HOMEBUG : homes, interiors, art & design - ireland & elsewhere

DAVID SHRIGLEY

2009-06-22T19:28:00.006+01:00

I first came across oddball artist David Shrigley years ago when John gave me a book of David Shrigley postcards. In an old flat of mine (four homes ago now! Crazy!) I used to have this one on the bathroom door. If you ever find yourself with time to kill online, you could do a lot worse than browse through his website. Over on Design Sponge today, I spotted a Shrigley print (below) in the home of Morgan of The Brick House (my new favourite blog, by the by) and well, I think it's fairly obvious why it speaks to me. I want that print. Badly.

PRECIOUS PINK

2009-06-22T15:37:00.002+01:00

Our entryway and stairway (above) is in desperate need of a fresh lick of paint. Actually, with the exception of our living room, the entire house is. I had been holding off on the hallway because I really wanted to wallpaper it, and in fact I still do, but I can’t see us having the funds for such an endeavour any time soon. So let’s forget about that and focus on painting instead. The picture above is from two years ago and yeah, the entryway/stairs looks pretty good, but the problem with it is that the colours used don’t make any sense in relation to those in the rest of the house. Also, that green is much more wishy washy in real life than it looks in the photo.

I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but I just feel that the walls should be pink. I was talking to a friend recently who’s decorating a new place with her husband, and she maintains that the difference between her decorating style and his is that she can stand in an empty room and just get a feeling of what colour the walls should be, and go with it, whereas he is more likely to study and research such things and come up with a “logical” colour choice. He would probably never decide on pink for a stairway, I’m betting. I’ve been humming and hawing over just the right pink for a few weeks, so I was overjoyed to receive a press release from Crown Paints, introducing “Precious Pink” (below). Not only is it the perfect shade, but 20% of the sale of every can sold goes to Action Breast Cancer.

Luckily for me, I live with a man who really couldn’t give a hoot what colours I use around the house, but if you’re a pink-ophile who is running into opposition when it comes to splashing your colour choice around the house, surely no one could object to you painting a room pink for charity, right? That would be pretty uncool.

I’m still not sure what colour to paint the stair runner, though. I’m thinking red, maybe? Or grey? Suggestions welcome!

OLD SCHOOL TEA TOWELS

2009-06-22T12:39:00.002+01:00

For all the quirky and trendy patterned tea towels you can buy, I still think you can’t beat the look and functionality of traditional style ones (not to mention the value for money). Don’t get me wrong – I’m not talking about lowest common denominator pound shop tea towels – I mean the high quality, old school sort that chic, rustic restaurants are likely to use in place of napkins. The ones above are available to buy in multipacks from nisbets.ie (Thanks to Mise of Pretty Far West for the tip).

THE GIRL WHO CRIED HECTIC

2009-06-22T11:30:00.006+01:00

Hey all, I hope to find more time for blogging this week, and to launch the new look Homebug too (I’m still making a few tweaks). My excuse whenever I’m behind on things like this, or forget to phone people back, or when the dogs go unwalked, or whenever I’m guilty of the gazillion other scatterbrained things that I’m forever doing is “Oh man, things are a bit hectic at the moment”. The beauty of this excuse is that I always mean it, because I’m the sort of person for whom the slightest hiccup in an otherwise ordinary day is in fact an all-consuming crisis of inconceivable proportions. Yup, I’m pretty sound like that. So anyway, you can only imagine the amount of hand wringing and forehead clutching when things get properly hectic for me, and that’s how it is at the moment, between one thing and another. So please bear with me while I get over my little freak out over the amount of things in our house that have crapped out and stopped working in the last few weeks which we can’t afford to fix or replace, AND the fact that my sister-in-law is coming to live with us in our crap shack as of this week.

Here are some pictures of pretty homes that you can bet don’t give their occupants any grief:

ABOVE : Bathroom via Light Locations - this is my new dream bathroom. I’m kind of over roll top tubs these days, and am much preferring this recession-friendly, oldy fashionedy look; Tiles aren’t generally something I get very excited about, but the teeny, tiny subway tiles in this kitchen via Design Sponge are perfect; just perfect.
ABOVE: Emily Walker’s adorable bungalow via Canadian House & Home.

Beautiful Swedish kitchen via Desire to Inspire.

WHITE CLOUD MOBILE

2009-06-17T13:23:00.003+01:00

Sorry all has been so quiet around Homebug lately. I'm actually planning some hefty changes round here, so I've been doing some behind-the-scenes work on Homebug 2.0. More on that soon, but in the meantime, I'm really loving this pretty little handmade mobile (via Nestled In).

