Category Archives: commercial interior design

Wednesday Walls – beautiful Pythagoras wallpaper

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Today on Wednesday Walls we are looking at a brilliant wallpaper which would be perfect for an eclectic interior. The pick was also inspired by a particular scene we witnessed this week whilst at the University of Sussex marking the Product Design 2013 Show…

Wandering along a corridor, we happened to pass through a corridor which formed part of the Physics department. Instead of the desks of people working quietly, there was a scene of a group of students frantically scribbling equations over a wall wide chalk board. Laughing, joking, doing physics. What they were actually doing totally escaped us, but the image of the wall was beautiful.

So when we spotted this aptly named ’Pythagoras‘ Wallpaper over at Rockett St George we knew we had to feature it on Wednesday Walls. A little bit eclectic, a little bit Victorian Steam Punk, it was the closest we would ever get to a wall of physics.

Navigator Collection Pythagoras Wallpaper available in Charcoal, Stone and Taupe

And along with the taupe and stone colourways, it is also available in our favourite shade of charcoal, as pictured above, for only £39 per 10m roll.

A bargain for a nice and unusual wallpaper and much cheaper than having an in house physics professor. A perfect addition to an eclectic interior.

(image via Rockett St George)

weekend colour inspiration – grey and mustard yellow colour scheme

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There are a few pairs of colours that are just perfect together. Dark grey and mustard yellow in a colour scheme is one of those parings - demonstrated beautifully by this image we spotted on Pinterest.

This has to be one of our favourite images at the moment. The dark grey wall has a great depth and almost warmth, making it the perfect foil for the rest of the pieces. Textural interest is brought into the mix with the varieties of timber, in pale to deep and the grey is able to hold all the colours together in a harmonious way.

But the true stars of the shot are the dark grey and the mustard yellow. They are just a perfect pairing.

Highlighted with a little pop of pink and turquoise blues, in essence you have got an almost 50′s inspired colour scheme, but interpreted in a very modern way. The Hare print brings all the colours together and ties each piece neatly into one.

A wonderful eclectic interior design image - and one of our all time favourite colour scheme images featured here on weekend colour inspiration.

Yet another colour scheme that shows just why dark grey is one of our favourite colours.

(image by Armille Habib for Fenton and Fenton Rugs)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – accidental combinations

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Colour is a very personal thing. Colours that I love together, you could absolutely hate. Colour links into the deepest of our memories – just like a scent can transport us to a particular point in our lives, colours can take us back there too.

But sometimes we think just a little too hard about colour – and colour combinations and what ‘goes’ well together. There is a great deal to be said for the accidental and the slight clashing nature of some pairings when you are just not thinking about it. And this can be really exciting.

This image we found illustrates this perfectly – when you look at each of the colours as they sit together, there are a few really odd sections, but overall? The colours sort of blend and work as a whole, because they are all part of a similar palette – in this case, almost autumnal.

This kind of treatment is perfect for a charity shop find, or to rejuvenate a cabinet that has seen better days and is very fitting for the eclectic interior design aesthetic that we tend to work with. If the cabinet is nicely battered too and has lovely cup handles like the example above, then it sort of gets a little industrial too, which is only a good thing in our books.

(image via 16 house)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – vintage book graphic colour schemes

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We have lots of sayings that we like to use in the studio. From ’work hard and be nice to people’ to ‘why fit in when you were born to stand out?’, but my personal favourite has to be a quote from the wonderful Paul Smith.

‘You can find inspiration in everything. And if you can’t, look again’

Which is how I explain our obsession with taking photos of everything. Everything. Things, textures, fonts. Natural or man made. Design, fashion, architecture. Because you never know where your next spurt of inspiration will come from.

And whilst on our recent trip to Amsterdam we filled our phones with lots and lots and lots of stuff - many of which have featured here on the Ecospot in various forms.

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So today we are looking at another three images from the Dutch collection – three books which we spotted in an antique book fair in Amsterdam and just loved. We are suckers for nice colour combinations and nice fonts, so these were real winners and out came the phone…

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Despite their age, the colours were remarkably vibrant and were quite beautiful. The pale blue, greys and whites on the Texel book really appealed to me (lovely grey again…), but the rich oranges, reds and greens were stunning. The juxtaposition between the colours was inspiring and illustrations, well, you could have easily framed them.

