A Bright Space

Living with Angels

2012-02-22T14:50:00.000Z

It's not often I get excited about sideboards, but this minimalist, contemporary Portuguese unit made of lacquered MDF has an understated, simple yet stunning design with an angel's wing engraved into the front and extending on to the top section.

The Angel sideboard from Piurra.

Horses and Tigers for Dinner

2012-02-21T08:00:00.000Z

Serve your pancakes in these beautiful patterned bone china dinner plates designed by Concetta Gallo for Habitat, and named after her. The Concetta range features dinner plates combining photography and random graphic images including tigers and horses. A dinner plate...

Side bowls....

Alternative dinner plate design....

Happy Pancake Day!

Bird Art

2012-02-17T14:36:00.000Z

An interesting display....

Photography by Emily Jenkins Followill

Have a happy, creative weekend. Thanks for reading. : )

It's a Dog's Life

2012-02-16T09:30:00.000Z

A Lakeland terrier enjoying his luxurious day bed in this garden room photographed by Emily Jenkins Followill.

French Bathing

2012-02-15T10:58:00.000Z

After a dip in the glass walled pool of this luxury villa (featured last week on this blog) you can bathe in one of the en-suite bathrooms at Villa Freya, Sete, south of France. A wall-to-wall mirror gives the impression of expansive space and increases the light. Sweet-scented toiletries and luxurious white towels combine with natural textures to arouse the senses.

Villa bookings from Amazon Creek.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T09:00:00.000Z

Sometimes the simplest of things can be the most heart-warming. Happy Valentine's Day!

Display by The White Company.

Le Chambre des Enfants

2012-02-13T10:49:00.000Z

A mixture of smooth, cushioned taupe and crisp, fresh white linen combine to create a stylish children's room in the villa I featured last week in Sete, south of France.

For holiday bookings at the villa visit Amazon Creek.

French on Film

2012-02-10T10:40:00.000Z

Inside the luxurious Villa Freya (featured yesterday) is this plush cinema room.....

and a crisp, sophisticated kitchen....

Villa Freya is available for holiday bookings at Amazon Creek.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend. : )

Making an Entrance... French style

2012-02-09T10:30:00.000Z

A spectacular glass-walled swimming pool greets you as you approach Villa Freya, in Sete, in the Languedoc region on the south west coast of France. Sete has natural sandy beaches and over twenty kilometres of newly built beach promenade. The living area in this luxury villa offers stunning sea views.

The combination of traditional, local stone, wood and glass provide for a spectacular entrance. See inside Villa Freya tomorrow.

Californian Dream

2012-02-02T11:39:00.000Z

Landscape, building and topography coexist in harmony in this rural residence situated at the base of Sonoma Mountain, California, with expansive, heart-warming views across the vineyards and valley.

Respect for the land and its exposed location is clearly evident in the architecture and interior layout which has been carefully thought through by Aidlin Darling.

Interior spaces are organised along the length of the long, reflecting pool. The house offers both panoramic views as well as intimate enclaves, achieving a sense of balance in use.

The house engages with its surroundings as it sits amongst the vines and brings the vineyard and nature's seasonal cycles into the life of the house.

The building's aspect allows passive heat gain on cool mornings and shade on hot afternoons with natural light infusing into the various spaces throughout the day.

A narrow footpath connects a series of garden rooms on the eastern side of the vineyard to a subterranean wine cellar adjacent to the dining hall.

The tactile experience of the house is enhanced with heavy stone walls juxtaposed with light steel framing, stone and wooden floors, water reflecting from the elongated pool, and of course the natural surroundings which have been highlighted with the choice of interior accessories and art.

Eclectic Interior

2012-01-31T10:00:00.000Z

A stylish living space with a clever use of display and colour, photographed by Emily Jenkins Followill.

Virgin on the Rocks

2012-01-30T09:30:00.000Z

I spotted this sumptuous velvet cushion in the National Gallery's shop featuring the angel detail from Leonardo da Vinci's beautiful Virgin on the Rocks painting. Filled with duck feathers and made from 100% cotton velvet, the pattern has been digitally printed for an outstanding depth of colour and clarity.

Enchanted Forest Mural

2012-01-27T12:50:00.000Z

Rebecca Rebouche, a native Louisianan living and working in New Orleans, creates nostalgic, emotive and whimsical art out of paint, mixed media and stitched soft sculpture; a practice best described as contemporary folk art on digitally printed paper. Adheres using for easy removal and covers 108 square feet. Available from Anthropologie.

Close up...

Divine Da Vinci

2012-01-19T14:22:00.000Z

Have you been to the National Gallery in London yet to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to enjoy the most complete display of Leonardo's work ever in an unprecedented exhibition, and the first of its kind held anywhere in the world. It is highly unlikely that these paintings will be brought together again in this capacity, especially due to their fragility. The exhibition ends on 5 February 2012 and all advance tickets are sold out, so if you want to have a chance of entry you need to get there early (before 8.30am) and queue. There'll certainly be at least 200 people there before you by that time!

Gallery poster of Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine), ca 1490-91

Leonardo da Vinci

‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter and the exhibition focuses on the work he produced as a court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s. Leonardo aspired to convince viewers of the reality of what they were seeing in his quest for perfect beauty. His exquisite portraits and tenderly-created studies convey a sense of awe-inspiring mystery.

If you don't get to see it then here's an exhibition playlist to catch a little of what you're missing:

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-playlist/

Leonardo fans and admirers queueing at 8.25 on a cold, sunny, Sunday morning...

