Designalogue

Just a note to the local ladies out there… its on again -the Creative Women’s Circle

Saturday July 11th @ Guildford Lane Gallery. More details here

The subject of todays’ post is anything but a unique and groundbreaking subject matter to the regulars of the blogosphere.

But as well as the place of random eye candy and occasional life happenings updates, Designalogue is also a place where clients drop on in and see what I have been up to and see examples of the things that I have been prattling on to them about!

So today’s post is just that! For the lovely Mrs R - this is what I’ve been going on and on and on about!…

The rest of you are ofcourse more than welcome. so strap yourselves in - there is a whole lotta coming…

So then… banquet seating…

Strike the vinyl number found at the local pizza joint image from your mind. As the following eye candy will prove - banquet seating is suitable for all kinds of interiors.

Psst - I also want to point out with this picture just how well a banquet can be used with classic furniture pieces. Nothing screaming kitcheney in this lil number!

Phoebe Howard

This is just a closer image of the same - just to get that point well & truly fixed in your mind! (though in the reality of this pic, I doubt the lamp could really be that close…elbows & animated conversation & all that!)

Phoebe Howard

This next little lot give good examples of how custom made upholstered furniture pieces can be used as banquet seating. I say custom made due to table heights and table lengths.

Phoebe Howard

Kishani Perera

Kenneth Brown Design

Wilson & Assoc - via Desire to Inspire

These next lot of eye candy are examples of custom built in banquets: (side note -can be a good use for extra storage underneath!)

via House of Turquoise

Via Desire to Inspire

Steven Gambrel

Markham Roberts

Steven Gambrel

Tim Clarke

Christopher Maya

Tori Golub Interiors

Robyn Karp Interiors via Desire to Inspire

Steven Gambrel

Kenneth Brown Design

Wilson & assoc via Desire to Inspire

Tim Clarke

Peter Dunham

not sure where I found this!

Always a padded bench option… may look great in a picture, but personally just makes me think of sore backs!

Homes & Gardens

Diamond Baratta Design

These next are an example of purpose built installations:

Todd Romano

Shelton Mindel via Desire to Inspire

Kinney Chan & Assoc

OK, so yeah, this is the same room as above…a different angle…but the chairs are quite fabulous & deserve another look in!

Kinney Chan & Assoc

Andrew Suvlasky Designs

Kinney Chan & Assoc

And so that’s that subject done for now!! What do you say Mrs R - shall we do it?!!

Thoughts to share anyone?

I have written before about my love for glass genie bottles in an obsession confession (see here)

Its a continued and long loving obsession of mine, so imagine my delight when I came across some more genie bottle eye candy for me to drool over!

It was like the clouds parted I tell you!!

Jonathon Adler via House of Turquoise

Nathan Egan

Christopher Maya

John Ellis Photography

Via Desire to Inspire

Via Simply Grove

Via Bahrainidiva

Brown Design

Brown Design

By the way, in my collection of many, I’m still yet to come across a genie, so no wishes have been granted.

I am quite sulky about this!

I have been a busy girl of late with quite a few installations happening almost all at once! So in the spirit of sharing, and to appease my guilt at not attending to Designalogue Blog much of late, here are some ‘crappy snaps’ I have taken of an apartment I have been working on.  

The scatter cushions sent some serious love chills my way and I have to admit when I picked them up from my brilliant cushion maker, I had to pull myself together, be strong to and stop them from finding a home on my sofa! Such is the trouble with this line of work…

The photos don’t do the fabric justice, The fabric and colours are just stunning and I love love! 

Once I have proper photos that do the art the justice they deserve, I will tell you more about the paintings. But in short they are Google Earth images of the coast line of our home town and surround and are a mix of resin and silver leaf and even have a diamond or two!! 

That is all!

The Cockatoo, for those who aren’t in the know; are an native bird to my lovely home land of Australia. But as this is a designed based blog, and not a bird fact forum, I will spare you from too many a detail of the pretties! Except, they are in some regional areas considered a pest, and in more city dwelling areas considered a pet! In captivity, they are known to live for up to 50 years.

My point is this, Cockatoo’s are not something that one should commit to lightly. And with this in mind, I am also thinking of the gorgeous limited edition Cockatoo rugs by Catherine Martin for Designer Rugs!  

