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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 Red Sitting Room

6/10/2014

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As you have now guessed I don't shy away from colour when it comes to design and decoration. While neutral colour schemes can be calm and soothing sometimes a bit more excitement is required. Our red sitting room is used mostly in the evenings to gather with guests before dinner.  We wanted a glamorous wow effect for this space. We decorated this room back in 1988. It hasn't changed very much over  the years. We started with the two two seater sofas covered in a Warner's linen called 'Chinese Panel'.  The sofas inspired the red wall colour. The colour we wanted to  evoke was laqauer red of a antique tray or  reminiscent of Pompeii. The incandescent lighting and the red walls make everyone glow in this room. The walls are finished  with a glazed 'broken colour'  effect, that gives  the colour both more depth and creates the illusion of space.  To balance the rick red walls we used a soft gold coloured ceiling, off white skirting boards and timber work and bronze coloured picture rails. This room was the first one we did in this house. It was the room to escape to when the rest was a demolition and  renovation site. It is furnished with an assortment of pieces from different eras. The coat cupboard was made by Max's grandfather  in the 1920's. A three legged cricket table circa 1760 made from elm was my first antique purchase in my new job at Crichton Interiors many years ago. I decided to set a policy of each year buying an antique piece to slowly build a collection of treasured items. It came from Lee Harper Antiques in High street, Armadale.  The country Chippendale carver Max bought from John Dunn Antiques. We covered it in a piece of crewel embroidered cotton that picks up the warm rust colour of the room. A pembroke table from C1790 holds a quirky collection of crystal bottle  stoppers. They refract the light. A fur rug made from Fox paws covers the old pine floor, that we waxed to keep the colour soft.  To add some modernity the brass and glass coffee table  sits on the rug allowing the rug to be seen as well as Max's childhood collection of rocks and minerals displayed in a  display case, also made by his grandfather. The paintings on the wall range from my dodgy fake 'our lady of the snow" 15th Century  oil to early twentieth century New Zealand water colours, to an oil known as' the pirates and pumpkin people' from the mid 1970s. Defintely an eclectic mix.  We added 'silken satin' curtains that spill onto the floor and lots of cushions in treasured fabrics, hand printed silk taffeta, patterned velvet, cotton damask and even a chintz pattern with a monkey in the design. This room is nicknamed 'monkey's room' as the Chinese Panel' fabric has little green monkeys in the design. I added a monkey cameo to the stencilled border on the floor and we found a bronze monkey candlestick.

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Rich red walls contrast with golden coloured 'silken satin curtains that theatrically spill onto the floor.The Warner's linen 'Chinese Panel' fabric inspired the red walls for this room. Hand printed silk cushions have napoleon bees and stars. I made these many years ago. The silk damask cushion is the most recent, it is a sample from Gainsborough Mills, England. The green silk cushion with the pearl buttons has bound button holes.
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The room taken in daylight. The timber work is painted off white. The off white mounts in the water colours pick up the theme. Chinoiserie side tables hold little treasures including a tea caddy. The icon is the latest artwork added to the room picked up at Joel's auctions.
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The little details on a stencilled side table include vintage lacquer and old silver.
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An 'Alexander Cook' upholstered armchair provides a place for hand printed cushions and a vintage fox stole. The little gold coloured folding stool is a place for guests to put their handbags. I adapted this idea from the Cipriani Hotel in Asolo.
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You can see the pale gold drop/ceiling colour above the bronze picture rail. The curtains are down for cleaning in this shot, you can see the tiebacks. They are from Liberty of London another of my favourite companies. The Chippendale chair is silhouetted against the window.
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The terra cotta coloured coffee set was an opshop find. This room features a collection of boxes, some on the brass and glass coffee table. You can see this contrasts with the antique elm cricket table.
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Fabric of another name

18/7/2014

 
I have been reading a really lovely blog called Aesthetic Oiseau by Daniela M. Shuffler. Daniela lives in Washington and documents her design adventures and shows pictures of her pretty little house that she and her husband have been renovating. I love to see how other people tackle renovations. Between projects Daniela post images of fabrics, rooms and accessories that inspire her, and a post about a 'quadrille' fabric caught my eye. I recognised this fabric  as I had seen in a book that I own, but it was a stencilled screen. It is a very eye catching pattern. I love the centre motif and the leaf border that curls around a small checkerboard. Then the other night I was sorting my 'World of Interiors'  magazines into date order
 ( yes, sad I know) and I naturally was having a little peek at the articles  as I worked and I spied this same pattern used as upholstery fabric on a sofa. It was acknowledged with the name of 'Victor Hugo'. So I did some 'googling' and found that this fabric was produced by Pierre Frey and they have reissued it, under the name 'Le Manach Prints', and this pattern was named after Victor Hugo, famed author for Les Miserable, who is thought to have owned the original document that inspired this fabric. It seems that Victor Hugo too, was keen on interior decoration and design. He designed his own apartment in Paris and at one stage he owned a country house as well.He was very fond of chinoiserie and created very exotic richly coloured interiors. 
But wait there is more to this story. Years ago when Max and I developed the decorating scheme for our red sitting room I adapted the border I saw on the screen and stencilled it as a border on our pale coloured pine floor. We were minimising the sanding of the black japanned edges and decided a painted and stencilled border would frame the old pine boards well. 
 
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This is the fabric in question, I have taken this image from the Quadrille, China Seas, website that has many delectable fabrics.
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This screen appeared in the book, The Art of Decorative Stencilling, Adele Bishop and Cile Lord, published by Thames and Hudson, London 1976. This screen is responsible for starting my stencilling career, many years ago as this was the first time I incorporated stencilled pattern as part of a scheme. Somewhere in all the traditional rooms I do you will find a stencilled detail. I just can't resist.
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This fabric is known as 'Victor Hugo' and was supplied by the designer Alistair Colvin. This image appeared in the World of Interiors in June 1984 on page 154.The photo was taken by Fritz von der Schulenburg.
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Another view of this sitting room from the World of Interiors, June 1984, photography by Fritz von der Schulenburg. The article was written by Christophe Gollut about his own flat.
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Victor Hugo fabric, this appears on Le Manach Prints: Pierre Frey Magazine, 10/10/2013
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Our stencilled floor border. This was completed in 1987 and we still like it today
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Another detail of our antique and very imperfect floor, this is in front of the open fireplace.

    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