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So this week we are not really showcasing a particular colour scheme  but a process – look at everything around you – explore, take photos, cut images from magazines  And not just of a finished design – stuff.

It is that ‘stuff’ that you will look back on one day and discover the germ of a new idea. Because you really can find inspiration in everything. And if you can’t, look again.

(images by claire potter design)

Wednesday Walls – the Flax Lamp

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This week on Wednesday Walls we are featuring a beautiful light we spotted at Hotel Droog whilst on a recent trip to Amsterdam. We are calling this a wall light, but really, it is so much more and could hang just a happily from the centre of the room.

The Flax Lamp by designer Christien Meindertsma is quite simply, a light with a flex contained within the core of a large rope. It looks very utilitarian and industrial. And we loved it.

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What is also lovely about this light is that the flax which makes up the rope is grown, processed and constructed into the rope in the Netherlands itself.

Flax was a very important material for the Dutch in previous years, with the fibres being a real backbone to the native textile industry, but now it is farmed on a smaller scale with the majority of the product being shipped to China.

The Flax Lamp uses a traditional process, a traditional rope maker and traditional material in a way which is relevant to 21st century design and way of living, just like the Godogan Table we featured yesterday.

This reinvention of craft is how we can ensure that skills are not lost, but reinterpreted with modern design.

(image by claire potter design)

weekend colour inspiration – colour using light

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Last week we looked at how colour can be brought into a space with a little caution – with a display that can be easily altered and amended to suit your changing preferences. For this week for weekend colour inspiration we are looking at how you can bring colour into a space using light.

The example we have is quite extreme but shows just how light, and particularly coloured light can affect a space.

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This installation is situated in the original stairway to the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam and is by the light artist Dan Flavin.

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Based on the shapes and colours of Mondrian, the installation brings a very ethereal feel to the otherwise white space.

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And instead of detracting from the architecture, the lighting helps to direct attention to elements of the space which could have otherwise been missed - the perimeter architrave detailing and mouldings for instance.

So when you are planning the use of colour in your own spaces, why not consider using coloured light to direct attention? LED lighting strips are now available in a whole range of set of customisable colours and are very energy efficient. Choose carefully, as it can end up a little too disco, but get the shade and intensity right and it can really add to a space.

And the great thing is that if you fancy a bit of white again, you can just turn it off…

(images by claire potter design)

Wednesday Walls – dark grey Lavaliers wallpaper

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Dark grey has to be one of our favourite colours. In fact, any grey can really add to a scheme and is a much richer type of neutral than the standard whites and creams. Plus the eye can see around 500 shades of grey, which is an even better reason to use lots of it  in our opinion. So, for today’s Wednesday Walls we are looking at a great dark grey wallpaper.

lavaliers dark grey wallpaper

This wallpaper from Little Greene is a great geometric pattern (which, despite being a pattern from 1975 is right on trend for 2013), and the ‘cinder’ colour way has to be our very favourite.

This dark grey wallpaper would create a wonderful statement wherever it was used. Nice and dark and moody, with great movement.

Plus, the wallpaper is printed on paper from responsible sources using non-toxic inks, so is a great sustainable choice too, for a very reasonable £49 per roll.

Contact Little Greene for more information.

(image via Little Greene)

Wednesday Walls – coloured blackboard paint

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Today’s post for Wednesday Walls was inspired by a tweet we received, and subsequently replied to last weekend. The tweet was from the lovely guys at the Brighton Wood Recycling project, asking if we knew anything about coloured blackboard paint. We do, so we replied with a link to a great product.

And so we would share this product today on Wednesday Walls, because Blackboard paint does not need to be black.

Ecos creates a fantastic range of organic paints, which we have always been very impressed by when we have specified them on projects. They are solvent free, odourless and water based and have always been well received by our paint contractors which have used them. One remarked that it was the first time he had completed a job without getting a headache.

