Loving...H&G October issue & Katherine Rally Textiles x

Australian House & Garden, October 2010 issue

Loving  few things at the moment, especially the rush of October interior mags that have landed in my mail box over the past few weeks...In particular I love Australian House & Garden's October 2010 issue cover of a transformed narrow Melbourne cottage into a bright, sub-tropical oasis, featuring a pergola made from salvaged black butt, set upon a deck of yellow stringy bark, the lush black clumping bamboo provides another colourful addition to the outdoor space as does the gorgeous cushions from the Katherine Rally collection!

Congratulations to Katherine & Rally Dupps for this fabulous exposure! Who are also lovely Palatial Living friends & fans! I have so many more ideas and things to share with you I may be on a blog-rush, shortly after my mag-rush intergestion! Enjoy. S x

Australian House & Garden, October 2010 cover

Katherine Rally Textiles. Pondicherry in Tangerine
- Cotton/Linen. Available in 18" x 18", 18" x 30" and 24" x 24"
(pillow covers do not include inserts).



Katherine Rally Textiles. Stripes in Tangerine- Cotton/Linen
Available in 18" x 18", 18" x 30" and 24" x 24"
(pillow covers do not include inserts)



Katherine Rally Textiles. Pondicherry in
Pink Coral - Cotton/Linen. Available in 18" x 18", 18" x 30" and 24" x 24"
(pillow covers do not include inserts).

Images via Katherine Rally Textiles & Australian House & Garden. Styling - Judy Ostergaard | Photography - Derek Swalwell. Australian House & Garden October 2010 issue is on sale now!

For more of Katherine Rally Textiles please visit their website HERE, or if your in Sydney,Australia - you can purchase their fabulous pieces from My Island Home, Double Bay.



Living Stones...and other surprising pieces.

[Above]Stephanie Marin's - Samrin Design - 'Living Stones'& 'MobileSahdows'
[Above] Living Stones - surprisingly soft, light, warm & comfortable!
Click on images to enlarge

[Above] Living Stones - Outdoor 1

[Above] Living Stones - Outdoor 2
Click on images to enlarge

[Above] 'Living Stones' with 'Living Islands'

[Above] Coloured 'Living Stones'
Click on images to enlarge

[Above] Lit'RainDrops '& 'MobileShadows'

[Above] 'RainDrops' & 'MobileShadows'
Click on images to enlarge

[Above] 'RainDrops'

[Above] 'MobileShadows'

Click on images to enlarge

I've lucky enough to be trailing through some new WGSN reports, for Interiors 2010/11 forecasts, and came across these amazing 'stone cushions' from talented French designer, Stephanie Marin, her design company 'Smarin Design' Living Stones. I love the oxymoron that these words 'Living Stones' and what this product presents - not only does it look like a stone - but your senses are then wonderfully tricked - you also think it must be hard, cold, heavy and uncomfortable - but as a visual illusion and visual textural created - [with the materials employed] they are in fact incredibly soft, warm handle, light weight and super comfortable! Surprise! These cushions designed by Stéphanie Marin of Smarin Design, have a primitive and yet very modern feel. The unexpected use of material and subject matter creates a unique functional, yet reassuringly warm product.

Smarin's other [products] pieces are no less surprising or illusion-ary [challenging] - with their 'Rain Drops' seating that also appear as beautiful sculptural pieces, and their 'MobileShadow' lighting that seems to drift through the air above despite it's size and occupation of the space around and above you...

What superbly wonderful pieces for installation in commerical spaces - hotel foyers, poolside retreats & spas, contemporary restaurants, and residential gallery inspired living spaces. Not to mention many more - I suppose you could say placement of these pieces - your imagination is your limitation! Enjoy.

Fro more info on Samrin Design visit this Link. Images from Living Stones .

The Power Of Turquoise...

Various shades of Turquoise & Teal, with hues of White & Natural Straw make for a contemporary, fun space.

Wallcoverings from 'York' - If you have enough pattern in a room, add texture and shimmer with glass bead encrusted or crystal embedded papers like those from York

Paint the room a bold, fresh yet calming colour!

Rooms to inspire - using the 'colour of the year' as confirmed by 'colour authority body' Pantone, here are some great ways to bring Turquoise (15-5519) through your interiors. Turquoise is great hue to do this as it's colour meaning is about - Love, healing, generosity, emotion, feeling , the unconscious , intuition, individual responsibility .creativity , communication, self reliance , independence. This color has more to do with feeling and creative expression than with rational thought. A mix of blue and green, turquoise has a sweet feminine feel while the darker teal shades add lively sophistication.... Enjoy!

Images from Elle Decor

Graphic Cushions - Old MacDonald's Farm

I love these graphic - printed cushions, a series called 'Old MacDonald' By Bumble Belly Designs through Etsy store. The story behind the designs - the the maker tells us that these designs were inspired by her daughter's stories & songs from 'Old MacDonald's Farm'.

Simple inspiration turns to fabulous product idea!

