Design Inspiration. Planet Stencil Library.

Spring has Sprung?

Here I sit at my computer, staring out the window at the rain and intermittent snow (yes, snow!) falling and wondering when, oh when is spring finally going to arrive.  Well, it has in London.  Inside Liberty's.  At the RE concession.

Honestly, it is extraordinary.  You can hardly even see a bud on the trees to tell us that they will soon be in leaf.  As yet, no blossom had yet to make an appearance.  If you look at our post from March 30th last year, you will see photos of the magnolia, cherry blossom and winter jasmine all out and in full bloom and bees buzzing about their business.  So far this year, nothing has appeared.  Blossom, leaf and bee is quite sensibly staying in hibernation for now.  I don't blame them. However, the good folk of RE in Corbridge who have a concession in the fab department store Liberty's on Regent Street in London have put together a spring display to remind us that spring will eventually arrive.  They used our TP15 Leaves stencil in two different sizes, stencilled in bright greens on old pages of the Gardener's Chronicle paper from the 30's and 40's.  These in turn were tacked onto the wall behind various garden themed wares. 

 

What a fun idea.  And it is temporary.  Once could do something similar at home for a pop-up decorating scheme.  I quite like that idea.  If you fancy a short lived change for your decor whether it is for a party or event or simply to put a different spin on something for a short period of time, stencil some interesting paper with your chosen design and tack it to your wall using something temporary that won't mark the surface.

Rachel

The Woman Cave

What do you do with a very small room 7 feet x 9 feet?  You turn it into a dressing room (as I call it) or woman cave (as my partner calls it).

We had a spell of calling it the lady cave until my sister politely pointed out that it sounded like I was referring to some part of female anatomy which when saying something like, "I should be tidying the lady cave", doesn't quite sound like it ought to, hilarious as it was, so we've since reverted to calling it the 'dressing room' in polite society. 

Never have I seen my boyfriend more enthusiastic or quick to put a room together.  I was basking the the glow of how caring and thoughtful he was to work on this space with such fervour, zeal and single mindedness, until I realised in reality that he probably wanted a space to put me and my stuff.  And the sooner, the better.  I couldn't blame him in the slightest for thinking that.  This way he is not tripping over yet another 1930's dressing gown or dress.  I can be in there with the laptop happily ebaying away and not go near his (he calls it "ours", but in reality it is his) 27" screen iMac.  And even better (for him) he has more control over the TV remote and TV viewing schedule.  Mmmmm, methinks there might have been a plot afoot....but I digress.  Regardless of the motivation behind it, it is a really lovely space and I am a very lucky girl.  Essentially it is storage for my things, but storage can look decorative.

Most houses in Britain have what is known as a box room (a reference to a small room historically used for storing boxes and travelling trunks).  Although this is no longer the case, the small room can be used as a nursery, child's room, small bedroom, home office or storage space.  But even as a bedroom, it can only take a single bed and minimal furniture as you can see in the "before" photo when the previous owners had the house: 

We have a full sized spare bedroom so felt that we could sacrifice this room to other purposes.  

It was quite a quick decorating job.  The room was covered in woodchip wallpaper which came off very easily (in comparison to the rest of the house) because it hadn't adhered particularly well to the wallpaper underneath. 

We left the old wallpaper intact as it was smooth and secure enough to just paint straight onto.  The plasterers only had to smooth skim the textured ceiling. 

We decided to put a shelf up around the entire room just above the door and window because it is dead space up there otherwise.  That shelf is only 30cm wide so doesn't make it feel like you've lowered the whole ceiling.

This is where I can store my bags and hats.  My partner painted the ceiling, shelves and woodwork in Crown Paint's Millionaire metallic gold.  I wanted an old rose pink for the walls and chose Dulux's Pink Nevada.  A friend had given me an old swirly carpet from her 1930's house which I had used on the floor in my living room at Stocksfield Hall.  When I moved, it came with me and we used it here. 

