styleroom inredningsdagbok på StyleRoom

Fancy living in a church conversion?

styleroom — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:57:47 GMT

How would you convert and decorate a church if you got the opportunity to live in one? charliel on StyleRoom Australia has done a fantastic job in converting this church built for Church of England in 1892. The church has been designed in a modern style but you can still see tracks of its history, fabulous work - great inspiration!

See more pictures here http://www.stylerooms.com.au/album/17

Classic Swedish style with second hand bargains

styleroom — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:31:20 GMT

Blogger and Stylist Anna Malin is showing us how to mix classic Swedish style with some great bargains from the flea market. I just love her home, it's so simple but still so classic and beautiful!

Anna's home gives through inspiration, thanks for sharing it with us!
http://heltenkelthosmig.blogspot.com/

A mixture of old and new styles

styleroom — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:01:26 GMT

Interior Designer Jimmy Schonning is showing us how to mix old and new styles!
http://www.ahlens.se/common/galleries/download/jimmy_patina/#/vardagsrum

Is this the longest winter ever?

styleroom — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:39:40 GMT

What a dark, cold wet winter we're having...what could be better than some light and colourful homes to cheer us up with!-)

House Gift is back - Lori Hill is sharing her experience with us!

styleroom — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:14:07 GMT

Name: Lori Hill
Occupation: Retired Estate Agent
Where do you live: UK, the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire

Tell us about how you came across taking part in ITV’s new TV show Home Gift?
A friend saw that ITV's House Gift were looking for properties to take part in their new series and gave them our details. They then contacted us to see if we would be interested in taking part!

What is the programme about?
Three celebrity interior designer gurus, in our case - Laurence Lewellyn Bowen, Danielle Proud and Tom Keane have a meet with you to find out your style/taste and have a look around your home. They then have to find you three house gifts for £200, £500 or £1,000 and all you have to do is choose which one is perfect for your home. Their challenge is to find something that fits your home and style; our challenge was to judge how well they’ve succeeded and the designer who bought the gift you choose, wins the day! We also get to keep the gift we chose!

What gifts where offered and which one did you chose and why?
Victorian Lustre Chandelier - Danielle Proud - £500
4 bottles of 1971 Medoc - Chateau Beychevelle (as a display feature!) LLB - £200
A Victorian Spoonback Bedroom Chair & Gilt Framed Mirror - Tom Keane - £1,000

We chose the Chair & Mirror for our bedroom (Photos on 'My Nest' Album), because it really did make a statement in that room even though I would never have been brave enough to buy a mirror of that size and put it on a small wall! The chair was gorgeous and matches my colour scheme perfectly. It was Tom Keane's gift and we were very pleased it happened to be the £1,000 gift!

Did you meet Lawrence Llwellyn-Bowen? Is he as flamboyant and eccentric off camera as he’s on camera?
Absolutely, but lovable and humorous with it and as he lives locally, he was in his element!

Any TV gossip you can share with us?
Not really, except that Laurence is about to appear on a lot more TV!

Describe your style with three words?
Glamorous, French, Classical

What was your latest purchase for your home?
Fully tiled 2 bathrooms. Also many accessories, i.e. Lampshades

What are your favourite shops for your home?
Local shops, French Grey and Forum Design. Also online stores such as Sweetpea & Willow. Stores - John Lewis, Dwell, Laura Ashley

Which celebrity home would you like to visit?
Lots, but I have seen the odd few, having worked for a Cotswold Estate Agent! - However, George Clooney's Lake Como house would be a good one to start with!

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
Decorex mix & misc
Bedrooms
Designer's Albums

Lori's album http://www.styleroom.co.uk/album/169

Roxy is showing us how to mix retro and traditional styles

styleroom — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:00:55 GMT

Thanks Roxy for sharing your home with us!

Here are some more great white kitchens!

styleroom — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:58:01 GMT

I think I'm into white kitchens at the moment! There are so many great ones to chose from - enjoy!

Looking for a white kitchen?

styleroom — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:23:13 GMT

Looking for a white kitchen? Check out these lovely ones shared by our users - love them all and thanks a lot!

StyleRoom

Bedboards, what style would you prefer?

styleroom — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:55:02 GMT

What style would you prefer? Modern bedboards in fabrics or leather, retro or Laura Ashley style? Check out some great examples by our users!

House Gift is back - Stylish homeowners needed!

styleroom — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:09:55 GMT

ITV’s hugely successful daytime show, ‘House Gift’ is returning for a brand new series. We’re looking for stylish homes to take part in this unique interior design challenge…

Our three interior design gurus will find you three fabulous house gifts, and all you have to do is choose which one is perfect for your home. It really is that simple. Their challenge is to find something that fits your home, your challenge is to judge how well they’ve succeeded.

