Author Archives: Design_Soda_Ruthie

About Design_Soda_Ruthie

I write Design Soda, a design blog with a focus on interiors. My blog aims to be an unpretentious, stimulating, fun and naturally curious delve into inspirational design and Londoncentric culture. I describe my style as boho-eclectic and am open to most design which doesn’t look too serious or composed. As a design geek with a love of vintage and upcycling, I am passionate about my home and love blogging ideas and looks that I find inspirational. Since the time when my teenage bedroom was an Aladdins cave of upcycled furniture, Cecil Beaton photography and Situationist slogans I have been interested in the way the home environment can make you feel and inspire your inner life. As a new mummy, trying to negotiate my passions with my lovely new baby's schedule can be difficult, but in my spare time you will often find me snapping the things that catch my eye in my wonderful home city London. Or, reading, upcycling, spending longer on Pinterest than I should, baking and watching old movies. I have a lifelong passion for French New Wave cinema.

Aperture | My Favourite London Art Deco

May 12, 2017

Hoover Building London, Art Deco Architecture (2)

Image: Design Soda

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I’ve been really flattered to be asked to do half a dozen or so interviews recently for other websites and publications and one thing that’s pretty standard in pieces of this sort seems to be questions on where one finds inspiration. I find that whatever other factors I mention, London is always the one I settle on most firmly, sometimes it’s cafes or what people are wearing on the tube, but always present at the top of mind when I’m thinking about this is the architecture. We are so lucky in this city to have such a diverse cultural range of architectural styles. There are no grand boulevards of the nineteenth century like Paris here (though I feel slightly uneasy that the property market is beginning to socially cleanse the inner city population along the same lines of Paris 150 years ago).

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Hoover Building London, Art Deco Architecture detail

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Artisan | Anne McKenzie Hand Painted Perspex Screens

May 8, 2017

Anne McKenzie perspex painted art screens bohemian modern home, london artisans

Image: Design Soda

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William Morris, as well as being a famous artist and producer of artisan arts and crafts wares, once said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” and for this he has been remembered in modern times on everything from tea towels to posters which probably would have given him a complete apoplasm, but that’s a topic for another article.Read More

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Eye Candy | The Sorbet tones of Petite Friture

May 5, 2017

Petite Friture Salone del mobile

Villa PF Petite Friture

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Good morning friends. Today is a post all about my favourite crush of the last year. Each time I see a piece of furniture from French design house Petite Friture‘s range, or a set design from their latest trade show, my heart sings a little. Read More

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Elements of Design | Window Shopping For Modern Stylish Window Solutions

May 1, 2017

Natural roller blinds

Image: Luxaflex

 

Good morning, and happy bank holiday for those of you also in the U.K. (don’t feel too badly if you’re not, the weather has been pretty awful and, well, British). Now I’m not expecting to set the internet alight with this piece, but in the first of a few posts I have planned in the coming month or so I’d like to concentrate today on one of the design basics, the bits that can seem less fun but really transform the feel of a room – today, window options. Read More

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Choosing The Worlds Favourite Colour

April 24, 2017

G F Smith The Worlds Favourite Colour

Image: Design Soda

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What’s your favourite colour? When was the last time someone asked you this? I know, past high school dating games in girls magazines I’m not sure I’ve thought about this or considered it important for over twenty years. Which is odd as I am a pretty colour obsessed person. But committing to just one? That sounds like an awfully big commitment to me. Far bigger than who you choose to spend your life with say! Happily, for those of you that are slightly more balanced than I, somebody does want to ask you this. G.F Smith who have been manufacturing quality paper of all colours and hue since 1885, along with Colourplan, are trying to ascertain what the worlds favourite colour is. Read More

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