Monday
It was an office day today. As glamorous as many people think the interior design business is the reality is a heck of a lot of administration – paperwork, emails, chasing suppliers …. etc. An endless list, and often one of the reasons people employ us is to take it away from them.
Thankfully our office is just a small commute to the end of our North London garden. We built the office in late 2009 when we needed to expand from a home based business.
The office was designed by us and constructed from building materials (not a prebuilt kit). We wanted to use the office all year round so very effective insulation was essential, an important consideration in garden offices that is often overlooked. As we live in a Victorian terraced house everything, including the 5m roof beams, came through the house. That was fun.
Over the years the garden and office have blended seamlessly, we are very lucky to work here – and the huge picture windows bring the garden right inside.
Tuesday
On site today at our project in Regent’s Park. We are having a mini makeover retaining some of the existing fixtures and fittings.
One wall has three doors to the wardrobes, the ensuite bathroom door and some wall space. It was a mixture of wallpaper, one colour on the wardrobes, another colour on the bathroom door.
So we’ve decided to paint one colour on all surfaces, using Little Green Arquerite. it is described as a warm grey shade – but it’s almost purple.
This is a ‘just finished’ pic, cupboard knobs to go on, decorating materials to be cleared away. The colour works really well with the existing wallpaper. This shows how well a feature wall can work.
Wednesday
One of the easiest ways to change the style of your interior is to replace the rug. It can instantly change the look of your room. Changing your soft furnishing around will keep your home looking fresh – we even have clients who have winter rugs and summer rugs.
We have recently added this Louis de Poorterre rug to a project. It works perfectly with the colours of the cabinetry. The distressed style also adds another level of interest to the room.
On our blog this week we featured 5 of our favourite autumn rugs under £500. They range from a simple sheepskin for £95 up to another Louis de Poorterre rug for £500. Have a look, maybe your home needs a new rug to see you through autumn and winter.
Thursday
The antique cupboard knobs arrived for the bedroom at our Regent’s Park project today.
These are for the room we finished decorating on Tuesday – as you can see they will work perfectly with the chandelier in this bedroom. They also include a nice detail on the rose.
Sourcing out of the ordinary products is part of my job. We could easily have gone to the local ironmongers and picked some, probably very nice, knobs. But they wouldn’t have had that detail on the rose. Fortunately the internet makes it easier to source – the antique shops of the world are right there on your screen.
These knobs should be going on later this week and the brass works perfectly with the Little Green Arquerite paint.
Friday
Remember last week when we rediscovered the joys of doing a jigsaw? Well we finally finished one tonight that we’ve had on our dining table at home for a week or so.
Lockdown is more challenging this time around due to shorter days and dark nights. There is only so much Netflix we can all take, and the weather hasn’t been great for getting out. So doing a jigsaw can be fun inside for all the family. This one from Gibson features Piccadilly Circus in London and had 1,000 pieces.
Have a read of last weeks blog post on the joy of rediscovering jigsaws. We now need to decide which one to tackle next, or maybe we’ve got time for a few before lockdown ends.
Working life has changed again as we are back under restrictions but we can thankfully continue to work. Some interior supplier showrooms are open, while some are closed – but thankfully we still have clients to keep us going.
Have a great weekend,
Andrew & Andrew, London Contemporary Interior Design