If you’re up for some fun, and you think you’d be great on TV, get in touch. Whether you live in a townhouse or a semi, a loft apartment or a basement flat - we’d love to hear from you. Or why not nominate a friend?

Please call: 09011 986 986, calls cost 10p from a BT landline; calls from other networks may be higher and from mobiles will be considerably more or visit the website: www.itv.com/beontv or e-mail us your name and daytime contact number to: housegift@itv.com

We may not respond to all applications. Deadline for applications is 12 noon on 29th November 2009. Applicants must be 18 or over and a permanent UK resident. Submissions made after the closing time will not be considered but may still be charged. We will only be considering applications from those who live inside the M25.
Terms and conditions can be found at itv.com/terms

Decorex International 09

styleroom — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:57:07 GMT

StyleRoom visited Decorex International 09 exhibition in London on 29th September, the interior design trade show, attracting interiors professionals and serious trade buyers.

What an amazing show with lots of inspiration and trend reports! Beautiful furniture pieces, cool lightnings and gorgeous accessories! Purple, velvet and lace seems to be the trend for fabrics and wallpaper covers this season!

Have you ever been star struck? Well then you know how I felt meeting Nina Campbell, the world-renowned interior designer. She's known for her beautiful interiors, as well as for her collections of fabrics, wallpapers, accessories, carpets and home fragrance. Luxury, practicality and a sense of wit remain paramount in all of Nina's sought-after collections.

StyleRoom was lucky to meet this lovely lady at her stand and I couldn't help myself from approaching her and even asking for a picture; yes I know, very tacky but I was thinking of you users so I could share this moment with you!:-)

There were lots of other more and less wellknown interior designers and exhibitors. StyleRoom took some pictures of some of the traders to give you some inspiration:

A link to Decorex 09 - Bespoke bathrooms an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Nina Campbell an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Loves Spain fabrics an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Lace cotton fabrics an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Patchwork furniture an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Colourful curshions an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Beautiful fabrics an album
A link to Decorex 09 - Mix an album

Enjoy!

StyleRoom

Interview with Regan Murray on taking part in ITV's new TV home show

styleroom — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:51:01 GMT

Name: Regan Murray
Occupation: Advertising Consultant
Where do you live: UK

Tell us about how you came across taking part in ITV’s new TV show Home Gift?
ITV had spotted the pictures of our flat on StyleRoom and posted up a request to feature us in a new show.

What is the programme about?
Three industry experts are pitched against each other to buy the perfect ‘house gift’ for the homeowner based on their perception of their taste and style. They all have different budgets ranging from £80 - £1000 to test their abilities further!

What gifts where offered and which one did you chose and why?
We had three fab gifts presented to us, a painting on canvas, art deco style console table and starburst mirror and some very bold wallpaper on one wall of our living room.

During the interview process for the show both Alex and I were very keen to choose something with a ‘WOW’ factor, something we would never choose for ourselves and for us this was really the console table and mirror.

Did you meet Lawrence Llwellyn-Bowen? Is he as flamboyant and eccentric off camera as he’s on camera?
He is exactly the same off camera as one camera – very charming and has no regard for rules and authority, he does exactly as he pleases!

Describe your style with three words?
Classic, cosy, chic

What was your latest purchase for your home?
We haven’t bought anything since the show but have our eye on some really fab pictures from RevelLoyd – and so might have a wander down during the bank holiday.

What are your favourite shops for your home?
RevelLloyd and Heals are probably the two staples for us.

Which celebrity home would you like to visit?
I wouldn’t mind having a look at LLB’s and see if he has the same wallpaper as us ?

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
I like the ones which have a good use of space as I love cosy environments and so ‘Small but nice’ and ‘Our Little Bathroom’ are really cute.

Interview with Sarah Prince on taking part in ITV's new TV home show

styleroom — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:10:34 GMT

Name: Sarah Prince
Occupation: Account Manager
Where do you live: UK

Tell us about how you came across taking part in ITV’s new TV show Home Gift?
The production team on the program saw our album on StyleRoom and contacted us to see if we would be interested in taking part

What is the programme about?
3 interior “celebs” come to your house and take a nose around. They then get a budget to buy you a gift – having not met you! You then return to see the gifts in situ and choose your favourite – without knowing who it is from or the price!

