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Styling
Oct 15, 2012
chelsea
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Edited Interiors

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There’s a fine line between the over decorated versus the edited interior. I’m not a fan of the exploded look although this can be pulled off in the odd arty interior, but you do need to have layers in your space to create the visual interest needed to engage our senses. When I first started out, a very well known architect said something to me that I’ve never forgotten. It was interior gold! He said “you don’t want a space to reveal itself in one glance, rather, it should reveal itself more slowly”. I also think the most intriguing people are the same, but that’s another story. The more layers the better but here’s the rub, how to edit?

First of all objects & groupings need room to breathe. Pick out the surfaces in your space that need dressing. And then think about each individual space as though it’s an outfit. You’ll need the dress, the shoes & the jewellery. Pick a focal point & work out what needs to be tall, large or small to create an ensemble. Eliminate the colours you don’t want then style with this in mind. Dont be too rigid as often what you source is totally different to what you started out with but your original ideas will  provide a framework which you’ll work back from. Have fun editing!
For the Home, Styling
Jun 15, 2012
Chelsea
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Best Dressed Beds

CHDC How to dress a bed 1 Best Dressed Beds Chelsea Hing Design Consultants

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.

For the Home, Interior Design, Styling
May 7, 2012
Chelsea
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Is Your House Magazine Ready?

Anyone who was worked on a photoshoot before knows that styling a house to be magazine ready requires a huge amount of work. So I thought this post could be an interesting behind the scenes look at what actually goes on to pull together a house ready for the camera. Apart from the obvious cleaning & tidying, we shop or loan a swag of accessories to finish off our spaces. Mostly this is because we all live in a nearly finished interior (if we are lucky). In fact many live in a not quite started yet interior but that’s a whole other topic. So on a recent shoot we gathered the troops & traipsed around some suitable haunts for old vintage looking clocks, interesting bowls, canisters, flowers, candles, objects & even some carved pigs. We organised the book shelves, colour blocking & stacking, turfing the crappy stuff so the good things could breathe, filled the place with flowers and styled every surface down to cutting oranges & arranging herbs in jars. When we finished the clients were so thrilled they thought this must be someone else’s house, theirs didn’t look this good. Tantalized that they could make it theirs they bought the lot. And this got me thinking, if we’ve got all the basics sorted why don’t we know how to finish off our most treasured private spaces to reflect who we are.

Well we lack confidence & we don’t know how. Yes styling takes skill, it’s about artful placement, grouping things that share beautiful colour or tone & choosing objects & things that resonate with you. So go on, get your house in order! Here’s some before & after shots to give you some inspiration.

Here goes before:

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 And after:

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Mourbray St After 1 Is Your House Magazine Ready? Chelsea Hing Design Consultants

Mourbray St After 2 Is Your House Magazine Ready? Chelsea Hing Design Consultants

Mourbray St After 3 Is Your House Magazine Ready? Chelsea Hing Design Consultants

Mourbray Photoshoot Is Your House Magazine Ready? Chelsea Hing Design Consultants