Shopping: Tile Choices & Home Design

January 16, 2017

Image: Design Soda

So we are now halfway through January, and as it’s the first month of the year the accompanying clarity in relation to getting on top of things and to-do lists for a fresh start means that quite a few of you have been discussing your renovation plans online with me. So, today, I thought I’d do a piece on one of the big areas within renovation – tile choices. The nuts and bolts of a room, from kitchens to bathrooms, and even flooring, tiles are one of the most impactful decisions you’ll make in the home. There is such an abundance of wonderful products on the market these days that it can be a little daunting trying to narrow down your search and get just the look you want and which will outlast trends (drooling over competing looks on Pinterest is a bit of a past time of mine!). And tiles are such a big investment, usually in cost but also longevity, once those tiles are in they’re usually staying there for quite a while! I’ve been planning our kitchen for nearly a year now and keep changing my mind (luckily no tiles have been purchased or adhered). So, with all this in mind, today lets talk tiles!

Decorum Tiles Marble and Mother of Pearl interior bathroom kitchen ideas and inspiration

Tiles: White Carrara Brick Mosaic Tiles & Shell Mystic Circle in White

Image: Design Soda

labeled : Design Favourites: Sourcing & Inspiration | 4 COMMENTS

Interiors: Bedroom Makeover – The Half way Point

January 9, 2017

Image: Design Soda

One week into 2017 and it’s been quite a big one for me, the house is set to appear on both Apartment Therapy & Style Mutt soon, The Frugality sent interest in my bathroom stratospheric over the weekend, I’ve got some new commissions, and my son spent much of the weekend telling anyone who’d listen (mainly me and Dan) that he is the baby Jesus, little late with the Christmas imagination, I know, but at just two I admire the delusions of grandeur (for the record, we have definitely told him that he’s not the baby Jesus!), plus it’s my birthday at the end of the week and Dan has some time off so we are going uptown on adventures.

scandinavian rustic bohemian white nordic plants minimalist hygge bedroom

Image: Design Soda

One of the things I love most about the start of a new year is the opportunity clearing out decorations gives you to re-assess the space around you, it focuses the mind to sort out things that don’t work but you’ve been living with absent minded-ly for ages. For me a new year means a fresh set of eyes around the home and a narrowing down of tasks (I know it should mean resolutions, but I’m not really a resolutions kinda gal) this year we have flooring to sought out, some wallpapering in Teds room, the eternal hunt for the right sized period front door and on the more fun side I want more colour and more vintage in the home. The floors in the bedroom and study still need sanding and staining, as such, I don’t have a whole reveal for you today but as we are only missing the floor (OK, I accept this is quite a big thing) I thought I’d share it with you and hope that it gives me the final impetus to hire that sander again!

scandinavian rustic bohemian white nordic mid-century wood hygge bedroom

Image: Design Soda

I’m a little nervous of sharing it, as firstly it’s not finished and I’m not entirely happy with some areas, but also, for someone who loves colour and pattern so much, it’s a bit plain Jane, dare I say even Scandi minimalist? Shh! Pretend I didn’t say that. Truth is I’ve been living with this room for a year and I absolutely love its white-ness. I could never have my whole house like this, it would bore me to tears with what feel like tones of anti-motivation but upstairs I have definitely been persuaded by the slightly Nordic. In my last bedroom there was a fair amount of Scandi white with pastel colour pops so this bedroom reveal is slightly redux if you’ve been reading my blog for a while but there’s definitely some new-ness too, if I don’t mention a product, you will likely find it on this old bedroom post here.

Image: Design Soda

Colour: Pretty in (architectural and design) Pinks

January 6, 2017

Image: Casa Horta, shot by Jose Hevia for Sight Unseen

Good morning! Not many words today as I have 30 killer images for us to collectively swoon over! It’s been 3 years since I first blogged about the new trend for pink, and boy did it really take off last year, 2016 was a year of blush tones everywhere, I loved all of it and in particular when clashed against bold colours or on outside walls. There’s a lot of talk of dark jewel tones taking centre stage this year, and of course green as the new grey, will pink disappear from our radars in 2017? Who knows, I’m not tired of it yet so I have a feeling it won’t. Today I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of my favourite pink inspirations from the last year, the ones I’ve been lusting after the most, some are harder and bolder than the blush we’ve seen so much of, some are even neon, almost dreamlike where Wes Anderson meets David Hockney! From faded-sherbet pink to ever-so-bold pink all of these spaces inspire me with major heart eyes, perhaps the Jewish deli in Berlin (image below) the most of all, I’m almost booking my flight just so that I can take up a seat at that table and never leave! I’d love to incorporate some of this boldness into the Design Soda home this year. What colours are you craving at the moment? Drop me a note in the comments below.

Image: Louis Pretty Jewish deli in Berlin, shot by Steve Herud

labeled : Colour - Design Favourites: Sourcing & Inspiration | 2 COMMENTS

Travel: Day Trip to Polesden Lacey in the Mist

January 2, 2017

Image: Design Soda

Happy New Year people, hope you all had good ones, I’m easing myself into 2017 with a gentle post today on our recent day trip to Polesden Lacey, near Dorking. This is exactly my kind of daytrip, a place with nature and a house that reminds me of the countless interwar novels I’ve read, with an interior I could feel at home in and all coinciding on one of those days we’ve had recently where the outdoors is engulfed in beautiful delicate clouds of ethereal mist. Winding down country roads, with trees above our heads forming arches and silver birches lining borders, all surrounded in enveloping mist, made for the very definition of other-worldliness in my eyes and just what I needed the week before Christmas.

labeled : London Sights - Travel | 1 COMMENT

End of Year Post – Happy 2017!

December 28, 2016

hygge

Image: Design Soda

It seems a modern blogging custom to write a post about this time of year that replaces the old fashioned round robin Christmas card with notes on how well Jane is doing at school and the name of the new dog etc. These posts tend to be a bit year in review and often have a bit of personal reflection. I’m not sure I’m going to do exactly that, especially through the haze of mince pie and alcohol consumption but as I write this just before Christmas, looking forwards to three days together as a family before my husband disappears back to work, I did just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s read the blog this year. It’s so nice to see a healthy upturn in readers each month and genuinely makes my task much more worthwhile. It’s been a pretty good year for the Design Soda house, I’ve pretty well loved 2016, horrible events and political chasms in the news aside, Ted, who just turned two, continues to be amazing in new and unexpected ways, and as a result of the blogs growth quite a few exciting opportunities have come my way (asides from the now endless phishing emails) it’s all been a joy, and a challenge to my natural shyness.

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