What gifts where offered and which one did you chose and why?
Cusions & throw
Chinese wall hanging
Curtains

We chose the curtains as they really fitted in with our lounge & added some colour to an otherwise very neutral room. Loved the raw silk and detail on them. Probably would not have chosen them but seeing them in our lounge – they just work. Also cushions/throw were vile so really down to choice of 2

Did you meet Lawrence Llwellyn-Bowen? Is he as flamboyant and eccentric off camera as he’s on camera?
Yes yes yes! Although he does or course play it up for the cameras. He was lovely as such good fun. He does not take himself to serious and it was hard to keep a straight face some of the time

Any TV gossip you can tell us about?
No – other than my secret little crush on Lawrence!

Describe your style with three words?
Modern, Ecletic, uncluttered

What was your latest purchase for your home?
Cream leather sofa

What are your favourite shops for your home?
Antique shops in Hampton court, Zara Home has some lovely bits, Maison on Richmond Hill

Which celebrity home would you like to visit?
Kevin Spacey oooh & Brad Pitt- if I could stay for tea!

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
The childrens bedroom – so simply yet bright

Interview with Chez Larsson

styleroom — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:07:49 GMT

Name: Benita Larsson
Occupation: Blogger and Visual Merchandiser
Blog: http://chezlarsson.typepad.com/
Where do you live: Sweden

Are you currently undergoing any renovation project?
We need to repaint one wall of the outside panels. The outside lock needs changing as well.

What was your latest purchase for your home?
Some amazing green wallpaper for the sliding doors to our wardrobe next to the bedroom.

Describe your style with three words
White, colourful and comfortable.

What are your favourite shops?
www.etsy.com and ebay but it tends to get too expensive with deliveries from abroad. My favourite shops in London are Habitat, Paperchase, Muji, The White Company, Labour & Wait and Cath Kidston.

Which celebrity home would you like to visit?
Martha Stewart. I love what Martha is doing and I’ve got every single issue of Martha Stewart Living since it started in 1990! I would love to visit her home to see if it actually looks like it does in the pictures. People always ask me if our home is as tidy as it looks in our photos (and it is) so it would be interesting to know how it looks like when the photographer isn’t there?

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
I have just joined so not yet

Cat wins £50 of Habitat vouchers!

styleroom — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:29:14 GMT

July winner: Cat and her lovely home!

She loves Kirstie Allsop's style and prefer a mixture of contemporary and country style shabby chic!

Congratulations!

See her album here

Interview with Di Overton at Designers block

styleroom — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:27:53 GMT

Name: Di Overton
Occupation: Blogger and shop owner to Ghost furniture
Where do you live: UK
Blog: Designers block
Website: Ghost furniture

What do you think will be the autumn trends this year?
Oh we started with the wrong question here. I have an aversion to trends in homewares. Your home should be a reflection of you and not a reflection of the latest trends. Can you imagine eating something you didn't like just because it was trendy? It is far too expensive to follow trends in the home.

Anything you will be buying for this season?
Believe it or not it will be Goose Down Pillows for our beds. I am in desperate need of replacing all the Goose Down Pillows I have had for years. Sounds boring but they are delicious to place your head on.

Are you currently undergoing any renovation project?
We have just finished adding a huge 2 storey extension to our 300 or 400 year old cottage (we are not sure of it's exact age). We lived in a building site for a year so the word renovation is forbidden in this house.

What was your latest purchase for your home?
A fabulous lattice work spiral staircase which we have painted in a stone colour. The light from a window on our roof spills down it and casts lace shadows on the wooden floor.

Describe your style with three words?
Eclectic, Bohemian and daring

Apart from your own shop Ghost Furniture what are your favourite shops?
Merci in Paris, Cabbages and Roses and Egg in London, Liscious in Oxford and any Giorgio Armani shop I come across.

How do you source all your vintage furniture on Ghost? Do you create any of the furniture yourselves?
All items are sourced in France and the UK at Flea Markets, brocantes, car boot fairs, we have been known to climb into skips and trudge the streets of Paris on the evenings people put out stuff they don't want. All our paints are bought in France purely because they are much better than British paints and so are their paint brushes.

I suppose we create everything because nothing stays the way it was when we found it but we never sell other peoples designs.

What’s the key of mixing French chic styled furniture with the modern look as of today? What advice would you give to someone who wanted to add a bit of “shabby chic” into their contemporary home?
Just don't be afraid of mixing old with new. So long as the colours don't jar then it's OK. My kitchen has a tree from the forest holding up a breakfast bar made from a slice of Padouk (a very hard African wood) that has 3 Bombo Stools at it. I have a Ghost kitchen which is totally off the wall but I have a Porsche kettle and a Dualit toaster.