NEW FROM ZARA HOME

2009-06-08T13:31:00.001+01:00

Zara Home has enveiled a lovely and laidback new bedding collection. Its layered, mismatched look and lush colour palette with vibrant ethnic accents are so what I’m all about right now. Yum. Check out the full collection here.

NCAD GRADUATE EXHIBITION

2009-06-08T13:12:00.004+01:00

The National College of Art and Design's graduate exhibitions are currently open to the public until 14th June. Degree and postgrad exhibitions are located on the NCAD Campus at 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8, and Fine Art postgrad exhibitions (MFA and MA) are located at the Digital Hub, James Street, Dublin 8. I haven't had a chance to check 'em out yet, but look forward to doing so this week. Find more info on the NCAD website.

GARDENING WOWS

2009-06-02T23:56:00.009+01:00

Having just looked through previous posts about our garden, I realise that the term "gardening woes" cropped up, eh, a lot. Well, no longer. You can probably consider yourselves lucky that I plum don't have the energy to blather about how happy I am with the work we did in record-breaking heat in our garden this long weekend. Instead, I have a photo story! When I was a kid I always wished I could star in one of Bunty magazine's photo stories, so I'm remorseful that I failed to include myself in any of these photos, but in fairness, it's probably for the best.

Your comments and questions are very much welcomed, but criticisms are not - I'm knackered, please cut me some slack.

ABOVE : Our garden, this time last year- 700 sq ft of 6 ft high weeds (no jokin) pulled, 1 tonne of rubble and crap (again, no jokin) dug out, ground levelled, waiting for more nice weather... We gave up waiting for nice weather and in desperation, seeded the lawn in early November. As frosts don't tend to happen round Dublin till after December, the lawn actually grew well!
ABOVE : Saturday morning. Bedding frames constructed and laid out, some landscaping fabric down, soil rotavated.ABOVE : Saturday morning. "Golden Curls" and "Phoenix Canariensis" trees planted in raised bed made from salvaged railway sleepers.ABOVE : Saturday morning. Ancient garden bench from my Gran's old house waiting to be painted. Ya, I know you can buy these suckers brand new for €40, but I really enjoy sanding years of old paint off furniture, especially after losing my gardening gloves. ABOVE : Saturday morning. Old rocking chair waited to be painted (back of house also waiting to be painted).

ABOVE : Saturday morning. Neighbours' ugly fence. Ugly back of our house. The marquee we got for free. Note the voile curtains on the back windows indoors - they shield from the grim view of the back garden.

ABOVE : Saturday morning. The unfenced back of our garden. Gross. ABOVE : Saturday morning. Polly having a snooze in the shade.

ABOVE : Sunday morning. Gravel down. Steps made from salvaged sleepers. Trip to garden centre completed. Polly snoozing in the sun. Django squinting in the sun.

ABOVE : Sunday morning. Stuff ready for planting - Blue Fescue, Cabbage Palms, Buxus shrubs and Morning Glory.

ABOVE : Sunday morning. More trees and shrubs ready for planting, including snowberry, bamboo, "Burgundy Wine" and "Rose Glow"

ABOVE : Sunday evening, after John planted everything else in the time it took me to paintstakingly align and plant these buxus shrubs. Lit by candles.

ABOVE : Monday morning. Willow screen going up at side and back. Ancient bench painted white. Polly snoozing on the Morning Glory (don't know if that stuff will tolerate a lazy dog continuously flopping down on it. Eh! You live, you learn).

Clearly this isn't the end of our gardening story. As they always said in Bunty "To be continued". Hope everyone else had a relaxing weekend and stayed well clear of the N11- eek!

POOCHIES

2009-05-29T14:49:00.003+01:00

Did you get the feeling that there were a couple of things missing from the photos I posted earlier? Well, here they are, Django and Polly, both doing just dandy. Check out Polly’s collar from Avoca. She is so fancy.

Keep an eye on Homebug next week, when I'll be unveiling pictures of our den.

Have a great long weekend everyone! I have some gardening to do!