When we ripped up the old carpets throughout the house we were able to salvage enough underlay to reuse here.  I didn't make any plans to stencil the walls because I knew most of the walls would be covered up.  However, I did think the ceiling would be ripe for stencilling but waited until the room was put together before I made my final decision.  Until all the furniture and accessories are in place, I would not be sure how I could handle extra decoration and then would have to be careful so that the decoration added to the room, not tipped it over the edge into mess.  We put a dress rail down one side of the space and my dressing table and small armchair down the other side of the room. 

 

We were also able to squeeze my vintage wardrobe trunk into one corner. 

Once most of the large items were in place, we realised we had more "dead" space above the dress rail so put another shelf up for my sweaters, t-shirts and so on. 

The shelves are budget cut-to-size MDF and metal brackets.  We spraypainted the brackets gold to look more decorative. 

My Gruau lithographs and vintage paintings adorn the walls where there is space.

Vintage satin curtains have been hung at the window.  We took the door off the frame to make it easier to lay the carpet, but also because the swing of the door took up a lot of space in a small room, basically chopping off a 3 foot by 3 foot space in one corner which is about a sixth of the entire room.  After the room had been put together we made a decision as to whether the door needed to go back on or whether we could get away with using a door curtain instead.  We opted for the door curtain and I had found a pair of 1920's chenille door curtains at Corbridge Antiques Centre. 

Importantly, they look good from both sides.  I used one here and the other at the window at the top of the stairs.  I am especially pleased about this because it does leave me quite a bit of extra, precious, space.  It does look nice to be able to peer into the room from the hallway (as long as I keep it tidy), but I have the option of hiding the room with a curtain if need be.  The room can be a private, although not soundproof, space.

Finally with almost everything in place, I could think about the stencilling.  Even with the space filled so comprehensively, I did look up at the gold ceiling and feel it could do with a bit of decoration to fill it out.  I decided on one of our new Vintage dragon stencils, VN140.

I've always liked oriental styles and decided to channel a bit of 1920's Shanghai by stencilling a couple of dragons swirling around the light fitting.  They tied in with the red Chinese lamps Helen brought back from Singapore that hang beside the dressing table.  This stencil is designed as an all-over repeat, but I simply used the two dragons as motifs.  I didn't want to fill the entire ceiling surface. 

Ceilings are awkward to stencil, but are a nice area to put pattern onto if you can manage it.  I think there is always something dramatic about a decorated ceiling because they do take extra effort to do and most ceilings are undecorated.

I am thrilled with this space.  It is warm and comfortable and I do not feel like I have been banished.  It feels like a theatre star's dressing room from yesteryear and I can enjoy my various collections.  The woman cave definitely trumps any man cave.

Speaking of man caves and just in case you were feeling sorry for him thinking he had no space that was all his...he has not one, but two spaces to call his own.  This....

And this....

Admittedly, they both need a bit of work.  Stephen's off work next week and intends to work on them.  I think he is hiding the hot tub, huge screen wall-mounted tv and dedicated beer fridge catalogues from me.  That is fine by me if that is the look he wants, but he still has to find space to store the tools, his bikes, and the garden furniture etc. as well.   

All photographs by Stephen Egglestone 

Rachel's Living Room Preview

Whilst I work on the full post, I thought I would give you a bit of a preview of my living room showcasing the wall where Chips' lastest painting hangs because it is the feature of this room. 

Photo by Stephen Egglestone
You will have read in previous posts that Chippendale-Morris have a new range of paintings.  Chips takes well known art and reinterprets it by meticulously separating the image into thousands of coloured dots which he paints onto large canvases.  Up close, the image will look like a colourful abstract image, but the farther you move away from it, the more clear the image will become.  It is very, very clever as the colours have to be just right and takes ages to paint.  I have always loved anything that puts a modern twist on something traditional so couldn't wait to have a Chippendale-Morris for my own walls.  I chose "Girl in a Green Dress" as it is so very art deco (the main theme of the room).  I saved the chimney breast space for this masterpiece and it was a thrill to bring it home and hang it in place.  We were then able to call the room "finished" (bar a few minor details) and photograph it to share.  The full post will be along shortly but in the meantime, "Girl in a Green Dress" as seen by Chippendale-Morris deserves a post of her own.  I have yet to research this painting and I do not know if the model is known, but in the meantime Stephen and I have named her "Tallulah".  You can see the hint of the stencilling in this room: stencil VN7 Chain Lightening from our Vintage range, stencilled in Sunset Gold paint, on a wall painted with Farrow & Ball's Blue Black estate emulsion.