If you want to add shabby chic then go out and find something that is already shabby. I hate fake shabby chic. The whole point of it is that it has a story to tell. The only story fake pieces have is – someone bought me, painted me then scraped some of my paint off.

Which TV home interior programme do you like most?
It used to be Grand Designs but of late I have found that these programmes are becoming formulaic. Before the commercial break we have to be left in suspense to make sure we come back. It would be refreshing to watch a programme that had the confidence to hold our attention by just being brilliant.

Do you think Englishmen are good in decorating their homes?
If you mean males then I suppose it depends on their backgrounds, some of the best homes I have seen have been decorated by men, just take Ralph Lauren. If you mean the English then I would have to say that we are not very adventurous on the whole. We have terrible light in this country so we tend not to be able to use those bold colours that hot countries can. Our skies are usually grey and don't make bright colours sing. There seems to be a trend to bring the outside in at the moment. I love the idea but we just don't have the right weather. Maybe the English would be more adventurous if the sun shone more.

Which celebrity home would you like to visit?
I would love to visit Billy Connelly's home but only if he was there. This comes back to my first answer - Your home should be a reflection of you and not a reflection of the latest trends. I would hope that his home is as funny and extrovert as he is.

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
I love the Basic French House. It shows the personality of the person who owns it.

Apart from being an expert on interior design and decoration, have you got any other hidden talents?
Well I used to be a knitwear designer back in the 1980s and I make a mean gravy.

Interview with Julia Palmer

styleroom — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:19:25 GMT

Name: Julia Palmer
Occupation: Freelance Interior designer and decorator
Website: www.jpdinteriors.com
Album on StyleRoom: http://www.styleroom.co.uk/users/juliapalmer

Julia has recently graduated from KLC Interior Design School in London and just finished her first professional project assignment in Mallorca!

She had four months to complete the assignment to turn the Seagull Villa designed by Alberto Rubio, a renowned South American architect known for his “bird houses” on the island into a contemporary family home.

Tell us briefly what the assignment was?
To redesign the dramatic but tired house. The house was a bland array of beige and brilliant white making the space ungrounded, therefore everything floated. It had a cold feeling and felt like an art gallery with no art!

Are you pleased with the results? Any room in particular?
Very pleased. The impact was more dramatic and even better than I had envisaged. Best room: Each one is unique and I like them all.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project?
Balancing the space. Using key pieces of furniture and the placement of objects defined the space.

Where does your inspiration and ideas come from?
The outside view of the mediterranean. The ever changing colours and textures of the sea and mountains allowed me to identify colours that reflected the atmosphere of the Mediterranean in a contemporary fresh elegant manner.

Which new designs are getting you excited at the moment?
It’s great to see colour coming back in the home. The over neutral scheme is now being enhanced with the soft hues of bright colours mixed with textures give a more elegant look to a space.

Can you comment what you see in trends like colours, styles etc?
Metallics are great. Berry shades mixed with natural weaves such as linen can create a luxury feel to a plain texture. Subtle mettalics were used in the Seagull Villa as they reflected the shimmer of the sea.

What would be your recommendation for “what to do first” in a decoration project?
Stand in the space and reflect on what you want to achieve. Before spending any money, think about how the space will be used and the atmosphere you wish to create. The position of the light is very important in the selection of colours as they will change the feeling of the space, cool, warm etc.

What would you say is the common decoration mistakes made by home owners? What’s your advice to correct those mistakes?
Empty walls. These not only define the areas, but a lot of people forget how they can be utilised with placement of light, artwork, glass. Large expanses of plain walls make a space feel lost and the furniture has no backdrop.

What advice do you have for someone with a home to decorate and perhaps a limited budget?
Look at what you have. Decide which items you like and think about how these can be used in different rooms than you had previously used. i.e side tables can become bedsides, mirrors can be placed elsewhere. Photos, choose your favorites and frame them in a group.

Choose a good neutral paint which can be used in all areas to keep the cost down, and bring colour in textures, window treatments and accessories, this way you can build it over time, once the major decorating work has been completed.

Above all, creativity is free and once you have a grounded space you don’t need a huge amount to make it comfortable, practical and contemporary.

Have you got any favourite albums on StyleRoom?
I love the way people have a space where they can share ideas and show their achievements. One that has caught my eye is the rented property in Oxford. The property is so light which is a great start. The way the white walls are accented with colours by plants and accessories define the space and gives life to the space. Renting does not mean you can’t show your style and that’s one of the things I like about this property.

What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?

Being near the sea with friends and family. When in Mallorca I love to go running in the Tramuntana mountains -seeing and feeling the beauty of the island inspires me.