I’m sure many of you have seen the pattern of which I speak - its appearance on the front cover of the latest Issue of Australian Vogue living, has caused quite a stir in the world of late (and rightly so I say!) 

Available for adoption to good homes: Limited edition rugs - three colourways, and only five of each. 

Personally I think the adoption process for these lovelies is too lax. The ‘candidate’ should be subjected to at the very least a home inspection!

But alas, we know that’s not going to be the ca$e. 

All I am saying is that I hope the people who adopt these lovelies, fully appreciate them and treat them with the respect that they deserve. To think of a coffee table upon, or even a baby spew incident…well that just breaks my heart!

Please. Give them a good home. I know I would make Cockatoo ‘yellow’ a very happy and long life together.

I recently came across the Creative Women’s Circle - a group in my Melbourne town that brings together women working in creative industries and small businesses to share information, inspiration and ideas. 

Well - I fit into ALL of those categories, so this coming Satdy morn I am going to tottle down and check this out! If you are also a chick who is interrested - find more info here

This weekends meeting chit chat, also includes a fabric swap, of which the idea of makes me break into a cold sweat! Fabrics are something I get very very excited by! 

I am lucky enough to have spent many a year working closely with gorgeous textiles and have built up quite a booty of delish!  To me, just owning some super Divine goodies is enough! Actually using them would just be wrong! I mean what if it was ruined - it couldn’t ever be used again!? But in the spirit of the day, I am going to go through my stash and decide which of the goodies I can and can not live without, and hope that someone else feels the same and has some awesome goodies for me to nab!

***Update -The meeting has been & gone & was very inspiring! 

That is all!

Um, how did it become May already? I swear it was New year just a couple of weeks back and we here in Melbourne town were in a heat wave. Suddenly its May, and we are having a super freeze. I’m beginning to think that Mother Earth has taken up quick step dancing! or just maybe I am just in a time bubble?!

So in the weeks gone by (though it feels like mere hours!) Ive just been doing my ‘thing’. Some of this involved helping the lovlies at Lump Scultpure Studio put a display together for the big annual designery trade  show “Interior Designex‘ to display how beautiful their light boxes can look beautiful Inside as well as out!  This is the result of that: 

CMD for Lump DX2009

CMD for Lump DX2009

As I only had a week & a bit to gather bits & pieces for the stand, I had to use what I could get my hands on quick sticks! This meant most of the display came from my stocks! (read my home!) But with some assistance from Diane Bergeron & Interstudio. 

The other side of the stand was as so: 

Ah then as quick as a flash, but not soon enough, the weekend came!!

Sunday was a perfect day. Blue skies, 19 degrees (that’s about 62F) and just gorgeous! Fella and I jumped in the car and headed up to a friends farm -an hour & a bit out of town for a lovely Sunday lunch. This is my idea of a perfect day!

To get to the farm we travelled past the areas recently hit by the tragic bush fires. (For what this is in reference to click here) I stuck my camera out of the sun roof of the car to take some crappy snaps of what now is. (I think the pics are pretty good considering the car is travelling at 100kms! (that’s about 62 miles per hour!))

This picture shows a vineyard with the burned hills in the back ground. The vineyard was untouched - the vines just look burnt as its now Autumn here. 

These pictures show how devastating the fires were. Apparently, bush fires are usually close to the ground, leaving the tree canopies relatively unscathed. As the bush was so dry - from a hot summer as well as 11 years of drought, as these images show everything went up in flames.

My heart breaks thinking of the animal life that had no chance of escaping. 

The yellow ribbon that someone has placed on this tree is the symbol that acknowledges these fires and raises money for those who suffered.

Although it is Autumn (fall) here. These trees are red from the fire - not the season. All these trees are native to Australia and dont shred their leaves in the seasons. 

Three months on from the fires and the forests are already greening up with new growth. 

And then to the farm we got! So beautiful! and its one of my favorite places in which to be. An hour there makes me feel like I have had a week away.  

 Ahh the serenity! until…

Why is it that boys feel the need to throw stuff? Apparently this tree was just asking to be target practise! (practising for what?!) I will point out - no animal or bird life was in the line of fire. 

And me and him felt the need to do some loved up posing in the sun set! 

And then it was done. and back to the city we went… for another week to go by quick as a flash! 

