend predictions, then I wouldn't really be much of an interior stylist now would I? And when I start to predict trends, I feel sympathy for weathermen, British in particular who often get it wrong, and have to put their head on the chopping block. Today my chopping block is going to be made of green onyx. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=20

STYLE NV Rave - Suzani Textiles

Well it’s official Moroccan is OUT and Uzbekistan is IN!
Everyone from John Lewis to Graham and Green has enough pouffes and cushions and throws to bolster, cushion and warm herds of camels (or people I suppose but camels do sound funnier - can you imagine a herd of camels walking into John Lewis and buying up all their cushions)?!! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=19

STYLE NV Review - The Betsy Smith Bar, London NW6

The Betsy Smith opened it's doors recently and STYLE NV went to check it out the interior design. The Design team behind it, Kai Design, have created a fictional Dickensian character, 'Betsy Smith' whom roamed the sreets of Kilburn, north west London, where the bar is located. The design concept is inspired by a fantastical, theatrical, Victorian, fairground. Inside you are greeted with so many topsey turvey wonderland installations, that it is hard to know what to look at first. http://tinyurl.com/2vlef3r

STYLE NV CHATTING WITH - Ayme Fitzgerald

Ayme Fitzgeralds’ wallpapers speak for themselves; strong and vibrant they jump right off the roll. Her work caught attention three years ago at New Designers exhibition in London and since then she has selling her designs to leading designers and exhibting in London, New York and Tokyo. I caught up with the young designer to talk to her about her work.http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=17

STYLE NV Rant - Stating the Obvious

RANT This is just something that really bugs me - Decorative words I mean WHY?! . .http://tinyurl.com/3xjcmru

STYLE NV Wishes Happy Birthday to Sir Terrence Conran!

STYLE NV Would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Sir Terrence Conran!

It would be almost impossible to work in design and not know who Sir Terrance Conran is. His influence over the design and catering industries in Britian for the past 50 years has been extensive.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=15

STYLE NV Rave - The Ghost of a Chair

VANQUISHED! - I was totally surrounded. Thirteen giant ethereal shapes outnumbered me, I was quite frankly speechless. Possibly because I was slightly out of breath from climbing five flights of stairs at the Designer’s Block 2010 at the London Design Festival. But also because I was staring at Valentina Gonzalez Wohlers’ The Ghost of a Chair. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=14

STYLE NV - Styling Tip - Colour Coded Shelves

Ok, lets talk about books and display. Put your hand up the last time you actually USED your book shelf? I mean actually pulled a few and re read them? No? Chances are most of the time, you only re use your books when you lend them to other people or need to weight something down? Either that or they are just something extra to dust!

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=13

STYLE NV Review - The London Design Festival 2010

There are no doubt several hundred blogs and metres of newspaper column space devoted to the London Design Festival 2010 but at STYLE NV, I’ve held back to give you an honest review about what the whole festival had offer this year. Some shows were very disappointing, some were a lot better than former years and some were oright.
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=10

STYLE NV Quelquechose - Pom Pom Chandelier

I've gone completley pom pom potty - Jo, my boyfriend has told its got to stop, he keeps finding my fishing out old bits of card from the recycling bin. But now that it's finished even he thinks the STYLE NV pom pom chandelier looks fabulous! Here's the project - enjoy! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=4

Homes that STYLE NV Love - Helena & Bruno Amourdedieu

They say that you can take the girl out of England but you can’t take England out of the girl and I wonder, how much of Helena Amourdedieu’s eclectic Parisian home is French influenced and how much stems from her English pedigree? STYLE NV went to find out for themselves. . . http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=42

STYLE NV Rave - Jet Set Shops

In my head, I work in London, I party in New York and relax in Paris - oh how I love being STYLE NV's jet set Interior Stylist! Actually I have been to both cities in the last year (I can't see how living in London really counts)but this isn’t the norm.

Whenever and wherever I visit, I make a bee line for the shops! It will come as no surprise, being an Interior Stylist that I love the shops! The tourist trail is all well and good, but when I'm abroad, I like to scout out the most fabulous shops and see which shops the locals go to for their gorgeous quelque chose! Here are my top six in my three favourite cities, London, New York and Paris.. . .http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=7

STYLE NV Review - I Should Coco

Last night Hannah, my trusty friend and STYLE NV's unofficial Sub Editor, took ourselves down to the Everman Cinema in Baker Street to see the next biop film in the life of Coco Chanel "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" (France seem to be bringing out a lot of rather ok, biops lately, since the success of La Vie En Rose, which, for the record, I didn't think was that great). Anyhow, this film picks up where "Coco before Chanel" left off and Chanel takes in penniless Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, ill wife and his family to her home on the outskirts of Paris. An affair between Igor and Coco develops.The wife works it out (perceptive of her, given the lack of chemistry between the two of them) and leaves. Chanel ends the affair and Igor finishes his masterpiece and then decades later we see the pair apart and alone, wistfully thinking about their greatest time. I'm whizzing through the plot, because basically it wasn't much good; it was disjointed, badly acted (even in French and Russian, I could tell) and Anna Mouglalis strutted around the place like she was on a catwalk runway (she is Largerfield's muse, so it does explain things a bit). The most cringe worthy part was where Chanel goes to choose her scent; she picks the fifth one and the parfumier says "Number 5" - oh for god's sake!!

