coffee table makeover

some months ago, mr.plain built me a coffee table.

my brief at the time was;

industrial.  solid.  steel. with big wheels.

he complied with this.

which, at the time, i loved.

it was exactly to spec. 

but didn't really suit our space.  (not that i told him that of course!)

a giant road case in my living room.

i decided that the problem was the material.  too much silver for such a 'wood' oriented room.

i usually like to ground spaces with nature when i am styling a room.  play it up with colour/metallics and then ground it with nature.

it needed a wooden top.

i was lucky enough to have inherited metres and metres of hardwood floorboards from a gorgeous girlfriend, and a couple of those boards could be spared to give the table a new personality.

we mixed 2 colours of stain to get a bespoke, vintage industrial colour, and also got a hammer out and beat the wood up a little.

i adore it.

the wood has 'aged' perfectly with the stain.  it looks a similar vintage to the wooden vessel sitting on top of it.

bye-bye roadcase,  hello coffee table!

jane xx

shibori + leather = perfection

ok, ok.

i *know* that i have not posted for about eight weeks, and am now going to post about the same thing twice in four days.

sorry.

you can read about my current obsession here.

and you can link into their website here.

well.

thursday night i went to the opening of their exhibition.

and saw these.

(this one is my favourite.  the indigo dye almost looks photographic and so incredibly 3dimensional).

leather and shibori could possibly be the best fabric/technique combination ever.

ever.

i am seeing cowhide floor rugs...  

and, 

can you imagine a soft, buttery, handmade, leather/shibori clutch bag!?!?! 

to die for.

(just putting it out there universe!)

jane xx

exhibition booth with an edge.

(well,...i've been busy,..and haven't told you all what i've been up to!)

not so long ago, a friend of mine, who is also a fabulous photographer asked me to come on board and style a booth at a photography exhibition for him.

james bennett

check him out.  his work is lovely.

i had a limited budget, and a couple of days to come up with something that would suit his style of photography and also his personality.

masculine/edgy/industrial/on trend/and eye catching!

booths at exhibitions are so incredibly dull.

you can walk from one to the other and barely notice the difference.

not this booth.

i came up with a really simple colour palette that would work with the black walls of the booth.  

vintage industrial brown - including glass, wood and cow hide

soft pink magnolia blooms

white industrial lighting feature

so very simple.

very effective.

first i mocked it up at home in front of a black wall to make sure that design wise it worked.

the bare bulb cluster worked beautifully with the sculptural magnolia branches.

vintage industrial stools with a pop of colour were both masculine and visually interesting.

by hanging vintage frames over sections of photographs, your eye is drawn 'to the drama'.  you can use a method like this at home to add dimension and visual interest.

gorgeous photographer, james.  a bit easy on the eye too! ha!

clusters of brown apothecary bottles are striking without being overwhelming. 

a vignette of daphne, books and vintage cameras.

the round bulb worked well with james' gorgeous, sculptural image.

so.

there you go.

an exhibition booth with a bit of personality.

jane xx