Category Archives: residential interior design

Wednesday Walls – Dragonfly wallpaper by Barneby Gates

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Even though we have a bit of an affinity with raw edged, industrial interior design, it does not mean that we shun a bit of a feminine touch now and then, So today on Wednesday Walls we are looking at a lovely, delicate wallpaper from a brilliant British duo – the Dragonfly wallpaper from Barneby Gates.

Barneby Gates Dragonfly wallpaper - Apple Green

The soft apple green colourway of this dragonfly wallpaper is beautifully subtle and offsets the overlaid pattern of dragonflies and lily pads fantastically.

All the paper from Barneby Gates is designed and printed in the UK, with the actual manufacturing being completed in one of the few remaining wallpaper printing works in the Midlands, using traditional methods. It is great to see that these ways of manufacture are still being supported by designers in the UK – and to produce ranges of very contemporary papers suitable for modern interiors.

Plus all the paper used is PEFC registered, so not only are they gorgeously stunning, they are also very responsible too – and for £78 per roll they are a great choice to create an awe inspiring, relatively inexpensive interior feature.

Expect to see more of the Barneby Gates range on the Ecospot here soon…

(image via Barneby Gates)

weekend colour inspiration – subtle colour for a child’s room

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We are often asked to update spaces which have been ‘over designed’ for young children and need a serious amount of updating as the child gets older. We contributed to a recent edition of ETC magazine about this very subject. So whilst it is very tempting to have a very themed child’s room, it dates very, very quickly. Princesses and pirates, if used all over everything, can get pretty tired.

So, what would we recommend for children’s spaces so that they do not grow out of them too fast? Be a little restrained with your colour and avoid any themes. This does not mean that designing a child’s space has to be bland and boring.

This image we found on Pinterest is a perfect example of how the restrained look can actually create a beautifully balanced space.

The soft grey and the white provides a relatively neutral base, which allows the colours, which are in the form of the accessories really sing. The string of lights add a playfulness, with the bright orange flex of the bare bulb adding that little bit extra without it getting over the top.

The combinations of pattern also ensures that the space is not too plain, but limiting it to a few colours ensures that it does not get too crowded.

A lovely example of how a child’s room can still be playful but not over the top and themed.

(image via divaani)

SPOTTED – the Exbury Egg – a floating, self sustaining piece of micro architecture

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Alternative offices are far more exciting to work in than the standard desk and partition sort of space (and we would agree as we are currently moving into our new office, which used to be a public WC in Brighton and we are nicknaming Studio Loo). Having an interesting space around you really can boost your creativity and productivity. But offices do not usually get as alternative as the Exbury Egg…

This floating, self sustaining office is a combined project between British design firm SPUD, Perring Architecture + Design (PAD), boat builder Paul Baker, naval architect Stephen Payne, and artist Stephen Turner – with Turner being the lucky person who will inhabit the space for the next 12 months. He will use this time to document the tidal creek and humans own interaction with nature.

Two years in the making, the Exbury Egg now sits atop a tidal section of the River Beaulieu, where it will rise with the tides and rest on the estuary bed when the waters recede.

The cold moulded plywood and local timber create a beautifully organic space which although sparse, feels very cocoon like. 

Exbury Egg, PAD Studio, the SPUD Group, Stephen Turner, floating egg

The space is rather minimal, with a hammock taking up most of the internal space, along with a stove and working area. A wet room style bathroom is also included.

After the 12 month residency the Exbury Egg will become a travelling exhibition – hopefully it will travel close to Brighton so we have the opportunity to visit this beautiful piece of micro architecture.

(images via Inhabitat)

Monday Musings – The Guardian – 5 Small Steps to Going Green

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A very quick post here for Monday Musings, and really a bit of a re-post from elsewhere as last Saturday, we were featured in the Guardian in their ‘Live Green, Live Better’ supplement, talking about a few steps to going green in your interior in different ways.

Andrex: Claire Potter

We are, as you can imagine, really pleased to be included. Plus, I even like the photo, which was taken by the wonderful Trent McMinn.

If you missed the Guardian on Saturday, you can read it online here. 

(image by Trent McMinn via The Guardian)

weekend colour inspiration – a huge pop of colour

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This week on Weekend Colour Inspiration we are looking at one massive pop of colour. Just one colour, but seeing how being brave can make an incredible amount of impact in interior design.

In this instance, the colour is yellow (not our preferred, but hey).

This is an extremely brave wci – taking a strong colour down a whole wall then across onto a structure such as the stairs creates a very intense look to the space.

What is does do, however, is to create a fullness to a scheme that is otherwise very minimal. It provides the richness in the room, without the need for stuff. Just a bike, an industrial light and a bit of decoration in the form of the silver birch panel and the steel stair supports.

And just so the yellow does not appear too solo, it is picked up in the next room – a glimpse into another space which ties it all together.

So – would you – could you –  be this brave with colour?

(image via desire to inspire)

SPOTTED – the chippy plates and mugs from Home Slice Design

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Having been born, raised and still working as a designer in the city of Brighton, the seaside is firmly engrained in my being. I have a distinct fondness for the eternal optimism that comes from eating ice cream on the beach in minus degrees, the seagulls, the sea mist that rolls up the beach from nowhere turning whatever Summer we had to Winter once more and the often faded graphics that adorn the arches of Brighton – and elsewhere around the British coast.

These seaside graphics are often vintage in feel, even if they are relatively new – with blues, reds and whites featuring heavily. Chequered patterns are there too – just like those tablecloths in those gems of seaside cafes that you can still find if you’re lucky.

