Best Dressed Beds
One of the most important things to try & get right is having a comfortable bed that also looks good when you fluff the doona up & throw the pillows back on in one fell swoop as you rush out the door to work. My failsafe way to make your bed look gorgeous with minimal fuss is first to invest in tumbled linen that doesnt need ironing. Don’t worry about having a set of sleeping pillows & a set of dress pillows, buy good quality linen pillow cases that you can sleep on & will look gorgeous too. Try Altamira or Aura by Tracie Ellis for some of my favourites. For king size beds you do have to get king pillows otherwise you have that weird gap in between. Lay these down. On top of that, throw on a pair of 650x650mm European pillows, over the Euros do a pair of 500x500mm pillows in contrasting pattern or texture then finish with a 600×300 connecting pillow in front. For queen beds, standard size pillows are fine & substitute the 500′s for 450′s instead. Make sure you use some colour, texture or pattern that connects them all together. And you’re done.
Top picture from Elle Decor June 2012.
Moody Hues
A few Before & After shots…
It’s been a massive couple of weeks deciding to paint the apartment which involved packing up half the house, moving over the parents place whilst the painters moved in & getting on site at 7am each morning to check on their progress. The decision to ‘go dark’ had been stewing around in my head for a while before we made the leap to get it all done in record time. And so began the search for the perfect colour. And that’s the thing, when it comes to really dark colours, that we don’t work with anywhere near as much as light colours, all the ‘rules’ really do apply. Colour is so strongly affected by light, & specifically the light in your pad, you must, I repeat must paint a big section on your wall & live with it for a few days. This is not for the faint hearted. Being as confident as I normally am with these things I trusted the multiple brush outs I’d done myself & went with the first colour I thought was right. Well it looked really different on the wall. So much so I had a few nervous moments during the week, hoping I could trust myself it would all turn out alright. It was a big risk but without big risk there is no pay off. The colour changes dramatically throughout the day, goes from moody, to brooding, to contemplative. It has taken a few days to adjust but I absolutely love it. I really do. So here’s a few things to look out for;
1. Go for murky colours with a neutral lean towards grey, trust me they will appear much stronger in colour tone than you think
2. Paint a big section or do multiple brush-outs & sit with it to digest how you will feel with the colour
3. Dark coloured walls need strong pops of colour in accessories & lights otherwise it’s drab & lifeless, so you’ll need to add a few new highlights
4. You’ll need to adjust your lighting, I’ve had to add more lamps
5. Use an experienced painter who is confident with the dark colour as this kind of job needs to be in sure hands. I used Hue Painting & Decorating
In the end I went with a Taubmans colour called Sheffield Grey & Frigate in the baby’s room. We used E -Colour zero VOC paint without all the nasties in it, which we had delivered to our door. It was a little more expensive for a 10L can but covers so well you need less than from the standard paint brands. So much so I have paint left over. Anyone? The painters really loved working with it said it went on like a dream. There was a little paint smell but not that much, we moved back in the next day after it was finished & slept happily. So happy with our moody hue. Are you in a daring mood…?