Decluttering

DECLUTTERING

It may seem a strange time of year to be talking about decluttering, with everyone in holiday shopping mode, but stick with me!  I have found myself in a situation where I have had to declutter, and remembered that I am a hoarder of paper; magazines, catalogs, letters, and cards. Maybe it was because I was tired of seeing all this paper lying around, that it was easy to give it the heave-ho. I had a rule that I could not leave the house without taking an armload of paper to dispose of with me.  It was a relief to haul armloads of work brochures (after inputting into my database) and outdated magazines to the recycle bin.  Now that I have gone through that process, I am rethinking my holiday gift list to include items to wear and consumables so as not to be adding to landfill or the reject pile in a couple of months time!  As well, it feels good to prepare for a new year with a clean slate.

One common thread with my clients this year is that they were all battling clutter. Families collect things along with the changing needs of children.  Add multiple children to the mix and the pile grows.  Everyone had the same look of exasperation on their face when they said they were still weeding through the piles of accumulated stuff.  (Though you don't need to be a family to collect stuff; see above!)  When we hold onto stuff, we hold onto memories. I had a purse that I bought at the very time something sad and painful happened in my life. Every time I looked at it, it took me back to that place in time. Donating it was a weight lifted.

I have been slowly working my way through the bestselling Marie Kondo book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  It can be a bit flaky in places, such as running your hands over your clothes to incite joy (!). I am sticking with it, however, as there are a lot of truths about the things we hold on to and how it weighs us down.  I plan to start recommending it to all my clients prior to starting a project... get them inspired to clear out the excess and create a new, relaxing space, with less clutter.

I still have a long way to go with my cleaning and organisation, but this is what I have learned so far:

- Buy quality items that will last the duration and not end up in landfill in a year's time
- Input supplier data for work into the database following a trade show, and then recycle the brochure (if I even need to take paperwork at all!),
- No impulse buys but to think twice about the items coming into the house: are they necessary and is there a home for it,
- Read more magazines and books in the iPad?
- Plan and measure for any new furniture purchases
- Less IS more!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have consumable Christmas gifts to buy!

Lighting Inspiration

LIGHTING INSPIRATION

Just as humans don't look their best in direct, overhead light, neither do the rooms in your home!  General lighting works well when you are performing a job where you need to see properly, such as cleaning, cooking or doing laundry.  However, for more flattering light for your rooms (and you!), use a combination of light sources instead of overhead lights.  Layering your lighting will create mood and personality in your space. 

Floor Lamps: Look for an interesting floor lamp that will create visual interest when not on, as well as lighting dark corners at night.  Floor lamps also work well as task lighting over a couch, if you want to do away with a side table and table lamp option.  Click here for more floor lamp options.

Pendant Lights:  These lights work well for task lighting, and look great when installed in multiples over a kitchen island, such as this fabulous industrial copper pendant.

Clamp Lamp: The challenge in designing children's rooms, is how to get reading lights beside the bed, when the bed is a bunk bed!?  Enter the gooseneck clamp lamp, which attaches to the side of the bed and can be adjusted for easy reading.

Desk Lamps: Obviously, these lamps work well on desks!  You can also mix it up and place small desk lamps in such spots as bookcases and side tables to light up unexpected places on dark days.

Table Lamps: You will often find table lamps on side tables in living areas and bedrooms.  Add one to a console table at your front entrance to create a welcome mood for guests; such as this sweet little retro lamp with timber detailing.

Wall Sconces: Sometimes overlooked, wall sconces are a good option in bedrooms as reading lights when floor space is limited.  Look for wall mounted options, and you won't have to have an electrician install them for you.

For more lighting options for your home, you can visit the Temple and Webster lighting page here.

This is a sponsored post by Temple and Webster.  Regardless, I only recommend products and services I am familiar with and believe will be good for my readers.

Master Bath Renovation

MASTER BATHROOM RENOVATION

A tired master bathroom was in dire need of an update.  The last remaining redeeming feature was a shower head with great water pressure.  Everything had to go!  As the room was small to begin with, the closet in the room on the other side of the wall was sacrificed in order to extend the shower wall to create a walk-in shower.  A review of the layout determined that the fixture locations did not need to be relocated, which can end up being a costly exercise. The vanity with the large sink, yet narrow cabinet was replaced with a wall hung vanity/sink combo with more counter space, drawers for storage and easy cleaning.  The wall hung cabinet creates illusion of larger floor space underneath. 

The client wanted to keep the design clean and classic; and loved the marble herringbone tile, as used in old hotels, which are known for their long-term durability.  I was looking for a simple wall tile that was not glazed, and would not compete with the marble herringbone on the wall behind the shower, so was happy to locate a 150 x 600 matte white wall tile.  Originally, the marble herringbone was going to go on the long wall opposite the entry, and across the floor.  I was never settled on the tile extending across the floor, and after a hiccup with the supplier, we revisited the floor tile and opted for a 600 x 600 concrete floor tile instead.  As well as a cost-savings, this allowed us to do white grout on the walls and grey grout on the floors; which is practical from a maintenance perspective.