If you can bare the ok plot line, I would suggest going to see it, no actually, wait till it's on DVD but do see it (preferably in a dark room), because the sets and the costume are FABULOUS!
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=5

STYLE NV Quelquechose - Button Magnets

Don't you just LOVE them? They are just so cute. I met this lovely lady selling vintage buttons in Portobello Market, in London, the other week and I thought "Now what can I do with them that will really show them off and I thought Aha - magnets!" The card packaging that they were attached to was great too, but I guess you have to break eggs to make an omelette!



Now it doesn't take a brain surgeon to work out how to make button magnets but if you want to make them yourself and a bit of need some reassurance, here's how http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=2


If however, you just want them now and you can't be dealing with lovely ladies form Portobello, then click the link again and I will sell you some, or a kit to do make them yourself. So let me tell you some more. . .


The button magnets are sold in packs of ten. The buttons will vary in size, from about 3cm - 2cm and I'll make sure you've got a good range of sizes. The magnets themselves again range from 3cm to 2cm, depending on the size of the button. The button magnets will mostly be just one button per magnet but I might stick a smaller one of top, depending on what works best, you'll just have to trust me on that!


They are great for a stocking filler, little birthday prezzie or hey, why not just treat yourself - I bet you deserve it! x

STYLE NV Quelque chose - Distressed Mirrors

Now I am rather proud of this quelque chose, I must say. I worked out how to distress the mirror then have laid beautiful organzas on the back.

The one in this picture is a bit of a guinea pig; tried out on a broken bevbelled mirror, which is why it's sliced along the bottom, but the other mirrors I have in stock are all complete ovals.

Like the lace bowls, on my website, I show you how to make it, or I can sell you a craft kit or a mirror ready made.

http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=3

STYLE NV Quelquechose - Lace Bowls

Have you lace longings? These lace doilly bowls are the first of many crafts, or as I call them " quelque chose" that I sell on my website. They come either ready made or you can buy the kits. Or you can even make them completly yourself and I show you how. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/designDetails.cfm?d=1

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Molly & Spencer Freshwater

Many people are collectors, but few have such an unusual collection of trinkets and the creative vision to put it all together so wonderfully like Molly Freshwater. Take her kitchen shelving as a prime example; a pyramid of upturned coffee cups, sits alongside a child’s blue car in the kitchen, looking like some mad Frank Gehry model. And it’s not just in the kitchen, all through her house are just little displays, sometimes, so out of sight, like Molly just absent mindedly does it while on the phone, pottering around the place, adding flower brooches to little bowls, and scattering buttons in trays. And here’s a little game for you – how many times do you see the numbers ‘23’?

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Malindi & Charles Bryce

People, especially estates agents, are forever harping on about the wow factor. “The bathroom has wow factor, the kitchen gives it wow factor” – blah, blah, blah. It’s an overused phrase and few homes rarely have it. ‘Wow’ should be the first thing that comes into your mind when you enter a home. It’s not about expensive materials or furniture in a home, it’s about a sense of drama, something that you weren’t possibly expecting. Space and colour are usually the culprits behind the ‘wow’ and I think Malindi and Charles’s home has WOW WOW WOW in abundance! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=39

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Jules & Marek Middleton

For some it’s shoes, for others, bags, for Jules Middleton, her vice is vintage. There is nothing that Jules loves better doing than whiling away the hours in a flea market, and being a fashion buyer, means that Jules gets to travel around the world and knows to bring an extra large bag with her, when she does!



Jules and her husband Marek, bought this Victorian terrace, on the outskirts of London, five years ago and they have lovingly renovated it, even laying down the parquet flooring that they found lying in piles in the garden shed! I love their genius kitchen splash back idea where Jules & Marek chose cheap anaglypta wallpaper from B&Q and painted it with good quality white kitchen paint. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=36

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Frances & Martin Mace

I confess that when I met Frances and Martin Mace for the first time that I realised I had prejudged. It happens to the best of us sometimes, for I had been already seen pictures of Zinc House. It was slick, very modern and been built from scratch – not exactly the kind of dwelling that springs to mind that a couple in (as the French so eloquently put it) ‘la troisieme age’ would live in, surely? Oh Victoria, Never Judge a Book by its Cover!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=40

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Doris & Serge Barbier

It’s refreshing to meet people like Doris and Serge Barbier who hold true to their belief that less is more. As an architect, Serge could build a home around his family as it grew. Their home began on one floor and when daughter Lily came along, Serge moved rooms around to accommodate a second bedroom. Four years later, the upstairs went up for sale and Serge made downstairs have an upstairs with an impressive wrought iron spiral staircase. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=35

