So in love with Olioboard – vote now

Oh I am so in love with Olioboard. I sometimes find moodboards a bit clumsy. They remind me of primary school. They are fun, but I never think they look particularly professional. Then I read about Olioboard on Apartment Therapy and wowzers – how cool! Glue and scissors no more!

Check out the below real life comparison and vote on which you prefer!

This is a client brief I have for a house in Sydney. The client has an classic heritage house at the front and is building a new wing out the back which is totally modern, concrete floors, high ceilings, clean lines. She wants to fuse the new with the old. She likes the house to be neat but not sterile, and wants to inject personality through her furnishings.

Exhibit A – the original mood board I created the old paper and scissors way…

Exhibit B – my new Olioboard version of the same client brief.

I’d love to hear your comments on which one you like better – the original or the olioboard version??

Tree Inspiration – living in the canopy

I have been dying to write a post about tree houses. One day, in my wildest dreams, I am going to build one of these for myself… but in the meantime, I can just just fuel my imagination….

Yellow Treehouse Restaurant – Auckland – a Fairytale restaurant 10m up a redwood tree.

 

Some great treehouse articles on the busyboo design blog include the Bubble Treehouse:

Enchanted structures by Japanese master treehouse builder Takashi Kobayashi – commissioned by Nestle for a commercial:

Or the African Treehouse lodge in South Africa with wonderful outdoor bathroom:

 

Free Spirit Spheres – built by Canadian Tom Chudleigh which are suspended from the trees. You can buy them and move them to your own location or stay the night in one for between $125 - $175pn and feel the gentle rocking in the wind for yourself:

Or the O2 Sustainable Treehouse inspired by a Japanese lantern and built from sustainable materials with no bolts or nuts so it doesn’t hurt the tree. They can be ordered as a self installing kit.

Check out one of the world leaders in treehouses – the Baumraun Cooperative have designed and built projects all over the world. Order your own made to order treehouse:

Some companies are set up to build treehouses for personal use, for studios or hideaways and will build them to your requirements like US firms Treehouse Workshop or the Living Treehouse, as well as retreats and tree homes:

Treehouses can form guestrooms or family rooms as an extended part of the main house like this one outside Salzberg as featured on Wallpaper.com.

 4Treeshouse created by Studiolukaszkos in Canada – suspended around 4 trees and designed to sway with them – built across 3 floors:

Swedish architects Tham & Vedegard Architects Tree Hotel

Do a search for treehouse and you will be surprised what amazing, inspirational homes and places you will find that captivates your imagination…. I know I was blown away.

My review of Lifeinstyle Sydney this weekend

I had a brilliant time at life instyle this weekend, seeing all the clever products, homewares, textiles, prints, fabrics, cushions, jewellery that artists & designers all over Australia and worldwide create. As usual there was a lot to see, but I thought I would focus on a few of my favourites – can’t wait to buy/resell/recommend them for future projects…

First up Bholu. Well I got to meet the bubbly Jodie Fried in person and she was so inspirational and spent at least 20 fabulous minutes chatting about her life, her creative ventures and her schools in India. (If your read this Jodie – thank you so much!) See my other articles on Bholu textiles and her new range of wallpapers from Porters Paints which were on display! Nice!

OK next up textile designers that caught my eye was Tinker from Melbourne. They had a lovely range of hand printed items in subdued lemons, taupe and blues, both floral and geometric prints. They seemed more than happy to please and will do customised and one off sales of items for designers with cushions, throws, pouffes, wallpapers and napery items in their range:

There was a lot of bed linen and importers, makers of lovely throws, covers and bedspreads, but those that really caught my eye are from Bianca Lorenne of New Zealand. She makes a range which is high quality, French inspired and the fabrics are so soft and tactile that you want to buy them all – but you better be quick as they are all limited editions. Nice creams, whites, pale blue-grey. Very feminine but not in a flowery way that a man would groan at.

Also from New Zealand architect Andrew Johnston of Thatch was a great range of flat packed light shades…

Very quaint but also convenient to send to friends overseas as presents! Lovely for kids rooms.

Now let’s not overlook the obvious style leaders; those Scandinavians who had a lot of beautiful products and designs everywhere – how can such a small country have so many great products and designers? Or is it just that those northern European designs, lots of white and black, bright colours, clean lines appeal to me most? Things that caught my eye:

There was a lovely range of practical, functional yet fashionable products on sale from Nordic Designs Home including their Monster Collection by the clever Karin Mannerstahl whose bright colours and bold prints brighten up home all over Europe:

Jacquard fabrics by the clever Swedish designer HildaHilda. I loved her prints because they are bold but not gaudy but can adapt to both children or adults rooms. The colours are happy but lots of tinted greens, reds, blues make them versatile in the home…

 

HildaHilda distributed by Coris who also sell the bright coloured weaves of Barefoot Linen by Sri Lankan designer Barabara Sansoni.

Last but not least, the sustainable, renewable range of wonderful kitchen and home use products from Bambu. made from you guessed it - bamboo by New York designers but crafted in China:

Read the bambu blog if you want more information.

So that’s my line up of favourites from life instyle. Download the life instyle ebook to see the full range of items on display.

If you went to life instyle sydney or plan to go to life instyle Melbourne, I would love to hear about your favourite designers and suppliers too.