Knitted stools

What a great way to introduce some colour and texture in a room with these knitted stools. Artist/designer Claire-Anne O'Brien is the clever lady responsible for these cute/comphy/colourful/texture-ful designs.

Check out her website to see the entire collection.

Elle Decoration Sweden

Loving the colours in this space - now excuse me while I go throw some more cushions on my couch.

Print on print fantastic-ness

Print on print fantastic-ness from Liberty's of London.

In the LOOP

I just joined the LOOP project - a super online space for creatives to get together and share their portfolios. Check out my profile here ||| Claire Larritt-Evans |||

Photo wall

Inspiration for a photo wall in a residential job.

IMAGE: Via Emma's Design Blog.

||Can't stop||

Cant.Stop.Thinking.About.Tiles. Must work into a concept soon.

IMAGE: Sweedish magazine RES

||Yellow stool||

Customised yellow stool, ready for installation tomorrow in a residential job.

||West Egg Cafe||

West Egg Cafe in Atlanta, loving the part school house/industrial vibe.

IMAGES: West Egg Cafe

Interior Design: Square Feet Studio

New directions in food styling||

So I've been noticing a new trend emerging in the world of food styling that sees the ingredients styled in a minimal fashion. I first saw it in the Ikea "Home baked is best" cookbook and then again today by Melbourne ice-cream makers Connoisseur.

I do think it's a clever, fresh and unique way of styling the ingredients, I do think it looks good. But it doesn't have that yum factor, that "I want to eat it feeling". It's a strange choice for a "Home baked is best" title - so very stylised - so very unlike baking at home. What I love about baking is the fun mess you get to make, licking bowls, dipping your fingers in - it's all about mess to me!

Client: IKEA, Joel Idén
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Art directors: Staffan Lamm, Christoffer Persson
Copywriters: Fredrik Jansson, Anders Hegerfors
Account director: Susanna Fagring
Account manager: Ewa Edlund
Photographer: Carl Kleiner / Agent Bauer
Retouching: F&B Factory, Henrik Lagerberg
Stylist: Evelina Bratell

As an ex Account Manager who managed major ice-cream brands I do know too well how difficult it is to photograph ice-cream. So much so a lot of the time, we would use fake 'ice-cream'. Perhaps it was this difficulty or just a brave Brand Manager wanting to shake up the category - but here are the results of a collaboration between Melbourne ice-cream company Connoisseur, London photographer Nadav Kander and British set designer Hana Al Sayed - apparently this is ice-cream. Again whilst the images are beautiful, does it make me want to rush out and buy an ice-cream, no not really.

Caramel Honey Macadamia, featuring a teetering block of macadamia nuts and precariously placed honey

Classic Vanilla featuring Madagascan Vanilla Beans strung together to create a hanging wall-like sculpture

Urban archeology

Mrs de Florian Parisian apartment, uncovered after 71 years of silence.

Look at that stuffed ostrich - it predates the 1900's

I just read about this apartment in Paris that had been left untouched for 71 years. The owner of the apartment Mrs de Florian fled Paris to the South of France at the beginning of World War II and never returned. It turns out the rent had been paid for all this time - so no one ever noticed it was uninhabited. The owner died recently and whilst settling her estate her lawyers entered her apartment for this first time in 71 years and found it full of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. Imagine that - a whole lifetime, all those years a lonely apartment in the middle of Paris, filled with this woman's life story - or at least the beginning of it. Now in death her home has life once more.

I think the magic of this story is the human element, that a young woman fled her home in times of war and never returned for reasons no one knows. The other side to the story surrounds the Boldini painting.

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist’s former muse and whose granddaughter it was who had left the flat uninhabited for more than half a century. The expert called in to do the inventory of the apartment had a hunch the painting was by Boldini, but could find no record of the painting. “No reference book dedicated to Boldini mentioned the tableau, which was never exhibited,” said Marc Ottavi, the art specialist he consulted about the work.

Then Ottavi found a visiting card with a scribbled love note from Boldini. “We had the link and I was sure at that moment that it was indeed a very fine Boldini”. He finally found a reference to the work in a book by the artist’s widow, which said it was painted in 1898 when Miss de Florians grandmother was 24. The painting recently went up for auction with a starting price of €300,000 but it rocketed as ten bidders vyed for the historic work. Finally it went under the hammer for €2.1 million. What an amazing story.

Artist Boldini whose painting recently sold for a record €2.1 million.

Skinflint reclaimed lighting

Industrial pendants from a former Czechoslovakian factory

Imposing enamelled steel and aluminum factory shades from the south of the former Czechoslovakia

Shades from a factory within the former Eastern Germany. Circa 1950.

When I need lighting, I turn to Skinflint. Chris and team at Skinflint are super dooper lighting enthusiasts whose enviable task is to scour Europe reclaiming unloved and forgotten lights from factories, hospitals, ships, you name it. If its out there, they'll find it and bring it back to life.

They specialise in lighting that is simple and clean lined predominantly from 1900-1960. They're based in Cornwall in the UK, but shopping online is too easy with detailed spec sheets and a nice little rundown of where the pieces have been sourced from they ship world wide (not as exxy as you think).

Here's some of the goodness they have on hand at the moment, can you tell that I'm sourcing black pendants?!

IMAGES: Skinflint

Antiques Roadshow

Antique goodies at Granny's

Who doesn't love the Antiques Roadshow? The suspense, the finds, the disappointment and oooh the history. You can get a little local Roadshow treatment at the Caulfield Town Hall on Wednesday 27 October.

Lester DeVere will be there talking all things antiques, Lester has worked in the antique trade for more than 25 years and will provide evaluations of antique items and collectibles brought in by the public. So if you've always wondered what that long held family item might be worth - get involved. He will also give advice on collecting and the pitfalls of buying and selling through antique auctions.


Antiques Roadshow Seminar
2pm–4pm
Glen Eira Town Hall — Caulfield Cup Room, corner Glen Eira and Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield
Appraisals are $5 per item, paid on the day, with a limit of one per person.
Bookings are required and can be made at any library branch or by phoning 9524 3623