Homemade with love, a new magazine

Homemade with love is a new, craft and style magazine.

It is full of tutorials and creative ideas and is on sale now at WHSmith and by subscription. They have a website, blog and all the usual channels. The April issue features a story about stencilling and includes some of our photographs and a nice mention for our Stencil It book.

I wrote a project for them in which I demonstrate how to create a vintage style kitchen with stencils.

They offer a 'how to' that shows how to make felt flowers.

I fancy trying huge ones as wall decor. I might combine them with one of our stencils of branches similar to this....

...only bigger. The picture shows our DR2 Cherry Blossom stencil, paper flowers were fixed over the stencilled branches. The picture is the cover from In Bloom by Alice Whately. 

Helen.

Happy Monday and a heart shaped cake.

It is Monday morning and to start a new week with cheer I bring you virtual cake.

Recipe for delicious, clementine cake courtesy of Nigella Lawson, Maya Gold chocolate from Green and Blacks, dusted with edible gold, baked by me.  Heart shaped cake mold and glass cake stand from IKEA, lace stencil on table from The Stencil Library.

Enjoy. I'll be back in a couple of hours to tell you about a new magazine.

crazy about coral

VN133 Coral is a stencil that does not get ordered nearly enough. I am looking at it on the packing bench before it gets wrapped and mailed. The recipient must be a customer with imagination and foresight as this is a fabulous design. Obviously, the choice of colour is up to the user but it looks equally good on a dark background.

 

There are two overlays to this stencil, the first is the basic coral shape and the second is made of dots which give an illusion of shading. It might be interesting to stencil texture paste through all those little circles.

Another dramatic stencil of coral is VN144 Coral no 2  Both coral stencils are designed to repeat horizontally and vertically to fill the desired area. Registration guides are provided on the stencil to set up your next pattern repeat quickly and accurately.  Alternatively, they work as a motif where you can choose your own arrangement of the pattern.

My husband likes the laid back colour scheme of black and tan but the Florida streak in me wants to go for a vibrant coral red. This stencil has two layers. Using my picture as an example, the wall is black and the first colour to be applied through the stencil is the colour of the coral, the second layer of the stencil gets coloured black, or whatever the wall colour is. The coral motifs are approximately 14.8 x 21.6" (376 x 549mm) high.  Very tall walls may benefit from an over-sized version.  I might finish the design part way up the wall instead of going to the top, which might add to the drama.

Coral and sponge VN173 is a stylised, repeating design from our Vintage Style collection

One of the home design magazines featured a single vertical row of these motifs along a wall, it looked fabulous but you'll have to take my word for that because I no longer have the picture to show you. The coral stencil or the sponge stencil can be ordered as single motifs from the Japanese Style Collection at The Stencil library. They can look very pretty on cushion covers and table tops.

Helen

The next batch of magazines requiring a new home: Vogue Living Australia

I have 8 issues of Vogue Living Australia to give away.  One from 1994, one from 2010 and the rest from 2000-2002. 

This is a great interiors magazine and was not always easy for me to get hold of, but I used to come across it occasionally when travelling (usually at Amsterdam airport) or when a newsagents in Newcastle occasionally got some international issues in.  There is a wide variety of interior styles to inspire.  They are mostly complete, but there may be a page missing from the occasional issue.

Should anyone want them, they can have them free if they pay the postage (they weigh 5 kg) on a first come, first serve basis.  Local pickup would be free, UK post is estimated at 12.60 GBP, Europe around 35.00 GBP, the rest of the world from about 65.00 GBP.  I will be able to confirm an exact charge depending on where you are and how quickly you want them.  If you would like them, please contact us.  I will amend this post as soon as they have been claimed.  And there is more still to come.

Australian interior decor inspiration.

 

This Tuesday Rachel will give away another batch of her treasured, international magazines from the 1990's and early 2000's. When she did this last week they were claimed so quickly that I did not get a chance to look at them. This week I got out my camera to capture some of the pages to save for my inspiration file and Pinterest boards.