I’ve dropped the blog ball of late. um, sorry about that! The real world has had my attention some what -saving the world from hideous curtains here, upholstery mishaps over there.  busy, busy days!?! Oh and the glamour of it all!!! 

So anyway, here I am again! And this just happens to be post be number 100 for Designalogue blog! It took a while, but eventually I got here! 

I was hoping my 100th post would be a  well-researched, full eye candied post….I wont build your hopes for that! Just some eye candy today and a bit of an obsession confession. 

The obsession is simple really, glassed garage doors and Barton Myers architects. The two combined together -well magic is made!!  

See: 

Clever architects Barton Myers designed this steel framed house using glass garage type doors along one entire side of the house which of course allow the entire space to be opened up. Aah, imagine all that fresh mountain air pouring through! 

I love it, so lets look at is some more from the inside - though from teeny tiny pictures as that’s all I could get my hands on. Squint, you will see better! 

The extra genius and fabulousness of this house is its been designed and built with the surroundings in mind. As its in an area prone to wild fires, the house has a reflecting pond on its roof which as well as a fire repellent, also assists in keeping the house cool. All the glass windows have fire shutters, so if a fire comes calling, the house is shut up tight and looks like no one is home.

This sort of forward thinking architecture would have saved many lives if it was implemented in my home town of Melbourne during the recent tragic bush fires. more on that here. 

Here is another picture of another house designed in the same vein, again  by Barton Myers.

Just more eye candy that I swoon over! 

Ok, just some more random eye candy I found along the same lines. Personally, i think it works pretty much anywhere! 

via Desire to Inspire

Via Design Sponge

Via home & Design

via Canadian Architect

So this doesnt have the doors of my obsession, but for its overall fabulousness I will overlook that! and move in anyway! 

via Richard Powers

Images via Richard Powers, Barton Myers, Bustler, Flikr, Home & Design, Canadian Architect, 

Personally, I cant think of a single thing better than a crystal horse chandelier in a castle. 

Ha! seems Stella McCartney cant either. 

But she has access to more castles than I do. And lets face it, the castles she can get her hands on in the English countryside are quite different (read um, real) than I can here in Australia! Infact the only one I can even think of here is Kryal Castle. (I suggest you click on the link so you can understand more of why this is always referred to with a bit of a smirk and extra glint in the eye!)

Anyway back to Stella’s and my shazam jinx moment (um, ok. Its all hers… I’m just on the bandwagon for effect! stay with me people…) Way back in the olden days of 2004, Stella created this horse chandy sculpture titled ‘Lucky Spot’ using lots of Swarovski crystals for a temporary exhibit for a fashiony thingy DOO at Belsay Hall! The outcry was immense (um, I’m going for effect!) so its back and galloping the great hall once again.

Clever things make me happy!  

pics via Bloomacious & The Cool Hunter

I’ve gone and got myself tagged again! This time the lovely Qerat infected me!  

The point again to share 6 things about myself. But with all this tagging going on, IMO struggling to keep up with new things to share, a girl has gotta keep some mystery you know! 

So Im instead going to share some Randomania instead: 

1. I was reliving some childhood memories the other day and You tube-ing the fabulous TV show from my childhood  Fraggle Rock! I came across this classic gem, which the fella and I decided should be the song to get us all motivated throughout this global recession!

Um, I am having all sorts of trouble uploading this video - so you will just have to expel that tiny bit of energy & click on the link to make it work instead! Doozers

2. My favoritest film of ALL time is the Labyrinth.

3. So, I will admit.. I have a bit of an obsession…. I cant get enough of coloured glass.

I just love it and have, um, quite a bit in my house…….

There is actually more than this, but the photos were even more crapola than these. So you will just have to believe me!

4. I cant throw away, give away or even loan out my design magazines. This does create a bit of a storage issue, but I deal. Each month I buy about 8-9 mags and I devour them and re-read many times over! (Also - happily these are a tax deduction, so that’s a happy ending!) 

5. I still drink coffee daily. I never pretended I was going to give it up- just keeping you up to speed! 

6. I love my iPhone and hate synthetic fabrics on upholstery. 

Ah, six points = done.

I don’t want to give myself a reputation for being a girl who gives infections, so once again: dear readers and blogging friends, if you wanna, do it! If not, I wont hunt you down!!