Ben & Phoebe's Daybed

I recently helped my cousin and his gorgeous fiance {they just got engaged on the weekend} with the cushioning on this lovely daybed which they purchased from Cotswold for their beach house. We selected an array of brightly coloured exterior fabrics for the scatter cushions and a trusty navy and white stripe exterior fabric for the seat cushions and voila this is the result. I just love it and apparently they do too!!

Absolutely In Love With...

I am always on the hunt for new, exciting, beautiful fabrics as fabric is my starting point for the rooms/homes I design. We have just received some absolutely beautiful new fabrics in and I must admit I am completely smitten with this orchid fabric. My favourite colourway is this one above but it doesn't work with my current wall colour at the new house. As painting the house {which is going to be a mamouth cost} is not yet on the agenda I am going to have to work with the existing colours which are all very heritage!! So I am going to cover a couple of old chairs I have in the yellow colourway which you can see peeping through underneath...it's very beautiful too but that pink is just to die for, don't you think?!!

Teena's Office

I thought I'd post some photos of an office I just completed for one of my clients as above. The factory lights came from an old factory in South Australia. I actually purchased about 20 of these lights in an auction and have installed some into our new Design Studio as well. Teena fell in love the the MC Pagoda fabric so I worked up a scheme around it for her. The desk skirt is one of my favourite things in this office. It works so well and hides ugly computer equipment which is stored underneath...

New Window Display

We installed a fresh new window display at the shop this afternoon. The pretty blue, yellow, green and white floral fabric in the background is a current favourite. We teamed it with some classic blue and white lamps, fresh bright yellow roses and a set of Antique Victorian jugs. Over the next few weeks we have lots of lovely new things arriving which is always very exciting!!

Big & Bold in 2010

Sonia Arriola's report on this years Maison et Objet in Paris reveals that a trend for large scale prints, bold colour pairings, denim blue, and neutrals that shimmer will be all the rage in 2010. I loved this image she shared on her flickr of some curtains hanging in the Dedar showroom in Paris...the fabric was apparently created to represent a digital print. To me they even look a bit ikatish!

Image - Katherine Kostreva

Clayfield House

Here are a couple of photos of a job I have been working on over at Clayfield. I thoroughly enjoyed working for this lovely couple and their 2 young children. The floral armchairs we made are my favourite thing in this house and work beautifully with the colourful Chinese drum stool which we placed next to the slip covered sofa.

Spring Has Sprung...

It's the first day of Spring here in Australia and it's my Wedding Anniversary so here are some florals on florals on florals from an old Vogue Living article to celebrate...

Fabric Deja Vu

I knew I had seen that gorgeous Christopher Farr fabric before when I opened up my copy of this month's Vogue Living and spotted those beautiful chairs on the cover by designer Darryl Gordon. When I stayed at the Haymarket Hotel in London last year that fabric was used by owner & designer Kit Kemp en masse in the foyer of the hotel. It's such a fresh and vibrant fabric and looks so beautiful on those chairs on the cover of VL. I thought I would show you a few photos I snapped last year of the fabric and how it was used at the Haymarket.

Image 1, 2, 3 - Anna Spiro, Image 4 - Vogue Living

Loving Right Now

1. Stripes on the diagonal.

2. Iron railings painted white gloss.

For me it's the details which can make or break a project. The right details can turn something ordinary into something extroadinary. Here are a couple of details I am loving right now.

image 1 - via fric and frac blog, image 2 - anna spiro

More Flowers

Following on from Tuesday's post here are some more flower images we have been using to inspire us at Black & Spiro lately.

Image 1 - book source, Image 2 - Vogue Living

Flowers Flowers Everywhere

I for one am thrilled with the abundance of floral designs popping up here, there and everywhere. I have been collecting a lot of floral images lately as we are about to embark on a very floral inspired look at Black & Spiro in the coming months. This week I thought I would share with you a few images which we have been using as inspiration for our new look. Maybe they might help you to be inspired too.


Image 1, 2, 3 - Vogue Living - Photographed by Mikkel Vang, Styled by Christine Rudolph

Image 4 - Veranda Magazine - Photographed by Mick Hayles, Styled by Sylvie Becquet

Black & Spiro Today

Some more lovely things have arrived in the shop this week. My favourite piece is the Antique chest of drawers which you can just see the top of in the picture above. I snapped this terrible hazy picture as I was racing out of the shop tonight. We also have some really beautiful blue and white and orange and white ginger jars back in stock too for those who have been enquiring.

Black & Spiro Today

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of the shop so I thought I would post some today. We have some lovely new pieces in at the moment including some beautiful vintage/antique pieces.

Friday Flowers

Here are some pretty pale pink roses which I placed on the chest of drawers in our bedroom this morning. They look so pretty with my bedroom curtains and Harry's little love heart drawing he did for me a while ago. I am looking forward to the long weekend which will hopefully be full of sleep-ins, breakfasts with my boys, videos, snuggling, morning walks, cooking, magazine reading and of course cuddles with Ned. Hope you get to do all of the things you want to do this weekend. See you next week!

More Pretty Vintage Style

Another great example of pretty vintage style above. So many lovely things in this photo. I adore the red and white stripe armchair with the floral cushions and the white cane table displaying lots of gorgeous things is divine.


Image - Country Homes & Interiors via Brambourne Farm

My Fabric Obsession

Anyone who knows me well knows I am obsessed with beautiful fabrics. For me, fabric is the starting point of any room design. I am continually falling in love with new fabrics I find. Whenever I find something I truly love I buy at least one meter to keep on file so that when I show clients I have a large piece to show them how beautiful the fabric really is. The small pieces in the sample books just don't do the fabrics justice. I thought I would show you a few fabrics I am currently absolutely in love with.

Historically Inaccurate

Beautiful fabric is obviously a passion of mine. Mostly I love patterned linens. I also love embroidered/crewel fabrics. So when I stumbled across Richard's work over at Historically Inaccurate I was beside myself...two of my favourite things joined together in one fabric...embroidery and patterned linen.

Richard embroiders his designs onto Toile fabrics in brightly coloured cottons. I absolutely adore his work which gives fresh appeal to a fabric with roots dating back to the mid 1700's.

This might just be the perfect choice for a small vintage chair I have at home which desperately needs recovering.

I Love Bows

I have this thing for bows. I can't help it. I just love them. So you can imagine how excited I was last month when I saw the new release Designers Guild fabric & wallpaper collection ...there's a bow fabric {see image below} in the new collection which I am completely in love with. We have ordered it for our windows at Black & Spiro...I can hardly wait for its arrival!!

Image 1 & 2 - Flickr; Image 3 & 4 - Designers Guild

Black & Spiro January Window

Here's a little snippet of our Black & Spiro January window display. It's bright and fresh and Summery. This Cockatoo floral is certainly a current fabric obsession of mine. I'm very excited as one of my lovely clients has just approved my selection of this divine fabric for curtains in their sitting room....they completely and utterly love it too and can hardly wait for the curtains to be installed....I must say I can't wait either!!

Black & Spiro Today

Here's a little sneak peek of a display we have been working on in the shop today. I'll post some more pictures tonight. We have finally created an artwork cluster wall in the shop after months and months of collecting paintings!!