Live Breathe Decor

First of all I want to say in follow up to yesterday’s post on the horrific shooting in America last week, Thank You to all of you who emailed me with your own expressions of outrage and grief. We are all devastated by this event and your heartfelt messages encouraging an appreciation of the goodness in people all around us and a focus on enjoying the time we have with our loved ones were truly beautiful.

It’s now officially the beginning of the Christmas holidays, and I’m so happy to have the kids at home! They get so tired at the end of the term and I think we are all looking forward to some quiet time together at home. I’m hoping to have the time over the break to do some much-needed updating of my blog, and to organise some more photography of my projects for my new website. I am aware that this blog is woefully in need of some improvement so please bear with me!

In the spirit of a fresh start for the New Year I’ve been cleaning up my desktop and looking back over jobs from this year. For one living room project my clients came to me with a bare room with only a pale modular sofa and a tv on an entertainment unit. They wanted colour, softness, an eclectic, international feel and colours that would please two small daughters. We needed a great rug as a starting off point, and ultimately purchased the soft wool beauty above.

But it took a little bit of searching to land here. The clients had liked the patchwork rug in Josh and Jenna’s house on tv show The Block:

I went to look at this rug but although the colours were nice, they were very muted and not quite right. There are a lot of ‘over dyed’ rugs - where vintage rugs are cut up and sewn together as a patchwork then the whole thing is dyed again - out there, and I looked at several options.

At the end of the day, we dismissed them because they were just too thin and rough to be used as a comfortable playing surface. What we needed was a plush cut pile wool or something similar that was thick and soft. I also wanted to find some great colour. The next find was plush and had the colour, but I thought it was a little subtle for what we were looking for:

And then there was this- cute pattern than reminded me of bird footprints, but too much black for a little girls’ play area:

This blue runner didn’t fit the brief but I would have loved it for me!

Then came a great harlequin pattern, but again too much black and not ‘young’ enough:

But then, the perfect rug:

Great ‘happy’ colours including lots of pink and purple, soft and thick and gorgeous pattern. Love it!

So the rug was a done deal but we still needed to cater to the man in the family and also provide a bit of that eclectic contrast in styles that the clients were looking for. A masculine leather armchair was the perfect fit.

We also included some Moroccan leather pouffes for fun and for seating for the girls, pulling colours from the rug.

This silver side table provides a hint of shiny texture and a break from all the colour.

And then, my favourite part, accessories!

And lastly, a basket for toys. We also needed a bit of black as a visual weight in a room with so much feminine colour. This one came from Freedom:

Have a great weekend All and may the force be with you if you plan to hit the shops!

Naomi x