Homes that STYLE NV Loves - Barbara Brundell- Bruce

I have a love/hate relationship with women like Barbara. This sounds rather harsh as Barbara is very kind and utterly lovely, so let me explain. I wish I could be someone like Barbara who totters around in fabulous designer heels, living the high life, designing interiors and owning a successful lingerie company, Spolyt. The glamorous high life is out of reach for me in my flat pumps. Sadly I pick up a pair of designer heels and think “You’ll have to walk to the pub in those, (my boyfriend is allergic to taxis). I love women like Barbara but hate them because I could never be them – It’s complete STYLE NV!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=34

Homes that STYLE NV Love - Aiveen Daly

Don’t you just love finding random, interesting things out about where you live? When writing my article for Good Homes magazine for Aiveen Daly’s home, I discovered this interesting and extremely useful fact about the area. Upholsterer, Aiveen Daly lives in a quiet conservation area in north west London called Queens Park Estate. The whole area was designed and built in the late 19th Century for the new middle classes by William Austin for the Artisan Labourers & General Dwellings Company. Unhelpfully the man was a bit puritanical and decided not to build any public houses to tempt those hard working middle classes (boo)! He did however, name all the streets running from south to north alphabetically and the avenues left to right, from one to six. Why is this useful to me? Well, if you have been tempted by the daemon liquor (as I frequently am), in one of the pubs north or south of this area, and you have friends who live in this area that all look the same when inebriated, then you can work out where you are going, whilst wandering aimlessly around!

Anyhow, back to the charming Mrs Daly! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=33

Homes that STYLE NV Love - Aurelie Mathigot

Throw out your preconceptions of grannies knitting pastel crochet cardigans, this is crochet cool. Textile artist Aurelie Mathigot has turned me crochet crackers! She lives here with her family in the central Paris. Everywhere you look there are teapots, flowers pots, shoes, plates, cups and saucers, bird cages, you name it - even the piano has a crochet cover! When Rachael and I photographed her home last year for Easy Living we feared if we stood too long in one spot, Aurelie might crochet us! http://www.stylenv.co.uk/p_portfolioInfo.cfm?g=3

RANT- Window Dressing

I didn’t really want to start this blog on a negative but I am quite positively BURSTING to rant about windows. I might sound dramatic but quite frankly it actually makes me want to cry when I see old window frames being replaced with abominations such as these.


When I see those new leaden windows with stained glass, that Annie Lennox song "Why" usually plays along in my head. Why do you replace such lovely windows that the architect would have painstakingly designed with horrendous stained glass – why? You don’t live in a church nor do you live in a house which would have once had leaden windows!
http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=1

REVIEW - The Surreal House

I was filled with a feeling of excited intripedation as I approached the start of The Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican in London. The pitched roofed house with Marcel Duchamp leather clad window shutters were dark and foreboding. Set on two floors, the exhibition is laid out like a house, with bedroom, stairs, bathroom and living room. When dealing with Surrealism, I guess you have to expect the unexpected and this house is not very ordinary. Interiors and Not Very ordinary? A sound like just up STYLE NV’s street, and it certainly was!http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=3

RAVE - All praise to the phenomenon that is IKEA

I thought long and hard about who should be the first to receive a STYLE NV ‘Big Up Blog’ and decided that it really has to be the Daddy, IKEA.


Why? Well firstly, my career as an Interior Stylist started when I was the Editorial Assistant for IKEA Room Magazine, many moons ago. I utterly LOVED my job, all of us on the editorial team did, we lived and breathed Room magazine and I learnt an awful lot about interior styling when I was there. IKEA were great clients, incredibly open minded to our mad crazy ideas (though I do remember the look Kemi’s face when she walked into my shoot with me throwing cans of paint at the furniture)!

IKEA took us to their headquarters in Almhult, Sweden (that’s the A in IKEA). Bit of a strange place in the middle of nowhere, this small village had been taken over by IKEA. http://www.stylenv.co.uk/blogs/blogEntry.cfm?b=2

A Sticky Subject

It's picky, and a titchy annoyance but leaving sticky labels on your plates, bases, glasses whatever and wherever they might be does bother me. Thanks to our lovely HD telly, I see it sticky labels left on everywhere. I even see it on tv in period dramas (set dressers please take note)!!



I confess that I have absent mindedly removed them at friends houses and when I've been styling some of the homes we've photographed (I mention no names), I surruptiously peeled them off. It's a bad habit of mine, which I must try and refrain.


I'm just going say this only once. "Take the bloody labels off!" It looks awful and yes, you lazy lot, it does matter even if it is on the end. The back is as important as the front. It's like the equivilent to wearing a new skirt with the tags left on. You wouldn't do that, would you? Not unless you were trying to follow that ridiculous and thankfully outdated trend of keeping the tags on your baseball cap? (Was it supposed to imply that they'd nicked it or that yhey eanted everyone to know that they were dumb enough to spend so much on a hat)??!


Take the labels off as soon as you get them. It takes a millisecond and If you leave it, the glue will dry and on it will be much harder. If they are particularly stubborn, pour a little bit of lighter fluid (a little stylist tip there) and they will come right off.