Coco Chanel style – how to create a Chanel-inspired home
Sunday marked what would have been Coco Chanel’s 129th birthday, and despite dying in 1971 her legacy still lives on. Coco was a pioneer in the world of fashion with a colourful and exuberant character. Her iconic designs from the boucle jacket, the classic quilted bag and strings of pearls still remain relevant today and... Read more...
The nautical touch
As the sun has finally come out and I’m about to escape to the beach on holiday, I’m loving the nautical trend this week. It’s versatile and brings a happy holiday feel to any room – and if you get it right, the accessories you use to create the look won’t date the same way... Read more...
Colour recipe – the Toadfool special
Over the last few posts I’ve presented how I do monochromatic, analagous and complementary colour schemes. These are standard schemes you can read about in many places but I hope I have added a little zest by emphasizing that saturation and value are as important as colour. Today we’ll do a recipe that covers all... Read more...
Designer Lorna Syson inspires us with her summer brights
I look forward to summer all year round – and this year I am preparing my home so I can embrace the sun whilst we have it. Here are my top tips for summer products to make your home feel fresh in time for that summer BBQ. One of the simplest and cheapest ways of... Read more...
Display your treasures in style
I often have a desire to update my space and make it newly beautiful, which quickly leads to having ‘a bit of a sort out’ and many a formerly-loved knick knack heads to the charity shop. The silver lining is that I have rediscovered, amongst the junk, a few forgotten gems and now have the... Read more...
How to beautify your home with brocade
When it comes to updating your home, using a neutral colour palette is the safest and most reliable way to achieve a new look. There are many ways to renew your decor, including dressing your room with fabulous furniture and accessories. Brocade is highly popular at the moment within the world of fashion – broderie... Read more...
Colour recipe – analogous colour scheme
Now that we are confident with designing colour schemes based on a single colour (in my previous posts I used red and blue-green), let’s move on to other colour recipes using multiple colours. The simplest way is to use colours which are close to each other on the colour wheel. These are called analogous colour schemes.... Read more...
Leaf, Bough and Blossom – celebrate the start of spring with Vintage influences
May began this week, officially bringing the start of Spring. I don’t know about you, but I’d quite like the weather to catch up and realise this fact! Instead of celebrating outdoors amongst the flora and fauna, why don’t we bring the May Day celebrations inside the home this year? Historically at this time, according... Read more...
Vintage up your boudoir
With a lot of people leaning towards a more vintage romantic feel for their bedrooms at the moment I thought I would base today’s post on how to achieve this look. Vintage is all about soft colours, delicate patterns and textured fabrics – all of which bring an instant romantic feel to a bedroom. This... Read more...
How to create a tropical paradise in your home
The ultimate spring and summer 2012 trend has to be Tropical Delights, as seen on countless recent catwalks. The stunning florals and turquoise blues featured in these shows also look fabulous within the home. An array of island colours such as yellow, green and pink can brighten and enlarge rooms. Tropical Delights has been a... Read more...
Entertain in style, whatever the size of your home
As the warmer weather approaches we all like to escape from our winter layers and start to entertain more. Many homes these days do not have the luxury of a designated dining room but this shouldn’t stop you from catching up with friends. Today we are looking at some ways to allow you to entertain... Read more...
How to design a monochromatic room
Last time I wrote for mydeco.com we built a monochromatic (single colour) scheme using cushions based on red. Today, let’s do a whole room with one of my favourite colours - blue-green. Where I live in Australia is soaked in blue-green, no wonder it’s a favourite of mine. Here are some lovely Dulux blue-greens to... Read more...