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

2009-05-29T10:26:00.003+01:00

It’s been yonks and yonks since I’ve shared pictures of how my house is looking, and there have been a few changes around the place, so how about a peek at the living room today? I do want to point out that I’m not some maniac with nothing better to do than redecorate a recently decorated room – most of the changes in here are replacements of cheap, temporary fixes, such as swapping the bulky, old, rectangular dining table for a circular one that people can actually fit around (we use the new dining table on a daily basis; the old one was hardly ever used because it was just the wrong dimensions to sit at comfortably). I also got rid of that green wall and painted all of the walls in Pavilion Gray by Farrow & Ball – the space feels much more unified with a continuous colour on all the walls.
I’ve mentioned before that I have a real soft spot for Chesterfield sofas. This antique Chesterfield has to be one of my luckiest finds ever. I was having no joy tracking down a vintage Chesterfield on the classified ad sites, so I tried some less obvious search terms. When I searched “old couch” on Gumtree a few months ago, this beauty popped up for just €100! Insane.

I love my painting over the sofa. It came from Galleri NB in Denmark and is by Christina Blaabjerg. I couldn’t afford it when I first saw it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so once I had enough money saved, I had it shipped over from Denmark. The gallery were lovely to deal with!

On the floor is the first rug we’ve ever owned that could stand up to Django and Polly. Take a bow, Ikea’s Alvine Triangel rug. It’s super hard wearing and easy to maintain. Better still, we got ours in Ikea's Bargain Corner for half price (£36.70), which rocks because we were just about to hand over the full price for an identical rug when I spotted it. We finally got a Docksta table in Ikea last year – yes, the one notorious for wobbling. But guess what? Ours doesn’t wobble! It did at first, but John is not one to suffer wobbly tables lightly, so he took it apart and reassembled it using a wrench and now it’s rock solid.

Stay tuned for more later today!

SIDEBOARD REVAMP

2009-05-26T15:00:00.001+01:00

The stylish revamp the vintage sideboard has undergone in this image (featuring another wallpaper from Harlequin’s “Identity” range) really grabbed my attention. I have an old sideboard that I’ve often thought could do with a bit of a design update, but I’ve always thought better of it in case I later regretted mangling a nice piece of vintage wooden furniture. The great thing about the above look is that the easiest way to achieve it inexpensively would be by using contact paper, meaning that it wouldn’t have to be a permanent makeover.

PS: I wouldn’t recommend using contact paper on furniture you love, mind you, as some kinds can be a real pain to remove!

HARLEQUIN "ILLUMINATE" WALLPAPER

2009-05-26T14:54:00.003+01:00

The wallpapers in Harlequin’s latest “Identity” collection have a definite retro influence, and none more so than my favourite design “Illuminate”, which features iconic 20th century lighting such as the Artichoke light. The graphic look of the design and the lovely colourways mean that at £33/€37.60 a roll, it’s a stylish way to give a nod to your favourite design classics without having to fork out a fortune. Buy online from Wallpaper Direct, or click here to find your nearest stockist.

ORLA KIELY OILCLOTH

2009-05-26T13:23:00.003+01:00

New in at UK shop, Tinsmiths - this adorable Orla Kiely-designed oilcloth fabric. Perfect for outdoors dining, or even for ritzing up an old indoor table. The price isn't bad either - £35/€40 per metre.

DONNA WILSON & SCP

2009-05-26T11:12:00.004+01:00

British textile artist Donna Wilson has been at the forefront of the handmade revival in British design for the last number of years, best known for her quirky, whimsical and slightly kitschy toys and blankets. With her new collection for SCP though, Donna has come up with hip, sassy designs that ought to catapult her straight to Design Darling status.

The "Mabel" sofa is made from European hardwood and natural materials, upholstered in a joyful, specially commissioned Donna Wilson patterned linen (approx. €4,000).

The colourful Nos Da collection of woven cushions and blankets tap into the trend for heritage style and traditional craftsmanship – the wool is spun and dyed in England and then woven in Wales by a traditional mill (€68-€315)

For more images, visit the SCP site. SCP products are available to order in Ireland through Inreda.

IRISH TATLER

2009-05-22T12:52:00.007+01:00

Eagle eyed Irish Tatler readers may have noticed a little mention of Homebug in this month’s issue. It marks the beginning of what will hopefully be a beautiful friendship, as I’ll be contributing my interior design musings to future issues, from next month. I’m truly delighted to be working with such a stylish institution – the magazine has been running since 1890!

Stay tuned to Homebug next week, when I’ll be posting some photos of how my house is looking at the mo. There have been some big changes - we have a lot of catching up to do!

In the meantime, below is some interiors inspiration that's floating my boat... a junk style bedroom via Sandbox Studios, an open shelving dream kitchen via Remodelista, and Bertoia chairs and architectural plants make a small decked patio sing via Living Etc.

