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.