2011 Colour Of The Year!

06-Jan-11

The Pantone Colour Institute, the authority on all things colourful for fashion and interior design predicts that this year's hue that will be appearing on our walls and home accessories will be honeysuckle, a shade which is neither pink nor orange nor red, but an amalgamation of all three. "In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits," explains Pantone's colour report. "Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating colour, that gets the adrenalin going – perfect to ward off the blues." Colour therapist Lilian Verner Bonds, president of the International Association of Colour, says honeysuckle is "the least stressful colour" for walls. "It is a very cheering colour, and it's not a mono-colour. There are lots and lots of shades of honeysuckle, depending on whether the red or the pink or even the yellow tinge is brighter. So you can have it as bright and as warm as you like, or as a soft blush which is gently comforting."

 

 

We're All HEART!

27-Mar-10

We've had so many requests for HEART themed vintage and shabby chic decorative accessories over the last few months, so we are really pleased that our first stocks have started to arrive and we have some lovely items of stock ready to whet your HEARTY appetites! We're now featuring shabby chic heart oven gloves, vintage style heart egg racks heart kitchen roll holders, shabby chic heart door stops and some lovely decorative padded hanging hearts which look really pretty hanging from kitchen door knobs. Still to come we will shortly be featuring shabby chic heart key boxes, wooden sweetheart trugs and cutlery boxes as well as heart shape kitchen memo boards. So please keep popping back to our website to check.

 

 

Shabby Chic

18-Mar-10

Shabby chic is a term used in interior design where furniture and furnishings are either chosen for their age and signs of wear and tear or new items are distressed to achieve the appearance of an antique or vintage piece of furniture. The level of distressing can vary and is a matter of personal taste. The term was coined by The World of Interiors magazine in the 1980s and became extremely popular in the US in the '90s with the revival of cult boho films such as Chocolat, Moulin Rouge! Shabby chic caught on in the UK with television programmes such as changing rooms and numerous others who followed in their footsteps. Whilst many interior designers will argue that shabby chic has had its day, it's a look that remains popular and let's face it, whether it's an original antique or a reproduction piece of furniture, if you like it then who cares what's in or out! One thing for sure, shabby chic furniture is timeless.

 

 

What Does Rococo Mean?

27-Sep-09

Many of the products we sell have French influences and if you've only just discovered French style furniture and home decor, then you may be wondering what some of the terms mean. For instance, what does Rococo style mirror actually mean? Rococo is a style of art, particularly architecture and decorative art, that originated in France in the early 18th century. The Rococo style tends to be marked by elaborate ornamentation, perhaps with intricate scrolls, foliage and sometimes animal forms. So if you see a mirror described as Rococo style, you might see some intricate carved detailing, possibly swags of vine leaves and maybe a cherub or two. The Rococo style is also known as Baroque and the two are commonly used today to describe a reproduction piece of French furniture from this era.