"COLLECT" BOOKCASE

2009-05-22T11:04:00.001+01:00

“Collect” is a new bookcase designed by Ole Jensen for Normann Copenhagen. It’s zingy colour and oblique, edgy form make it distinctly ‘now’, but this is not just design for design’s sake. As striking as it is in itself, what I love about the “Collect” bookcase is that it’s a thoughtful piece of furniture designed to be a modern display case for nostalgic artifacts.

Designer Ole Jensen explains: "We all have special objects that refresh memories - things that have a meaning and create the pleasure of recognition. It could be anything from a football to a stone found on a walk on a beach. I wanted to design furniture that arouses immediate recognition in both design and use." At €2,700, it’s an investment piece, but certainly one that I can get with. Find your nearest online and offline stores on the Normann Copenhagen website.

BIRDHOUSE PLANTER

2009-05-22T10:58:00.001+01:00

There are plenty of chic birdhouses and birdfeeders around these days, but I’m particularly taken by this cute birdhouse planter by Rian de Schaaf. I think it would look especially cool in a front garden. Fill the planter with colourful, fragrant flowers and birds won’t need any encouragement to set up home above it. It’s new in and exclusive to The Conran Shop, and clocks in at £250/€284. DIY minded folks could probably come up with something similar for far less, though.

IRISH INTERIORS BY PAUL SHERWOOD

2009-05-14T14:19:00.003+01:00

Paul Sherwood is a freelance Irish photographer whose work you’re likely to have seen in House & Home, White Book, Irish Interiors and many more. Paul also works on weddings, graduations and commercial shoots. I had my home photographed by Paul last year and not only did he make it look great, he also has the rare talent of being able to take a picture of me where I don’t look just awful! Paul recently mentioned to me that his website has been revamped, and includes galleries of some lovely Irish interiors. Check it out here. Images above copyright Paul Sherwood.

INTERIOR DESIGN & ART FAIR 2009

2009-05-14T12:35:00.005+01:00

I’m really looking forward to the annual Interior Design & Art Fair, taking place in the RDS, Dublin this weekend, Friday through Sunday. It’s always a must visit for anyone interested in interiors, as it’s unbelievably handy and inspiring to have many of the best names from all across Dublin and Ireland gathered in one place. This year’s show will include an exhibition called the 'Cream of Irish Design', featuring some of Ireland’s leading designers and makers of furniture, lighting, glass and ceramics.

For my review of last year’s highlights, click here – with the exception of Lost Weekend and Minima, those same companies are all displaying at this year’s fair too, so be sure not to miss them.

A few of the other stands I recommend making a stop at are: Ceadogan Rugs – designer and bespoke rugs to die for. DF Home – I love this colourful little shop, which opened last year in St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. They sell gorgeous, high quality designer blankets and cushions, as well as quirky home accessories and gifts. Fabric.ie – a new company specialising in beautiful, beautiful fabrics from Scandinavia and Germany. I’m keen to check their stuff out! Joseph Walsh - I’m so in love with this Irish furniture designer’s ‘Prism’ series.Porcelanosa – amazing modern kitchens. I’ll be picking up some kitchen porn catalogues.

Scotts Flooring – Truly beautiful floors. And the same can be said for The Hardwood Floor Company, who’ll also be at the show.

Homebug designer faves Marcus Newman and Danielle Mac Innes will be knocking around too, as well as Liz Lacumber, who’ll be hosting interior design lectures on Sunday. Visit the ID&A Fair website for the full run-down of the companies taking part in the show.

WHEELIE BIN ART

2009-05-14T10:49:00.003+01:00

Discussing curb appeal on yesterday’s door-painting post, Elaine of Jaboopee mentioned something she finds fugly – wheelie bins in the front garden. It’s true – they look just awful, but for many of us in terraced houses, there’s no way around it unfortunately. A quick online search turned up these cute decals though, and I think they might help to alleviate my wheelie bin woes – the black one with our address printed on it can go on the black wheelie bin, and the green one on the green wheelie bin. Pretty fetching, right? (From €16.70 each)

DOOR TO BE DIFFERENT

2009-05-13T14:26:00.002+01:00

When collecting thrifty tips from interiors experts for the current issue of House and Home magazine, one of stylist Eleanor Harpur’s suggestions hit on a personal obsession of mine - front doors painted in fabulous colours.

When doom and gloom abound, a bright splash of colour is a sure-fire way to perk up your house as well as your mood. Having a timber front door provides the perfect opportunity to be daring with colour and to spread some cheer among neighbours and passers by. Walking down roads such as Dublin city’s Heytesbury Street where almost every front door represents a different colour of the rainbow, there is a lively sense of community and optimism, and I can’t help wondering why this can’t be the case on every road in every county? It seems that some of us have been neglecting our patriotic duty to have brightly painted front doors for tourists to take photographs of, and quite frankly, not living in a city centre Georgian house is no excuse for having a boring front door. Getting to grips with some colourful paint can provide the easy, inexpensive and satisfying facelift that your home needs.