Ah, yes. The seaside – with all the tack and faded, worn graphics is a place of true Britishness and a constant source of inspiration for designers of all foundations.

But these beautiful plates and mugs by London studio Home Slice Design are just perfect. They are solid versions of the Fish and Chip bags we used to eat from as teenagers, sitting on the beach after a night out in Brighton.

homeslice_chippy_all4_780px

Slightly odd representations of fish, strange phrases, dancing salt and vinegar pots – it is all there. The very distinctive blue of the paper bags is there too, along with the puns that were scrawled along the bags and chippy interiors.

The illustrations are just wonderful and incredibly characterful also. Whoever first thought that fish had lips had a strange view on the aquatic world, but the thick, often red lipped fish is one I particularly remember with a chuckle.

homeslice 2

The mugs also have the same thick lipped fish sitting quite happily on a plate of chips, along with that distinctive chequered cloths.

I know they say that fish and chips always tastes better out of the paper, but I reckon that fish and chips and a cup of strong tea would be perfect with these.

(images via Home Slice Design)

Wednesday Walls – giant vintage styled cotton reel hooks

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There is something very satisfying about finding a new use for something that is otherwise redundant. Something you have squirrelled away for years and suddenly can give a new purpose to. On the flip side, sometimes you know exactly what you are looking for, but just cannot find the pieces and you do not have the patience or indeed, time to hunt them out.

We like to use different reclaimed pieces within our designs, but on occasions we have to utilise newer, handcrafted pieces instead. There is nothing wrong with this at all and it just adds to the interest of the spaces.

But with a love for all things old and with a bit of history, we thought these, new cotton reel hooks from Rockett St George were an excellent way to combine the old with the new in a scheme.

Giant Vintage Style Cotton Reel Coat Hooks - £9.99 Each

Looking like old, oversized cotton reels (which you can sometimes find in flea markets and on eBay), the hooks provide a little bit of reclaimed styled humour to a space.

In both red and blue colourways, the hooks are a great way of adding a bit of character whilst being useful – an essential aspect to any addition in our book.

Perfect for creating a real centrepiece of a particularly wonderful piece of clothing, or for displaying a range of beaded jewellery, or just for hanging your coat in the hallway, these cotton reel hooks are a great product for an industrial or eclectic interior design project. And at £10 or so per hook, they will not break the bank either.

(image via Rockett St George)

SPOTTED – more low tech green walls

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We like green façades on buildings – especially when they are slightly different from the normal, high tech green wall systems. We have looked at a few low tech green façade systems here on the Ecospot, many of which feature naturally planted foliage based climbers and some kind of mesh cladding. These kind of green walls utilise the fact that climbers actually want to climb – provide them with the structure to scramble up and they will do the rest.

The latest building we have spotted to use this low tech green wall system is The Nest by a21 studio in Vietnam – a very simple steel framed building which has lots of opportunity to be colonised by green walls and plants.

There are a series of mesh panels integrated into the building, as well as a series of internal planters which help to continue the green wall theme into the structure. There is a beautiful transparency to the building which is softened by the planting, which will eventually grow to cover the façade completely.

Another simple way of producing a green wall on a building – which could also be utilised as a productive space – kiwis are very prolific climbers and would be perfect to cover a façade very quickly in the warm months…

(images via Inhabitat)

Weekend colour inspiration – playful colour with LEGO

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We are rather restrained when it comes to using colour in our schemes – we tend to err on the less is more option with primary colours not usually featuring a great deal at all.

However, we are the first to admit that this way of thinking can be shaken up a bit by the right application. And so it was when we spotted this fantastic kitchen island unit over at Dwell by designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rossetti.

Pretty much everything in the kitchen is plain and white. So why not give the space a bit of pop with a riot of colour on one element? And why not make that loads and loads of LEGO?

This works as there is not anything else to fight with the LEGO – the coat rack picks up the playful nature and colours and the high stools pick out just one colour from the innovative toy cladding.

That said – that is a lot of LEGO (about 20,000 pieces to be exact), but what a great idea – especially if a family has grown up and out of the building block stage. Actually, we still have LEGO in the studio, so we don’t seen to have got there yet ourselves. Good job our studio kitchen is clad in reclaimed scaffold boards…

(image via Dwell)

SPOTTED – the reclaimed Grandpa Desk by Martin Davis

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The repurposing of furniture is a bit of a studio obsession – when we are faced with a project we tend to turn to the client’s existing pieces to amend, or we start to trawl through our trusted list of local charity shops, second hand stores and flea markets to source reclaimed starting points. Using something old and discarded to create something new and reloved has a lovely poetic nature as well as a solid sustainable foundation. We love to see how other designers use these principles too – and we love the reclaimed Grandpa Desk by furniture designer Martin Davis.

Designer Martin Davis, martin davis, reclaimed wood furniture, reclaimed wood, recycled materials,  Grandpa’s Desk, wood desk, reclaimed wood desk

Like lots of our own reclaimed furniture and product design projects, this piece was conceived after a client asked Davis to reuse two old wardrobes originally built by their Grandpa – reimagining them as a new piece.

The resulting desk is constructed entirely from the old wardrobes, even down to the original screws which have been cast into resin to create the drawer handles.

This is a lovely example of how an old piece of reclaimed furniture can be reinvented for a modern home, but still retain the history and memories which make it special.

So when you are looking to obtain a new piece of furniture, ask yourself – can something you already have be redesigned and repurposed? Or can you rescue an otherwise unloved piece and bring it back to life?

(image via Inhabitat)