Tiny Miracles

• • Interiors, Products • No Comment

Aaaah … Between Nat taking some rightly deserved time off on maternity leave, my crazy day job and being smack bang in the middle of our attic renovations, things have slipped through a little. Today I found a postcard that I picked up at the Amsterdam Woonbeurs (interiors fair) at the beginning of October about something more than just a little bit wonderful and it would be remiss of me not to tell you about it.

20131117-182553.jpg
Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop opened his workshop last year in one of Mumbai’s poorest areas. In conjunction with his cousin’s Tiny Miracles Foundation he teaches skills that he hopes will allow the community to increase its standard of life. Awesome.

Right now 3 items are in production, the Paper Vase Cover (which transforms any bottle into a vase – great gift idea I think!), the Matka Vase (made from furniture industry leather scraps) and the Leather Lampshade (prrrrr). Go check them out and get some feel good factor with your designery buy!

Baby Stuff Explosion

• • Interiors • 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I entered the last trimester…

I’ve been doing apartment diet long enough that I can (mostly) reduce my need for too much unnecessary stuff. But then you fall pregnant and your head shifts to providing for someone else and you get these lists of things you ‘need’ and suddenly – ARGH!

I’ve been pretty restrained so far but even so at birth this 3+kg bebe will already have:

  • a dresser / change table
  • half a closet (still empty but housing a lot of the stuff below)
  • a bouncer
  • a pram
  • a crib
  • a night light
  • a mini crib/bassinet
  • a baby bath and towels
  • swaddles & blankets
  • a mobile
  • toys
  • books
  • cute clothing

Admittedly, I’ve convinced myself that I’m being restrained because I haven’t actually bought all of these things, I’ve accepted them on loan and as gifts from friends and family, but even so!

But still, he’s going to be teeny, and he already owns all this stuff.

So, how did you all cope with the baby stuff explosion? And what strategies do you have for keeping it at bay?

 

* A little update as Nat wrote this a while ago – she is now the mother of a very cute little fellow – congratulations darling Nat! Tipxo

Mini Trend – Raw/Unfinished Wood

• • Bedroom, DIY, Interiors, Trends, Workspaces • 2 Comments

I’ve been noticing a lot of raw/unfinished or any other kind of wood popping up in the interiorsphere lately so thought I’d do a little roundup of ideas – because we all love a roundup, don’t we?

Some inspiration from the Amsterdam Woonbeurs earlier this month:

woonbeurs 101woonideeen woonbeurs barn 2

woonbeurs barn woonbeurs barn 3

You could try your hand at a plywood DIY (a desk or pegboard shelving perhaps):

Desk DIY peg board

Do your whole room like this small space storage awesomeness:

wooden bedroom storage darker

Or just bring in a few accessories here and there:

wood block side table raw wood accessories

Are you going to jump on this raw wood trend too? If so, let us know how (send us a pic – we’d love to see it!).

Colour Trends & Forecast 2014

• • Trends • No Comment

There’s a nice rainbow of colours coming into 2014.

Except it’s nothing crazy new.

We’ve been seeing the pastels for ages, yellow has stayed, so has mint & mustard and the muted pink has been around since 2012 (expressing itself in a lot of pink chairs this year like here!)

…I guess we can expect to see more oranges, reds and purples coming into 2014.

What do you think?

pastels Leif

elle colour forecast 2014pantone-spring-trends-2014

1 tx / 2 / 3