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A day in the life of an interior designer

Musings from the desk of an interior designer and design educator. How do I spend my time and  what do I find interesting? This is a photo of my design studio which is set in the garden of our Californian Bungalow. It gets plenty of natural light and has lovely views of our garden. It is also the repository of many of my books on design. Yes that is an old Imac that I am very attached to. I still do much of my graphic layout work, for projects on this machine, but internet and auto cad  I do on my MacBook Pro that I take everywhere with me.

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Our Playroom

20/8/2014

 
Every home needs a space where you can carry out your hobbies. A room that has lots of natural light, plenty of storage and some stylish furniture and furnishings to create that sense of well being.  So we set about creating a room by renovating our garage. I have been writing about traditional interiors  and shown you aspects of our house in Melbourne , but I also love mid century modern design as well as eighteenth and early nineteenth century antiques. Our  second house in country Victoria another Californian Bungalow is the repository for our other collection of furniture and the new room created over the last twelve months provides a home for a Fler day/night bed settee, a Danish rosewood sewing table, a teak coffee table and Fler arm chairs. This room holds the collection of furnishing fabrics, dress fabrics I have squirrelled away, books on crafts and sewing and many craft implements as well as my toys. I confess I have never really grown out of "Leggo" or "Barbie". The storage pieces are all Ikea. Affordable, flexible and attractive. I love Ikea and have become quite good at assembling their furniture. I have pretty much memorised all the dimensions of my favourite pieces ( tragic ) which I include in many cost effective interiors.  I still have some finishing touches to complete, window coverings, cushions, and refinishing the series 7 chairs, for a splash of colour.
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The playroom at night. The walls are a soft creamy colour called 'Moonflower' by a Dulux. A colour I often use when i want a warn neutral. The 'Fler day and night' sofa bed is covered in a woollen herringbone weave in a pale grey.
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A longer view of the playroom. The photos on the wall may be redeployed elsewhere in the house. They are views of my favourite architect, Robin Boyd's own house. More about him later.
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A close up of the 'architectural lego' collection. Shelves from Ikea, 'Billy collection' are the perfect size for these models.
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A glimpse of the large work desk that sits under the south facing window that lets in plenty of light for all those detailed projects. The windows are waiting for their curtain treatments. Next project on the long list of things to do. The pure wool carpet is from Supertuft and is called 'mocha', a warm mid toned grey colour.
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The east wall has cupboards to conceal all the ugly bits. The vintage singer sewing machine table was my mothers. The Kartell round storage unit came from a Ballarat 'op shop' for $15.00. The creamy colour was perfect. The Fler swivel base chair was also found at an 'op shop'. It is re-upholstered in 'Woven Image' wool.
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The west wall is filled with Ikea 'Billy' shelves and a 'Beno' dvd unit just fills the space to make it wall to wall. This is where the bulk of my furnishing fabric collection lives. 'Liberty of London' fabrics feature quite heavily. The little Danish sewing table hold Ikea 1:6 scale dolls furniture.
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While I make up my mind what accent colours to add in the form of cushions, Ikea's velvet cushions from their "Stockholm" collection fill the gap.

Blue and White Laundry

4/8/2014

 
I thought I would do a little post about our laundry in our house in the country. You can see from the before photos it was a pretty grim little room. We gutted it and moved the window to make the space work better. We kitted it out in simple white Ikea cupboards and a 'Lack' shelving unit. The idea was to create a butler's pantry feel, providing additional space for my ever-growing collection of china and glassware. A round sink has been used. This is great for washing jumpers and other  items of clothes as well as doing flowers or even washing out paint brushes. The additional shelf we added came from the off cut from the second row of cupboards. Being a very narrow room we used narrow overhead width cupboards top and bottom and cut down the bench top to fit. It seemed there was this piece of laminate going to waste when the idea of adding an extra shelf came to mind. A little extra basin for hands and the loo is also incorporated. But what really makes this room fun is all the blue and white china pieces. Willow pattern saucers were the first thing I bought at an auction when I was about twelve. I can remember spending two dollars on a box of these saucers. Over the years they have been used as dishes for cat food, pot plant saucers and generally just cluttered up the cupboards. Hanging four different types in a line adds a little autobiographical touch. There are plates from my mother's kitchen and my partner's mother's dinner set as well as ones I have picked up at opportunity shops. There is one more details to add, a towel ring, an excuse to show off a collection of hand embroidered hand towels. So watch this space. The Roman blind is the strong graphic element that holds it all together.  Found in our stash of fabrics it is called 'Draperie' from Clarence House. The pattern was just wide enough to fit the window. For a little more detail we added a herringbone ribbon braid, this is by Martha Stewart. The pale aqua adds a contrast. The colour appears elsewhere in the house.
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The laundry stripped back to the frame and external weatherboards
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The basics are in place now its time to add the details.
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The final product. All the little details make it interesting and homely.
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You can see the Ikea 'Lack' shelving unit, as well as the extra shelf and the round sink.
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Each little section on the 'Lack' shelf is a self contained vignette. The striped kitchen set was in my family home. The coffee canister was found in New Zealand in an op shop.
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A detail of the Roman Blind, a chinoiserie toile from Clarence House. It is edged with a Martha Stewart, herringbone weave ribbon.
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The storage boxes in the end cupboard came about because the plumber placed the hand basin too close to the cabinet, he couldn't read an architectural drawing, and thought he knew best.
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More blue and white accessories, I even have a pair of blue reading glasses to co-ordinate. The blue lidded biscuit jars hold laundry powders.
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As you can see there was nothing worth saving in this laundry.

    Author

    Hi I am Elizabeth  an interior designer who lives in Melbourne, Australia in a little Californian Bungalow cottage with my partner, Max, who is also an Interior Designer, and our beloved furry children, Doris & Ernest. I believe that design can make our lives more rewarding and productive. I love, architecture and design theory but my everyday passion is fabrics and decoration, as I don't think we should get too serious but have fun with our homes and enjoy the process of creating our own environments.   I am interested in classic cars, and collect Georgian and Mid Century furniture.

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About Us

Design-Digest is created by the design team at Crichton Interiors. All images used in this site are photographed by the author unless referenced.

Company

Crichton Interiors was established in 1958, in Melbourne. 

Our Services

Working in both traditional and contemporary interiors, we specialise in designing and producing hand made soft furnishings as well as offering a full design service from documentation of concepts to schematic and working drawings. Incorporating antiques and artwork is our speciality.
Contact us at: crichtondesign@bigpond.com

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contrast lined contemporary styled curtains
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Werribee Park Mansion drawing room featuring specially commissioned silk damask