What is also great about Ecos Organic Paint is that even the very specialist paints are available in a huge range of colours.

The blackboard paint is one such specialist paint, with the traditional ‘black’ being joined by another 107 colours, so there would definitely be a colour to suit any scheme. Price wise, at £25 or so per litre, it is higher than the ‘standard’ blackboard paint you can purchase in all of the DIY stores, but this is a naturally based product and the colour flexibility ensures that it can be used in a great deal more ways, so is worth the extra pounds.

So, when you think about creating a blackboard, you can think in colour, not just black.

(image via Ecos Organic Paint)

Weekend colour inspiration – Using Emerald Green in interior architecture…

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As well as writing the Ecospot, Claire also is a guest blogger for the Society of British Interior Designers – here is a recent post which looks at how to take the colour of 2013, emerald green into an interior, with a bit of a difference…

January 2013

Recently we looked at the newly announced PANTONE colour of the year for 2013 – Emerald Green: 17-5641. But whilst there is the linkage with precious jewels and riches, there is also a distinct connection with the ideas of regeneration, growth and renewal.

But as a rich shade, it could be a tricky one to pull off in an interior. It is a very dominating tone and could be better used as an accent colour rather than using it envelop a whole space. Dark greys can be used in this way as they act as a moody foil for everything which sits on top, but emerald green? It could look like the mock up of a rainforest.

As a colour, we think emerald green is beautiful, so we have been thinking how it could be integrated into a modern interior in a way which is contemporary and uncluttered. And we have thought of one, slightly different way that designers could incorporate it into interior spaces.

The living wall.

The use of plants within any interior spaces has always been key, with the most balanced of designs using a good mix of large and small scale planting as an integrated element, but the living wall has now truly established itself as a greening tool for inside as well as outside. Many commercial and residential projects have utilised the wonderful textures and air cleaning qualities that come with a true living wall. And the shade? Well, depending on the plants used, we would put this well and truly into the emerald green bracket.

Surely there is no better way that to represent a colour which is all about growth, renewal and resurgence than to actually use living plants within a space?

A living wall is best integrated into a project at the detail design stages, but there are ways to retro fit this truly beautiful element into any space, so long as there is adequate light, power and somewhere for the water (which is recirculated around the system) to be housed. They work wonderfully in living room spaces and can be absolutely magical in bathrooms and wetrooms.

There are many specialist companies who are able to assist designers with the planning, construction and implementation of living walls of all scales and we would urge you to utilise their extensive knowledge. As simple as they look, living walls are complicated and highly engineered beasts, but with planning and thought they may just become your favourite way of creating texture and life in a modern interior. We have used them on a number of projects and both our clients and ourselves have been delighted with the results. The lushness of foliage really cannot be imitated.

And if you choose your plants carefully, your wall will be emerald green, so you’ll be bang on trend for 2013.

(image from living wall specialists Biotecture)

SPOTTED – a beautiful Pop-up shop screen

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The pop-up shop concept was quite a trend for 2012 – and one which we think will become even more entrenched within the retail and promotional spheres for both emerging and existing brands.

Another hint to the adoption of the pop-up concept from the fringes to the mainstream is how different designers are now considering the fixtures and fittings as products in themselves.

There have been a raft of designs appearing, from pop-up point of sale counters, to foldable display options, but this freestanding screen from Australian design studio Old Made Creative is one of the most beautiful we have seen to date.

Australian designer, Old Made Creative, Emerge, pop-up display, temporary screen, temporary displays, recycled materials, 100% recyclable, retail display, eco display, eco pop-up, exhibition display

The ‘Emerge’ screen is made from 100% recycled materials and explores the relationship between horizontal planes and three dimensional forms.  It is also highly customisable and could work just as happily as a office divider or as a pop-up shop retail or exhibition display structure. It even folds flat for transportation.

We really like this screen – it has a beautiful textural quality and it’s adaptability means that it can be used by a variety of end users in a variety of places, not just as a piece of pop-up shop furniture.

We predict we will see a lot more of this type of design as the pop-up shop becomes part of our ever changing exhibition and retail design spectrum.

(image via Inhabitat from Old Made Creative)