Normally I would tear them out the photo but as she is giving the magazines away this seemed unfair to the future recipient.  Here are some of the pics that inspired me from Australian Vogue Living magazines that she is offering.

 

A well dressed headboard.

From dis dress is nice to nicely distressed.

Seriously shabby chairs,

chic gardens,

art and interiors,

Appealing flowers and a peeling wall,

Stop and stair.

Look out for Rachel's blog post, it has to wait until Tuesday because she is not in the office over Easter.

Helen

I'm starring in 50 shades of grey

Oh sorry, that should have read 'I'm stairring in 50 shades of grey'

The redecoration of the hall and main staircase at Stocksfield Hall has begun. Right now every thing is stark, dark and echoey and I am enjoying the temporary change of scenery.

I like to surround myself with colour and pattern. At present I feel like a tourist in Monochrome Land.

It will feel exotic for a few days then I will start to reintroduce the familiar touches that feel like my home.  My husband is busy painting pictures for our walls.

We hung his new dot painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring last week but it sold to visitors an hour later so I have an empty wall again. I shall trawl the charity shops for furniture which I will stencil and gild to punctuate the landing spaces. My original idea was to introduce a sinuous design snaking up the stair risers, embellished with crystals to catch light from the south facing windows. I am re-thinking that plan at the moment.

One of my ubiquitous disco ball hangs at the window and that makes pretty patterns with light.  The new, mat from Ikea will stay plain until sunlight and footfall spoil it's neat appearance then I will blend fade and stains together with stenciled pattern as I have done with other sisal flooring over the years.

I am perusing our stencil catalogue for the perfect design to gild onto the flat grey dor.

So far I am thinking DE158 Art Nouveau panel or JA122 Oriental Egret panel but there are a couple of other stencil designs nagging me for attention. I shall use Dutch metal transfer leaf in gold so that the lustre will gleam when the sun is low during winter months,

So far, I have added pots of red flowers to the stairway and my husband has stencilled the hall floor with VN22 Tudor repeat.

Colour and pattern is beginning to regain it's hold on our home.

Next month we host the latest production from the Drama in the Parlour theatre company and in May we have our next stencil day, so I hope to have it finished by then.  

Helen.

Art Deco fabulousness

I am having such fun working on our new (old) house.  After an initial frenzy of hard graft, Stephen and I can sit back, take things a bit easier and enjoy our new home. There is still loads to do, but the urgency is over.  I shall have photos of a few rooms very soon.  In the  meantime, here is a little peak at an exciting ebay find: genuine art deco curtains.  They look like a flapper dress and are quite amazing.

They are to be used in the living room.  The window is a 10 foot long bay window so these are to be a decorative detail rather than functional curtains as they are only just over 3 feet wide each.  Are they not perfect?  The fabric is a dull metallic gold heavy satin.

They are embroidered in jade and lime green, probably by hand.

And they are trimmed in gold lamé piping which has since tarnished to a metallic flecked brown.

I reckon, by the quality and look of these beauties, they had to be high-end art deco curtains back then.  These were not made for your traditional small semi-detached 1930's house at the time, but that is where they are now!

They bring to mind a particular art deco motif stencil from our range.

It is DE336 and I used it on the top of some shelving in my art deco bathroom at Stocksfield Hall.  It is painted metallic gold and the stencilling is done in jade green and black.

I love this stencil design so much, that I have used it again, with alterations, and bigger, in our bedroom.  You'll have to wait a bit longer for photos of that room as it is not quite photography worthy just yet. 

I love ebay.  If you can spend time on it, you can pretty much find whatever you want.  It is an excellent source of old things (which is what we prefer).  But you do have to search and search and search and patience is definitely a virtue.  I can spend an awful amount of time on it in the evening.  I use the laptop so I can peruse in different rooms.  I reckon Stephen thinks I should just have one of those cigarette girl trays hanging around my neck so I can move around and use the laptop at the same time!  I justify it by simply saying that it is all in aid of a good cause: the decor of our house.  I hope you enjoy my find and I shall have photos of them in place soon.

Rachel.