Leaving the gallery many hours later......

The recent discovery of Leonardo da Vinci's painting 'Christ as Salvador Mundi'....

The recent restoration of this picture has revealed many of Leonardo’s characteristic working methods. The hands, which are the best preserved, were readjusted during painting. The face, more damaged, was built up with numerous fine layers of paint. Christ holds a rock crystal orb, which represents the universe. In Leonardo’s day, rock crystal (a clear quartz) was considered a miraculous material and no modern tools could shape it, let alone fashion it into a perfect geometric solid. - National Gallery website.

The exquisite beauty of Leonardo's work cannot be fully appreciated from books or photographs. I can't describe how amazing this exhibition was. Don't miss it!

Sofas online

2012-01-18T14:39:00.000Z

Buy sofas online from www.sofa.com. This is their Leon corner sofa, comfy, contemporary and great for lounging on.

Eve Arnold 1912-2012

2012-01-09T13:15:00.000Z

When I was at university, one of the artists I studied was iconic photographer, Eve Arnold, who died last week aged 100. Born in America to Russian-Jewish parents in 1912, she wanted to be a dancer or a writer, but instead stumbled into the world of photography, where she was to leave her unforgettable mark.

Arnold was the first female to be admitted to the prestigious Magnum Photos Agency in 1951 and she became a full member in 1957, showing obvious skill.

Photographing people at work became a constant theme in her photography, but her photos of stars are her most well known. Here she has captured workers gathering around one of the first television sets in New York City during the 1952 presidential elections.....

On a rally in 1961 with Malcolm X. Arnold said, he was "a tough man who let me into his life".

Arnold travelled the world to show people, both famous and ordinary, as they are, including Queen Elizabeth II, actresses Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich. She covered the making of dozens of feature films and in 1962 she moved to England with her son where she worked for the Sunday Times and began to use colour.

She is best known for her intimate images of actress Marilyn Monroe, with whom she had a close friendship. They were both relatively unknown. She took many photos of Monroe from 1951 onwards.

Marilyn trusted Arnold more than any other photographer and their relationship is well-documented. Arnold had a sympathetic approach toward her subjects and a protective nature of them afterwards, she was able to capture a closeness that is not easy for most others to do.

Eve and Marilyn.....

Eve Arnold's pictures are some of the most abiding images of our time.....

She won many prestigious awards including an OBE in recognition of her services in 2003. When asked by Angelica Houston in an interview for a retrospective book of Arnold's work, if she was doing photography any more, Arnold replied: "That's over, I can't hold a camera any more."

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-24T14:30:00.000Z

Touch and Sleep

2011-12-21T10:30:00.000Z

Our sense of touch is heightened in a room laden with texture such as this example. The pure cotton waffle bed linen in white looks fresh beside the fabric on the cushions, the gorgeous warmth of the wooden wall, and the sumptuous layers of throws at the foot of the bed. A room for relaxing in!

Bed linen from The White Company

White Luxury

2011-12-19T23:30:00.000Z

Wintry weather makes us want to curl up indoors and indulge in the comforts of home. This 400 thread count Egyptian cotton linen available from The White Company, London, provides smooth, exquisitely soft, luxury.

Where in the World?

2011-12-16T10:30:00.000Z

This Thai restaurant featuring burnt wood panels, golden copper elements, organic shapes and raw textures of wood and concrete seems stark and cold but the mixture of elements creates harmony and visual impact. You'll be surprised to hear which city it is located in. Any guesses in the comments box below. I'll give you the answer (and designer's name) next week.

Have a super weekend. Thanks for reading. : )

Earthly Cherubs

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000Z

How adorable!

This simply gorgeous, soft cotton Angel babygro is a perfect gift for all those little cherubs. It is made with 100% soft cotton jersey and comes in a stylish organza gift bag.

Available from Bodie & Fou

Apple Delight

2011-12-13T22:36:00.002Z

This apple green ball chair designed by Finn Stone and available from Bodie & Fou comes in thirteen different Panton-inspired colours. The organic, rounded shape is striking and adds a glossy, stylish touch to a living room, child's room, bedroom or the garden, as they are suitable for indoor or outdoor use.

Ball chair: Eco-friendly design made with recycled ABS (virtually indestructible polypropylene) and coated with UV-resistant and environmentally friendly gloss. Seat height: 35cms from floor , D45cm

Something different...

2011-11-24T19:33:00.001Z

This snapshot of a classically-styled room may not be the kind of interior typically featured on this site but it is nevertheless a delight. Display techniques are used expertly to create a space which looks not only comfortable and sumptuous, but also extremely pleasing to the eye.

Designer's Secrets

2011-11-17T20:08:00.000Z

A living space which is ornate yet minimal, classic yet contemporary. How does the designer achieve this? Simple, choose items which complement each other's style, avoid clutter, and keep your colour palette tight. Most importantly in this room, several focal points let the eye rest comfortably around the room, such as the decorative fireplace and coordinating mirror, the beautiful window with a chair, table and flowers centrally placed, the striking pendant light fitting, and of course, the eye-catching painting. The whole room is a work of art.

White Slice

2011-11-16T17:15:00.001Z

A slice of white works along with the palest grey walls in this classic and elegant room. The dark wood floor adds depth and links with the touches of black in the art, accessories and small furniture.

*images via hgtv.ca interior design by irene langlois