Items such as shower fixtures, towel rails, faucet function, toilet design, can be a matter of personal preference.  On this project, the client was able to source these items with the floor plan, concept and a little design consultancy!

There are many things to take into consideration when renovating a bathroom, but with considered pre-planning, this bathroom was constructed in just over three weeks.  A stark contrast to a previous bathroom renovation where the client had to hand-hold the contractor for close to six months!

Bathroom before

Floor Plans

Concept Image

Bathroom Render

After

After

After

After

After

After

All images © Donna Vercoe

Marion Hall Best Interiors

MARION HALL BEST INTERIORS

Wandering through the new Marion Hall Best exhibit at the Museum of Sydney; looking at the displays and videos and learning more about her life, I wished Marion Hall Best still had her store on Queen Street in Woollahra.  It looked amazing... bolts of brightly coloured fabric lined to the ceiling, stunning glassware, art on the walls.  I had first learned about Best when studying design, and we went to the Caroline Simpson Library and Reseach Collection at The Mint (part of Sydney Living Museums).  An archival drawer was pulled out, and there was a floor plan that Best had marked up with colour and print.  Coming from a construction background, I thought it very cool that you could jazz up a blueprint in such a manner.  I was quite pleased to see this floor plan is up on the wall in the exhibit for all to inspect!

Marion Hall Best was a pioneer interior designer who had a hand in introducing moderism to Sydney.  Starting in the late 1930s and continuing through to the 1970s, Best operated an interior design firm, as well as two stores: one in Woollahra and one in Sydney city.  With the myriad design courses available today, it is hard to believe that no such course was available to Best when she went back to school to educate herself in design in the 1930s.  She took a combination of art classes, architecture classes and a correspondence course in interior design through a school in New York.  In 1951, she was the founding member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia. 

Marion Hall Best's interiors are identifiable by her unique use of colour in three dimensions and modern furniture.  She would go on research trips overseas, bringing back her finds for both her clients and her stores. She used international designers as Eero Aarnio (whose ball chair you see in the 1967 Room for Mary Quant), Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, Walter Plather for Knoll.  Locally, she used furniture designs by Gordon Andrews, Clemet Meadmore and Roger McLay. 

Marion Hall Best is described by those who knew her as generous, kind, energetic, immaculately dressed, liked to share, embraced all that was new, loved theatre, music and the arts, and drew out the best in her employees.  An avid promoter of artists, she displayed their artwork on her walls, and had gallery events in her stores. 

The exhibit is full of wonderful details of her life and design: of the textile design extension of her business, how she created the brightly coloured glazed walls in her schemes, a collection of Marimekko print dresses (which became the unofficial uniform of those who worked with her), pieces of modern furniture that were used in her designs, and a lovely film of interviews with the women who worked alongside her and give an account of the amazingly talented woman she was.

The Marion Hall Best Interiors exhibit is on now at the Museum of Sydney (part of Sydney Living Museums) as part of the Modernist Season. It is a companion exhibit to The Moderns, so you can check out both at the same time. For more on the exhibit, click here for the museum's website.

Further reading on Marion Hall Best can be found here.

Paddington store - interior

Jim Thompson silk sample book

Floor plan indicating use of colour and materials

Demonstration of Marion Hall Best's design method

Image showing Marion Hall Best's unique colour glazed walls

Tools used for colour glazing

Bamboo window treatments with items sourced from overseas

Marimekko fabric and dresses, with Gordon Andrew's 'Rondo' chair upholstered in Alexander Girard 'Checker' fabric.

All photography copyright Donna Vercoe

Cherry Blossoms

CHERRY BLOSSOMS | AUBURN

Every August, I mean to check out the cherry blossom festival at the Auburn Botanic Gardens.  There's a small window in which to view them, so I just decided to do it today.  Am I glad I did... I miss the cherry blossoms in the Northern Hemisphere spring.  Having lived in a suburb of Vancouver most of my life, I had taken it for granted the beautiful blooms that brighten the gloomy sky every spring.  The softer, delicate blossoms arrived in March, followed by a larger, brighter variety in May. (Apologies for lack of botanical names!)  While in Canada, I only had to journey a neighbourhood over to witness the huge amazing trees lining the street; here in Sydney, it is a 45 minute drive west to see the blooms; and in August because we are upside down!  Today was meant to be a quieter day for photographers to enjoy the blooms, as it gets busy on the weekends.  It will be open two more days this week: 23 and 25 August 2017 as quieter days, before a festival again this weekend (26-27 August); complete with Japanese food trucks, and on-stage entertainment.

Visit Concrete Playground or Auburn Botanic Gardens for more details.

All images © Donna Vercoe.