Traditional front door colours like fire engine red, emerald green and cobalt blue are always winners, but consider using cheerful and slightly irreverent colours to really pack a punch; fashionable shades like bright yellow, orange, purple, turquoise, chartreuse and hot pink would all do the trick. Understated Victorian drabs like charcoal, putty and taupe may well be tasteful, but they aren’t exactly going to stop anyone in their tracks - it’s in everyone’s best interest to ditch them in favour of colours that turn heads.

1. Remove door hardware such as handles, knocker and letterbox. Use masking tape to tape over any hardware that cannot be removed.

2. Scrape off flaking paint and apply filler to any holes, then use sandpaper to smooth the surface. If your door already has gloss paint, use medium grade sandpaper to flatten the sheen.

3. If your door has not been painted before, apply a layer of aluminium-based primer to it and allow to dry.

4. Use a satin, eggshell or gloss paint suitable for outdoor use (gloss paint will be the most hard-wearing). Always paint in the same direction as the grain, and paint the side closest to the handle last, to enable you to open and close the door while you work. Start with the panels, and then paint the rails and stiles. Take care not to use too much paint or it will pool in the grooves and drip. Instead use a light first coat and reapply a second coat.

5. When the first coat is dry, rub down with fine sandpaper before applying another coat of paint in the same way.

6. Sit back and wait for your bold entrance to inspire your neighbours to follow suit!

TOP 10 : SUMMER BED LINEN

2009-05-13T13:29:00.004+01:00

Homebug reader Clare got in touch to see if I had any suggestions for cheery, colourful bed linen for summer, particularly with an emphasis on sunshine yellow. A quick gander online turned up these jolly candidates…

Marimekko 'Unikko' bed linen from Scandinavian Design Center - €96.06; Handprinted butterfly bed linen from German Etsy seller Jodii - €72.78Orla Kiely 'Blossom' bedding from Dotmaison - from €67

Orla Kiely 'Multi Stem' bedding from Dotmaison - from €67

'Eden Canelle' bed linen by Jalla from Dotmaison - from €79;

Betty Jackson bed linen for Debenhams - not currently available online, but check in store.

'Flores' bed linen from Zara Home - from €34.90

'Klimt' bed linen by Clarissa Hulse from House of Fraser - from €67

Zig Zag bed linen from Argos - €14.25 (I love how very Missoni this is, and for such a teeny tiny price! Bargain!)

Palika bed linen from Argos - €21.83 (another gem from the laminated book of dreams. This time, with a distinct Anthropologie look).

Where’s your favourite spot to buy bed linen? Have you seen any gorgeous, summery bed linen that we should know about?

CECELIA FABRIC

2009-05-12T15:14:00.002+01:00

I’m adding this whole range of pretty new “Cecilia” fabric to my Ikea shopping list. Seriously, at £1.99/€2.22 a metre, how could you not? It’s only 10 weeks until the Dublin branch opens for business, but I think I’ll probably take a trip to Belfast in the meantime all the same – I don’t think I can wait any longer to buy some cheap garden furniture. It’s sunny now!

NEW COLOURS FOR EAMES

2009-05-12T15:02:00.004+01:00

Furniture manufacturer Vitra have updated the range of colours that their plastic Eames chairs are available in. Gone are the pastel and candy coloured rocking chairs; replaced with stronger colours that are a bit more ‘now’, such as black, grey, mustard, teal and tomato red. The new colour range gets a thumbs up from me, but considering my own home is saturated with vivid, girly hues, I’m relieved that I got my lime yellow rocking chair before they were discontinued (Although! That particular shade is still available from Einrichten Design for a limited period at a reduced price of €353). Check out the new Eames colour ranges on the Vitra website here and here. Eames chairs are available in Ireland from Haus.

SUMMERY

2009-05-08T13:54:00.002+01:00

Here’s a couple of colourful, summery interiors from my inspiration file to bring us into what will hopefully be a lovely weekend. Annie Schlecter’s wonderful white and yellow kitchen via Design Crisis, and a funky living room via Amtico Flooring (we had been considering Amtico for downstairs in our house before deciding that it’s just way too expensive for something that ultimately looks a bit cheap! The website has some nicely styled shots though.)

Have a great weekend!