[Current] Additions to the Palatial Library

Furniture: A Concise History (World of Art) / Edward Lucie-Smith

‘Rich in information . . . sharp in perception’

– The Times Educational Supplement

In this illuminating history, text and illustrations combine to offer a view of furniture not as a succession of collectors’ pieces, but as a statement about the society that created it. Edward Lucie-Smith offers insights into almost every period, from the prehistoric to the postmodern – from Neolithic tables to 1960s conversation pits, and from the ceremonial chairs of Egypt in the thirteenth century BC to the designs of John Makepeace.

http://www.thameshudson.com/en/1/9780500201725.mxs?d2322ebbd2b7131596701df1bb090354&0&0&0

Interior Design of the 20th Century (World of Art) Thames & Hudson / Anne Massey

'Notes a range of important issues for the history of interior design in the 20th century'
- Journal of Design History

Every style of interior design is charted in this concise, wide-ranging and indispensable critical survey, from the nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement to the present day – including discussions about Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, the Modern Movement and Art Deco through to Hi-Tech and green design. Interior design in the twentieth century saw many changes in direction, all documented and discussed here, with the emergence of professional ‘interior decoration’ and its evolution into interior design. Interiors, domestic and other, are explored and placed within their social, political, economic and cultural context. This revised, expanded and updated edition illustrates recent examples and is brought right up to date with discussions about green design, the unprecedented boom in DIY and the effect of new technology both on the home and the work place.

http://www.thameshudson.com/en/1/9780500203460.mxs?d2322ebbd2b7131596701df1bb090354&0&0&0

[Current] Favourite Books

With a fetish for not only shoes and accessories and almost anything that goes with the words 'interior', 'fabric', 'furniture' and the garden - it would be my affair with books! I often find myself purchasing books online frequently adding to my collection of art, interior, garden and reference books. So without adieu it is with much thanks to Anna, of Black + Spiro fame, and her truly lovely blog site, Absolutely Beautiful Things, (which further inspired me to create my blog - more on that later) for her recent blog on Charlotte Moss, and her new book A Flair for Living.
Thank you Anna for getting me onto this book - I have arranged to order it with my U.S friends, I just adore Charlotte's eclectic lux style, her dedication to her namesake brand, and her attention to detail is remarkable.

Eco Fires - Environmentally Friendly & Style Savvy

These eco fires are so exicitng for those who want the warmth and look of a fire but without the environmental cost of wood/logs and smoke, and for those who don't have an external wall to fit a flue.

Perfect for townhouses and apartments.

It is this product that we are looking at putting into a recessed area in our home - but does not have an external wall! How exciting... I find that looking at a fire is as mesmerising as watching the ocean... a view that is not alway attainable, but this eco fire is.

The 'Igloo' Eco Fire.

The Eco Fire is flue less and does not require any installation or utility connection for fuel supply, which makes it ideal for just about any architectural environment. Fuelled by a renewable modern energy (Denatured Ethanol), it burns clean and is virtually maintenance free.

Stockists of Eco fires can be found around Sydney at home interior stores.

For more information on eco fires http://www.ecogreenfire.com/
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/02/19/environmentally-friendly-fireplaces/

Mad About Eames

Eames Wire Mesh Chairs - advertisement

This particular advertisement for the Eames Wire Mesh chairs has an almost 'Hitchcock' air about it - not sure if it the lone bird, or the post-modernist grpahic appeal, almost 'Charade' 1963 - Audrey Hepburn & Cary Grant.

Sofa Hang Tag - Eames for Herman Miller
I have such a pengent for post-modern advertising and printed product info such as this image of a sofa hang tag for a Eames (for Herman Miller) sofa lounge.

Eames Rocking Chair

Eames Alumiunium Chairs 1958

I love these chairs I am looking at getting 2 replicas for our newly design open office/ media area. Not only are they comfortable but after 50 years the purity of the design remains ever so contemporary.

Eames Lounge Chair 1956

There's a fantastic upholsterer and furniture seller in Sydney, located in inner-city suburb Glebe, that always seems to have this Eames lounge chair and ottoman in their window I pass it almost everyday and always have to make sure I keep my eyes on the road - Not sure if it's the owners and they show it off to get people's attention or unbeknown to me it hasn't found a home yet! Ahgast!

For more info www.eamesoffice.com and http://eamesoffice.com/index2.php?mod=furniture

Bio on the legendary Product Designer / Artist - Charles Eames
Charles Ormond Eames, Jr was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. By the time he was 14 years old, while attending high school, Charles worked at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer, where he learned about engineering, drawing, and architecture (and also first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect).
Charles briefly studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architectural scholarship. He proposed studying Frank Lloyd Wright to his professors, and when he would not cease his interest in modern architects, he was dismissed from the university. In the report describing why he was dismissed from the university, a professor wrote the comment "His views were too modern." While at Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia.
After he left school and was married, Charles began his own architectural practice, with partners Charles Gray and later Walter Pauley.
One great influence on him was the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, he moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. One of the requirements of the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, at the time Eames applied, was for the student to have decided upon his project and gathered as much pertinent information in advance – Eames' interest was in the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition.[1] Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including, beside chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the U.S. Navy during World War II.[2]
In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Ray Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. He then moved with her to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for the rest of their lives. In the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine's "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and hand-constructed within a matter of days entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

Source - see wikipedia.com

Tablescapes - Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie - originating late 19th century Pan-Asia style
Chinoiserie - 1.a style of ornamentation current chiefly in the 18th century in Europe, characterized by intricate patterns and an extensive use of motifs identified as Chinese. 2.an object decorated in this style or an example of this style: The clock was an interesting chinoiserie. [Origin: 1880–85; <>Chinese + -erie -ery]

de Gournay's - Chinoiserie Chelsea on custom yellow background wallpaper;

email at info@degournay.com

de Gournay's - Chinoiserie wall covering & tablescape

Verandah Home & Garden Living Solutions - Tablescape; Wall painted in Jervis Bay Blue, British Paints; Tall conical blue & white vase from Shanghai; Blue & white bowl with lid from Kelantung Malaysia; Bohemia Crystal Rib Vase with Cymbidium orchid; Oblong Frosted Lamp, Ikea.
http://www.verandahhomeliving.biz/